Where the cows come home a month late
MAXEYS – This Oglethorpe County community dates back to 1834 and has undergone three name changes in its history, from Shanty to Salmonville to Maxeys. It is so laid back that the cows come home a month late. There is more peace and quiet here than on the backside of nowhere.
There are no traffic lights, no stop signs — just a couple of speed bumps in case anybody gets in a hurry, which nobody does around here unless they are late for a cattle sale.
With a population of 225, up from 97 in 1880 but down from 356 in 1920, Maxeys underscores the good neighbor policy that characterizes small town living from sea to shining sea.
Friendship has brought me here through the years. First, to see Henry Cabiness, who was a dairyman
— and a former Georgia basketball center — who journeyed to New Zealand to investigate the carousel milking machine, which he brought to Southwest Oglethorpe County. People came from distant addresses to see this marvel in action.
Recently, I came this way to enjoy a visit with John Stephens, retired from the University of Georgia. John has an enduring passion to learn what makes things tick. He’s now enjoying life with his grandkids, who will be the beneficiary of scholarship grants exclusive to Maxeys’ residents from the A.T. Brightwell Foundation.
John has a home just off Ga. 77, which runs 103 miles from Lavonia to Sparta. It is likely the most rural route in our state, connecting one down home community to another and another, on and on. Maxeys is populated by modest folk who are the salt of the earth. I like being amongst them.
John took an old friend on a drive around town in his pickup truck. If you live here and don’t own a pickup, you are as out of place as snowshoes in Key West. A Lexus in these parts is as rare as a sighting of the scarlet tanager — a red bird with black wings.
Maxeys has at least three redeeming factoids that set it apart from most communities with which we are familiar. President Lyndon Johnson’s great grandfather Jesse Johnson was born here, but the family kept moving west, initially to Alabama, and ultimately to what became Johnson City, Texas.
When LBJ journeyed this way for the funeral of Judge Robert L. Russell in
Winder in 1965, word was that he was going to take a helicopter jaunt over to the land of his forebears, but it developed that the trip was aborted. “He was a no-show,” John says, “and it made folks around here mad as hell.”
Another point of pride is the aforementioned A. T. Brightwell scholarship, which is available to college age students so long as their parents continue living in Maxeys while the scholarship is in effect.
John’s daughters, Angela and Heather, along with his son, Jay, were beneficiaries of the scholarship and so will the children of Heather and her husband, John Parham, who share the same address as John. A. T. Brightwell grew up here, left Maxeys and made his fortunate in real estate in Birmingham. He gave education the highest priority and believed that if a small town had a good high school, that would help perpetuate the town. He funded the scholarship for those living within a mile of a downtown marker that pays tribute to Brightwell.
Brightwell’s will was amended in 1960 to ensure that there would be no discrimination against any applicant owing to race, creed, sex or religion. There are several Black families whose children have benefited from the scholarship — which has a corpus of more than a million dollars.
Finally, not even Ripley would believe that this town has three zip codes but it is fact. John was happy to explain: The Maxeys post office has its own zip code. Those who live north of Cherry Street, have a Stephens (3.2 miles away) zip code and those to the South of Cherry Street have a Union Point (12.7 miles away) zip code. Who do we blame, Republicans or Democrats?
The big deal in Maxeys is the ongoing development of the “Georgia Railroad Firefly Trail,” a 39-mile multipurpose trail through Athens-clarke, Oglethorpe and Greene counties. You can walk, hike or bike the becoming trail and immerse yourself in the “Great Outdoors,” harking back to a time when life was simple and being a good neighbor was paramount.
Come to think of it, that is the way it has been in Maxeys for nearly two centuries.