Varnell, Return

This is Varnell, Whitfield County, Georgia.  Varnell is abot ten or so miles north of Dalton.  As an adolescent I visited this little town many times. To see my grandmother (my ma’s ma) and close by kin.

The top two pictures are of the preacher's house.  The preacher had a little girl about my age.  On the other side of the preacher was a railroad track with a water tank.  One time the little girl and I climbed u p the ladder and into the water tank.  Both families had a fit.

The preachers house is abandoned now.

This was my grandmother's house.  Yes, that is a used car lot behind it .  Since I took this picture on another trip I saw that the house was bulldozed away.

Across the street from Grandma's house was a little country store, which has been replaced by a  big convenience store ran by an Indian (Far East) family.    Used to, when I was a kid that was the only place I knew you good buy frozen ice cream cones.

Behind my grandmother's house is this spring.  Even it has changed.  The horseshoe shape rock formation is for people dipping their containers to get water.  The water is very clean because of the little black shell creatures on the floor of the spring.  They are periwinkles, which keeps the water clean.  My grandmother did not have running water.  They had an outhouse and  this was their water supply, that and a barrel to .catch rainwater.  

By what I can tell the town now has modern home occupied by commuters to Dalton and Chattanooga.  It used to be all farmers and a fish cannery.

History wise, not much has happened here.  One thing that happened, is two Mormons came to town handing out pamphlets of their religion.  The town's men folks took the Mormons down by the spring, which was surrounded by trees then, and shot them. dead.  So much for religious tolerance in this small town.