Folkston, At the End of World War I, Fought For Progress. Photograph shows Folkston's Main Street, looking west toward the Charlton County Courthouse around 1920. The photo is of poor quality, but a close look will show a hog at the lower left, the Rodgers Building (now Folkston Pharmacy) and at the far left end, the Folkston Post Office in the two-story home. The first courthouse is at the extreme right. It burned in 1927.

The year was 1920; World War One had just ended in Europe. Charlton County veterans were still being mustered out of service and returning to their homes. Folkston's population was just under 400 and the small town was pushing hard for progress. It was the "Roaring Twenties" and Charlton County wanted to be a part of the parade.

On Folkston's Main Street, still unpaved, huddled most of the town's business houses. Jack Davis had a General Store built on the site of the burned-down Roddenberry Hotel. Davis also had built two smaller stores adjoining his main building. One would house a drug store, Folkston Pharmacy, operated at one time by the town's physician, Dr. Adrian Dallas Williams. At the east end of the block stood the new Charlton County Courthouse, built in 1901. A two-story dwelling, on the north side of Main Street housed the Folkston Post Office.

Farm animals roamed at will along the town's streets, dodging the few Model T Fords owned by locals. The Charlton County Sheriff was W. H. Mizell, who had held the job since 1904. Mizell was, according to legend, was a gentle man, but married to his job as Sheriff. He would hold the position until 1932, twenty-eight years. The Charlton County jail was located just behind the courthouse.

In 1920, Folkston had but one bank, The Citizens Bank, organized in 1911 by William Mizell, Sr., B. G. McDonald and Ben Scott. The bank was located in Scott's Arnold Hotel west of the railroad tracks. Scott was the President.

In addition, in 1920 there was talk about the new Dixie Highway being paved to south Florida. Folkston wanted the highway to pass through the town and organized a Better Roads Committee, dedicated to persuade highway engineers and politicians to come around to their way of thinking. The original proposal had the new highway passing 75 miles to the west of Folkston.

The Charlton County Commissioners, in tune with the progressive movement voted to put up $50,000 dollars of county money toward paving the highway through the county. Mizell bought the bonds and the money was turned over to the State Highway Department. The generous gesture turned the trick. The state was impressed by the commitment of Charlton County and decided to pave the Dixie Highway right through the middle of Folkston. Few in the county objected to the county making the financial contribution.

The 1920s proved one of the town's best years. In 1925 and 1926, most of the business houses on the south side of Main Street were built, including Dean and Gowen Hardware, and the Masonic Building. The town was alive and jumping as the Roaring Twenties continued.

The railroads, expanding into the Florida land boom, put on extra passenger trains as northerners rushed through Folkston on their way to south Florida. A number of Folkston residents entered the contracting business, helping to build the rail lines into the booming state of Florida.

H. C. Page, Folkston railroad stationmaster worked late into the night, handling ticket sales and unloading passengers. Page had an almost paternal attitude toward his job. He thought he should be at his job in the depot building when every passenger train stopped.

Newcomers arrived in Folkston almost on a daily basis, to settle and set up shop in the growing town. W. H. Robinson and his wife came into town to buy a business. They bought the Charlton County Herald newspaper, and she ran it for years.

Dr. J. W. Buchanan arrived in the 1920s from Wooster, Ohio with his pockets loaded with money. He excited the community with his novel developments; Dixie Lake, The Dixie Lake Dairy, and the Folkston Airport. Buchanan brought in experts to help him. He imported a native of The Netherlands to run his dairy, and barnstorming airplane pilots to fly planes out of the Folkston Airport. A hurricane destroyed Buchanan's Dixie Lake and a wildfire swept through his airplane hangar. Locals blamed Buchanan's wrecked Dixie Lake with breeding mosquitoes that they thought caused a local Malaria epidemic. Buchanan's dreams turned sour. His money depleted and his dreams shattered, the broken Ohio physician became almost a recluse before his death.

Folkston's young enjoyed the prosperity. One businessman hired a brass band to play at the local semi-pro baseball games on Sunday afternoons. Other communities in the county also got in on the building boom of the 20s. In Winokur, N. G. Wade, Sr., built a hotel and several store buildings as he brought trees from the forest to be turned into crossties for the rapidly expanding railroads.

Throughout most of the 1920s it was a time of excitement and growth. The locals "let the good times roll." Enter October 1929…. the bubble burst. The Florida boom turned sour as Wall Street crashed and the nation's greatest Depression followed for the next ten years.

During most of the decade of the 20s, Folkston and Charlton County had built up a head of steam that would see the locals through the dark years of the 1930s. Many businesses changed hands as some of the merchants ran out of money, but others kept the doors open and tightened their belts. The buildings constructed in the booming 1920s had given Folkston the start it needed to join in the nation's progress.

Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" swept onto the stage in the mid-1930s, as CCC Camps, The National Recovery Act, WPA Programs and others propped up the local economy. The hard days of the 1930s went down more easily because of the sweet 1920s.