THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Couple leaves
Choestoe for New Holland
William Bruce
Moore and Catherine Souther Moore
Through
mountain mists we discern motives as to why people of the late
nineteenth century left family and familiar scenes to go to a new
location. Sometimes the very survival of families depended on it. Such
seemed the case of Catherine Souther Moore (01.16.1869-02.03.1921) and
her husband, William Bruce Moore (04.16.1868-08.26.1905).
This couple was
married in Union
County, Georgia on September 23, 1886. The
husband, William Bruce Moore, was from Towns
County, Georgia, a
son of Andrew and Adeline Greer Moore. Catherine Souther, his bride,
was the ninth of ten children born to John Combs Hayes Souther
(10.22.1827- 01.04-1891) and Nancy Collins Souther
(02.13.1829-07.22.1888).
Catherine
had three brothers, William Albert Souther, John Padgett Souther, and
Joseph Newton Souther. William Albert married Elizabeth
"Hon" Dyer. John Padgett married Martha Clemetine
Brown. Joseph Newton married Elderada
Swain. Catherine had seven sisters. They and their spouses were Mary
Elizabeth Souther who married Smith Loransey
Brown; Celia Souther who died at about age 16; Sarah Evaline Souther who married Bluford
Elisha Dyer; Nancy Roseanne Souther who
married William Hulsey; Martha Souther who married, first, Jasper Todd
Hunter, and, second, James Hunter (her husbands were brothers); and
Catherine's youngest sister was Ruthie
Caroline Souther who married, first, William A. Sullivan and, second,
Logan Souther. This youngest sister moved west to Pueblo, Colorado.
Perhaps it was
the fact that Catherine's sister, Nancy Roseanne Souther and her
husband, William Hulsey, already lived in New Holland that helped
Catherine and Bruce Moore decide to move there. Times were hard, and
the couple seemed to realize that their chances for a regular income
lay, not in tending the land at Choestoe to eke out a living, but to go
to New Holland where Bruce could be employed for a regular $1.00 per
day salary working in the cotton mill.
In the history
of New Holland Cotton Mills, it was indicated that the Pacolet
Manufacturing Company of South
Carolina established a cotton mill in
the village of New
Holland, two
miles northeast of Gainesville in
1901. There the company built a brick building to house the cotton
mill, the weaving looms and other equipment necessary to producing
quality cotton cloth. Also on the property secured by Pacolet were mill
village houses which could be rented by families who worked in the
mill. There was a bold spring, supposedly with health-giving water,
that provided drinking water for the houses. Any of the ambitious
families who wanted to tend a side-patch next to their rented house
could plant a vegetable garden and hope for fresh vegetables in a
favorable growing season. The manufacturer also provided a mill village
store where families could buy necessary supplies. A school for the
children, New Holland Academy, was
also established. The whole village seemed a haven for families
hard-pressed to make a living in the early twentieth century.
William Bruce
Moore and Catherine Souther Moore had seven children as follows: James
Andrew Moore (08.05.1888 - 12.29.1909); Nancy Adeline Moore
(07.07.1890-?) married L. O. Coker; Mary Ellen Moore
(10.25.1891-03.10.1935) married Will Voyles;
Emma Mae Moore (04.10.1894 -?) married Arthur Franklin; Katie Evaline Morre
(12.23.1896-05.08.1957) married Earl Franklin; Martha Wortie Moore (05.25.1900-05/26.1949) married
Bruce Meta; and William Virgil Moore (09.30-1902-05.08.1962) married
Thelma Cook.
As already
mentioned, in that day the New Holland mill employed men for $1.00 per
day. Women worked for fifty cents per day, and children, upon becoming
age 12, got jobs for fifty cents per day. In the early years when the Moore
family worked there, few health restrictions were intact, and workers
breathed the cotton dust from the milling processes. It was an
unhealthful environment. William Bruce Moore died August 26, 1905,
leaving his wife Catherine to raise their family of seven children on
her own. Imagine this mother, tired from a twelve-hour day at the mill,
returning home, heavy with grief, and having to prepare a meager meal
for her children, do their laundry, and keep the house in order. Another sadness came to Catherine Souther Moore as her eldest son, James Andrew,
died December
9, 1909 at age 22. Was his death also
caused by exposure to cotton dust in the mill?
On June 1, 1903, a
tornado ripped through Gainesville and
New Holland. Forty were killed in New Holland. Historical pictures show
caskets lined up, side by side, in the New Holland mill, awaiting
burial. Some, for which caskets had not yet been secured, were covered
in materials that had been woven in the plant. Over
three decades later, on April 6, 1936, another devastating tornado
ripped through Gainesville, doing much damage to the city
and to outlying districts like New Holland. In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt visited
the city, surveying the damage, and promising federal help for
rebuilding.
My great aunt,
Catherine Souther Moore, did not have to worry about cleaning up from
the great tornado of 1936. She had quietly laid down her life on February 3, 1921,
dying of what was then known as "consumption," a disease of the lungs
brought on by years of breathing the cotton dust in the mills. She was
buried in the New Holland Cemetery
alongside her husband who had preceded her in death on August 26, 1905.
c2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 1, 2007 in
The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted
by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]
Updated January 21,
2009