And this is one of our best treasures so far...my niece and I found a 1902 property deed that references our "Gin Pond" and where dirt can and cannot "be got" and why. It shows where Beulah Bostick received the property from W.G. Bostick. Perfect cursive and really hard to read. The typed deed is from 1902. It was "recorded" in 1909, apparently when Robert and Beulah Bostick were selling the property to I.J. Wright.
I found the documents at the Lowndes County courthouse and this is my quick translation transcription of the handwritten version of a deed. It is the first written confirmation I have seen that a gin pond existed. This is my translation from the handwritten deed where Robert Bostick and Beulah Bostick in 1909, November 2nd, sold 60 acres of land lot 48 to IJ wright. For $1,000.
"This indenture made this second day of November in the year of our Lord 1909 between Robert Bostick and Beulah Bostick and IJ Wright.
The 12th district of Lowndes County, Georgia, part of lot number 48 containing 60 acres more or less bounded as follows: On the North by Bob Bostick on Old Original line. East and south and west by WG Bostick on made lines, said lines and corners established and known by said parties; also water privileges and District privileges (the TYPED version says "dirt privileges") as the dam of said Gin Pond now stands said Dam not to be raised any higher so as to cover any more land, dirt not to be got close to the Water or Dam of Said Gin Pond."
So...that is a lot of pond doin's to chew on. There's a lot more than that but it may already be too long to read. Still, it is a good chance for me to organize the information a bit and see what else new might pop up.
The pictures of the deeds (under the 2MB limimt) will not show up on this forum (work fine here, of course) so I posted them to this site with some pond pictures:
https://garylayton.smugmug.com/Farm-Hahira/Pond-pictures-test-for-PondBoss/n-28nhKd/If these links work OK I may just post links from now on...that way I don't have to resize pictures for the forum. The 2MB limit gets a bit constraining with cameras these days.
