Moran

“Gone with the Wind” modeled after Moran
Reprinted from the August 11, 2010, edition of "The Georgia Post."

Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara

Billy Powell, author of four books and religious columnist for “The Georgia Post,” enjoys researching and documenting local history.

Several months ago, former Crawford County Commissioner Paul Spillers suggested I do a story on Moran and what a worthwhile suggestion it turned out to be. For the first time, Crawford Countians will learn some interesting and intriguing history about Moran that may never have surfaced.

Moran in Post Civil War Era
Located on the northeastern tip of Crawford County near the Monroe County line is the historic town of Moran, Georgia. Moran, approximately six miles east of Musella, first appeared on the Georgia map in 1900. This central area of the former town was situated one mile north of the intersection where Moran Road feeds into East Hopewell Road. In the post Civil War era, Moran featured a post office, railroad depot, general store, peach packing house, grist mill, and several antebellum homes.

M&B Railroad Comes to Moran in 1890
The Macon and Birmingham (M&B) Railroad completed laying its tracks through Moran around 1890 and built the railroad depot about the same time. Although originally intended to extend from Macon to Birmingham, the M&B rail line stopped at LaGrange. Mrs. Lillian Pierson Breedlove, the current matriarch of Moran, born there in 1921, stated that Crawford Countians would catch the train from Macon to Moran, and then have their Knoxville and Roberta relatives pick them up in horse-driven buggies. The M&B encountered financial difficulties and went out of business in 1922.

Named after Moran Family
The settlement was referred to as the Moran community as early as 1850 when Augustus Benjamin Moran (1822-1874) and his wife Caroline Elizabeth Simmons (1824-1904) were living there and raising a family; they were married in 1841. Legend has it that the ancestors of the Moran family settled there in the early 1800s and that they came at the invitation of Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, the Creek Indian agent; Hawkins was the first white man to set foot in Crawford County, circa 1800. Before Hawkins’ arrival, Crawford County was inhabited by Indians. Since the town wasn’t officially designated by the Postal Department until 1897, it was likely named after Augustus Benjamin Moran and his son, Thomas Jefferson Moran, both of whom were prominent leaders in the community. In the 1850 census, Augustus Benjamin Moran was 28 years old, his wife Caroline was 26, and they had three children: William-7, Andrew-5, and Elizabeth-2. Not yet born was Thomas Jefferson Moran (1853-1932), who became Moran’s first postmaster, the railway station manager, a general store owner, and a farmer.

Post Office Established in 1897
The name of a community becomes official when it receives a postal designation. Thus, on 26 May 1897, a certificate signed by the Postmaster General of the United States, James A. Gary, established Moran as a postal address and appointed Thomas J. Moran, the son of Augustus and Caroline Moran as its first postmaster. After Thomas Moran’s death in 1932, the Post Office Department appointed J. L. Andrews as postmaster. After Andrews retired, he was succeeded by Thomas Moran’s daughter Daisy. She remained in that capacity until the post office closed in 1955. Its closure necessitated that Musella assume responsibility for Moran’s postal service, thus Moran’s postal address changed to Musella, Georgia.

Thomas J. Moran Family
Thomas J. Moran (1853-1932), the son of Augustus Benjamin and Caroline Elizabeth Moran, married Alice Leola Yates (1871-1963) in 1895. This union produced four daughters: Lillian, Daisy, Lena, and Ann. John Oakey, the son of their youngest daughter, Ann Moran Oakey (1912- 1966) and the only grandchild of Thomas and Alice Moran, now owns the former Moran home and its surrounding property. John and his wife Sharon live in Peachtree City. John’s website on the Moran and Oakey families is www.allourfamily.us.

The 188-year-old Moran House
The pre-Civil War Moran house is 188 years old and still standing. The house took seven years to build. The construction project began in 1815 and concluded in 1822. The house, built expressly for William and Bethiah Pierson Simmons, was constructed by a German carpenter using slave labor. Its walls were made of hand-fired brick and measured two feet thick. The house was plastered inside and stuccoed outside. Inside the house were four fireplaces, all uniquely constructed. When Augustus Benjamin Moran and Caroline Elizabeth Simmons married in 1841, the house was given to them as a wedding present by the bride’s parents, William and Bethiah Pierson Simmons. After Augustus’ death in 1874, his wife Caroline lived there another 30 years until her passing in 1904. After her death, her son, Thomas J. Moran and his wife Alice became the principal occupants of the house. The house was located a half mile north of the original post office building where Thomas Moran worked. Often, he would walk to work. Thomas went to be with the Lord in 1932 and his wife, Alice, lived there another 31 years until her passing in 1963 at the age of 92. John Oakey, grandson of Thomas and Alice Moran, periodically comes down to mow the grass and maintain the premises.

Moran House was Margaret Mitchell’s “Tara”
There has been strong speculation over past decades that Margaret Mitchell used stories about life in Moran as a guide in writing about the old south in her famous novel, “Gone with the Wind.” This novel was published in 1936. A block-buster movie by the same title hit the theater marquees in 1939. It is thought that Mitchell modeled the fictional ‘Tara Plantation” after the old Moran house and farm. Woven into Mitchell’s novel was a southern plantation like the one at Moran, which had suffered the harsh realities of the Civil War. How did Margaret Mitchell learn about Moran? Well, it turned out that Margaret’s brother, Steve Mitchell, an Atlanta lawyer, was a close friend of Judson Andrews, who was the husband of Lillian Moran, the oldest daughter of Thomas and Alice Moran. Judson was a gregarious and popular Atlanta attorney (considered a gubernatorial candidate at one time), who regularly regaled Steve and Margaret Mitchell with stories about life in Moran, which typified the old south and its involvement in the Civil War. During the 1950s, along came Susan Myrick (1893-1978), the renowned Macon Telegraph writer and a friend of author Margaret Mitchell. Myrick had served as technical advisor to “Gone with the Wind” regarding southern dialect and culture, after being lobbied for the job by Margaret Mitchell. Myrick knew the connection of the old Moran house with Margaret Mitchell’s “Tara” and wanted to write a story linking the Moran house to Tara, but she met immediate and strong resistance from Alice Yates Moran. Mrs. Moran, well into her 80s and living there at the time, did not want to contend with the notoriety and the curiosity seekers the story would generate, so she persuaded Myrick not to write the story. Thus, until now, this story has been muted for 60 years. Another historic landmark resided on the backside of the Moran family farm. Cutting across its rear acreage was the old Creek Indian trading route that extended from Florida to New York.

Sherman’s Army Invades Moran
Following the fall and burning of Atlanta in 1864, while the men folk were away, a detachment of Yankee soldiers from General Sherman’s army marched into Moran. They temporarily quartered outside the majestic Moran family home site waiting on the main body of Sherman’s troops to arrive. Before they left, they stole all the food and livestock on the farm and burned the mill house, slave quarters, and other shelters on the Moran property. They also freed and chased away the slaves, many of whom returned. The soldiers would have looted and burned the Moran house, but spotted a Masonic ring on a table. General Sherman apparently had warned his troops against applying his “scorched earth policy” against churches and people of religious persuasion. History records that General Sherman did not burn the Masonic Temple in Atlanta.

Ghost Appears at Moran House
Several years after Alice Yates Moran’s death in 1963, her daughter Daisy swore that she came out of the kitchen one day and saw her mother plain as day standing in the doorway between the two living rooms. Daisy said her mother was looking directly at her and smiling. Then, her mother slowly faded away.

Remembrances of Mrs. Lillian Pierson Breedlove

Mrs. Lillian was born on 26 July 1921, only two weeks after her parents, James Clarence Pierson (1889-1975) and the former Sally Lou Harbuck (1896 -1950), moved to Moran from Dyas. Her father worked at Mr. B. F. Davis’ General Store located on the bank of nearby Echeconnee Creek. During the summer, her mother worked in peaches. Lillian had three siblings. Her brother William is deceased. Her sisters, Sara Pierson Mitcham and Kathleen Pierson Madden, reside in McDonough, Georgia.
In the 1920s, Moran consisted of a railroad (M&B), depot, general store, post office, peach packing house, and several homes. The Standard Growers Association owned numerous acres of land planted in peach trees. Being near Echeconnee Creek, the late spring frost continually played havoc with the young peach blooms, so the peach industry in Moran had to be abandoned.
When Mrs. Lillian’s parents, the Pierson family, moved to Moran in 1921, Thomas Moran and his wife, Alice, lived in the Moran house.
In the early days, people had to carry water from a nearby spring called the Moran Spring. The spring is located a short distance north of Mrs. Lillian’s present home and just inside the Monroe County line.
After the M&B shut down rail operations including mail service in 1922, the mail was picked up and delivered by the Star Route Service. Its carrier transported the incoming and outgoing mail by car. Culloden and Macon became the principal mail distribution points. When the railroad shutdown, the original post office building was abandoned and its postal operation moved a half mile up Moran road and placed inside the country store in Thomas Moran’s yard. Baby Ruth candy bars at Thomas Moran’s general store sold for a penny a piece. During WW II, the M&B rails were taken up so the steel could be used in the war effort.
Mrs. Lillian’s only recollection of a rural mail carrier out of Moran was William Dent. He was succeeded by Dewit McGee, and then Mrs. Lillian’s father, James Clarence Pierson, was appointed to the post in 1925. At this time, Mrs. Lillian’s family moved from a three room home on the creek bank to a five room white frame house (now expanded to nine rooms), which sits directly across the road from the home of Thomas and Alice Moran. This is the house Mrs. Lillian lives in today.
Moran had a one-room school house until 1927 when it closed and all children were bussed to Roberta. Two of Moran’s teachers were Miss Mable McCommon and Miss Tullie Calvard. The latter married Robert Causey. Mrs. Lillian was six years old at the time the school closed and began riding the bus to the Roberta school, where she graduated. “Going to school on a bus was an experience,” said Mrs. Lillian. “There were no windows, only side curtains flapping. In the winter, there was no heat. We nearly froze to death riding the 12 miles to Roberta. In the summer, the dust would cover our clothes.”
During 1920-30s, Robert Causey (1893-1932) and his father, Andrew Jackson Causey, owned and operated a cotton gin, saw mill, and general farm operation one and a half miles southeast of the railroad. Cotton was shipped by rail in those days. The Causeys also built another cotton gin on the bank of Echeconnee Creek. Jack Causey, who currently lives in Moran, is the son of Robert Causey and the grandson of Andrew Jackson Causey.
When they were small, Mrs. Lillian, her brother William, and her sisters Sara and Kathlene enjoyed swimming in nearby Echeconnee Creek during the summer time. They also fished there. The men folk would help them set their fishing hooks and trotlines for night fishing. After catching a big mess of fish, they would take a black wash pot down to the creek and have a community fish fry.
“On Saturday nights, the Pierson family would listen to the Grand Ole Opry using a battery-powered radio,” stated Mrs. Lillian. “There was no electricity (kerosene lamps were used for lighting), so when the battery went dead, daddy would drive the car up beside the window and hook the car battery to the radio.”

My appreciation to: (1) Mrs. Lillian Pierson Breedlove for sharing her remembrances of Moran, (2) John Oakey for photos and pertinent historical information, and (3) Crawford County historian Sidney Goodrich for his usual input and timely suggestions.

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...

Gone With The Wind Connection

Susan Myrick

Margaret Mitchell

Judson Andrews

Pictured at center is matriarch and historian of Moran, Lillian Pierson Breedlove. She is flanked by her son, Clarence "Bubba" Breedlove (L) and old friend,
Paul Spillers (R), a former Crawford County Commissioner.

Augusts Benjamin Moran

Post Office

Breedlove Home

Railroad Depot

Moran's Tara

Thomas and Alice Moran

This page was last updated Monday, August 16, 2010

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