Oliff Works To Get County Seat Moved, and to Bring Through the Dixie Highway.

Charlton County entered into the 20^th Century in a torrent of controversy. The county seat of government had been at Traders Hill since the county was created in February 1854. Now Traders Hill, once a bustling waterfront community on the St. Marys River, was beginning to look run down at the heels. The log county courthouse, the second one to be built there, was disgraceful.  The first courthouse had burned to the ground in 1877. Its replacement was now rotting and decaying.

Two Charlton County Grand Juries had recommended the county build a new courthouse. The requests had gone unheeded. People began to get impatient with members of the Board of Commissioners for their inaction. A Grand Jury went so far as recommending abolishing the Board of County Commissioners. Talk began to circulate about an election to move the seat of government from Traders Hill to Folkston, then a town of 167 people and railroad tracks. There was talk among political leaders of a new brick courthouse at a new county seat.

Enter Folkston lawyer, Colonel William Marshal Olliff, an imposing, statuesque man was as disenchanted as anyone about the embarrassing appearance of the rundown log courthouse and jail at Traders Hill.

The County Commissioners, at the urging of citizen's petitions, called for an election to move the county seat to Folkston. Opposition from Traders Hill residents was fierce. One of Traders Hill's most powerful figures, Andrew G. Gowen, fought hard against the removal in the countywide election. The first election failed.

A later election succeeded, although residents of Uptonville joined with Traders Hill voters to try to stop the movement to Folkston. Uptonville, then with more people than Folkston, was proposed as a compromise site. Voters in "the bend" section of the county, who had voted with Traders Hill voters in the first election, in the second election changed their allegiance from Traders Hill and voted with Folkston voters to move the seat of government to Folkston.

An attempt to block the second election by not opening the polls at Uptonville failed. Folkston residents went to Uptonville to make sure that voters in Uptonville were allowed to vote. Folkston was the choice of the voters by a two to one majority. Folkston would become the new seat of government for Charlton County to begin the 20^th Century.

Throughout the political infighting, one Folkston leader took the lead, Colonel William Marshal Olliff. The Folkston lawyer began his political fight by opening the first county newspaper, The Charlton County Herald in 1898. Among the newspaper's goals was the removal of the county seat from Traders Hill to Folkston.

Olliff's love for Folkston spurred the Bulloch County native to work harder for growth. A town of 167 people was not Olliff's idea of a prosperous South Georgia town.

Olliff, through his contacts and through his newspaper began pushing for progress. In 1915 He got involved in a fight to influence the routing of U. S. Highway 1, The Dixie Highway, through Folkston. Other interests in central Georgia sought to route it miles to the west of Folkston. This movement, begun in 1915 with Olliff's impetus, left no stones unturned to achieve their goal. The group was called the "Good Roads Committee". It would fight for the Central Dixie Highway."

On that committee with Olliff were most of Folkston's business and political leaders; H. J. Davis, L. E. Mallard (Olliff's nephew), Ben F. Scott, B. G. McDonald, J. W. Vickery, Dr. Albert Fleming and others.

Under Olliff's driving , the committee called in every political debt owed by road officials in Atlanta. The very future of Folkston's growth depended upon that highway coming through Folkston.

Olliff conceived the idea that if Charlton County offered state officials money to pay part of the cost to route it through Folkston and Homeland, the plan would have a better chance of being accepted. Olliff was right. State highway officials took to the idea. Olliff began to soften up the county leaders to a proposal to borrow $50,000 to pay as part of the cost of hard surfacing the Dixie Highway through Homeland and Folkston.

The plan at first met with criticism. Back then $50,000 was still a lot of money. But, soon the idea began to catch on with Charlton County residents. After all $50,000 was a small amount to pay for the benefits to be received if the highway passed through the two towns.

Then, disaster struck. On May 25, 1917, in the middle of the fight by the Better Roads Committee, Olliff died suddenly of a heart attack.

Others of the committee felt like their world had ended. Their leader was missing.

With the prodding of Jack Davis, L. E. Mallard, and Ben Scott, the committee was fired up again. It knew it could operate with Olliff gone.

The group talked Folkston banker, William Mizell, Sr. of the Citizens Bank, into buying the Central Dixie Highway Bonds of $50,000 to be repaid from county taxes. Mizell agreed to buy the bonds, and the vote went to county voters. To the surprise of many, the vote for bonds passed by a comfortable margin. The committee went to Atlanta, $50,000 in hand to pay toward locking in the Central Dixie Highway to assure its path through Folkston and Homeland.

The work of the committee ended in 1922 with a giant celebration at a bridge across the St. Marys River to open the new paved highway through Folkston and Homeland. Hundreds joined in the celebration as brass bands played, barbecue was served, and a jubilant Charlton County marked their achievement.

William Marshall Olliff had died five years earlier. Speakers at the celebration eulogized Olliff for his early efforts to change the course of the Dixie Highway to come through his adopted city and county.

Today there are only two monuments with the name William Marshal Olliff on them; the Central Dixie Highway monument in front of the Charlton County Courthouse, and on the grave marker of the most progressive leader in Folkston's history. It's in Pineview Cemetery in Folkston. Just three blocks east of the Central Dixie Highway that he fought so hard to get to pass through his adopted hometown. That Dixie Highway, however, is the most fitting of monuments to a courageous man.