Hide Article Text (OCR)
rs.Ha. ** tCounty* %rness, ButtsABy Jerry McLaurin .iOne hundred years of world history is but a moment of eternity, but one hundred years of a woman’s life is an eternity of moments.Januray 1, 1976 marked the 100th birthday of Mrs. George C. Harkness.Born Mary Elizabeth Thaxton, she is the lastj • ■ • ; • ' , | ■ . * *.■ • s\i « f i » »■*. r* •• “ »surviving member of one of the true pioneering families of Butts County. They lived in a time that historians and writers of the south paint with sympathy and emotion.The home of Dr. John T. Thaxton and Mattie Fears Thaxton had been destroyed by a torrent of blazes set by Sherman’s troops on their murderous “march to the sea.’” Mattie Fears Thaxton, ripe-with child, gave birth to a daughter in the feed house that once housed the horses and other animals of the Thaxton homestead, but thatwas before. The feed house stood only a short walk from the charred ruins of the Thaxton home.Shortly after the birth of Mary Elizabeth, MattieFears, weak and exhausted, died. Mary Elizabeth, an infant of only a few days and youngest of five sisters and a brother, survived on cow’s milk warmed over a smuttedMRS. GEORGE HARKNESSkerosene lantern and fed toher by spoon.A product Of times like (hose, Mrs. Harkness has' always been among the first to adapt to changes, nomatter how severe. She. • • • • — -smooths the wrinkles of complexity with a commonreasoning that would stir the* Henvv of Job.»Mrs. Elizabeth Robison . (her daughter) tells the storyof the letter that she receivedfrom President Ford on her looth birthday. Her only comment was, “I wonder why he wrote me; he doesn’t know me.”Asked how it felt to be 100 years old she answered, “I feel no different; I’m the same now as before.’’Mrs. Harkness has always been a gregarious person. People are the only thing that she has never managed to do without. Her house has always been the meeting place — the spot where crowds naturally congregate. Even now, she insists 4 on having someone with her always.Gardening, flowers, quilt-• ► ■ing and all kinds of needlework are things that she enjoys. Roses andAfrican voilets are her»wfavorite flowers while Baden -burg is her favorite type of needle work.Most of all, she is a/religious woman. In her younger days the summers always found a student preacher staying at the Harkness house usually untilthe first of fall. Jebb Russell* .and Gene Daniel (widely known Presbyterian preachers) were among her many summer visitors. Mrs. Harkness is a member of the , Fellowship Presbyterian Church. n'Her advice to those of us a little younger and less seasoned, — “ . . . live a Christian life and love one another.”Mrs. Harkness is the mother of one son, George Harkness and one daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Robison. She has one granddaughter, Nancy Ann Robison.Mrs. Harkness, Butts County salutes you on this, your 100th anniversary of living.
Newspaper Details
Jackson Progress Argus
Jackson, Georgia, US
Thu, Jan 15, 1976
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Janice R.
GA, USA 29 Jun 2020
Other Publications Near Jackson, Georgia
Jackson News
Middle Georgia Argus
Butts County Argus
Jackson Progress Argus
Butts County Progress
