Andrew Jackson Veal b 1845 ran livery stables in Washingtonton County, Ga
Andrew Jackson Veal was born in 1845, son of Edward M. Veal and Martha Ann Chambers. He had one younger brother Solomon Veal, and seven older siblings. I used to ask my Papa if he remembered his Papa, but he didn’t because his Papa had died before he was born. But he did share stories with me that his father had passed down to him, which was few because Elton Veal Sr, my great grandfather, father Andrew Jackson Veal, had died when he was a young boy of 5, so he only was able to share stories that were probably shared with him about his own father. My Papa was a farmer most of the life I was born, so when I asked him what his Papa did, he would tell me he ran the Livery Stable in Washington Co., Georgia. Back in the time before Atlanta was the capitol of Georgia. Back when my great great grandfather ran the Livery Stables, it was the Livery Stables of the capitol of Georgia. So for the day it was one of the most important business institutions in a town. Washington County was the county seat next to Baldwin County, the state capitol at this time ... usually called a livery, feed and sales stable, which means that horses are kept for hire, that horses ... are cared for and fed, and that the proprietor buys, sells, deals in and trades horses.
My Papa said he was always told his Papa was "a man of character and standing. The business was lucrative, Settlers were coming in large numbers ... those arriving by train require conveyances and horses to take them to view the country. Those who come in their own wagons shelter their horses at the livery stable in stormy weather ... Journeys of 50 to 100 miles with a team of rented ponies and a buck-board or on horse-back, are not unusual.
"The livery horse is a bronco as he is usually called, descended originally from half wild Indian stock, good for 30 miles a day, for day after day, good for 50 miles a day when necessity requires ... wild horses are brought into Baldwin County in droves and sold to whoever, for a few dollars per head. The bronco is never completely broken. Given a few days' rest, he will run with an unskilled driver, spill his fare along the road and demolish the vehicle to which he is hitched. Yet, he is tractable and susceptible to kind treatment from a good master.
"The Veal livery stable was also a gathering place of sorts. A boarding home. Andrew Jackson Veal married Anna Elizabeth Roberts, daughter of the Rev. James Benjamin Roberts and Arianna Maclellan. –they ran the Veal Livery Stables and boarding home there, a place for discussion of topics not usually chronicled in the newspapers. I always thought it was interesting that my great grandfather’s sister also ran the boarding house of the town I grew up in, I’ve written about her in one of my other Way Back Wednesday’s, Zetta Mae Veal. She followed in her mother’s footsteps as someone who ran a boarding house.
"Personnel consists of the proprietor and a couple of boys who sleep on an iron bed with sagging springs, in the office, which is used also used to store tack ... Horse blankets and discarded quilts comprise bedding. As these are never laundered their condition becomes indescribable.
"Ashes fill the shallow box around the cast iron stove, to accommodate the tobacco chewers ... The combination of odors (including those peculiar to stables) emanating from the place is disconcerting to sensitive noses.
"The livery stable is ready for service at all hours, day or night, and in all weather. Sometimes a customer wants a driver. When he does, one of the hostlers, or one of the boarders is sent to care for the horses -- someone who knows the roads and can act as a guide.
No one followed in ole Andrew Jackson Veal’s footsteps that I know of. I’ve never heard many stories of my Papa with horses or my great grandfather, but I’m sure they were of much use because my great grandfather was a very successful farmer in his day. The last story I heard of ole Great Great Grandfather was that he loved his horses, and died protecting them. The story went that a very bad storm came to Milledgeville, and that it was quite cold weather, and he stayed out the entire night with the horses keeping them covered in the terrible storm. His wife Anna kept trying to get him to come in and rest by the fire, but he spent the entire evening with them, keeping them covered with blankets and things. The next day he developed Pneumonia, and died at 43, the same age I am today. Leaving behind his family of His wife who was 36, and their 4 children, Claudia, who was 8, Elton Sr, my great grandfather who was 5, Maude who was 3, and baby Zetta Mae who was still in Mama Anna’s belly when he passed way. The story does continue…. Anna (Roberts) Veal remarried, and had 3 more daughters, but that’s another story