Thomasville Insights
Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville! Located in Thomasville, Georgia, the podcast will cover everything from Thomasville history and events to daily operations and City business, all while having some fun in the process. Please visit Thomasville.org for more information. Thanks for listening!
Thomasville Insights
Season 5 Episode 17- Thomasville History We Need to Know
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On this episode, we interview History Center Curator Ephraim Rotter, who fills us in on some important local history and more.
Some of the topics include
• History Center Lunch and Learn updates plus what’s next
• How Thomas County and Thomasville get their names
• Why Lot 39 matters to the city’s beginning
• Henry O. Flipper’s legacy through the wider Flipper family’s achievements
• Why politicians and public figures choose to visit Thomasville
• John F. Archbold’s local influence beyond building a hospital
• Why does Thomasville have an odd street layout?
To learn more about the city of Thomasville, visit Thomasville.org or follow us on social media.
Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. On the podcast, we'll talk to experts on everything from Thomasville history and events to daily operations and city business, all while having some fun in the process.
SPEAKER_05Welcome to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. I am Austin Reims. I'm so glad you're out there listening to this podcast. And uh we have a tremendous upgrade of guest hosts today. We do not have the man of the year. We have Christy Owens with us today. Christy, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Austin. Glad to be here filling in for Ricky today. I don't know if I would say I'm a tremendous upgrade, but yes, you are.
SPEAKER_05Any any shot, even though Ricky's not here, any shot I can take it, Ricky, I'm gonna take it. But uh so uh, you know, we're both in the marketing department and we're getting ready. Road show's coming up, so uh are you ready?
SPEAKER_01I'm ready. It's just around the corner, April 24th and 25th. So we're anxiously awaiting um the big event this year and and working really hard to bring a great event to Thomasville.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's always fun. I'm always amazed at how many people kind of you know uh show up and and uh I love that um uh the whole community kind of we kind of put on our best. Um one of the things I'm excited about uh this year is um again, I've I've done the Rose Parade live for many years, but uh I'm gonna do a behind-the-scenes little quick little documentary on all the behind-the-scenes stuff, uh, mainly that the city of Thomasville does, but uh just other things of like what it takes to put on a festival. So um uh, you know, so I've been actually, you know, interviewing and videotaping, you know, uh paint in the streets, and uh, you know, uh I got an interview with Dr. Story, who does the Rose City run and just kind of all the things that it takes. Uh again, some of those city related, some of those not, but really excited to showcase that. And uh, you know, uh but I I'm an idiot because like more work on you. More work, and I'm gonna be up at you know Friday night late and Saturday night late uh with the public works crew. Those guys are uh they're working late on uh cleaning up the streets and getting it ready. Right.
Filming The Festival Backstage
SPEAKER_01A lot of people don't realize how early the the Rose Society um is here getting you know those roses in that tent, getting that set up. Um, how early um the Civic Garden Club is here getting their um flowers in their tent, getting that set up. So you will be here early hours filming all of that behind the scenes, but that is gonna be something um we're looking forward to you putting in the hard work for that and and having that video that we'll be able to share on social media um and CNS next so that we can um share that with our community. So it'll be something fun for them and something different that we can showcase for the community this year.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and uh you know, so uh behind the scenes uh in and one of those uh I know uh they do a lot of behind the scenes work is uh Thomas Hill History Center and a lot of front-of-the-scenes work, but it it takes a lot to to get the History Center going and moving and uh making uh history alive. And one of those uh one of the one person that does that is uh the curator, Ephraim Rodder, and he's we're here with us today. Ephraim, thank you for being here today.
SPEAKER_03Austin, Chris, thanks so much for inviting me. Uh but I got one complaint, guys. I was promised man of the year, Ricky Sombrano. The man with a smile so bright that it literally blinded me in my right eye one time. And I'm told he is on vacation in French Riviera, yeah, uh San Maritz, wherever it is the man of the year his family goes to. That's the places where I'm not allowed.
SPEAKER_01So that's we'll have you back again so that you can be a guest again when Ricky's here and you can bask in his glory.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. Well that's that's that's all we could hope for. That's right.
SPEAKER_05Or or his shiny teeth.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yes. Well, it's uh I gotta work on my base tail.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so uh yeah, Ricky and Ephraim are uh they they have a have a bond over the uh New York Mets, so the Metropolitan. So we we don't want to go too much into detail, but I saw the the heavy breathe in and sigh about there is a there is a solidarity that comes with misery.
SPEAKER_03There is a misery. I'm gonna be honest though. I have you know, in my head, when you know, my I've got a six-year-old son, high Nevin.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I'm in my head, like, of course I want my son to share in the multi-generational misery. That is being a Mets fan. And you know what? I find increasingly I'm like, dude, be a Braves fan. You know what? You're growing up here, you're here. This is part of this, is this is your thing now. Do yourself a favor, be a Braves fan. That's funny. Yeah.
History Center Lunch And Learn Series
SPEAKER_05Well, let's get to history. Um, again, Thomasville History Center in in our bicentennial is doing so much. Um so one of uh just kind of want to let people know about it. Um, and again, you don't have to get into too much detail because there's a lot of going on. But tell me about the lunch and learn events and when is the next one? How's all that going? Just give us some details.
SPEAKER_03So we've done three of them so far. We had we kicked it off with Jack Hadley. Uh then I gave a little talk about a month ago, and just yesterday we had our third lunch and learn. Laurie Cardis from Pebble Hill Plantation did a bang up job in the 200-year legacy of Pebble Hill Plantation, and our turnout has been outstanding. Now, the way that you know how things work in Thomasville is everyone takes the summer off for events. The next official one will be uh the great Dr. Chip Bragg, who wrote the encyclopedia, encyclopedic history of Archbald Memorial Hospital uh recently, and he's gonna be giving his talk about the history of Archbald at the History Center on September 8th. Now, I'm just gonna throw this teaser out. Sorry, Austin, not CNS Austin, but History Austin, my boss, uh that we're in little chats about maybe trying to find something for the summer to throw in there. We've had such good momentum with this. You know, we want to be able to keep that momentum up. I'm not promising anything. Um, and we'll see what happens. So keep your eye out.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, there's a rumor that it may be Ricky Zembrano's life story.
SPEAKER_03That's the the epic, the the epic gala of the uh the uh the epic of Zembrano. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yes, yeah.
Why Thomasville Has Its Name
SPEAKER_01So with um our topic today, talking about Thomasville and our bicentennial, let's um maybe start from the beginning. Tell us a little, maybe for people that don't know, tell us um maybe how Thomasville, you know, how Thomasville received its name.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so now we're going back to really we have to with the county. So it's the very end of 1825. We are in Milledgeville, Georgia, the then state capital of Georgia. And the uh state representative, the uh the representative for what was then Decatur County. Thomas Jefferson Johnson, who was the founder of Pebble Hill Plantation, was also the state representative for uh Decatur County. And he was recognizing as people are moving into what was these three original counties in southwest Georgia formed in 1818. And so Thomas County was made of portions of Irwin County and Early County. It was the only one of the new counties formed from those counties uh that had a little bit of uh Early and Irwin in it. To get to it though, Jack Thomas was a major general uh for the Georgia militia during the War of 1812. Uh he was also an architect. He was the guy that built actually the old state capitol in Milledgeville. He is the builder, he worked with Josiah Meggs, who was the first president of the University of Georgia, to build Franklin College, is what it was first called. That building still exists today. It is the uh old college of the University of Georgia, it is the oldest building there. And Jet Thomas was the builder of it. And so he was this well-known figure in the state and sort of this uh a distant relation to Thomas Jefferson Johnson. We haven't traced it all exactly how, but whatever the case is, a well-known figure in the state that was worthy of honor. And this is about, you know, 10, 12 years after he died, and Thomas Jefferson Johnson named it for him. He named Thomas County for him, and then therefore the uh county seat a year later named. I think actually the name Thomasville probably came up almost immediately after the county was named, even though it wasn't official until uh almost exactly one year later when the legislation was passed. But when the county was formed, if you read the entire, you know, there's like the short an act form two counties, which is like two paragraphs long, but actually the whole bit of legislation is like five pages. And one of those bits of things is that the Thomas County Board of Commissioners was tasked with within one year finding a landlot to purchase to turn into the seat of government.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_03And why landlot 39? Maybe you've seen some of the lot 39 merch flying around uh Thomasville recently. And that is he bought so Landlot 39 was one in the Georgia Land Lottery. That could be a whole separate podcast we have about the land lottery by a guy named Zeba Fletcher. By the way, awesome name, nothing to do with Fletcherville. Awesome name, though, Zeba Fletcher.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I like it.
SPEAKER_03He sold lot 39 to Thomas Jefferson Johnson in uh 1826 for it was like 200 bucks. A month later, Thomas Jefferson Johnson, knowing that that was going to be the county seat, sells it to the Board of Commissioners for$210. He pockets a smooth$10 on it. There you go. All right. Uh I don't know what the combined spirit, yeah. Our founder has an entrepreneurial spirit already. Absolutely. He was a venture capitalist, uh, real estate investor. And uh I I wonder what the current value of lot 39. That's true. That would be hilarious. Today, Thomas Jefferson Johnson would be totally impressed, though, uh at whatever, however many zeros that would come to.
SPEAKER_05So uh before the next question, just just so people have it, because I I got con uh until this year, until the bicentennial, I was always confused. So Thomas Jefferson Johnson, the founder of Thomas County, Thomasville, uh named it after Jet Thomas, the uh War of 1812 heroes.
SPEAKER_03That is correct.
Henry Flipper And A Remarkable Family
SPEAKER_05So uh kind of moving on to maybe uh another important history event is um um 1887, Henry O. Flipper became the first African-American graduate of the United States uh military academy at West Point. Um, a lot is known about him, um, and uh he he is uh a hero. Um he did um, I think, kind of set a pattern that we see uh throughout the history of this town. But uh what are some things we may not know about him?
SPEAKER_03So, you know, a lot of people do know this uh story about how it was sort of railroaded, and truth is he was, you know, the the uh overturning uh of his conviction for what was supposedly embezzlement was uh a justifiable, posthumous uh overturning of that ruling. Uh he almost certainly wasn't guilty. This was almost certainly uh probably to various degrees uh an act of prejudice, an act of jealousy. Uh he was an extraordinarily talented person. There's been so much written about Henry Flipper that I actually want to talk about his family. And which is a little bit of history is awesome, which is not how did Henry Flipper become Henry Flipper, although this is part of it, but boy, you gotta have some pretty amazing parents to churn out the sons that the Flipper family did. And that's almost what fascinates me more. Uh, there was one of the sons goes on to be the founding president of Morris Brown College in Atlanta. Another of them was the head of the AME church in Atlanta. Another one of them took over dad's uh cobbler shop in Thomasville, Festus Flipper Jr., right down here on South Broad Street, operated.
SPEAKER_05Do you know where that shop was?
SPEAKER_03Yes, and it's in unfortunately a building that no longer exists. So it used to be that there were uh two two-story buildings right around where one of them is the parking lot for Tuscogo.
SPEAKER_05So Tuscogo.
SPEAKER_03Another, but so but it was on that side of the block. It was on the east side of the South 200 block of uh the south 200 block of downtown Thomasville.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so um, so that family just uh was just a high-achieving family. It was he he had to do really well to buy his wife out of slavery. He had to be quite an entrepreneur.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, absolutely. The father, Festus Flipper senior, uh was a skilled carriage maker and uh and a cobbler, obviously, too. And he had the uh benefit of working for or working, of being enslaved by some people that weren't always that, you know, they kind of like, okay, go out and you can earn some money on your own if you do X, Y, and Z. Uh and he was able to do that, and he was able to buy his wife, uh Isabella Buckhalter, out of enslavement as well. And this uh, and not just that, you know, at the time there were laws banning uh education for um children born in slavery. And she taught them anyway, uh the uh lucky family was Methodist minister and his wife, who were the uh enslavers of the were sort of as far as enslavers go, pretty hands-off. Uh and let this and and this happened, and you know, it was to the benefit of everyone. And so by the time some of the other benefits that would come by, by way of the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War, they were able to really take benefit of it and have a step up, and uh she put them in a great position to succeed, and they did, and they took it, you know, it's one thing to get a step up, and it's another thing to take advantage of those step-ups that you're given. And uh, that's what makes it impressive. You know, Flipper was uh, I think they would call him polymath. You know, he was a he he spoke numerous languages, he was a surveyor, he he was an outstanding writer, he just did so many, one of those people that just make him mad in life because they're so good at everything.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they do uh mining engineer, mining all of that. He was crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_03You know, he was successful in everything that he tried. Uh and so there's there's just so much to uh be said for Henry Flipper. And and honestly, all of his the whole family was successful in everything that they pursued, and is one of the really amazing stories. You know, we can say Thomasville history, but really of American history. It's uh it's a story that we love to share and that Thomasville loves to share, and um um it's so gratifying to see this story having over the course of decades taken its place within Thomasville history that it deserves.
Why National Politicians Visit Thomasville
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I've always been very fascinated by Thomasville's ties to you know presidential history. I mean, I when I tell people, you know, that they're like, really Thomasville? But McKinley, Eisenhower, Jackie Kennedy, if you could pick maybe we don't have time to go into all those details, but if you could pick maybe one story tying Thomasville to some sort of presidential historical fact, which one would you share with us today?
SPEAKER_03So absolutely those are all uh there was other first lady visits. Uh I want to talk about one that goes a little bit under the radar and that actually a lot of people don't know about because one of the reasons Thomasville has been such, and let's be honest, continues to be, a popular vacation destination for politicians, industrial league, is that you could come here and you can fly into Thomasville Municipal Airport, and you can quietly get picked up by whoever's picking you up and go to wherever you're going, and you have privacy. And there's just sort of that unspoken agreement where you know what, you could come here, and if you want it to be, if you want privacy, you can get privacy here. If you want the press to come out and take a couple of pictures of you, we could arrange that too. Yeah, and and that absolutely has happened over the years. So there was the owner of what today is Seminole Plantation, but was for most of the mid-20th century, most of the 20th century, known as Marjorie Land. At some point in the mid-20th century, it was purchased by a guy named Ford Bell. Ford Bell was from Minnesota and he was a state-level politician. Uh, and he was buddies with I'm not so much going to talk about presidents, I'm gonna talk about guys who were losing presidential candidates. Right. Here we go. Now, there were at least two visits by Hubert Humphrey. One of them, he did want to get photographed a lot. And we've got a bunch of photographs of Hubert Humphrey down at Thomas Drugs and everywhere downhand, you know, shaking hands, kissing babies. This was sort of in his run-up to his presidential run. Then we have one in, you know, as Thomasville is a place for people to come to nurse their emotional wounds. You know, it's kind of gets talked about a little bit with Jackie Kennedy coming here a little bit. Also, Hubert Humphrey came here weeks after he lost the uh 1968 presidential election.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And he went hunting with his buddy Ford Bell over uh at Marjorie Land. And that one, we only have we don't have a lot of pictures downtown. We just have a small set of professional photographs that were taken but never really published in the paper. Uh his son, Ford Bell's son, Ford Bell Jr., when I started my museum career, uh low those many years ago.
SPEAKER_05That's right.
SPEAKER_03Um was the president of the American Association, what was then known as the American Association of Museums. Today it's the American Alliance of Museums. It is the largest, oldest association of museums in the United States. And Ford Bell Jr. was the president. My first uh Georgia Association of Museums conference, Ford Bell Jr. was the keynote speaker. I end up sitting on a bus next to him, and he's like, uh he looks at my thing, he's like, You're from Thomasville? And he's like, wait till you hear about this. And he tells me the whole story about almost, you know, every fall come like coming to Thomasville like it was no big deal. And I'm here I am early in my career. Career, like a year out of school, and I was just like, you know, uh I'm not much of a star-struck guy, but within the world of museums, this felt like a very big deal. And actually, I ended up keeping up communication with him for years afterwards.
SPEAKER_05Cool.
SPEAKER_03Uh and uh just a very cool guy and told me about, yeah, it's like very plainly, like, oh yeah, dad would have Walter Mondale, George McGuffe. Basically, a lot of the Democrats from the plain states in the upper Midwest, that that community uh that Ford Bell was very much tied into uh were all coming down to Hunt in Thomasville all the time. Except in those cases, they weren't coming here for photo ops. They were flying in, flying home. And uh I'll guarantee you, for every one of those stories that we know about, there's 10 that we know.
Archbold Legacy And Civic Giving
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Uh another story that is familiar, I guess, or you know, uh, about John D. Archbold and and John D. Archbold hospital and um just kind of uh how that got built. Uh, people are pretty familiar that I guess his his son, John F. Archbold, um was the uh guy who built it and and kind of did that. Uh tell me tell me about you know just a couple of facts, a couple of things about the Archbold family.
SPEAKER_03Um you know, it's it's another one of those uh speaking of uh wealthy visitors, that would be the uh absolutely, and this was the case where uh John Foster Archbald, uh son of John uh Dustin Archbald, John D, the dad, yeah, was uh after the breakup Standard Oil, he became the president of the Standard Oil, I want to say of New Jersey. Uh and but he was basically the number two guy in Standard Oil. He was also known as the sort of the the axeman, you know, like look, every big name, excuse me, yeah, uh every big name industrialist had their guys that did a lot of the tough things.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that was John D. Archbald. Uh, but of course, like I said, after the breakup of Standard Oil, he became the head of his own section of Standard Oil and was amongst the most wealthy and powerful people. Uh, you know, John, his son John really was interested in nature. I mean, of course, he was in the business, but I think it was more of like a show up to board meetings kind of thing. And really he loved nature. Dude, dude loved Thomasville. Like, I'm gonna like there's like there was a lot of plantation owners who, you know, they like to come down, they like to hunt, they like to do their own things. You know, that it happened to be in Thomasville was a coincidence in a lot of ways, you know. But John F. Archbald loved Thomasville. I mean, like, he joined Rotary, like he was he joined Rotary Club, he funded the original Three Thoms Inn, or was one of the big original funders of it. He was underwriting all sorts of things. Every now and then there would be one of these who just really were like, you know what, I'm gonna go into town, and the next thing you know, they're like, I kind of love this place. Yeah, and that is absolutely the story with John F. He loved being at Chenkapin Plantation, his plantation on the bluff overlooking the O'Clockney River. He was a naturalist, he was someone interested in conservation, and uh a huge supporter of charitable and and civic endeavors in Thomasville and also just like the people. He liked he liked going, he liked going to Rotary to like hang out with Ed Jerder and like that curve, you know, and uh liked coming to town to just hang out. Yeah, he was a very downcharged guy.
SPEAKER_05Well, as Chip described, as uh Dr. Bragg described in the book. I mean, he he seemed to um, you know, it wasn't just uh, hey, I'm gonna make a monument to my dad. It was very thoughtful the way they did things. They didn't just uh, you know, there was a hospital art here. They they okay, how are we gonna make this work? I mean, to me, um, the evidence proves what you're saying that he he really is a thoughtful guy who left the.
SPEAKER_03You know, Archbald at a time, like they even he even thought about things that you don't think a lot of about in the 1920s, like branding. And they came up with a logo for Archbald in the 1920s and did had their own logo plateware and logo blankets that still last to. I mean, that's seeing that level of marketing forethought in the 1920s blows my mind. Um, and I am still impressed. Like, really, when I was going through all the things with Chip, we were, I think both of our, as I was like, you know, like gathering all these parts of our collection, bringing together, we're like, there was a I mean there was a thermos. There was a there was a, I'm sorry, a uh insulated, uh, you know, a thermos. Yeah. Uh that Archbald had made and given away as a gift to some of the families that had given birth there first, and just all these cool little things.
The Map Mystery And City Drainage
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I know that we could probably talk for hours and hours about you know history in Thomasville, but with the research that you have um performed, you know, preparing um for Thomasville and in Thomas County's bicentennial celebrations, is there anything that surprised you um that you've learned or that you you know had not been aware of, or um, you know, during your research that you, like I said, surprised you or that you certainly found interesting that you um came across during your studies?
SPEAKER_03So I'll say this. One I mean, maybe not so much as a new fact or you know, like slice of trivia, but I think you look at Thomasville on a map, and it's like this 45-degree angle grid over here, and then right under, like then kind of over here, it's these like weird rays shooting out in different directions with these circular arcs cutting through. And then you look over here on the right, and it's sort of a mishmash of things. And then you look over here, bottom left, and it's oh, a little bit of a grid, but then there's a bunch of other junk going on there too. And why does why does the map of Thomasville look like this? And it's a question that we've gotten over the years, and so this really helped explain it to some degree, and also has played into how we tell the story of Thomasville. So, lot 39, original Thomasville, uh, that was surveyed out almost immediately by this guy with the last name Wilson, surveyed it, and he surveyed it in a grid pattern. The reason why, the reason why lot 39 was chosen, the reason why it's on a 45-degree angle has everything to do with altitude. Um, and that is supposedly lot 39 is the highest area from the Gulf. And so that's why and then within there, the highest spot in the highest area, in the highest lot, I guess you would say, is Courthouse Square. And that's why it was chosen to build the courthouse on. The way that the drainage works when you are in a hilly area, you have to be very careful with how you cut your streets. And so the way the drainage worked versus how the land lots are cut out, that's true. They had to cut it at a 45 degree angle, which is why we don't have these true north-south streets.
SPEAKER_05Just for people who who don't know, like obviously Broad Street doesn't co cut north, south, or east-west. Right. That is that is correct. It's kind of diagonal, and that's you know, um not very common. Uh, you know, a lot of times there's a pattern in a in a way, but there was a pattern, what you're saying, and that was for drainage.
SPEAKER_03And it was all for drainage, and it wasn't called North Broad, South Broad to begin with. So they were not even worried about anything like that.
Railroad Myth Plus Local Event Plugs
SPEAKER_01Well, this has certainly been a very informative show, and you've certainly given us some wonderful topics to consider for other podcasts throughout the year as we continue to celebrate our bicentennial. So, Ephraim, we certainly thank you for joining us today and providing us a little bit of history about Thomasville that we can share with our listeners. And Austin, I know you enjoy closing us out with a little bit of bicentennial history and a little trivia question or information to share with our listeners.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, just a little fact. Um, actually, I'm gonna reference uh last uh the last podcast, we talked about um the uh railroad in 1861, I believe. And so um that show I didn't have a definitive answer, so I wanted to ask you. So the railroad stopped in Thomasville in 1861, or was that the vote to to make it stop here? Is that right?
SPEAKER_03So no, no, no. What had happened is is the Atlantic, they called it the Atlantic and Gulf Road, uh, was building their plan, was to just keep on going. Um and they they were building already they were building from Bainbridge towards Thomasville. Um but once the war started, materials cut off, and they just couldn't do it. They after the war, they completed out to Bainbridge by like 1867 or so.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_03But that is a that is one of what I would describe as a little bit of one of the myths of Thomasville that we talk about. That you know, when they built the Atlantic and Gulf Road, even before the start of the Civil War, uh, you know, about where Valdasta is today, you know, it cut south. There was a little part of the trade that down to like live oak. Thomasville became a resort because of the ingenuity and hard work of the people that came here. Gotcha. It was good marketing, it was clever use of resources. Um, and that is we we really emphasize that that is why, you know, if it was if it was just a train and you got the dumb luck of being the end of the train, well, that, you know, there's nothing that goes into that. There's no thought that could happen to anyone, and then the train gets built past and it's over. But that's not really how it worked. Gotcha. And um, and so we celebrate those people that worked so hard to turn Thomasville into the resort it is today, and we continue to reap benefits from it today.
SPEAKER_05That's the crazy part about that. Now, was that the first incident of um um the uh the black vote showing up? Uh or or maybe it was a railroad bond to get something here. I've heard that, but I don't I can't verify that as true.
SPEAKER_03I I can't speak to the specificities of that.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_03Of uh, I mean, certainly it would not have been before the civil like that. That is yeah. I mean, and there were, and that was private investment, the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad. It wasn't public bonds. Gotcha.
SPEAKER_05Um so I correct that from last podcast then. So it wasn't that wasn't it.
SPEAKER_03But anyway, I I will have been later votes, particularly the Thomas Stifton and Gulf Line, which happened a lot later. Uh that's a possibility. Um, but I I don't want to speak out of pocket right now.
SPEAKER_05Like I did the last podcast. Thank you for nicely correcting me. So before I dig myself in a more of a hole, Christy, take it away.
SPEAKER_01Well, before we close out the show, I did want to just remind everyone again that our 105th Rose Show and Festival is April 24th and 25th. If you would like more information about that event, just visit our website, which is Thomasville.org. And as Ephraim mentioned earlier, the next um History Center bicentennial lunch and learn event is scheduled for September 8th. But he did say they may schedule another event this summer, so just visit their website, which is Thomasvillehistory.org, um, to check and see if they're going to schedule another lunch and learn event this summer.
SPEAKER_05All right. Before we close it out, you had one quick thing for me?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, one quick thing. At the Lapham Patterson House on the Saturday of Rose Show weekend, we will be having an open house and we will be exhibiting our entire collection of Rose Queen gowns. Awesome. From the first one up until almost recently.
SPEAKER_05All right. So and and uh on behalf of Ephraim and I, when we talk about Rose per Rose Show history, we want to bring the clowns back. That was in the eighth.
SPEAKER_03The clown contest in the 80s is missed. We want children in clown costumes crying, with the clown makeup running down their face to turn it into the uh street side horror show that it was.
SPEAKER_00We'll let the History Center bring that back. That can be something that you guys decide to bring back. We'll talk to our friends at Pebble.
SPEAKER_03Let's talk to History Austin.
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna make some demands of History Austin and be like, okay, History Austin, let's bring this back.
SPEAKER_03Someone else is gonna have to do it. That's one of those ideas where if I pitch it, they look at me and they're like, whatever.
SPEAKER_05And by the way, you just have to look at the photos. Uh they are hilarious from the 80s, but there was a clown uh portion of and they did, and they would bring out like Ronald McDonald to judge.
SPEAKER_03And this other clown, he was a locally famous clown, like Coco or something, and they were like so serious, they're like sitting there, they've got their little pieces of paper in their clown makeup, judging first the kid clown contest, then the adult clown contest, who I feel like they're I'm on a behind-the-scenes documentary of the adult clown contest, of them getting ready in the hours like on the makeup.
SPEAKER_05All right, yeah, yeah. What a metaphor for Ricky and I. So we'll end on that. Thanks to joining the podcast. Please uh subscribe on your favorite listening app.
SPEAKER_01You've been listening to Thomasville Insights with the City of Thomasville. The show is produced by the City of Thomasville Marketing Department. The show's music is by pond5.com. To learn more about the city of Thomasville, visit Thomasville.org or follow us on social media. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening app so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening.