It is healthy for a society to occasionally stop and reflect on its history. History can teach us gratitude as we reflect on the technological advances we enjoy today. History can also teach us to learn from our mistakes and do things better in the future. A century is an excellent period to look back on. It feels like a long time compared to the average human lifespan; but compared to the entire history of human civilization, 100 years seems like a blink of an eye.
People who live to be 100 years old are called centenarians. Today, only about 90,000 centenarians live in the United States. In a country of over 330 million people, turning 100 is a huge achievement. I’ve never personally known anyone who lived to be 100, but I had a great-grandfather who lived into his 90’s. He lived most of his life in a white frame house that he built himself on South George Street in Petal. George Street was still a dirt road when he built it. I remember him telling me stories from his early life. He used to cut down pine trees, float them down the river to the sawmill, sell them and walk home. I remember him telling me how he got the first family car and traveled to Jackson to visit his brother in the tuberculosis hospital. It was a different world, life was more rural, families larger and the economy more agrarian. Penicillin had yet to be invented. Radio was state of the art. Less than half of young people in America go to school.
A hundred years ago, the Petal community received its first brick street. In 1923, the Forrest County Board of Supervisors funded a project to wall Central Avenue. Petal was then a small community; Central Avenue was the only main street. Petal would not be incorporated into a city for another 51 years.
Bricking a road was no easy task a century ago. It required a significant number of district workers to work long hours. It was backbreaking work using only simple hand tools: shovel and pickaxe. Brick paved streets were an improvement over the old dirt roads. Heavy rain often washed away the old dirt roads. Even moderate rainfall would turn dirt roads into impassable mud puddles. Future economic prosperity and public safety can be associated with improvements in road quality.
Around the same time, the city of Hattiesburg moved into the current town hall building. In January 1923, Hattiesburg Mayor WSF Tatum led a small parade of city officials and guests for a dedication ceremony of the new City Hall. The building was beautiful for the time and thoroughly modern. The Jackson Daily News called the new City Hall “one of the finest and most significant buildings in the South.” The newspaper added, “The new facility’s lighting, plumbing and heating capabilities exceed anything of its kind in the state.
Old photographs confirm the stately beauty of the building. As originally designed and built, Hattiesburg City Hall had two grand entrances with stairways and large stately white columns: one on Front Street and one on Forrest Street. Unfortunately, a “renovation project” in the early 1960s removed the beautiful Front Street entrance and replaced it with a bricked-up elevator shaft. While adding an elevator for the elderly and physically challenged was a good idea, there must have been a better way to incorporate an elevator into the historic building. Notwithstanding this design misstep, Hattiesburg City Hall has remained the center of Hattiesburg government for 100 years.
The greatest national story of 1923 was the death of the 29th President of the United States, Warren G. Harding. Harding was on a cross-country tour when he died suddenly in a San Francisco hotel. Most people speculated that he died of a heart attack or stroke. Vice President Calvin Coolidge was visiting his extended family in Vermont when he learned of Harding’s death. Coolidge was sworn in by his father as the nation’s 30th chief executive. Millions of Americans lined the railroad tracks to pay their respects to Harding as his body was brought back to Washington, DC from the West Coast. At the time of his death, Harding was a popular president who presided over the economic prosperity of postwar I America; After Harding’s death, however, various scandals came to light and tarnished his legacy.
Some people mistakenly believe that history is just a list of dates. History is truly the history of our resilience to challenges. It is the narrative of our collective community. Next time you see a historical marker around the Pine Belt, stop and read it. You’ll likely learn about our history as a community.
Keith Ball is a local attorney and a lifelong resident of the Friendly City.
