slideshow

From the LaGrange Daily News, 1962.

Front Page News: Merchants Form Retail Development Group — LaGrange merchants this morning voted to form a Retail Development Committee of the Chamber of Commerce to promote the business life of the city.

The group primarily will plan city-wide sales events and will constantly search for ways to upgrade the economy of the community.

LaGrange’s new Chamber manager, Chuck Franklin kicked off this meeting with around 35 local merchants. He suggested that LaGrange merchants consider a city-wide sales promotion in which streamers would be displayed in windows of participating stores. In order to attract shoppers to the city merchants could give prizes on a registration basis.

Franklin added, “After the people are attracted into the city, the individual merchants will be responsible for promoting their own sales. We must work as a united group to bring out-of-town shoppers to LaGrange.”

The meeting was sparked by enthusiasm on the part of the merchants and Franklin’s leadership gave direction to the plan.

Troup Agricultural Scene Changes — A long line of pulpwood trucks, waiting to unload at the Dixie Street pulpwood yard in LaGrange, is typical of today’s changing agricultural scene in Troup County.

This scene has changed immensely in the past 50 years and figures released by County Agent E. T. Evans about cotton and timber show why.

In 1910, Troup County had its highest cotton acreage, with 67,515 acres planted. The lint yield was 182 pounds per acre. In 1961, the county planted only 1,037 acres in cotton with a yield of over 300 pounds of lint per acre.

The woodland acreage in Troup County in 1910 was 64,447 acres. Today forests cover 211,200 acres or 74 percent of the total land in the county.

The value of the 1910 cotton crop was $1,600,00; the 1961 cotton crop value was $130,000.

Total value of forest products sold from the county’s forests in 1961 was $1,400,719. Almost one million dollars of this came from the sale of pulpwood. No figures were available for the 1910 value of forest products sold, but it would be only a small percent of present day figures.

Banks in Troup County, in cooperation with the Georgia Agricultural Extension Service are now encouraging forest land owners here to increase the production of forests. Evans said the county’s forests currently are producing at only one half of their capacity.

Callaway Community Foundation Changes Its Name — Effective June 1, by an amendment to its charter, the name of Callaway Community Foundation has been changed to Callaway Foundation Inc.

G. M. Simpson, Secretary-Treasurer, said that the Board of Trustees authorized the change in name because of the many community foundations throughout the country today whose purposes and objectives have to do primarily with projects in the larger cities, their functions being similar to those of Trust Agents.

The charter purposes of Callaway Foundation Inc. will remain the same as before, and there will be no change in its activities.

Popularity of Marriage Declines Here; June Still a Popular Month — The old cliches about the June bride still holds true, according to recent figures in Troup County.

Statistics also indicate, however, that while the number for June is still high, the yearly figure for marriage licenses continues to drop.

Since 1959, when the June marriages numbered 68, fewer and fewer licenses have been issued. The Troup County Ordinary reports that June figures this year indicate that 54 marriage licenses have been issued, almost double the number issued in any other month so far this year.

Since February of this year, the minimum age for marriages in Georgia is 16 for girls and 18 for boys with parental consent. At 18, boys and girls may marry without the consent of their parents. Licenses are posted for three days on a bulletin board in the courthouse.

At age 21, for both boys and girls, no requirements are made by law for posting the license.

Even with the new laws, over half of the licenses issued by the Ordinary are issued to couples under 21 years of age.

It looks like it’s up to those who are over 21 to pull Troup County out of the present marriage slump.

Here and There With Sue: Emily Edge, of LaGrange, student at Mt. Vernon Junior College, had an exciting year. She was an attendant to the Georgia Princess in the Cherry Blossom Festival, Susan Flynt, and rode on the Georgia float in the parade. Recently she went to a fashion show at the home of the Robert Kennedys, where she met Mrs. Earl Warren and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson. She has seen many celebrities, including the president, but says she hasn’t seen Jackie yet.