Memories of Charlton County - by Gibson and Mays Back to Table of Contents 37. MOLLY AND BULL AND OTHER ANIMALS (Pp 75-76) Animals were almost as
important to us as people, and for this reason we took especially good care of our dogs and horses and mules. We had a dog once that pulled a cart for the children. I had bought him from a fellow that used to come through Folkston like the goat man, except that instead of goats he had a team of dogs. The wagon that he lived in was pulled by a four-yoke team of eight dogs. He came through south Georgia going to Florida every year and he sold me one of his big Eskimo dogs
for $25.00. Jim Gowen's boys built the cart and the dog pulled it just like a horse would pull a wagon. The children rode in it. I kept this dog until ha began to eat the chickens. One night I heard the hens raising sand in the chicken house and knew the dog was after them, so I got my gun and went out in the yard intending to shoot him, but instead I put the rifle on a stump and decided to try to sell him, If someone else would buy him, I could get my $25,00 back. I took him to the St. Marys
River bridge and left him with the man that collected tolls there. He tried to sell the dog but couldn't. He finally agreed with a tourist to swap my dog for a Kodak camera. I had another dog, named "Bull" who joined the Marines with me. He was a good farm dog and could catch a cow or hog, no matter how big. He would catch them on the nose and they couldn't sling him off. When Guy Dean and I left home to enlist in the Marines in 1917, Bull went under my bed and
didn't come out for the week I was gone, except to eat. After I told my family goodby, I went back to boot camp and took my bull terrier with me. Everybody there loved him and he took care of me. If anyone touched me, he would jump for their throat. The kitchen crew fed him and gave him meat skins and he ate so much he got sick. He was taken to the sick bay just like a person and the doctors treated him but he died there. Everyone on Paris Island thought a lot of that dog.
When I was growing up, Papa had a blind horse named Molly. She was a wonderful animal and pulled the wagon wherever we wanted to go. Papa had bought her from old man T, Mizell and we had her for a long time. When she got older, we talked to Papa about selling her, but he wanted to keep her, Papa would say "She's been a good horse and she's old and blind now. We ought to take care of her. Now when I get old and blind I'd sure hate for youall to throw me out!" He
thought a lot of that horse, but later sold her to Archie Dinkins for $30.00. But he knew Mr. Dinkins would take as good care of old blind Molly as he had. I helped Emory Dean re-name a hunch of his mules one time. The government had taken over the railroads and Mr. V. A. Hodges, the roadmaster, had been assigned to fill in a big hole beside the railroad track. Mr. Hodges knew Emory always had a big bunch of mules so he contracted with him to get the hole filled in. The
workers used the mules and dragmen, machines similar to wheelbarrows without wheels, to scoop up the dirt to fill the hole. When Emory went to settle up with the roadmaster, Mr. Hodges asked "What's the names of those mules? We have to give them a man's name or the government won't pay. They will pay for men's work but not mule's work." So I helped Emory think up first and last people names for all of his mules. | 
