‘New’ depot yields old memories

To this day, it’s still a mystery how William Jasper Sims died near the railroad tracks at Crown Cotton Mill on Aug. 28, 1898.

“He was my great-grandfather, and at the time he was killed he was working for Frank Summerour in his peach orchard,” Arlene Fowler Bagley said on Saturday at the renovated Dalton Freight Depot’s open house. “He left home on a Sunday evening to go to Sam Strickland’s house to find out what they were going to do on Monday morning. Sam was the boss.”

Amidst the sound of folk music and people talking excitedly, history was being video recorded in a corner obscured by dark drapes as Bagley and other Dalton seniors shared their memories of the town in the heyday of its manufacturing ascendancy.

Bagley said Sims ate supper at Strickland’s home and planned to go to Mount Rachel (Baptist) Church, but first he stopped in town to talk to a man named Springfield who had a restaurant there.

“He told Mr. Springfield it was getting late and that he wasn’t going to church,” Bagley said. “He was found by the railroad near Crown Cotton Mill by the road hands on Monday morning. No one believed a train had killed him ... what was left of his body was taken to the depot.”

On a sunny autumn day, local citizens and visitors arrived by the hundreds to see Dalton’s newest museum and relax on the train-watching platform. They came by foot, car, trolley and horse-drawn carriage to the juncture of Cuyler and S. Depot streets right by the railroad. The event was sponsored by the Dalton Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Across the rails to the east sits the former Manly Jail Works, which Judson Manly called “the oldest manufacturing company in Dalton,” founded in 1888. The Glenwood Avenue facility was actually built in 1914, “the same year as the depot,” he said.

“Prior to 1908, going back to when Sherman burned down the state prison in Georgia, the state rented out prisoners,” said Manly. “You had to feed them, clothe them, guard them and take care of their medical needs. And you could work them 60 hours a week. My grandfather came up with the idea of a portable jail on wheels. We sold them from 1908 into the early 1930s.”

Manly said the media of the time referred to the jail cars as “paddy wagons,” although technically they were not. He remembered loading materials onto freight trains many times in years gone by after the company retooled to outfit the burgeoning carpet industry and other trades and businesses.

“Later (the jail cars) were taken to schools and other areas and became a tourist attraction,” he said.

Cora Hackney was married in 1942 and recalled seeing off her husband, Bob, on the first leg of his journey to Germany as part of the U.S. Army’s 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

“It was crowded with soldiers everywhere, and kids were crying,” she said. “He was headed to Camp Blanding, Florida. Later when President (Franklin) Roosevelt came to Georgia, he was out helping to guard the highways.”

Hackney said Dalton was a small town in those days, and that she knew Harry “Suitcase” Simpson, a professional baseball player.

“What they’ve done with this depot is beautiful, Hackney said.”

Dolores Wrinkle Quarles said her great-grandfather, Jacob Wrinkle, went to work for the railroad “right out of high school” and retired after 50 years. Her uncle, E.A. “Duck” Wrinkle, was also a railroad man, as was her grandfather, Charles Edward Wrinkle.

“Granddaddy knew all the conductors,” she recollected. “One of my fondest memories is of getting passes to ride the train. I would ride by myself all the way to Atlanta. My worst memory was when I was riding back to college and it was flooding. You could see water all the way up to the trestles and it was scary.”

Families flocked to the depot on its premier day, taking in the exhibits while munching on hot dogs and gathering as door prizes were given away.

“We came down as a family to watch the train since my son (Thomas, 7) and my husband (Steven) would come down here almost every day to watch the trains,” said Lisa Gregg. “We’re really glad now there’s a (train watching) platform.”

Trammell Wells worked for Manly Jail Works for six years after he graduated from Valley Point High School in 1960.

“I came because I wanted to see how it was renovated,” he said. “I’m just sight-seeing, but I think it’s gorgeous. I really like it, they’ve done a fantastic job. In a lot of areas they’ve torn down the old depots, and they shouldn’t have.”

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