THROUGH OUR EYES100 Years of the Laurel Leader-Call

Jones County

Copyright© 2011 Laurel Leader-Call • ISBN: 978-1-59725-295-9All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. www.pediment.com Printed in Canada.

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Foreword

100 years. Not very long when compared to the age of the Egyptian pyramids, but several lifetimes of fam-ilies and treasured memories. When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1436, we don’t believe he could have imagined how this would spawn the birth of modern day newspapers. Although the technology has changed drastically, the purpose for his invention has not. We collect, investigate, and share stories of our lives, homes and businesses. Without the work of a local newspaper, much of the history of a community could become lost over time. Without the input and loyalty from the readers, we could not successfully do our jobs. Ultimately, it is the support of the community that keeps the threads of our history tightly woven in the tapestry of who we are in Jones County.

It would have been impossible to put in this book every photo and every front page of the newspaper – there simply is not enough space. We have tried to carefully choose those items that we felt were representa-tive of each decade to provide us all with a sense of life in Jones County. To see how much we have changed in the last 100 years is amazing but we are also struck by how some things that haven’t changed. A headline from the 9/21/1911 newspaper says “Street Paving is Next Step in City’s Progress”…apparently, good streets were just important then as they are today!

Although there had been weekly newspapers in Jones County prior to 1911, the birth of the daily paper was announced in the October 19, 1911 edition with the headline “Laurel’s First Daily Newspaper to Appear Next Monday”. Laurel was a booming lumber town and needed a daily newspaper to keep everyone connect-ed to each other and to events happening around the world.

The front pages brought news of wars, depression, stock market changes, elections, trials, births and deaths. Many of these stories were carefully clipped and stored in the family Bible for decades. When grand-parents tell stories of the family history to their grandchildren, they carefully retrieve the yellowed and some-times tattered newspaper articles to share.

The sense of family, who we are, where we came from and the dreams of our future have been carefully documented in the newspaper. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to tell those stories.

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Acknowledgements

First, we would like to thank our loyal readers who brought us their treasured photos, news items, docu-ments and other memorabilia to share with us. This book would not have been possible without their help.

Special thanks to Mr. Jimmy Bass and Mr. Roy Hammond who are both excellent curators of our treasures from the past. They have built these archival treasures out of a love for the history of Jones County and we are truly blessed to benefit from their hard work.

The Jones County Library graciously allowed us to use their space for meeting with the public and scan-ning their precious photos that have been carefully kept for decades. The Lauren Rogers Museum provided many of the historical photos and we are grateful to both of these institutions for their help.

Finally, our thanks go to the dedicated professionals who have worked at the newspaper at some point in the last one hundred years.

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Table of Contents

The Early Years .............................................. 9

The 1920s ....................................................... 29

The 1930s ....................................................... 39

The 1940s ....................................................... 49

The 1950s ........................................................ 61

The 1960s ........................................................79

The 1970s, 80s & 90s .................................. 91

The 2000s .................................................... 109

Index .............................................................. 126

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The Early Years

In the early 1900s, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first powered flight at Kitty Hawk. President William McKinley was assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt becomes President. Henry Ford founded his mo-tor company and the First World Series was held. Albert Einstein formulated his Special Theory of Relativity and San Francisco was devastated by an earthquake killing 700 and causing $400 million in damage. Oklahoma became the 46th state in the Union in 1907 and William Howard Taft becomes the U.S. President in 1908, the same year that General Motors Corporation was formed.

In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was founded. In 1912, the White Star steamer Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic on April 14th. 1,503 people were lost in the icy waters. That same year, New Mexico and Arizona become states. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson becomes President and, that same year, the 16th Amendment was passed establishing an income tax. In 1914, the Panama Canal opens its locks for the first time on August 15th. In 1917, the United States declared war on Germany on April 6th and passes its first Conscription Law (draft) since the Civil War on May 18th. The next year, the war ends with the signing of the Armistice on November 11th followed by an outbreak of influenza worldwide, killing 548,000 people in the U.S. In 1919, the 18th Amendment was passed establishing Prohibition leading to the proliferation of moonshine and bootlegging.

In Laurel, the Laurel Machine & Foundry was established as a manufacturer and supplier of metal parts for the Lindsey eight-wheel wagon and is still in existence today. Eastman, Gardiner and Co. lumber mill was a large employer of local workers in the booming logging industry. The Laurel Argus and The Laurel Chronicle were two of the weekly newspapers that served the area. The August 10, 1910 edition of the Laurel Argus, announced the coming of a new daily newspaper. The October 19th, 1911 edition of the Laurel Argus carried a letter to readers regarding “Laurel’s First Daily Newspaper”. Just days after the sinking of the Titanic, the paper reported on a major high speed train wreck in Heidelberg, MS. The trial of Kearney Leggett, accused of murder, ended in a not guilty verdict as reported on October 1, 1914. In 1915, a major league baseball game be-tween Detroit and New Orleans was played in Laurel and the March 30th paper reported Detroit’s win. In 1917, a passenger train wrecked on the Southern Railroad line just north of Laurel. On March 13, 1917 A.B. Schauber was elected as head consul for the Woodmen of the World during a major gathering in the city.

this page: Oak Street, looking east from Fifth Avenue, circa 1903. Courtesy Lauren Rogers Museum

opposite top: The United States enters World War I as reported in this extra edition of the Laurel Leader on April 6, 1917. Courtesy Laurel Leader-Call

opposite bottom: Street paving and street cars dominate the front page of the September 21, 1911, edition of The Laurel Argus. Courtesy Laurel Leader-Call

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above: First Methodist Church, late 1800s. The Addison Hotel can be seen in the background at right. Courtesy Lauren Rogers Museum

below: Train depot on 1st Street in Laurel, late 1800s. Courtesy Lauren Rogers Museum

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above: Eastman, Gardiner & Co. moving their logging camp to another location, circa 1895. To the right an engine pulls a loaded flat bed car and loader. To the left an engine pulls the kitchen car, dining car and sleeping cars. Courtesy Jimmy Bass

left: Eastman, Gardiner & Co. lumber mill loading dock in 1896. The height of the dock is higher than the boxcar floors to expedite hand loading of finished lumber. Courtesy Lauren Rogers Museum of Art/Roy Hammond

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above: Gilchrist-Fordney early loggers in Jones County, circa 1900. Courtesy Lauren Rogers Museum

above: Pine Grove Community family photo, 1908. From left are Temple Jeanette (Franks) Hattaway, Taylor Hattaway, Caroline Elizabeth (Hattaway) Gandy and the four sisters: Vinnie Dee Gandy (Sellers), Mae Spicy Gandy (Hill), Suchie Travis Gandy (Thompson) and Virgie Gandy (Cowert). Courtesy J.D. Haik

left: Interior view of an upscale Eastman, Gardiner & Co. Cohay Camp portable house, circa 1906. Note the Victorian furniture and exposed electrical wires in the ceiling. This was clearly a step above the normal movable shack for lumber camp workers. Courtesy Roy Hammond

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below: Ice Cream wagon parked at 5th Street near the old high school building, circa 1900. Courtesy Lauren Rogers Museum

above: Laurel Fire Department truck in front of City Hall in the early 1900s. Ed Greene is the driver. Also included in the photo are Chief Garner Goodwin, T. Waine Walters and Jack Valentine. Courtesy Jimmy Bass

14

above: The Laurel Chronicle of September 2, 1910, featured a lead article on Laurel’s bid to have the State Normal School located in Jones County. Courtesy Laurel Leader-Call

15

above: This page of the August 10, 1910, edition of the Laurel Argus, one of a number of weekly newspapers serving the area, included an ad announcing the coming of a new daily newspaper. Courtesy Laurel Leader-Call

following page: Loads of wool are brought to town, circa 1910. This photograph was taken in front of Laurel Mercantile store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Commerce Street. Courtesy Lauren Rogers Museum