Our History: Life along the Dog River in the Early 1900s

By Lisa Cooper

A few weeks ago a friend handed me a history of the Vansant family compiled by Sarah Elizabeth Woods Carter.

Mrs. Carter's narrative is very important to the Douglas County story not only because of the contributions she and her husband, Gilmore Carter, made to the region between the 1960s and 1980s, but because the narrative paints a portrait regarding how many citizens of Douglas County lived their lives during the early days of the 20th century, and how those same people handled all of the changes during the last half of the century.

Mrs. Carter's time here in the county could be considered as a great case study regarding how Douglas County changed from an extreme agricultural and rural community to an Atlanta suburb.

Think of it as “Little House on the Prairie” meets the turbulent 1970s.

In November, 1914 when she was five years old, Mrs. Carter moved with her family from their Atlanta home back to her father’s family farm along the Dog River.  

Mrs. Carter’s words are italicized. My comments appear in regular print.

…In a covered wagon I rode with my father on a cold day…the forty miles to our country home on Dog River in Douglas County. I kept warm underneath a quilt with a lighted lantern. The only thrill I had for the day was crossing over the bridge on Dog River. We were going to a farm on which my father lived as a youth. The house was there - trees had grown up through the porch. But even though it was after dark, my father picked up limbs from the trees that had fallen and in no time the huge fireplace was crackling with fire and we were perfectly warm. The straw ticks for mattresses and springs were filled with pine straw…  

Mrs. Carter's father was Edgar Woods who married Carrie Vansant in 1874. Carrie's father was Young Vansant who is well known in the Douglas County history community because he donated the original 40 acres that would become the city of Douglasville.

Turning the Woods family property back into a working farm took hard work by all of the family members at a time when folks didn't have the machines we have today.

Mrs. Carter advises:

…Trees had to be cut and hand piled to burn in clearing the land for planting crops the spring following. I was there and came in at night with the rest, black from carrying burnt brush into piles ready for burning. I was greeted by the rolling steam from the kettle of hot water and into the tin tub I went and was soon like new. Soon we were proud of the four hundred acre farm.

[My sister and I] were given the calves to care for. A barn on a rented place near our home was given us, a place to call our own in which to care for our calves. We fed them and cared for the cleaning of the barn. If a grown person came around it scared our calves.  

At the ages of ten and eight we milked cows, ran the big old barrel churn, cleaned…the cream separator, and walked two miles to school, getting there on time and back home for chores again. My first administrative task was at the age of eight managing my dozen calves. They followed me and minded me like my pet dog.

Mrs. Carter advises:

We never thought of keeping busy as work. It was real life. And never a day passed but we found time for a game or foot race…

Mrs. Carter advises:

How often I have thanked heaven for that mother of mine. The Vansant blood that ran through her veins never failed to circulate. She managed the seven of us. The lessons I learned on mother's knee saved me many a woe in life…She said, "There is a God in heaven and he expects me to guide you till you get old enough to know right from wrong…I have a Bible text for everything I teach you."

Mrs. Carter continues:

It was a regular custom at our house to get up at 3 a.m. One morning it came to my mind as I came bouncing down the stairs at 3 a.m. I thought, I'll bet she doesn't have a [Bible] text to prove we have to get up at 3 a.m. each morning… I said, "I bet you haven't got a text to prove we have to get up at 3 a.m." I can see her yet as she turned her head from me to laugh to herself. But instantly she came back with the answer - "a little more sleep, a little more slumber, the way of the sluggard." I went on to the barn to milk the cows with the rest of the family and never questioned her integrity again. 

In case you are wondering about Mrs. Carter's mother's response...."a little more sleep, a little more slumber, the way of the sluggard" ....you can find it in the Bible – Proverbs 24:33 – meaning little procrastinations, any procrastinations can ruin men’s souls.

Mrs. Carter continues:

Many tasks were given to us, chopping cotton, picking cotton, helping the men folk bailing hay, and any odd jobs were ours. If I could ride the horse or mule to the house from the field, or sit on top of the load of hay as it was hauled in, was pay enough for the day.

I'm thinking about most of the children I know between the ages of nine and late teens and trying to visualize them chopping cotton, picking cotton, bailing hay, etc.

Broadening my thinking a little I don't know many adults who could do this sort of work these days either.

Next week I’ll continue Mrs. Carter’s story regarding Douglas County’s journey from farming community to suburb.