Depression-Era Faith Healer Finds Success in Folkston, While  Hardships Abound Around Him

Charlton County was suffering through its deepest-ever-economic depression. Men without jobs, hung out in Folkston's poolroom, or in Carl Roy's Blue Willow Restaurant.

Folkston had but one paved street, The Dixie Highway that wound through the town in a figure S. It was 1932 and the mood of the nation was at its lowest point. The infant son of aviation hero Charles Lindberg was kidnapped and killed, and Herbert Hoover was in the White House.

Charlton County had a new Sheriff. Jim Sikes was serving his first year in office after succeeding W. H. Mizell who had held the office since 1910. J. C. Littlefield was Chairman of the Board of Commissioners.

But, amid all the misery, one seemed above the economic problems: A faith healer, Doctor E. L. Douglas, who operated from his home in the northeast part of Folkston.

Douglas was blind and stories of his miracle healings reached far and wide. Daily, and especially on weekends, his home was ringed with automobiles bringing in people from hundreds of miles away, seeking help for their physical ailments. Douglas' fee was fifty cents.

A family from Brantley County brought their under-developed young daughter to the faith healer. The girl, while fully developed above her waist, was so poorly formed below her waist she couldn't stand on her legs. She moved around in a wheel chair.

Douglas saw the young girl in his home and began to perform his ritual while the girl's parents sat nearby. In a matter of weeks the parents reported their daughter had responded miraculously and was walking normally. Her happy parents were convinced that Douglas had performed a miracle.

News of the girl's recovery spread quickly, and hundreds more found their way to Douglas' home-office.

Douglas, in addition to his faith healing practice, ran a well-stocked grocery store that adjoined his home. The store was always neat and clean and tended by courteous young girls. On the shelves were always fireworks and novelties for those who could afford them.

In the middle 1930s, Douglas opened faith healing clinics in Brunswick, Jacksonville, Waycross and Savannah. He had a regular routine for visiting the branch offices while maintaining his headquarters in Folkston.

Douglas would be driven up to the Citizens Bank to make his daily deposits. While others struggled for survival, Douglas always had a big black automobile, was impeccably dressed with a tall black hat atop his head. Helped up the steps to the bank by his assistants, Douglas hauled in his deposits, usually in silver half-dollars, in brown paper sacks, sat them on the bank counter and asked the teller to count the money.

Douglas did not participate in the Great Depression, his income continued to soar through the mid-thirties, but others didn't fare as well.

The federal government in six weeks of 1932 sent nearly 1,200 sacks of government flour to Charlton County residents. Folkston received 648 sacks; Toledo got 96, Uptonville 5, Traders Hill 59, Prescott Neighborhood 100, Moniac 100, and St. George 174 sacks of the free flour.

Tom Wrench, editor of the Charlton County Herald tried to cheer up his readers. Wrench wrote of 1883 when 150 railroads went bankrupt, and to 1857 when soldiers were brought in to guard the nation's treasury against citizen raids.

Still, the affluence of Dr. Douglas amid all the poverty was a topic of conversation. Douglas was born in Folkston in 1892. John Harris, in his 1972 Historical Notes, wrote that in 1899 there was but one Black family in Folkston; The Bill Douglas family. Bill Douglas was apparently the father of the faith healer. Dr. Douglas was partially blind all his life, but in his later years, completely lost his sight.

The self-proclaimed faith healer earned the respect of the entire community. Although he was blind, he still was able to ascertain when he was meeting someone. He would tip the big Homburg Hat, and speak politely.

Douglas died at his home in Folkston on Sunday morning, March 16, 1947. He was only 55.

Funeral services were held a week later and he was laid to rest in the cemetery of his church.

Douglas had overcome his physical handicap and had become financially independent practicing his faith healing and operating his grocery store in northeast Folkston.

Soon after Douglas' death, his offices and store were closed. Douglas and his wife, Evalina had no children, but adopted and raised several.

Even today, some of the early settlers recall the busy home office of the prominent faith healer; his tidy country store, and the apparent total disregard he had for the nation's deepest economic depression.