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This is a place which has experienced considerable highlights through the years but remains one of those small towns with an appreciation for the past but faced with the challenge of remaining viable and keeping its traditional lifestyle intact.

Elberton has a better opportunity than most such towns in that its vein of granite, the city’s economic lifeblood, is 35 miles long, six miles wide and two to three miles deep.  It will sustain several generations henceforth.

Known as, “The Granite Capital of the World,” there are 50 quarries in the area which produce blue gray granite, which is shipped to distant addresses, according to Hudson Cone, long time editor of the industry magazine, “The Elberton Graniteer.”   

This is where tombstones are etched by the zillion.  Perhaps more.  It is also home of two of the greatest basketball players ever to play the game—Chester Webb and Patsy Neal.  Webb was an All-American at Georgia Southern who lived out his life in his hometown, coaching, teaching, and gardening.

He became a member of the State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 and told officials that Neal was as deserving to be honored by the state’s hall of fame as he was. If you knew Chester, you would understand why this selfless man spoke up for a fellow Elbertonian instead of talking about his life and headline making career.  Neal was a pioneer star in women’s basketball.  She has written several books on her sport.

Another of Neal’s proponents is Peggy Galis, an Elberton native, who could drive from Athens back to her hometown blindfolded.  She makes frequent trips to where she grew up and fondly remembers that in the heyday of the granite business, families who came here from Spain and Italy were expert artisans and tradesmen but had more to offer.  That made her realize that provincialism can be overcome without losing its downhome flavor.

“When we were cooking fried chicken, those families were preparing ravioli and other interesting dishes we had never heard of,” she says. “Their cultural influence was great for our community.  They were into wine making and built the biggest Catholic church outside of Atlanta.  Oh, what fun it was to interact with those families.”

Peggy is the daughter-in-law of the late Tony Galis who owned and operated one of the most successful restaurants ever in Athens, which carried his name.  I remember Tony’s breakfasts which were like the ones I enjoyed growing up on the family farm in Middle Georgia.  Tony was Greek, and if you ever visited Peggy and her late husband and lawyer, Denny, you would hear the delightful sound of the bouzouki emanating from cassette tapes.

Her father Robert was a prominent Elberton lawyer and a descendant of Stephen Heard, one time governor of the state of Georgia.  The governor was her great, great, great, grandfather, and she has a treasured artifact or two from the spoils of that historic conflict when he helped George Washington win the Revolutionary War.  His compensation as a soldier was acreage, free and clear, in Elbert County.

She is eager to tout the appeal, attractiveness, and glory of her hometown.  “Let me tell you about the beauty of our Shoal River lily,” she might say. “They are rare and unfortunately endangered.”   

Peggy arranged for an introduction of her long-time friends Mac and Carolyn McMullan, which brought about an enlightening conversation.  He is 100 years old, and she is 98.  She credits their long and healthy life to their faith.

He is a descendant of an Irishman who came to America from Ireland in 1760, fought in the American Revolution and settled in Virginia where he, too, received a grant of land for his service to his new country.  He later sold his property and purchased land in what is now Hart County. 

Following a lengthy conversation with the McMullan’s, who are de facto historians of Elbert County, I stopped by McIntosh Coffee Shop for lunch and bumped into Tom Steele and Tom Denny, two passionate UGA aficionados.  Tom Steele has a long-time association with Hickory Foods which is the parent company of the famous “Bubba Burgers” which were originated here by a relative of Beefy Eaves, captain of the 1945 Georgia football team. 

Driving home I had time, once again, to reflect on the good life of small towns which spawn interesting and creative folk from athletes to artisans to cooks to those who experience long lives to those that quarry granite for keeping alive the memory of the most important people in their lives.

My next Elbert County history lesson with Peggy will be over a Bubba burger, accompanied by bouzouki music.  I can forecast that a good time will have been enjoyed by all.