Some old roads from a century ago are still in the woods in north central Lowndes County.

1917 and 2023 maps compared

On this 1917 soil map of Lowndes County, Hambrick Road runs east from Hagan Bridge to Cat Creek Road, as it still does today. In the center of the map, running south from Hambrick Road, is an old road that I keep open in my woods. The other day we used a bit of it for a firebreak in a prescribed burn.

Soil Map, Georgia, Lowndes County Sheet, Record ID cmf0373, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1917, in County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives.

The house marked just north across Hambrick Road from that old road is still there. That was probably Fisher Gaskins’ house. I will ask his descendants.

That old woods road is between two creeks that are still there: Redeye Creek to its west, and Toms Branch to its right. They both end up in the Withlacoochee River floodplain.

Toms Branch is just east of the east part of Quarterman Road. Most of the rest of that road was already there in some form or other, although the south part of it, that currently runs straight east and west, did not run like that.

And notice all the other roads that are no longer open to the public.

I remember when my father’s driveway continued west between our ponds across Redeye Creek to the west side of Quarterman Road. And it continued east across Quarterman Road into the woods. Apparently back in 1917 it continued on to Cat Creek Road.

Just east of where the north-south woods road joins that old east-west road, the house marked there is still there; some neighbors and I just fixed a roof problem it had. That’s the house may grandfather and his family lived in when they bought our farm in 1921.

The two houses shown just east of Quarterman Road were sharecropper houses. The northern one is on my property. My father told a story about how he went to visit the family living there. Later the wife of that house told him my father had saved here, because her husband was about to do her in when he arrived. “He had me by the neck,” she said. There’s nothing left of it now except the well.

On the east part of Quarterman Road, farther south, about where the natural gas pipeline goes through the woods and cattle field, another road went from Quarterman Road to Cat Creek Road, and yet another one starting down about at the current southeast corner of Quarterman Road.

On the west part of Quarterman Road, the house shown just west of where the east-west cross-creek road joins Quarterman Road is the old Bradford house. That family moved away long ago, although some of them are occasionally seen at funerals. Only the well survives.

West of my grandfather’s house and a bit north on Quarterman Road was also a sharecropper house. My father used it to store hay for his cows. It burned down sometime in the 1980s. Only its well and a few scraps of roofing are still there. I reused its brick foundations for something else.

A bit farther north, the building shown on the northeast side of Quarterman Road was a pack house, used by my family for a long time, first for animals and later for storing hay. Only some roofing survives.

The house just before Quarterman Road turns north was and is owned by a Davis family.

We can try to match the 1917 map up with the current 2023 Lowndes County Tax Assessors maps. This one has Abigail Barzallo’s place highlighted as a landmark.

Lowndes County Tax Assessors Map, 2023-12-25.

It’s a little difficult to match up 2023 and 2017, because Tom’s Branch has moved over the years, as has the Withlacoochee River. Plus back in 1917, they had not really mapped the swampy areas of waterways very well.

You can not really see the old north-south woods road, because it is under trees. Many of those old roads were probably like that: single-track dirt roads in the woods, just wide enough for a wagon, with no ditches.

But you can see a few things, such as at the southeast corner of Quarterman Road, the east-west boundary between two parts of Stalvey Farms West LLC more or less matches one of the old roads to Cat Creek.

If we zoom out a little bit, other things are still there, such as Franklinville Road and Tyler Bridge across the Withlacoochee River.

1917–cat-creek-road-loco-soil-map

The community of Catcreek was apparently bustling back then, with many houses. New Bethel Church was already north of Beatty Branch.

Here’s the same area in the 2023 Lowndes County Tax Assessors Map.

2023-12-25–hambrick-road-loco-tax-assessors

Only a few years earlier than 1917, in 1910, we do not see nearly as much detail.

1910–lowndes-county-ga-map

But Hahira-Cat Creek Road runs more or less where GA 133 GA 122 crosses the river at Hagan Bridge, then follows Hambrick Road. North of it Fisher Gaskins lived. His descendants own much of his former land.

Kings Chapel Church and School is marked at the county line, just west of Cat Creek Road. The old school building still exists, on the property of David Fields. The church is still there; I don’t know if it is the original building.

There’s a D.A. Sapp a bit south of Hambrick Road on Cat Creek Road, and a Sapp & Stubbs Still across that road. I wonder who he was?

More south of Hambrick Road, J.A. Smith is marked, with a house. That appears to be the same old house that is now on my property. He was the owner of much of the land hereabouts. Note to the west J.A. Smith & Co.

The creek in the middle that starts at Hambrick Road and goes down to the Withlacoochee River near Franklinville is Redeye Creek. Toms Branch is not shown. The road from Franklinville to Cat Creek Road is Franklinville Road.

Going back farther, to 1867, this map shows little but rivers, creeks, and land lots. The area we’ve been focusing on is in land lots 91 and 92.

1867–lowndes-county-ga-map

There are older maps, but they have even less detail about this area.

-jsq

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