Gaillard

The Unknown History of Gaillard, Georgia
Reprinted from the December 10, 2009, edition of "The Georgia Post."

Powell, who lives in Fort Valley, has been a newspaper columnist for 35 years and is the author of three successful books. He has a penchant for history and loves to research and write about people, places, and events from the past.

Remembrances of Sidney Goodrich

No one knows more about the history of Gaillard, Georgia, than Sidney Graves Goodrich. From his grandmother’s lips he heard of Gaillard’s rise to prominence as a bustling railroad community and during his own lifetime watched its demise as the once heavily traveled rail line became obsolete and abandoned. The son of William Frederick and Jewel Spillers Goodrich, Sidney was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1931. During his growing up years, he spent many happy days at Gaillard with his maternal grandmother, Jennie Lee Graves Spillers. After graduating from Lanier High School in Macon, Georgia, in 1949, Sidney returned to his roots at Gaillard and has been living at the old Spillers home place near the railroad track for the past 60 years. Directly across the road from his home sits the remains of the old general store, owned by his grandparents, which once housed a post office and a grocery store. Sidney, a railroad buff and Crawford County historian with an encyclopedic recall of past events, was gracious to spend many hours with this writer in providing the source material for this story.

Where did Gaillard get its name?

The community of Gaillard (French name pronounced Gal-yard) is located in southwest Crawford County, and is situated on Zenith Mill Road between Avera Road and Sand Pit Road. It was named after David du Bose Gaillard, who surveyed the right-of-way for the Atlanta and Florida (A &F) Railroad when 105 miles of tracks were laid from Atlanta to Fort Valley, circa 1880 to 1888. David Gaillard, a Civil Engineer fresh out of West Point, was brought in to solve the problem of grading the track so the train could pull the steep incline between Gaillard and Zenith. The terrain rose 200 feet in the two-mile distance. Previous surveyors could not remedy the problem. Goodrich surmised that the young engineer, rather than lay the railroad track on a straight line between Gaillard and Zenith, Georgia (highest point between Columbus and Macon), contoured the track in the form of an “S” curve to reduce engine load while pulling the sharp grad. In fact, the top of the “S” curves westward behind Sidney’s house at Gaillard and then turns north toward Hammett and Roberta. David du Bose Gaillard was born in Manning, South Carolina. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1884 and rose to the rank of Major. In 1907, he was placed in charge of construction of the central portion of the Panama Canal, which crossed the continental divide. He died in 1913, months before the canal's completion. Along with Gaillard, Georgia, the Gaillard Cut of the Panama Canal bears his name.

The Atlanta and Florida (A&F) Railroad

The 105-mile track of the A&F Railroad officially opened for operation in November 1888. When the railroad reached Crawford County, it came down from Musella in the north to Roberta to Hammett to Gaillard to Rollo (Sand Pit) to Zenith to Lee Pope, and proceeded on to Fort Valley in Peach County. Sidney’s grandmother, Ms. Jennie, age 7 at the time the rail line opened, rode on the first train that came down the track from Gaillard to Fort Valley. To celebrate completion of the A&F Railroad, a big barbeque was held in Fort Valley near Knoxville Road. An extension of the A &F Railroad from Fort Valley to Cordele was planned, but never built. Seven years later, in 1895, the Southern Railroad purchased the A&F. The old A&F rail line is now abandoned, but the land comprising its right of way is currently owned by the Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Mrs. Jennie Reed: Railroad Legend

Sidney’s maternal grandmother, Mrs. Jennie Reed, became a railroad legend. She started her railroad career as the station agent at the Gaillard flag stop. She followed in the footsteps of her husband, Luther Spillers, who was station agent from 1897 until his death in 1918. She subsequently served 8 years, from 1918 until 1926. Called “Jennie” for short, her given name was “General Lee” Graves. She was born in 1880 during the reconstruction period after the Civil War. Her father, James Monroe Graves, named her after the famous confederate general, Robert E. Lee. After Luther Spillers died in 1918, Jennie married Milton Reed and became widely known as Jennie Reed.

History of Gaillard

Jennie’s grandson, Sidney Goodrich, provided these timelines:

Circa 1855, Josiah Clark built a gristmill and country store on Beaver Creek. The creek is approximately one-half mile north of railroad tracks at Gaillard. This settlement was named Clark’s Mill and became the area’s first post office. The mill was destroyed by a tornado in 1924.

Luther Spillers (Sidney’s grandfather) began operation of a general store in proximity to the railroad tracks at Gaillard in 1897. The old store, which closed in 1970, still stands beside the tracks.

A passenger station and a freight depot were built at Gaillard, circa 1887. At the passenger station, travelers purchased tickets and boarded the train. At the freight depot, shippable goods were loaded onto freight cars and rail shipments coming to Gaillard residents and the general store were off loaded. Goodrich said that Coca Colas sold by the general store were shipped by rail in boxes, 24 bottles of 6.5-ounces each, with a metal lid and a lock to prevent pilferage. Both the passenger station and the freight depot burned to the ground in 1937. What caused the fire? “Grandmother said that a hot coal cinder propelled from the smoke stack of a passing train landed on the roof of the railroad station,” replied Sidney Goodrich. “The roof of my grandparents’ general store which sat nearby was damaged by the blaze.”

When the A&F Railroad opened for operation in 1888, the post office at Clark’s Mill was physically moved to the general store at Gaillard. “As a result of my grandfather Spiller’s petition,” remarked Goodrich, “the postal designation for the community was officially changed from Clark’s Mill to Gaillard in 1903.”

Second Passenger Station

Goodrich stated, “After the passenger station and freight depot burned, a reconstructed boxcar at Zenith, Georgia, was loaded onto a flatbed by a crane and brought to Gaillard to replace the old buildings.” He described the boxcar as a petitioned structure. At its two ends were segregated quarters for passengers -- white passengers on one side and black on the other. In the center was the station agent’s office. It featured a ticket window, a desk, and a potbellied stove. Passenger trains stopped running through Gaillard in 1939, but freight operations continued until 1954. The boxcar was removed from Gaillard and given to the Atlanta Sand Company. The track at Gaillard was finally abandoned in 1980.

The Legacy of Mrs. Jennie Reed

Mrs. Jennie Reed became a famous railroad personality. In July 1969, at age 89, Mrs. Jennie was unable to board the train. Railroad historian Fred Shepard of Fort Valley requested the President of the Southern Railroad, Mr. W. Graham Claytor (who later became Secretary of the Navy), to pay tribute to Mrs. Reed for her many contributions to the railroad. Shepard stated, “President Claytor stopped the train at Gaillard, got off the train, walked to her house, and presented a box of Southern Railroad drinking glasses to Mrs. Reed sitting on her front porch. The story was carried by area newspapers.” Mrs. Jennie went to be with the Lord in 1970. She was loved and respected up and down the Southern Railroad from railroad president to engineer to conductor to station agent. She left a legacy behind that is remembered to this day.

Rail shipments and passenger travel from Gaillard

Goodrich said that the first rail shipments out of Gaillard during the late 1800s was timber, but during the early 1900s, boxcars of peaches grown in Crawford County were sent by rail to Fort Valley, where they were refrigerated with ice at the Atlantic Ice and Coal Company and then shipped to northern markets. In later years, the primary commodity shipped by rail through Gaillard was sand from the Atlanta Sand Company. Goodrich said that his grandmother Jennie and mother Jewel could catch the train at Gaillard, go to Atlanta on a shopping trip, and then return the same day.

Concluding Thoughts

Gaillard was once a thriving Crawford County community featuring a country store, post office, and railroad station. The only vestiges that remain of its glorious past are the old country store and an abandoned railroad track. My research and documentation of the history of Gaillard have been enlightening and rewarding. Hopefully it will be entertaining to the readers of the “Georgia Post.”

A huge thanks goes out to Mr. Billy Powell for sharing this information and photos with us!

Click on the photos for a larger view...

DeEllen Wood and children

Major David DuBose, Gaillard

Mrs. Jennie Reed, honored by W. Graham Claytor, Southern RR President

This page was last updated Monday, May 03, 2010

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