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Old News Stories
Man Leaves Timber to Fund Hospital, 1949
From The Atlanta Journal
May 22, 1949
Believed Penniless
Man Denied Aid Helps Build
Hospital
By Odom Fanning, Staff Writer
Chatsworth, Ga., May 21. An Atlanta hospital refused to take him because he seemed to be a penniless mountaineer, and he was dying from an objectionable form of cancer, so —When J. Frank Hall died, he left his greatest worldly goods—the trees on his farm—to help build a beautiful modern hospital here to serve the mountain people like himself.
That hospital, the first in Murray County, has virtually been completed. It will be a $250,000 structure, as modern as any rural hospital in the South. It will provide metropolitan medical care to all the people of Murray County, especially to the victims of cancer.
"J. Frank Hall was an eccentric bachelor who died March 23, 1948, at the age of 68," said P. H. Bond, an administrator of the Hall estate, "Not overly fond of people, he was devoted to his parents and to the trees on his place."
Loved Home
He loved simple things, like the home his grandfather, the late J. N. Harris, bought and enlarged in 1840. This home place of 470 acres is located 12 miles north of Chatsworth on GA 411. Both Frank and his mother lived there all their lives. Much of the farm was in timberland.
"Frank and his timber grew up together," Mr. Bond said.
For a year before he died, Mr. Hall suffered from advanced throat cancer. Mr. Bond personally brought him to Atlanta, where a physician was unable to get him admitted to one hospital, which Mr. Bond refused to name. So the old bachelor was carried to a Chattanooga hospital. There on March 13, 1948, only ten days before he died, he made his will.
He bequeathed $1,000 to the trustees of Sumach Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He gave $1,000 to his beloved Sumach Lodge No. 55, F. & A. M. He directed that the old home place be set apart as a memorial to his parents and grandparents. Proceeds of the farm are to be used to help keep up and beautify the Sumach Cemetery.
Loved Home
He loved simple things, like the home his grandfather, the late J. N. Harris, bought and enlarged in 1840. This home place of 470 acres is located 12 miles north of Chatsworth on GA 411. Both Frank and his mother lived there all their lives. Much of the farm was in timberland.
"Frank and his timber grew up together," Mr. Bond said.
For a year before he died, Mr. Hall suffered from advanced throat cancer. Mr. Bond personally brought him to Atlanta, where a physician was unable to get him admitted to one hospital, which Mr. Bond refused to name. So the old bachelor was carried to a Chattanooga hospital. There on
March 13, 1948, only ten days before he died, he made his will.
He bequeathed $1,000 to the trustees of Sumach Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He gave $1,000 to his beloved Sumach Lodge No. 55, F. & A. M.
He directed that the old home place be set apart as a memorial to his parents and grandparents. Proceeds of the farm are to be used to help keep up and beautify the Sumach Cemetery,
Goodness Bared
Finally—and here's where the contentious old man bared his inner
goodness—Mr. Hall directed that all "the merchantable timber from size eight inches at the top of the stump" and larger be sold. I will and direct that said funds be used to help build a section or ward in said hospital to be equipped for the treatment and care of the victims of cancer."
Mr. Jackson, the ranger, said that on the average acre of Georgia forest
land the total net volume of saw timber is 1,606 board feet. When Mr. Hall's timberlands were "cruised," or estimated, it was found that his virgin woods would produce the fabulous amount of more than 20,000 board feet per acre.
When bids were opened, it was discovered the high bidder was a
manufacturer in Tennessee who offered $100,000. To date, 300,000 board feet have been cut, and a sawmill is still working full force. Some of the pines ran more than 40 inches in diameter.
Foundation Laid
The financial foundation for the Murray County hospital had already been
laid by V. C. Pickering, Chatsworth hotel owner and road contractor. He was the man who built the road across Fort Mountain from Ellijay to Chatsworth. When Mr. Pickering died in 1946 of heart disease, he left $100,000 to found and build the hospital.
When the other bequests in Mr. Hall's will are made, it is expected that
$80,000 will be left for the hospital. W. A. Tatum, of Chatsworth, gave the land on which the hospital is being built. The local people, by contracting it themselves, saved considerable money. When the hospital is finished by July 1, they will have spent about $175,000, but they will have a $250,000 hospital.
It will have 64 rooms, though fewer beds. There will be a complete operating room, maternity department, dental clinic, laboratory, X-ray, health center, Negro ward, and cancer clinic.
Among the things the peculiar Mr. Hall saved, as mementos were two
hand-made bricks. They were molded in 1840 by his grandfather Harris. While they were drying in the sun, a sow and her little pigs walked across them, leaving footprints in the bricks. Mr. Hall had treasured them all his life.
Mr. Bond insisted that the bricks be used in the hospital, and they were.
The 109-year-old pigs' prints may still be seen.
"He was the savingest man I ever knew," said Mr. Bond in summing up
J. Frank Hall's character. "The slogan that fits him best, and the one I'm going to put on a plaque in the hospital is: "He Saved for Others."
 Old News Stories
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