Buggy Capital Of The South
by John Kirkland
Title
Buggy Capital Of The South
Artist
John Kirkland
Medium
Photograph - Digital
Description
Barnesville, Georgia was once known as the Buggy Capital of the South. Jackson G. Smith Buggies was one of the businesses that contributed to this success. The history below is from the city of Barnesville website.
Shortly after the Civil War ended and the men returned to town, several of the former businesses and trades began to flourish again and to grow. The main mode of travel by individuals was still the horse and buggy or horse and wagon. Jackson G. Smith, a blacksmith, and George L. Summers had been working together before the War at Dumas and Ford's repair shop. There they worked with harnesses, horse shoeing, and blacksmithing. Smith & Summers bought out Dumas and Ford, and began manufacturing buggies under the firm name of Smith and Summers Buggy Company in 1866. Smith had come to Barnesville before the War from Buffalo, New York, and Summers had come from Virginia.
This period of growth brought prosperity to Barnesville as a result of the buggy industry and its related businesses. Some of these were harness manufacturing, livestock breeding, and sales, feed and seed stores, livery stables, and buggy body manufacturing. Nearly everyone in the community was employed in an industry which was in some way connected with the manufacturing and shipping of the buggies, wagons, carts, hearses, and coffins. At the height of the buggy business in 1900, nearly 9,000 buggies were produced annually in Barnesville. Some of the other smaller buggy companies were Brazier and Dumas, Trio Buggy Company, and Franklin Buggy Company. The firm of Smith and Summers split in 1878 and Smith formed his own firm. Summers went into business with Murphey. This firm was known as Summers and Murphey until the fire of 1884. After Summers rebuilt, the firm was known as Summers Buggy Company.
The various buggy firms employed hundreds of people. Barnesville became known as "the buggy capital of the South" because it produced more buggies than any other location south of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hundreds of buggies, carts, wagons, hearses, and coffins were shipped from the railroad sidings to the market place. In addition to rail shipping, the buggies were sold throughout the countryside by Smith himself hitching up five buggies to one team and traveling through the countryside with one team of horses pulling his string of buggies. After he sold the last buggy, he would return to Barnesville by train to ready another "string of buggies." This type of marketing made the buggy accessible to the rural areas where the train didn't run.
Uploaded
December 26th, 2022
Embed
Share
Similar Images
Comments (3)
Recently Viewed
