In an effort to preserve some of the history of our community, The Times is displaying photos of Henry County from the past. If you can tell us about the photo shown above, us using this form and tell us. In the next edition, we’ll reveal the details of the picture and notes readers send us.
Bess Owen wrote, “I believe this is the former home of my late grandparents, Wyatt and Gertrude Dailey Rowan and is located on Mt. Carmel Rd. between McDonough and Hampton. My Mom, Annis Rowan Owen, grew up there along with her brother, Joe, and her sisters Lucille ( Lucy), Bess, and Frances. My cousin, Joe Rowan, Jr., spent much of his young life in this home. Much of my childhood was spent roaming the woods and riding horses on the surrounding farmlands and dirt roads. Mt. Carmel was still a dirt road until I was in my teens.”
Joe Rowan, Jr. wrote, “this was my grandfather’s home-place and it was built around 1915. I lived there with my parents, Aunt Lucille Rowan, and grandfather, Wyatt Rowan from December 1951 until November 1961. My aunts Bess R. Gardner, Frances R. Goss, Annis R. Owen and Lucille Rowan sold their shares to my father, Joe Rowan, Sr. and mother Louise Cook Rowan after the death of my grandfather in November of 1949. My mother Louise Rowan sold most of the property after the death of my farther Joe Rowan, Sr. who died in 1971. Today my son Jeff Rowan stills lives on a portion of this old home-place.”
Gwen Kaye wrote, “my grandparents Wyatt and Gertrude Rowan built this house in 1914. My mother Frances, the youngest of their children, was born in the house on November 9 of that year before the building was finished. My uncle and aunt, Joe and Louise Rowan, moved into the house in the late 1940’s and did some renovation at that time. Renovations included running water (and thus a bathroom) and wiring for electricity, amenities our grandfather considered frivolous. Wyatt Rowan who was the Tax Commissioner for Henry County, a political post, was not a supporter of Governor Eugene Talmadge nor of his son Herman. As Governor, Herman paved a lot of roads in Georgia, but the road in front of this house was not paved until several years after Herman was no longer Governor. According to my mother, Herman was quoted as saying that he would ‘never pave any damn Rowan road.’”
