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City Personals
Mary Clay Brooks

Grady Brooks celebrates birthday

Hank Wheeler of Newnan, Ga., spent the weekend with Mary Clay and Gene Brooks and children, Caitlyn and Grady. He was here to celebrate Grady’s birthday.

Grady Brooks celebrated his 11th birthday with Waylon Langston and Thomas Stewart. The trio went to Cedar Hill Farm in Hernando with Gene and Caitlyn Brooks, Mattie Spencer and Hank Wheeler. They walked through the Trail of Terror and experienced the black hole while there.

Lisa and Greg Shaw spent the weekend visiting with AnnYager and Alex McCrosky in Danville, Ky.. While there, they all attended a horse race and had a wonderful time with great friends.

It’s the night that the lights went out in Greenwood — the Marshall Academy Patriots shut the lights out at Pillow Academy Friday night! With 10:58 left in the 4th quarter and Marshall up 21-6, a small “fireworks show” began under a light beyond the end zone. Next, fire shot up and, without warning, the ballfield went pitch black. All that was still illuminated were the scoreboard (most important!), concession stand and press box. Coaches yelled “stay where you are,” I am thinking because they believed the power would be restored shortly. Needless to say, a utility truck showed up about an hour later to tend to the matter. The teams headed to the dressing room and everyone else sat around using flashlights. The commentator in the press box played lots of music, to which the Pillow fans started dancing. The Marshall cheerleaders joined in on our side. Shortly thereafter, their cheerleaders crossed the field, introduced themselves and took our cheerleaders to their side and they all danced together!

Let there be light and low and behold, there was — over an hour later. I overheard a couple of Pillow fans after the lights returned. They were saying that maybe the break would help get their team on the road to a win. That didn’t quite work out for them, as one last touchdown sealed the obvious deal, making the final 27-6. The last regular game of the Patriots’ season is at home Friday night against the Kirk Academy Raiders. This is a conference game. Come out and show your support for a team that has worked hard all year to secure a spot in the playoffs! When you come, be sure to wear some pink for breast cancer awareness month.

(To put your news in City Personals, please e-mail maryclayb@yahoo.com; mail to City Personals, The South Reporter, P.O. Box 278, Holly Springs, MS 38635 or call 662-252-4261. You may also e-mail your news to southreporter@dixie-net.com).

Museuming
Lois Swaney Shipp
Museum Curator

First Baptist Church hosts 175th anniversary celebration

Confederate Armory

The 175th birthday party at the First Baptist Church was a great celebration. The church was filled to capacity on Sunday, Oct. 21. There were four past preachers plus our current pastor, Dr. Joe Lusby. Dr. Earl Kelly, age 90, gave the invocation. Dr. Thad Moore gave the excellent sermon which was filled with wonderful memories of the church’s past. Dr. Donnie Stewart gave the offertory prayer and Dr. Curtis Ferrell gave the benediction. Doris Sandusky Sigman Cochran has been a member of the church for 84 years. Hattie Chatham is the oldest member at age 98.

A fabulous “Dinner on the Ground,” which was actually in the church’s activity building, had “groaning” tables with towers of delicious food for everyone. Philanthropist Sidney Hurdle gave the money for the activity building in 1974.

First Baptist Church’s first building was built in 1837 and was used as a hospital during the Civil War and again as a hospital during the yellow fever epidemic of 1878. At the end of the epidemic, only nine members were left, one man and eight women. These strong Christians kept the church together and the congregation grew until they were able to build a better church in 1889. This second Baptist Church lasted until 1923 when the present edifice was built. In 1951, a memorial annex was added in memory of two of our members killed in World War II, John Paul Hurdle and C.D. Collins. Expanding again in 1962, an educational building was built adding about 18 more rooms to our building.

Our church has always been mission minded. We built Calvary Mission here in town and it has been great for the community. We have sent out our own missionaries and Christian workers from our church through the years.

The Confederate Armory

Did you know that the first guns for the Confederacy were made here by the Jones, McElwaine Foundry and Armory Company?

It was first a foundry that made the beautiful iron fences around town and the finials over the windows on the square, the iron mantles that are in a lot of the older homes. Also, they manufactured wagons, buggies and farm tools.

However, when the Civil War started, they began to convert it into an armory where they repaired guns for the Confederacy, so the first guns for the Confederacy were made here!

Senator Wall Doxey in the 1930s was the first person to be interested in the armory 70 years after it was in operation. Then, Mahan Jones, Frank Greer and Wilson Golden, 14-year-old boys, decided to unearth this hidden mystery right here in Holly Springs, which is located in the northeast corner of the Holly Springs map by the railroad track.

In October of 1862, the people at the armory realized that the Northern army was 22 miles north of us in Tennessee and heading this way fast, so they picked up and moved to Macon, Ga., where they were in business until a few years ago.

In early November, 1862, the Northern army arrived here. They discovered the armory buildings, each 200 feet long and empty. The Northerners decided to make a hospital in the buildings and began equipping them with supplies and medicine. The new hospital was to open on December 21. But on December 20, Southern General Earl Van Dorn came to town and blew up everything with “Yankee” on it, including the empty armory buildings.

When I first discovered the armory, there were the remains of the huge chimneys and the pond was there in front. (The pond was essential in case of fire.)

When the site was destroyed, the bulldozer traveled across the terrain and left the original brick floors exposed and the slave-made bricks were in a herringbone pattern.

I got in front of the bulldozer trying to get them not to destroy the site. I wanted to make it into a Confederate park where the first arms for the Confederacy were made. I had been to the first American settlement at Jamestown in Virginia where brick foundations of the town’s ruins were and they saved them. Today it is a park and has been a park for a hundred years. Jamestown was built in 1620.

The reason I have the armory on my mind is because recently I was shown a gun that belonged to Wiley P. Jones, who started the armory. It was really heavy and, evidently, Mr. Jones was a sharpshooter. It needed a caisson or wagon just to carry it.

We had a visitor from Wisconsin on Wednesday, who wanted to visit us because of the Michael Feldman national radio show. The Wisconsin man liked the show so much that he sent us an original Pepsi Cola bottle.

In today’s world, did you happen to be in JB’s Café last Monday and see Caroline Kennedy in there? Yes, the Caroline Kennedy -- by herself.

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