GENEALOGY: FINDING YOUR FOLKS

A history of Welcome, Part Two

By Judy Fowler Kilgore
Genealogy Columnist

Judy Fowler Kilgore is the religion editor and genealogy columnist for The Citizen. She regrets that time does not permit her to do personal family research for others. She may be reached at jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

We continue this week with Mrs. Rebecca Dickson Grimes’ account of the history of Welcome, a little community located in the western part of Coweta County. Mrs. Grimes gave this ‘speech’
to a group of students at Western High School in 1967. The story was graciously submitted to The Citizen by Mrs. Grimes’ grandson, Dickson Grimes.

When we stopped last week, Mrs. Grimes was discussing the history of Providence Church. She continues:

“In 1838, two members of the First Baptist Church in Newnan had an argument (one called the other a liar) and as a result, both were brought before the church for trial. Members were asked to come in from Bethel, Macedonia and Providence to sit on trial of these offenders. Our church sent Beavers, Newton and Scoggins. They stayed a week and found both men guilty and turned them out of the church.

“I tell this to try to place the location of our church at this time, 1838, and believe it to be near the Newman home. Some time later it was moved to Franklin Road.

“Because of the close connection between the families of Providence and Emory Chapel, there was no cemetery at the location of our church. Most of the Baptist members were buried at Emory Chapel.

“As a child I attended Providence on 4th Sunday and Emory Chapel on 2nd. I am told that some time during this period a Sunday school was held at the schoolhouse here in Welcome, but most of the Providence members lived near Franklin Road. In 1876, I find a record of a Sunday school being organized at the Anderson home, near Davis’ store, and it was attended by Mr. and Mrs. J.T. McKoy. We know the McKoys have always been Sunday school workers, so we are not surprised to find them active so long ago.

“By 1909, the settlement’s population had shifted back to this vicinity so the church was built on the present site. The old Franklin Road church was torn down by Mr. John Keith and rebuilt into the dwelling now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Goss Thomas.

“The new church was a frame building and served the congregation for a number of years. But in 1950, when in the process of adding Sunday school rooms, the church was destroyed by fire.

“It was rebuilt, a brick building; but again in 1963 was struck by lightning and was damaged greatly by fire. It was repaired. Sunday school rooms were added, and with other improvements, serves our growing community.

“We find that some time around 1880, a log schoolhouse was located near James Beavers’ home. Cliff Dickson, Xen Newman and Courtney McKoy were among the students. Mr. James Eckles and Mr. Obediah Cavender are listed as teachers. The school was still standing after the cyclone of 1884 passed through, though much damage was done in this section. The building was later used as a blacksmith shop by Jim Luckie, who lived where Mr. Cofield now lives, and still later by a Negro named Wince Johnson, whom I remember well.

“I had always thought our Hurricane district was named for the big blow in 1884, but I find records of a Hurricane district in 1880 and a cyclone in 1845, so this could have been the one. Evidently it was formed from parts of the 4th and 5th districts, as I found the names on record in these districts that were mentioned in the Hurricane.

“In 1893 the first Welcome school was built by men of the community. It was built of logs and lumber, with a large fireplace for heat. Miss Clyde Dickson was the first teacher. Still later a larger two-room structure was built on the present location. This building was added to, room by room. I don’t remember how many, but it was not a thing of beauty, and was entirely inadequate in every way, especially since the trend was toward consolidation.

“Emory Chapel was the first school to join us and by their own request, others followed, but more reluctantly.

“In February 1934, a brick building was begun as a project of the Federal Government, known as WPA. It was a lovely school house, especially when compared to the preceding ones. However in March 1949, it was destroyed by fire, but was replaced by the present structure. Other schools have later come in and now it is the only high school in the western part of the county and is a credit to the many good people who had a vision of such a school and worked in that end.

“One of the first settlers of our community was a Mr. Welcome Carter, who lived where Mrs. Mabel Cox now lives. Later this property was bought by several families by the name of Hutchens. In 1890 one of these, Mr. J.B. Hutchens, opened the first Post Office in his store and gave it the name Welcome in honor of Mr. Carter. Mr. Jim Hutchens operated a cotton gin in the early years of this community. It was located on land now owned by Gene Newman across the road from the Hutchens home. This gin was partly operated by hand and not as modern as one later owned by Ben Dial.

“The community had been on a standstill for many years because Judge Berry owned much of the land from the McKoy place to the Clark place, where Mr. Bob Davis lives. But about 1900 he decided to sell at $10 an acre, so it was rapidly bought and homes were built ... ”

Once again, we’ll have to stop and continue in next week’s column. Many thanks to Dickson for sharing part of his family’s heritage.

I welcome your letters about genealogy and stories about south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!