The life and times of James Martin Hamrick, Part 1

Very seldom do we get an opportunity to take a glimpse into the day-to-day life of an ordinary person.

Great men and women have written their diaries and journals, which have contributed so much to our knowledge of history. But the ordinary working folks ... the farmers, preachers and merchants of the 1800s ... were so busy making ends meet that they seldom had, or took, the time to jot down their memoirs.

Well, we have a real treat here. Thanks to a contribution from our managing editor, Dave Hamrick, and his father, John Hamrick, you will be able to read about the life and times of an ordinary person, James Martin Hamrick, a Carroll County farmer who did take the time to tell his life story. While Dave and his dad are still working on establishing proof of the correct relationship, they know James Martin was a relative back there somewhere.

James, born in 1838, apparently worked in the job department of the Carrollton Times back in 1902, and printed this on his own. The title is "A Sketch of the Life of James Martin Hamrick." Since it is rather long, I will run it in several parts. I know you will find it as fascinating as I did.

"Chapter I

"I, James Martin Hamrick, was born in Meriwether County near Luthersville on the 8th of March, 1838. Mother had 8 girls and 2 boys; the youngest, my little brother, died in 1854. I was raised on a farm by good, honest parents, strictly Primitive Baptist.

"I can recollect 1845, the dry year, when my father had to go 10 miles for his grinding; and they only ground half a bushel to the family, a great many having to grind their corn in coffee mills. In those days people raised but very little cotton and put it up in round bales, packing it with crowbars; and it would take about a week to thresh out a good wheat crop turning the fan by hand. People dressed very common and had but few doctors. When we had chills and fever, our good old mothers would parch egg shells and anvil dust and give us, and we would recover.

"My first recollection was when I was three years old. I went with Mother to the burial of a Mrs. Cruse, who was placed away with her infant in her arms, the coffin being plainly painted with lampblack and the vault covered with boards, there being but very little plank then. The next day I asked of my mother when they would be taken out and fed, when she explained to me that they were dead. Oh, such a change! Wife and I were there last summer and stood in a few feet of where I was born, but at the cemetery there was but little that I could recognize, while fine residences take the place of the old.

"When the people found that I was the son of little Jimmie Hamrick, we were well cared for, free of charge; and it made me feel thankful to God that I was raised by good parents whom I buried. It will do any one good to visit the place of their birth. We lived in that section up to 1846, when Father sold and bought 2 miles east of Hogansville.

"Chapter II

"Father bought land 2 miles east of Hogansville, Hogan's Store, as it was known before the West Point Road was built, and moved there in the fall of 1846. The next year he, with hired labor and we chaps, made a fine cotton crop, carrying 12 bales on 1 wagon drawn by six mules to Griffin. When crossing Flint River, I closed my eyes, fearing the flat would sink, but landing safely, and reaching our destination, sold the cotton in Columbus at 3 cents.

"Every one was doing well then. Now we talk of hard times, but friends, we make the times what they are. In those days we dressed common, used no guano, and bought but few buggies. When we went to church, it was common to walk 3 or 4 miles. Log rollings and corn shuckings were common; and if a man failed to help his neighbor, he was thought but little of. Those were good days, when people had confidence in each other, when we sold meat, cattle, corn, fodder, lard, loaned money and many other transactions without giving or taking notes but merely charged it as does the merchant of today charge you with a pair of shoes.

"In 1848 I went to school; Father bought me a dog knife, a set of marbles, and Mother made me a striped suit of clothes, and I have never felt prouder or finer since. At that school I took my first and last chew of tobacco, Frank Hendon giving me a glass marble to do so, and in a few seconds the house seemed to be turning like winding blades; but what that teacher did for us was a plenty.

"That fall my father got in better shape and bought his first Negro boy of 9 summers for $400, selling his farm for a good profit. It was during this fall that I attended my first wedding. After supper the young people cut a cake containing a ring, saying the one getting it would be the next to marry; but I never cut as I thought they would have to marry that night.

"I visited the old home last summer and what a change; yet I was in the old log house that I slept in 54 years ago and found but few of the old school mates living, I return many thanks to Jonas Sims who, in company with his brother William, carried me over Father's old plantation and to the old school-house site. These boys are among Troup's most noble men, running 40 ploughs.

"My next will be on entering this county [Carroll].

"Chapter III

"Father moved from Troup to this county in the fall of 1848 and bought 400 acres of land and settled on the place where Jessie Embry now lives. At that time this county was a wilderness, deer and turkey were plentiful I have seen as many as 16 deer in a bunch at one time; in fact, I have seen them come up with the cattle.

"Eighteen forty-nine was the year of the 15th of April freeze. We had corn half-leg high killed to the ground; also the wheat on 5 acres was killed, making only 5 bushels. There were no painted houses. Carrollton had about 4 stores and a small log jail. In those days there were no pistols carried. When there was a fight, it was a fist fight, and in a few hours they would take a drink together and become friends.

"Eighteen fifty was a good crop year, and people began to move in and clear land and put up better buildings and a few churches, and schoolhouses were soon dotted in different localities. It was in this year that I went to school with my 2 older sisters. We would wash our feet and go barefoot; in fact, I never had a shoe on my foot up to my 15th birthday; and well I do remember the first time I went up to Macedonia, riding behind my dear father, with my fine shoes that he made for me, and they were painted with lampblack I thought I was the finest person at the church but those were the good times; and many were the rabbits, coons, and fish that I caught, but I never went fishing but one time on Sunday, and what my father did for me Monday morning following I will never forget.

"In 1851 there was no particular incident more than my finding a dead deer that I proceeded to skin, the money for which I bought a linen coat that I thought more of than a $25 suit of today.

"The following year death invaded our home claiming my sister Jane in the month of November. It was at this time I first met Capt. J.M. Kelly, and often I think of his kindness in going to Carrollton for the doctor but of no good as death claimed its own before their return, but that night he and Capt. Frank Powell sat up with the corpse as neighbors were far apart then."

Next week: Chapter IV, marriage and the Civil War.

Send stories about your ancestors to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; E-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.