Jerry Wooten is never one short of stories. When the Turner County Project sat down with him on June 17, 2023, story after story poured out of his mouth. Sitting on his back porch in some rocking chairs with critters all afoot, a few hours flew by before anyone realized. He lived and continues to live a life full of variety. Whether it was discussions of his life on the farm, being a rural postal carrier, chewing on rosin, or even the KKK in Turner County, this is an interview you don’t want to miss!
June 17, 2023
Some of this interview has been edited for clarity.
Finding and Farming in Turner County
TCP: Have you always lived in Turner County?
Jerry: No. I was actually born in Tampa, Florida. When I was about 5 years old, my birth parents divorced. My mother was very poor. My father was a truck driver. He hauled orange juice for Tropicana Orange Juice. So he was on the road. My aunt and uncle lived down there at that time, down below Plant City, FL. They farmed. He was originally from here – Billy Davis and Mary Ruth Davis – she was my daddy’s sister. And they had told them they would probably never have any children. So they just, not legally, adopted me more or less. So shortly after that, they moved back up here [Coverdale]. Down there [down Cofer Rd.], they farmed strawberries and produce and stuff. And bought this farm where we are at now. They lived at the old house down the street. An old, old house. I told them you can tell which way the wind was blowing because the curtains would be stretched out that way. And on the weekends, Billy always loved to go to movies and they went dancing a good bit. And when the television came along, he bought a television. All the neighborhood people would gather up on like Friday night or Saturday and we’d watch TV. We would have a room full of people. Of course, back then, neighbors socialized more than they do now. We have been here since 1951.
TCP: That is you plus your aunt and uncle.
Jerry: Yes. When I was a senior in high school here, Randy was born. He is like a brother to me. After they [Jerry’s aunt and uncle] passed away, I wanted this side of the road and got 15 acres. He got the house and an acre of land. But we farmed. It was a family farm. Two brothers and me basically. I farmed from 1963 until 1979. They were wanting to retire. We farmed in five different counties. We had land in Tift County, Irwin County, Crisp County, a big plantation in Worth County. And then we owned 500 acres ourselves and one of brothers owned 150 acres here in Coverdale. They got ready to retire so they after a while they wanted to sell it.
TCP: What type of stuff did you farm?
Jerry: We grew corn, peanuts, cotton, watermelons, cantaloupes.
TCP: All of Turner County staples grown now.
Jerry: That’s right! We had a few cows but we never were big into cows. We had at one time, we had a pretty extensive feed out lot for swine. I can hear that sound right now. We had those feeders right there and when they get down low and empty, they lift those lids up and you can hear them rattling. You knew to go get the feed mill out and grind feed. Didn’t matter what was going on.
Local Love
Jerry: Nancy and I, we have been married- we got married in 1966 so we have been married 57 years.
TCP: Is she from here?
Jerry: Yes. She was partially raised in Rebecca. Her daddy was Woodrow Faircloth. Her mama was Millie Anderson. He pretty much maintained the hospital here. He was the maintenance guy. They lived at that time, by the Baptist Church in Ashburn. The house is still there. It’s the house on the East side of McLendon right next to the the parsonage. [Editor’s note: The parsonage is no longer there but the house he is referring to is still there at 322 McLendon St. in Ashburn, GA]. That is where she was actually raised. Yea, so she was a local girl. Her grandaddy was a pharmacist there in Ashburn at Union Drug Store. It was right on the corner of [U.S. Highway] 41 and College [E. College Avenue]. Nancy and I are pretty fortunate.
Rural Postal Carrier
I have worked with the postal service as a rural mail carrier over 28 years. I was in an accident and got boogered up pretty good. Liked to kill me, really. I didn’t know it until later on but they had to do emergency surgery on me and take my spleen out.
TCP: What did you like about being a postal carrier?
Jerry: The people. Really and truly. Being outside. Once we got the mail up, I was on my own. My route, when I finished with it, was 500 stops; 101 miles. When I first started, I started in Ashburn there in that mobile home park on 41. I went around through town and hit the country and would up down below here I was going to the edge of Worth County and the edge of Tift County. And came back in at Clements Chapel Church back into Turner County. And then I went back south out of Coverdale back into Worth County and ended up on Sumner Road and worked [GA Highway] 112. I actually finished up on Hodge King Drive in Ashburn. This was everyday. I guess this route was established way back. You added on to it some but it was interesting. Pretty well all of the people I knew personally. It had changed a lot from when I started. We started scanning packages and then it got to be more and more and more. When this disease came along [COVID-19], they changed it a lot. Certified letters, we signed for the people. We didn’t let them touch our scanners. Plus these scanners had the ability to tell where we were at and how fast we were going. I was told, “that’s a Big Brother kind of thing.” I told them that is true but it also provides proof of delivery that protected us. It showed that I had put that package in her mailbox and the exact date and time. After my wreck, they told me I couldn’t lift anything over 5 pounds for 8 weeks so I had 28 years [in the job] and I was getting older… so I decided to retire.
A Building with a Past
TCP: Tell me, what is that building right there?
Jerry: I purchased it from a family in Sycamore. It sat over pretty close to the Interstate [75]. I had the restorer from the Agrirama [now Museum of Agriculture in Tifton, GA] and he came and looked at it before I moved it and he said it was one of the best building he had ever seen. So we finally negotiated with them where we bought it… In terms of history, after they moved out, it had became the meeting place for the Ku Klux Klan.
TCP: Really?! And where was this at?
Jerry: Yes! Robert Davis Road right before you cross the Interstate. It was sitting down there right beside the road. I took the rafters and all down and put them inside. We had a moving company that moved it and set it up. My wife sits in it. We eventually are going to restore it. I had started the project. I have since found a contact for a guy in Fitzgerald that does log cabins so I got to get in touch with him.
TCP: How did you hear about it’s part in the KKK? Did the family tell you this?
Jerry: No, it was a friend of theirs. We were just having a conversation talking about it. He said, “As a kid, we played in that house and I can remember all kinds of paraphernalia in it.” Supposedly one of the family members was the head of the Ku Klux Klan in Turner County.
TCP: Well that is interesting! You don’t really hear much about the KKK in Turner County.
Jerry: The KKK kind of back then, if you were mistreating your family or your wife, they would make a visit to you. They would say, “Look here… you straighten up and do right or there is going to be severe consequences.” That is pretty much what they did. Of course they wore the hoods and all that. But that is what I have been told.
Turpentine Tales
Jerry: That old barrel down there, that’s a barrel they put turpentine in.
TCP: Turpentine was a big industry for a while here. Not so much anymore.
Jerry: Yea, the Kennedy family, they were big into turpentine. Mr. Rodgers – the Reinhardts – Mrs. Reinhardt’s father [He is referring to Mary John Rodgers Reinhardt and her father Johnnie Rodgers]- he did turpentine. I don’t know if you are familiar with how they did that?
TCP: I am not at all. It is something with pine trees, right?
Jerry: They would get a pine tree and they would have a little metal thing and they had a special tool that they would slice the bark off the tree and they would put that metal piece there and it would run at an angle. And it would go into this pot. Now there are 2 or 3 different kinds of pots. Some were ceramic but most were metal. And they would attach them to the side of the tree and once they got through with it, that tree would have a “cat face.” I remember Mr. Rodgers and an old black guy – they called it dipping the turpentine. He had a wagon with a mule that pulled it and that mule would just follow him just like a dog follows everywhere they went.
TCP: Turpentine seems to have a similar process of retrieval as maple syrup. It’s the same concept.
Jerry: It would make a rosin.
TCP: I have heard of that. Some dish called rosin potatoes.
Jerry: We would use rosin like a chewing gum.
About The People of Turner County Project:
This is an oral history project that works to both preserve, document, and celebrate the people of Turner County and the history through the stories of those who have experienced it.
This project collects oral histories of people who have lived or worked in Turner County, Georgia.
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