Former
Porterdale resident looking to collect memories of the mill town in
good old days
By JAY
JONES
[email protected]
PORTERDALE — Prentis Ollis has many fond memories of his
childhood in Porterdale including walking barefoot across the old
steel and wood bridge that crossed the Yellow River. The feeling of
the summer sun bearing down on the creosote lumber is one of his
lasting memories of his hometown.
Ollis, retired and living in Hull, near Athens, is now sharing his
memories of Porterdale on a Web site he hopes can be a place for
others to share their thoughts, photos and recollections of the old
mill town.
Ollis, 71, said he created the Web site dedicated to Porterdale to
fill the existing gap in information about the town. While working on
his hobby of maintaining genealogy Web sites, he kept meeting people
who had a connection to Porterdale, but knew very little about the
town itself.
“I decided that one should make an attempt to share memories of a
‘showplace community,’ of its time and place in our history,” he
said.
Located at http://home.earthlink.net/~porterdale/porterdale/index.htm,
the Web site is dominated by a picture of the Porterdale Mill on the
Yellow River. The site offers different sections for general history
but also recollections of current and former residents and photographs
of historic structures in Porterdale, including the house where Ollis
was born.
Also included on the Porterdale Web site are Ollis’ own
recollections of life in Porterdale. With his travels during 27 years
in the U.S. Air Force, Ollis also includes his encounters with people
across the globe who have connections to Porterdale.
Porterdale was owned and operated by the Bibb Manufacturing Company
for most of its history. Bibb provided nearly cradle to grave services
for the workers who resided near the three mills in town. Ollis admits
that the pay was low and work conditions not the best for workers at
the time but he pointed out that Bibb provided people a chance to
survive.
Ollis said the time of the town’s height as an economic power in the
region during the decades of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s, it offered
an almost idyllic way of life that he hopes to preserve with the Web
site.
“I think one would have had to experience Porterdale in its hey day
to truly understand any description that one may provide,” said
Ollis. “I have traveled around the world, been in all 50 states, on
every continent, except Australia and Antarctica. I have lived in
about 30 different locations, and not one comes close to the memories
of my life in Porterdale.”
Ollis said he has only worked on the site for a few months, but has
already been in contact with about a dozen people interested in
contributing to the site. He said he’s looking for anything to add
to the site, childhood memories, photographs, historical information
about certain buildings or any other information concerning Porterdale
to make his site complete.
“All memories of Porterdale would be appreciated, but my immediate
goal to collect those memories from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s,”
he said. “Our numbers in the first group are dwindling and there is
not much time to collect and document this history.”
Two items that Ollis is looking for in particular are any pictures of
the old Porterdale steel and wood bridge. Another sought after
photograph is that of a wading pool on the grounds of the old
Porterdale "grade school" that Ollis said his grandfather
built 1920s.
For more information, or to submit material for Ollis’ Web site,
contact him at [email protected]. Items can be mail to Ollis at
Prentis L. Ollis, 2372 Crabapple Hollow Road, Hull, GA 30646. A
pre-paid, self-addressed enveloped would be appreciated for items you
wish to have returned.
The City of Porterdale maintains an official Web site at www.cityofporterdale.com.
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