(NOTE: The following appeared in the 1985 Odum Homecoming program and was written by Hazel Dean Overstreet. It is being reproduced here for the Odum, Georgia website….KH)
The Colquitt Ritch family and the Oscar Harris family, with their connections in family ties, contributed much to the early history of Odum.
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Martin owned the telephone office in Odum until they sold out in the 1960s. They will be remembered for the words “Central, give me…”, for people who were known by names and not numbers in the old days.
BENNETT’S OLD MILL POND
Located out from Odum is the Bennett’s Old Mill Pond. At about the turn of the century, this mill was operated with steam power, though the old mill, which had hand power, was in operation long before the steam era. There was a fabulous historical attachment to this old site for Mrs. Andrew Sutton, daughter of Mr. John D. Bennett, founder of the place, who had a large collection of Indian arrowheads, fragments of Indian pottery, and a tiny horn such as the Indians used for neck and head ornaments, which were unearthed at this spot through the years.
People from across the river in Liberty County and Pierce, Wayne, Appling, and other counties came to this site in droves, for at one time, Mr. Bennett had a grits mill, a rice huller or husker, a sawmill, a planing mill, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, and a shingles plant in operation here.
Much excitement went on here, and much hard work, too, stated Mrs. Sutton, who was an only girl with seven brothers. At one time, thirty or forty ox carts and wagon would be s hitched about, loading and unloading corn, rice, logs, cotton, etc. Work went on ’til dark compelled a halt, and as many as thirty or forty men were forced to spend the night with the Bennetts. But up before dawn and out they were, anxious to get their teams loaded and be on their way home. To this central location came the men who paved the way for us today.
With the Industrial Age, the old Mill Pond sank almost into oblivion, used only occasionally later by churches for a baptismal pool. Today, even that is no longer possible. The Mill Pond has dried up. It stands in parched, cracked cakes. In 1949, when a severe drought began, the sporadic rain showers failed to put new water into the old mill pond. The seven years of drought, 1949-1955, took away from Wayne County one of its most important historical landmarks.