[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E828-E829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         JUST A PIECE OF PAPER

                                 ______


                           HON. JACK KINGSTON

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 6, 1995
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, on April 3, 1895, one of the great cities 
of Georgia's First Congressional District and indeed America was born. 
The following article, written by Mrs. Lois Barefoot Mays talks about 
this event and the celebration of the Folkston, GA, U.S.A. centennial 
parade last Saturday on April 1.
          [From the Charlton County (GA) Herald, Mar. 1, 1995]

                         Just a Piece of Paper

                        (By Lois Barefoot Mays)

       To see me from afar, you would think I was just an ordinary 
     piece of paper. But I'm very special. Why, I'm one hundred 
     years old and still going strong. I am the charter for 
     Folkston, Georgia, United States of America, North American 
     Continent, God's little blue planet Earth, the Universe.
       On April 1st, 1995, my little town will be the center of 
     the universe. There will be a joyous homecoming of people who 
     once lived within my borders and who will return for my one 
     hundredth birthday. They'll celebrate together with the 
     residents by dancing, eating tasty food, enjoying a patriotic 
     parade and especially by greeting friends they haven't seen 
     for a while.
       There'll be lots of smiles, hugs and handshakes. They'll 
     speak of friends that have died and maybe even take time for 
     a thoughtful walk through the well-kept cemetery.
       Perhaps they'll recall leaders of the Folkston community 
     who made lasting impressions on their lives. People like Dr. 
     McCoy, Mrs. Belle Roddenberry, L.E. Stokes, Miss Mayme and 
     John Harris, William Mizell,
      Mary Stokes Davis, Scott and Ralph Johnson, Tom Gowen, John 
     Southwell and others. And they will have good stories to 
     tell about those leaders, stories worth remembering, that 
     can be used in Sunday School rooms later when they study 
     what integrity means.
       I won't be able to hear all that's going on because I will 
     be resting in a file somewhere, but my spirit is alive and 
     well in this southeastern Georgia bit of heaven.
       I was really born as the Town of Folkston in April, 1895, 
     but before that date the Village of Folkston was here. As the 
     cry of a new-born baby signals a brand new life, the wail of 
     a steam engine on the newly-laid rails of the S.F & W. 
     Railroad brought folks together and when stores and homes 
     were built near the covered platform called ``The Station'', 
     the Village of Folkston was born. That first loud train, 
     scaring people and animals alike, thundered through what is 
     now Folkston on March 30, 1881. Why, that's the same year 
     President James A. Garfield began his term of office and the 
     year the painter Pablo Picasso was born!
       Fourteen years later the village had a splendid depot, 
     large Masonic Lodge, at least six stores, two hotels, cotton 
     gins, grist mill and homes for the nearby families. It was no 
     longer called ``The Station'' but had been named for Dr. W.B. 
     Folks of Waycross and called at first, ``Folkstown'' and 
     quickly shortened to ``Folkston''.
       As the men of the village, always eager to argue the merits 
     of their favorite horse, leaned on the fence of the 
     Roddenberry Hotel livery stable in the spring of 1895 and 
     discussed events of the times, the main topic must have been 
     local government and how to have some control over clearly 
     illegal situations. They needed strict rules that would make 
     it unlawful for anyone to indulge in card playing or dancing 
     on the Sabbath; rules that made it against the law to fasten 
     horses or mules to shadetrees or buildings in such a way that 
     folks couldn't walk on the sidewalk or get in the door of a 
     store. And they needed men elected by the majority of the 
     other men of the village to be the ones to enforce these 
     rules.
       So, on the 26 day of March, 1895 a referendum was held, 
     seeking the will of the people. A decision was to be made: 
     did they really want a charter with printed laws with which 
     to abide, or did they want to continue as just a group of 
     families brought together by the common bond of living close 
     to the railroad tracks.
       Results of the election were probably predicted beforehand. 
     Thirty-two men voted on that day and those thirty-two men 
     voted a resounding unanimous ``YES, we want to be a real TOWN 
     of Folkston.'' Three of the community's leaders, J.S. Mizell, 
     H.S. Matox and H.A. Renfroe were election superintendents 
     that important day and immediately a short 
     [[Page E829]] petition was drawn up, which twenty-three men 
     signed, asking the Charlton Superior Court for permission to 
     incorporate.
       Eight days later, on April 3rd, 1895, probably as the first 
     order of business of Superior Court Judge, J.W. Sweat at the 
     April term of court of Traders Hill. I was born. The order 
     creating me as the Town of Folkston was scratched with quill 
     pen and ink on this yellowed sheet of ruled paper and signed 
     by Judge Sweat.
       So that's who I am--just a folded paper document--an object 
     that means home and life-long friends to those who once lived 
     within my borders ... but to those fortunate ones who enjoy 
     the privilege of strolling my sidewalks, or talking daily 
     with friends made fifty years or more ago, or the unexcelled 
     pleasure of standing on the depot porch hearing and watching 
     a mile-long train roar through Love, Main and Martin Streets 
     all at once. I'm a sacred piece of paper. ... I'm the best!
       In fact, right now I'm the center of the universe!
       

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