Great Depression of 1930s Struck Charlton Hard - Business District Suffers.

The mid-1930s saw Charlton County about like the rest of the nation: broke and with no jobs for its people. Schools could not pay their teachers; state highway contracts could not be paid for, bankrupting struggling road contractors.

One Charlton County resident was among the road contractors who never received pay for their paving contracts. M. G. White, who had been highly successful in the paving business for years. The dire financial crisis of the state caused him to have to sell off his prized possession, Coleraine Estate on the St. Marys River.

Many stores along Folkston's Main Street, granting credit as long as they could, found themselves unable to pay their suppliers. Many closed their doors.

A Georgia-based chain grocery store, The Suwannee Store, operated on Main Street in Folkston. It had a series of managers and proved to be one of the county's more popular stores. Among the managers in the mid-thirties were Fred Askew, Sr., and H. J. Mays.

One Homeland resident, Bena Kennison, pedaled extracts, brooms and mops house to house from a Model A Ford. Kennison had at one time been one of Charlton County's most prosperous farmers. With no market for his produce, he turned to running a McNess route throughout the county.

Kennison's wife, Mary Willey Kennison, suffered right along with her husband during those lean days. She was the daughter of a once-wealthy Pennsylvania Railroad Superintendent who lost everything when his bank on Long Island, New York folded without paying its depositors. His life savings, gathered to allow him to move south and retire, were wiped out. He and his family came south anyway, and she married Kennison. Mary Kennison was a graduate of prestigious Vassar College.

Kennison and his wife became popular peddlers throughout the county, stopping and visiting with most families while selling his McNess products. Kennison always had a stick of cinnamon chewing gum for the kids in the home. His Model A Ford found its way through the county's sand roads into most homes for most of the 1930s.

In Homeland, the town's railroad depot was one of the busiest places in town. The Homeland Post Office with Eli Waughtel as Post Master doubled as a gathering place for the unemployed. Mrs. Arthur Roberts little store on the Dixie Highway made it through the depression. Mr. Roberts was a member of the Homeland City government. Their two sons, Louie and Orlando, earlier, had operated a Whippet automobile dealership on the Dixie Highway right across from their parent's store.

In Folkston, Howard Wrench's poolroom on the ground floor of the Arnold Hotel building was a favorite hangout for men without jobs. The poolroom had two wooden columns supporting the awning. Men with pocket knives, whittled at them until they became no larger than an ax handle, and had to be replaced.

President Franklin Roosevelt's recovery program began to pump money into the county. CCC camps gave jobs to many of the unemployed, working in the pine forests and the Okefenokee Swamp. Two CCC Camps were built, in Hershey Park in Homeland and in St. George.

A commodity warehouse opened at the rear of the Charlton County Courthouse. In it Arnold Scott handed out free grits, potatoes and army surplus clothing to the needy. There was always a long line waiting when Scott opened for business each day.

In the lower floor of the Folkston Masonic Building, ladies of the county ran a sewing room, making mattress coverings, and dresses. Dresses were made from discarded flour sacks, which often had gaudy flowers printed on the material. The flour manufacturer had learned that flour slacks with colorful patterns, sold flour, at the Suwanne Store and elsewhere.

On Folkston's West Main Street, in the Arnold Hotel Building, "Uncle Bill" Mathews ran his furniture store; dealing largely is used furniture that he had renovated. One of Uncle Bill's specialties was replacing the wicks in kerosene cook stoves. A tedious operation at best.

On the corner of Okefenokee Drive and Main Street, Mrs. Mary Askew ran her Okefenokee Restaurant. A community youngster known as "Buttercup" Bolden dressed in a gleaming white suit and a sign inviting motorists into the restaurant. His brother was named William and he had two sisters, Angeline and Willie Mae. Their dog was named "Spare-Ribs" which aptly described the black and white animal.

Another business operating out of the ground floor of the Arnold Hotel during much of the depression, was Tuttles Shoe Shop. On Saturday night Tuttle would fry fish on the sidewalks outside the shoe shop, drawing those who had a quarter over to the cooker for one of his tangy fish sandwiches. The aroma of frying fish wafted through much of the town every Saturday night.

The days of the depression passed slowly in Charlton County. Those lean years lasted from 1930 until 1939, when America's preparations for World War Two, created well paying jobs in defense industries. Charlton men and women worked in the shipyards of Jacksonville and Brunswick. Roosevelt's "Happy Days are here Again" began to be the watchword in the county that for years had sung songs like "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf." The wolf referring to the depression.

Slowly Charlton County, like the rest of the nation, began to forget the painful years of the Great Depression. Jobs became plentiful as men were called into service in World War Two. But for many businesses, the turnaround had come too late. The ten depression years had left many broke and unable to begin anew. Some went to work in defense jobs; others joined the army and navy. The long lean years of the Great Depression, but just a painful memory, but a colorful part of Charlton County's Twentieth Century.