Folkston's First Mayor, Benjamin Griffin McDonald, Pushed For His Town's First Armistice Day Celebration.

1918 was a bittersweet year for those in Charlton County. A flu epidemic had taken scores of lives in Folkston, Saint George, Moniac, and Burnt Fort, but the end of hostilities of World War One was cause for celebration. One man, Benjamin Griffin McDonald, Folkston's first mayor, would push his fellow townspeople to join in celebrating an end to the carnage of World War One.

McDonald, a 52-year-old political powerhouse, owned the McDonald House Hotel on Folkston's Main Street. On the ground floor he operated a general store, with some of the most fashionable clothes and hats anywhere. He even brought in fashion models to demonstrate to the ladies of the town, the latest fashions.

Folkston's senior high school class in 1918 had three members: Albert Sidney Stewart, Mary Banks and Mayme Askew. Lawrence Mallard was superintendent of schools, and John Harris the Folkston High School principal.

McDonald walked up and down Folkston's muddy main street, bouncing the idea of a celebration to his fellow merchants. Partly because of McDonald's persuasive manner, the outcome was unanimous. Folkston would celebrate its first Armistice Day with a peace demonstration. The date was set. It would be November 11, 1918, and the Peace Demonstrations would get started promptly at 6:30 in the evening. As the hour approached, Folkston's Main Street came alive with adults and youngsters getting into the spirit of celebration. Some rang bells; others blew whistles and sounded the horns of their automobiles. It was to be a celebration, the likes of which had never before been seen in the town.

Suddenly the crowd became quiet. A young boy, Arthur Buchanan, lifted his bugle and began a series of military bugle calls. At the conclusion the sound of "Taps" further stirred the listeners.

A bonfire was built in the middle of the street while celebrants joined hands and began singing a chorus of songs…. Over There, and It's a Long Way to Tipperary.

Mallard, in his role as Master of Ceremonies, elicited short talks from two Folkston lawyers, A. W. Woods and A. C. Franks, both of who bore the honorary title of Colonel.

People of the town had put aside their own troubles; some had just lost loved ones in the flu epidemic. In Moniac alone, just a month earlier, In October 1918, twenty had died from the dreaded flu. But, tonight would be a night for celebration. Four from Charlton County had given their lives on battlefields in France.

Ben McDonald stood back of the crowd; silently approving of the celebration that had resulted from his handiwork.

McDonald's stately hotel had become a part of the Folkston landscape, built by McDonald who had come to Folkston from Waresboro in 1885, the son of a prosperous Ware County farmer, Donald McDonald.

That celebration at the end of World War One would live in the memory of those who were there, for years afterward.

Ben McDonald's hotel continued to be a vital part of the Folkston business community. The ground floor general store continued as the fashion center of the town.

McDonald died on May 19, 1932. The hotel continued to operate into the 1950s. Although the general store was closed, the windows continued to display fashions of the 1920s until the Charlton County Centennial celebration in 1954.

In 1954, the niece of the McDonalds, Martha Grace Bragg, opened up the old store to allow locals to buy the early American fashions still on the shelves: high button-top ladies shoes and fancy ladies hats to wear during the Centennial Celebration. Upstairs rooms would continue to be rented out, mostly to long-time guests. The niece continued to operate a fabric shop on the ground floor until the 1970s.

On August 3, 1958, Ben McDonald's wife, Bernice, died. The two had been a part of the Charlton County heartbeat since before the turn of the 20^th Century.

In his hotel, Ben McDonald worked tirelessly to advance his town and county, playing a major role in the development of Hursey Park, a 90 acre Four-H Club project in Homeland and Folkston, named for a Charlton County Agriculture Agent, A. B. Hursey. The park opened on July 7, 1931.

Ben McDonald had been one of the founders of The Citizens Bank in 1912, and led the move to incorporate the City of Folkston, and to become its first mayor. The street between his hotel and the Folkston restored depot building, bears his name, McDonald Street.

In it's heyday, Ben McDonald's hotel had anchored four Folkston hotels, clustered around Folkston's busy train depot; McDonalds, The Roddenberry Hotel, just east of the present post office, and across Main Street, The Arnold Hotel and the Central House Hotel. In the early years for those hotels, over a dozen passenger trains picked up and discharged passengers every day. Most of the strangers made their way to the registration desks of the hotels.

Armistice Day, November 11, 1918 would be but another day's work for Ben McDonald. The lanky hotel owner and civic leader had helped guide his town and county through the early years of the 20^th century.