Rockdale County Historical Society

11/21/2025

Conyers - Postcard #42
View: Presbyterian Church in Olde Town
Postmarked: NO Markings

I’m trying to determine the date that this postcard was printed. This is a recent addition to my postcard collection. It pictures the Presbyterian Church in Olde Town. Given the mention of a one cent required postage, we can determine that this card was made between 1898 to 1951 (although there was one year in that time frame where the postage was two cents). That’s a rather wide gap. We know from the book The History of the Conyers Presbyterian Church 1860 – 2010, that the Presbyterian stone church that stands there today was dedicated in January of 1919. You can see the Methodist Church in the background, but it was completed before that, in 1902, so that doesn’t really help us in determining the date.

While I don't have much to base it on, considering the style of the card and the yellowing that has occurred, I would guess this card was printed in the 1920's.

Tom

11/16/2025

Thanksgiving in Conyers – 1889
Newspaper Clipping #3
THANKSGIVING - A DIFFERENT DATE IN GEORGIA

On October 9, 1889, Governor J. B. Gorgon of Georgia proclaimed that OCTOBER 17th would be a day for thanksgiving. See clip below from October 15, 1889.
Now compare that with a proclamation from the president and recorded in the Rockdale Banner dated November 11, 1889 (see below) that proclaimed the 28th of NOVEMBER as a day of NATIONAL thanksgiving

FORTY-TWO DAYS APART! Am I reading this wrong? Is there something I’m missing? Sadly, the north and south were still not the best of buddies even 24 years after the Civil War ended. Emotional wounds often take a long time to heal. I’m glad that today we are now able to celebrate this holiday together and unified.

Tom

11/15/2025

Thanksgiving in Conyers – 1885
Newspaper Clipping #2
THE SOUTH DID NOT CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING?

Did you know that the South didn’t always celebrate Thanksgiving on the same day as the rest of the country—or sometimes didn’t celebrate it at all? By the mid-1800s, many southerners viewed the holiday as a distinctly “northern” observance (though they worded it a bit more strongly—see below). Take a look at this excerpt from the November 14, 1885 issue of the Conyers newspaper, The Solid South.

On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation establishing “the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving”. Many consider this the first presidential proclamation to set a specific date for the holiday. But because the nation was in the midst of the Civil War, the announcement was not warmly received in the southern states. Many southerners dismissed it as a “Yankee Abolitionist Holiday.” It appears that several years passed (perhaps 20 or more) after the war before the South joined the North in celebrating a unified national Thanksgiving.

All of this feels strange to us now, but after reading this article, I suspect that if I had lived in the South during that time, I might understand their perspective.

Tom

11/14/2025

Thanksgiving in Conyers - 1886
Newspaper Clipping #1
Churches United in Celebrating Thanksgiving

As we anticipate Thanksgiving Day on the 27th of this month, I thought it might be nice to consider what it was like to celebrate that day here, in Rockdale, in times past.

Below is a clip from the November 27, 1886 Conyers newspaper called the “Solid South”. It talks about how (presumably) the Olde Town churches all came together that year at the Methodist church for a service to celebrate Thanksgiving. I have seen and read elsewhere how well the so called “sidewalk churches” got along and often worked together on various projects. This is another example.

Get ready. Thanksgiving is coming soon, and we have even more to be thankful for today than our forefathers ever did!

Tom

09/17/2025

1916 CONYERS COCA-COLA LETTER

I just acquired this letter dated March 9, 1916 from Guy Alexander of the Conyers Coca-Cola bottling plant. It is addressed to H. F. Thaxton at the Coke bottling plant in Helena, GA. Mr Alexander is urging Mr. Thaxton to support "Eakes" who is running for State Treasurer in the upcoming election. I'm pretty excited about this little find!

The Coca-Cola bottling plant in Conyers was in business here from 1905 until 1967.

I will be donating this to the Rockdale County Historical Society.

Tom

08/14/2025

LAST WEEK FOR SOUTH CAROLINA PEACHES❗🍑🍑

07/31/2025

07/31/2025

07/31/2025

07/23/2025

MILSTEAD SCHOOL HOUSE, 1915

I came across this just yesterday. It’s an article from the Cedartown Standard about the new schoolhouse in Milstead in 1915. Interestingly, this same article and picture appeared in MANY other local newspapers around the state! I guess it was considered a big deal, as it should! Anyway, there are some good descriptions of what the place was like, and I’m sure there are a few here that remember it well. I’d very much like to hear your comments!

Tom

07/22/2025

CONYERS HIGH SCHOOL FIRE OF 1915!

I came across this photo online last year and realized that I had not posted it... until now. So, this was Conyers’ first "big public school"! It was located at, what is now, 954 N. Main Street in Olde Town Conyers and known as the Conyers Institute. According to the book, History of Rockdale County, published 1978, it was organized in 1894, and presumably constructed around that same time. There is a similar photo in that same history book, however the quality of the one below is much better. Believe it or not, this photo may have actually been a postcard, although I'm not certain of that.

Tom

07/15/2025

1922 WSB RADIO BROADCAST
Featuring Conyers Musicians!

Atlanta Journal, June 28, 1922

Here's an article from the Atlanta Journal regarding the WSB radio broadcast from 1922 that was mentioned in an earlier post. It's long but, gives many details of this historic radio broadcast that included many fine musicians from Conyers.

Tom