House on 50 South Main St.



This old house at 50 South Main St., Alpharetta, Georgia, in a town of less than one thousand, was built in 1914 at a cost
of $520.including all the labor, with Dad furnishing all the materials It was well built and contained six rooms with four fire
places.It had a water well on the back porch and a big front porch filled with Brumby rocking chairs. I used to take my baths
in a big wash tub on the back porch and by the wood stove in cold weather. We drew our water from the well until getting
electricity in 1927. We installed a pump in the well.

Dad William Glenn Jones was a merchant until he sold out in 1941. He passed away in 1942. In his country grocery store
was a long counter as were others at that time. It had about ten stools and at lunch, on a four burner kerosene stove he
cooked hot dogs, eggs, cheese and ham sandwiches; all of these for five cents each with the exception of the ham. This
was a time when the words "sanitation" and "inspection" weren't in our vocabulary. He had no running water so he had to
carry it from a service station across the street. It was the only place in town to get any eats.

Mother, Mary Jones, was an elementary teacher fo 41 years beginning in a three room school building. She was a great mom
who spent her free time in her beautiful flower gardens. She had a "fish pond" in the front yard and I built a small one out in the
back yard. Mom was an excellent cook and always enjoyed having relatives and friends to eat with us. She passed away in
1961 and was busy in her flowers up until that time.

Our town lot of about 3/5 acre had, in addition to the home, a big barn with a garage for the Model T Ford, and later a
Model A.There was a chicken house on one end of the barn. We also had a hog pen and chicken yard where I raised
chickens and ducks. We always had a good vegetable garden and Mother always canned the surplus. Dad made a big
churn of cabbage and kraut. He said the mountain cabbage made better kraut.

I would set rabbit boxes out behind the house. Mama would fry these rabbits, make a big run of gravy and a big pan of
biscuits; this was good eating.

Late in the evenings, I would sometimes go out in the garden spot with my .410 shotgun and shoot at chimney swifts; I don't
think I ever killed one. This was only about 1500 feet from the court house. I never heard any complaints.

As I've said, this old house was in the middle of town and just across the street there was a cotton gin. Cotton was "King"
back then until the boll weevil came and the depression set in. There was also another gin in town.

Next to our house were two black families. One of these family members ran a blacksmith shop just past these houses. He
and the others moved to the edge of town and I rode with him as a teenager on a one - horse wagon to move his shop.

We didn't have a funeral home in town. My cousin was the undertaker. Prior to 1938, he would take a strong folding table
and a bucket to the home of the deceased and embalm them there. They would remain there until the funeral. His first call
was in 1918 and he carried the casket to the church in a two - horse wagon. He kept his caskets in an old store building
next to his house which he called the "coffin house." In 1938, my Dad's old store building was remodeled for our first
funeral home. A modern one was built in 1956.

I was born in this old house in 1921 and graduated from high school in a building that housed elementary as well as high
school. We had an out house out back for the first several years. When I was about to graduate from the University of
Georgia, I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. After training, I was immediately ordered to the South Pacific
for a period of 32 months. Most of the time was in field depots. I was discharged as a captain.

I began to work at the Veterans Administration in rehabilitation work. It was here I met my wife, Rachel Conner. This
union brought forth a beautiful daughter, Janice Jones. She passed away at the age of eleven of asthma complications.

After working at the Veterans Administration and as a rural letter carrier with the post office, I retired from service and
have been retired 29 years.

It was a good old time house.

George E. Jones
January 8, 2007

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