Our volunteers have lots of interesting stories and I am sure they will share soon.
The old jail cells, with the graffite on the plastered walls, get lots of comments from visitors.
John Owings, Jr., lived in Pine Mountain when his dad was manager of the Dacula plant.
While his dad was in the old city hall one day paying his water bill, young John took his pen knife and scratched his name on the plastered wall with with comment ‘John Owings, age 11, killed 12′. Killed what? Bugs?
The family moved away shortly after then. We heard several years later that young John had gone into the ministry.
In 1987, my husband and I spent part of the summer with our daughter Marjorie and her family in Italy where her husband was stationed with a military medical detachment..
One Sunday we decided to go to the Protestant service on post and I almost jumped out of my seat when I noticed that John Owings was listed as the minister.
I signed the visitors card and when it was handed to John, he asked the organist to continue playing while he came down to talk to us. I asked if he remembered scratching his name on the old cell wall in Pine Mountain. He said he did. He told us he was a chaplain with the paratroopers and that he jumped with them. We had lunch with him and his family and he promised to get in touch with us when he returned to the states. He became director of Georgia military chaplains and was stationed at Fort McPhearson.
A few years ago our Historical Center invited him to be the speaker for one of our annual veterans day programs. He showed up in his military uniform with a array of ribbons and medals.
I received an invitation to attend his retirement celebration near Atlanta. I was unable to go but I gave a contribution to our Historical Center in his honor and told him he would always be remembered as being in the jail cell..
Posted by L. Champion
