A Bright future is before us. Murray is not merely awaking. She is already awake to the boundless possibilities that lie just ahead. With every natural advantage, with health, strength and vim that pure mountain air begets, the prosperity of our people is assured. The Railroad has brought to our door a market for our varied products. Millions of dollars worth of lumber and minerals are waiting to reward the toiler. Our broad acres are as fertile as any in tie world. The farmer has only to tickle the soil with a hoe and it smiles with abundant harvest.
Our Schools are better attended, better graded and doing better work than ever before. Interest in education is more apparent and intelligence is the watchword everywhere.
Rowdyism and Ring-rule has received its death blow within our borders. Honesty has become not only the best policy, but a prerequisite to social, financial or political standing.
The Negro Question has been solved. The colored race has learned that while the white man is his friend, no social equality can exist. The Murray negro is industrious, contented and happy.
The Churches are fast coming to realize that strife and confusion is not of God. The good people of the various denominations are uniting with the single purpose of winning souls and tearing down the strongholds of satan.
Good Roads are receiving marked attention and the future will see great improvements in our public highways.
An Open Hand is extended to all home-seekers to come and locate with us. Many have come to us from the East and the West, from thee North and the South. With scarcely an exception they are well satisfied and write for their relations and friends to join them in this land of promise. Let all unite heart and band for the future welfare of old Murray.
NORTH GEORGIA SCOUTS
I rode- a horse, a dappled bay,
Coal black its mane and tail—
A horse that never needed spur.
Nor curb, nor martingale.
And by my side three others rode,
Sun-tanned, long-haired and grim,
Wild men led on by Edmondson,
Tom Polk, you've heard of him.
Behind us galloped, four by four,
A swarthy, mottled band
Of reckless fellows, chosen from
The bravest in the land.
Whether away on that fair day?
Oh, just a dash of fun,
To speed our horses and keep up
With Tom Polk Edmondson.
Behind our backs we left the bills;
We crossed the Salliquoy;
My right-band comrade smiled and said:
"I fished here when a boy."
Then from the rise at Hogan's house,
I saw as in a dream
Red-fringed and silver-blue and deep,
The Coosawattee gleam.
A shot rang out! A bullet split
The air so close to me,
I felt the keen hot puff, and then
A roar of musketry.
A leaden wind blew from the wokod;
We met it at a run;
We sped so fast along the lane
The worm fence panels spun.
A horse went down, a dying face
Scowled darkly at the sky;
A bullet clipped my comrade's hat,
And lopped the brim awry.
"Come boys; come on!" our leader cried,
Pell mell we struck the line,
My comrade's pistol spat its balls,
and likewise so did mine.
A swirl of smoke with rifts of fire
Enveloped friend and foe;
Death, so embarrassed, hardly knew
Which way his strokes must go.
The fight closed in on every side,
And tore one spot of ground;
There was not room to swing an arm,
Or turn your horse around.
A moment thus and there we broke,
The circle of our foes.
Old Hogan, in his doorway, heard
The crunching of our blows.
Then, while we used our pistol butts,
As swords on many a head;
And yet, and yet, down in that wood
We left our leader, dead.
So, now you know just how it was
We had our little fun,
Speeding our horses to keep up
With Tom Polk Edmondson.
Murray County History 1911