On May 20, 1961 the Civil War Centennial Parade was held in downtown Summerville. The parade was the highlight of a week-long celebration of the War Between The States.
Shown above are, from left to right, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kimbell, Tommy Coates, Martha Bishop, Carol Tucker, Frank Prince, and Roger Mitchell. The little girl in front is unidentified. The photograph appears to have been made outside the offices of Drs. Lovingood and Goodwin in downtown Summerville, the site of the current First National Bank of Chattooga County.
(Photograph courtesy of Jerry Prince.)
Robert Floyd is shown above in his CSA uniform, standing outside the appropriately named Southern 5 & 10 Cent Store. In 1961, Southern 5 & 10 was located near the intersection of Commerce Street and Georgia Avenue. The store later moved to the current site of Pop's Place Restaurant.
Robert Floyd remembers:
"The downtown merchants got together and had the centennial thing. We rented the uniforms and even the ladies in the store wore the old dresses. We had a wood jail built out of old slabs, no top, just fixed a door in front. It sat right next to the State Restaurant, where Morris Jewelers is now, and Elmer Smith’s dry cleaners.
The merchants like E.C. Pesterfield, Marshall Lowry, and others, were really into it. We grew beards. If you were a downtown merchant and didn’t have a beard, we’d put you in the slab jail and you’d have to pay a penalty. One day, there were several people like Eli Stephenson and Will Stephenson in the State Restaurant. Eli was trying to get Hilton Dunaway who didn't have a beard to go into the jail, but Hilton wouldn’t do it.
The parade was on a Saturday afternoon. Daniel Lee McWhorter rode a white horse and wore a Confederate officer's uniform. Mr. Tedder worked at the post office. Pat Stanley, Ralph’s wife, was one of his daughters. They led the parade. A bunch of us walked down the parade. Someone who worked in the store took the photo of me."
Thanks to Robert Floyd for his recollections and photograph, and to Jerry Prince for the group photograph.
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2012 Greg W. McCollum. All rights reserved.