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The Barney History Project: The people, places, and stories of Barney, Georgia

Community life and politics

Newspaper notices from 1903-1910 show Barney residents traveling, worshipping, studying, organizing, and maintaining ties with Valdosta and the surrounding county.

Church and education

An August 4, 1907, Macon Telegraph Adel column reported that Revs. Adams and Allaben were conducting a meeting at Barney and that about a dozen people had joined the Methodist church. The item provides a contemporary link between Huxford's 1899 organization date for the church and its later civic role.

An April 2, 1906, Atlanta Journal medical-school graduation list names Gilbert Wayne Nicholson of Barney among the Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons graduates in medicine.

On May 21, 1910, the Atlanta Constitution reported that Hoke Smith delivered an education address at a school-grounds picnic in Barney. Dr. S. S. Gaulden introduced him, and the newspaper said many people attended from outside the town.

Politics and organized farm life

In a February 18, 1906, dispatch from Barney, Fleming Bates Walker, identified in print as F. B. Walker, wrote that fifteen men polled at his store supported Hoke Smith for governor. A 1907 Farmers' Institute picnic notice named B. Walker and W. R. Blease on the Barney district committee. In 1908, W. R. Bleas of Barney was listed on the Brooks County Democratic Executive Committee. The printed Blease and Bleas forms are retained as they appeared in the newspapers.

Barney also fielded a baseball team. On May 31, 1909, the Atlanta Georgian and News reported Barney winning 12–7 against a team printed as “Morum,” possibly Morven.

Travel, family, and daily life

Small notices record regular movement between Barney and Valdosta. J. S. Moody and J. H. Culpepper visited Valdosta in April 1907. S. S. Hires traveled there on business in September 1908, and T. M. Moore did the same in May 1910. Hotel lists in October and December 1909 included Barney residents A. E. Millan, A. T. Moody, and A. G. Whitehurst.

A 1909 medicine advertisement carried a testimonial signed by Mrs. J. T. Weeks and dated at Barney. On November 21, 1910, the Valdosta Daily Times reported that Elias Chancey and Alberta Simms married at the Barney home of Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Parker before moving to Valdosta.

Two 1910 notices record illness and injury. James Walker of Barney, about seventeen or eighteen years old and formerly the local depot agent, died after a two-week illness described as fever and meningitis. Gordon Chambers, who lived near Barney, was seriously injured when a mule kicked him; the report also records telegram communication and family travel between Barney and Valdosta.

The Barney Hotel

Black-and-white photograph of the two-story Barney Hotel
The Barney Hotel. Photograph preserved in a Brooks County Museum and Cultural Center history binder; the binder caption identifies D. H. Purvis as the builder in 1906.

On January 31, 1906, Sallie A. Rozier sold D. H. Purvis a half-acre in Land Lot 320 for $75. The parcel began at the southeast corner of Eighth Street and First Avenue and measured 210 by 105 feet. The warranty deed, recorded September 3, 1906, in Deed Book R, page 301, does not state how Purvis intended to use the property or mention a hotel.

A later Brooks County Museum and Cultural Center history binder contains a photograph captioned “THE BARNEY HOTEL.” The caption says Purvis built the hotel in 1906 and that it provided lodging for traveling salesmen and room and board for single schoolteachers. This is later local-history evidence, but its construction date agrees with the year of Purvis's documented lot purchase.

Contemporary records establish that the hotel was operating by 1908. R. D. Flippen's county map labels a hotel in central Barney, and a December newspaper profile includes one hotel in its inventory of the town's businesses.

The 1910 census adds household-level evidence. Mary Walker headed a rented First Avenue household, worked as a hotel laborer, and lived with relatives and three boarders: bank cashier Benjamin F. Long, general-merchandise salesman Hardy Ryalls, and house painter J. T. Bransom. Her son-in-law appears on the original schedule as E. H. Pervis; marriage and later census records identify him as Daniel Herbert Purvis. The census connects the household with hotel work and boarding, but it does not identify Mary Walker as the owner or manager or state that the household occupied the hotel building.

Sources

  • The Macon Telegraph, August 4, 1907, page 7, Adel column on the Barney Methodist meeting.
  • The Atlanta Journal, April 2, 1906, Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons graduation list.
  • The Atlanta Constitution, May 21, 1910, page 6, "Addresses by Hoke Smith."
  • The Atlanta Journal, February 18, 1906, F. B. Walker dispatch from Barney.
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, August 9, 1907, page 3, "Farmers' Picnic at Quitman."
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, March 16, 1908, page 3, "News of the Week in Brooks."
  • Atlanta Georgian and News, May 31, 1909, page 11, report of the Barney-Morven baseball game, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, April 27, 1907, social column naming J. S. Moody and J. H. Culpepper.
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, September 29, 1908, page 4, S. S. Hires business notice.
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, October 19 and December 20, 1909, hotel and visitor lists.
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, October 30, 1909, page 6, Paxson Medicine Company advertisement carrying Mrs. J. T. Weeks's testimonial.
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, May 12, 1910, page 8, T. M. Moore business notice.
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, May 13, 1910, page 3, "Kicked by a Mule."
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, June 3, 1910, page 3, "Death of a Young Man at Barney."
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, November 21, 1910, page 4, "Were Married at Barney."
  • Sallie A. Rozier to D. H. Purvis, warranty deed, January 31, 1906, Brooks County Deed Book R, page 301, FamilySearch.
  • Brooks County Museum and Cultural Center, History of Barney, Barwick, and Morven Georgia, page 14, photograph and caption, “THE BARNEY HOTEL.”
  • R. D. Flippen, Map of Brooks County, Georgia (1908), County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives.
  • The Valdosta Daily Times, December 16, 1908, page 5, "Barney Wants to Reach Us"; weekly reprint in The Valdosta Times, December 19, 1908, page 5, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  • 1910 United States Federal Census, Brooks County, Georgia, Barney town, enumeration district 21, sheets 1B-2A, Mary Walker household.

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