Fifty years ago, when Jean and I first came to Gainesville, agriculture was the primary economic engine of this area ... farming and the textile mills. Some cotton was still being grown, but for the most part cotton had left the hills of Northeast Georgia barren and eroded, and the combination of poor soil and the boll weevil had about wiped out cotton as a cash crop in the area. It was right after World War II, and Hall County had a group of young farmers who had the courage, and the determination, to build a better farm economy in this low mountain area. Farmers were turning to the chicken business, and a smaller but knowledgeable group developed a thriving dairy business. The dairy farmers had it figured out: feed chickens to make some money, and put the litter back on pastureland to feed the dairy cows, and where land was too sorry for pasture, plant it in pines. The Hall County Farm Bureau was promoting soil conservation before we ever heard the fancy word "environmental".
The reason all this came to mind was that Elmer Truelove died the other day, and Elmer was one of the leaders in this movement that changed the landscape of Hall County. He was a successful dairy farmer, and one of the key leaders of the Farm Bureau. He became a leader in Democrat politics, and served as a County Commissioner. He made a contribution in many different ways. But for me, at least, I will never be able to look at the green beauty of Hall County without thinking of Elmer Truelove and his young Farm Bureau friends from the 1950's. You see, at that time Hall County was a raw, red land eroded from years of cotton farming on hills too poor and too steep to plow. Our hilly land had eroded severely, and let's face it, it was ugly. It was Elmer Truelove and his Farm Bureau friends who turned it green and put it all together again and made a reasonable living while they were doing it.
This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
Monday
August 4th, 2025
12:01AM
