Recollections: Legends of Yesterday - Price Continued

This is a reprint of original articles by Hugh Woolley, a longtime resident and community leader of Graceville. Woolley published these articles in The Graceville News more than 20 years ago.

Originally published in the October 19, 2000 edition of The Graceville News.

The great depression came and I believe Black Tuesday was in October of 1929. I was eight years old at the time and remember the rough times when a quarter looked big as a wagon wheel and a dollar big as a bedspread. Most rural areas had no money, but usually had food. Since the residents grew their food they most often shared with their neighbors in small towns. In big industrial towns many churches and other organizations sponsored soup lines.

J.K. Powell said Graceville's football team felt hard times. He said, "Some boys in repairing the ragged uniforms with adhesive tape looked like a bunch of zebras on the field."

J.K. was the FFA Public Speaker for Graceville FFA Chapter and won over the Marianna Chapter around the mid-thirties. He went on to the district, area and the state finals where he lost to a boy from Sea Breeze High School in Daytona Beach. He held this record for Jackson County until I carried Cecil Tindel to win the state and also the tri-states. Cecil lost out in the southern region, one step from the nationals. I am sure Mr. Price was as proud of J.K.'s accomplishments as I was of Cecil's.

J.K. went to work with Mr. Price who had left teaching to help out with the Federal soil erosion project. J.K. said his first pay was 10¢ per hour. This was one of President FDR's projects that really helped the south and especially the Midwest. John Steinbeck's, "Grapes of Wrath", was written about the Midwest dust storms. Vo-ag teachers and progressive farmers were doing what they could to protect the soil, but they needed more immediate help from the Federal government. The need was urgent because we were losing soil by wind and water too fast. Mr. Price probably saw the great need there and offered his services. First the soil erosion project which was later organized in to the first soil conservation district in the State of Florida. This was the Holmes Creek S.C.S. district which included northwest Jackson County.

I am not sure what Mr. Price's title was, but it was a high-ranking position because of his experiences and education. Later he worked all over Northwest Florida as far as Crestview west and Lake City east. Fessor gave many his ex- students a job with S.C.S. All these listed may not have been students, but many were: Earl Register, Newt Grant. Billy Mitchell. Ernest Owen, J.K Powell Cullen Rhodes, Otis Heisler and Roy Watford. I remember when I first came here, Otis drove the crawler and Roy Watford the grader to build terraces or grade out ditches. O.E. Smith was a supervisor. Albert Boyd later joined this group about 1943. In recent years (1987), officials redrew the boundary line and put northwest Jackson County in Jackson Soil & Water District.

Greg Nolin now is the District Conservationist for Jackson County. No one could begin to place a value on the Soil Conservation Service and their programs. If we had lost the soil, we would have lost everything else. These last few words we found in Mr. Prices mementos by Bob, Jr., his son. This about sums up the legend's purpose in life. "Hordes of gullies now remind us, We should build our lands to stay, And departing, leave behind us, Fields that have not washed away; When our boys assume the mortgage; On the land that's had our toil, They'll not have to question "Here's the farm, but where's the Soil?"

Original members of the Holmes Creek Conservation District (l-r) Dr. J.J. Vara, E.D. Patterson, Sr., and Mr. A.A. Hodges, Mr. Rufus Register was also on the first board. Several others who had the honor of serving were P.W. Bottoms, R.L. Price, Jr., Bartlow Sanders, Davis Taylor, Leonard Landress, T.J. Harris, Angie Griffin, and Waymon Bryan.

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