When we came across this story from Sherrie we couldn’t help but share it on the blog. The photo is wonderful and the story really brings it to life. Thanks to Sherrie for sharing! This is why Vintage Aerial exists. Enjoy.
This land, located approximately 10 miles north of Ashburn, Georgia, off of highway 41, was first owned by J. H. Odom. Upon his death in 1943, his heirs were given property per his will. My grandmother Corrie Miles Odom Collins was his oldest daughter of 11 surviving children. She received 166.2 acres for the “sum of $5 and other valuable consideration” in Turner and Crisp County. This deed was signed on April 3, 1948. The land was used for farming and to grow cows and hogs and raised a family with a girl and 2 boys.
Where the tractor is in the picture was one acre that my grandmother sold to my father, Donald Gene Collins, for the sum of love and affection when he and my mother married in 1966. They bought a TINY single wide mobile home and lived there until 1976. I was born in 1968 and my brother was born in 1974. We lived here until we moved to Rebecca Georgia in 1976.
My grandmother died in 1975 and my grandfather, Doss Russell Collins died in 1977. My uncle, Willis Russell Collins owned and farmed or rented out the entire acreage until the late 1990’s. The house was used as tenant rental property by my uncle, until abandoned in the early 1990’s. The entire acreage was then sold to my father and will remain in our family. The other buildings were long since gone and only the house, the concrete pad for the grain bin and the pump house remained. It is believed the house was struck by lightening in 1999 and burned. After clearing the property, my brother placed a single wide where the house had stood. I bought 4.9 acres from my father in 2000, at the southeast corner of the property, just to the left of what is seen in the picture. Looking at the house, the viewer would be facing south.
In the summer of 1975 a tornado came between the edge of our tiny trailer and the tree in the bottom right. No damage was done to our trailer, though my mother, brother and I had stood on the front porch and watched as it went over. A shelter that was connected to the right of the barn or “corn crib” at the top of the picture was destroyed and tin from the roof was found about 5 miles south.
The scene in the picture is how I remember the property growing up, looking out the front door of the single wide trailer across the road from Grandma and Granddaddy’s house. I am so glad that I now have this portrait. It will be cherished by my family for generations to come. What were only memories can now be shared with others!
- Sherrie Collins and family
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