The Culpepper, Gay, Dunlap, Layfield, Poole and Welch Family:Information about Joseph Roswell Gay
Joseph Roswell Gay (b. December 05, 1880, d. January 10, 1968)
Notes for Joseph Roswell Gay:
In a letter datedSeptember 27, 1978 Mrs. W.B. (M. Louise Culpepper) Broach wrote: Joe was his
father right hand man and handled his estate after his death. A most attractive personalityand a
friend of Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he stayed in Warm Springs, GA
J. R. Gay took over his father's business and took on his nephew Alvan Keith as an associate. The Gay and Keith Corporation became active in acquiring lands throughout the county. Gay came to own 7,000 acres in the county. He built a large home in Gay and oversaw his many ventures from there.In 1900 only four people in all of Meriwether Countyowned over 1,000 acres of land. Mr. Gay was certainly one of the largest landowners at the time. He never held public office, but served as Gay's Postmaster. He was highly influential man in the county, and known throughout the State.
J.R. Gay was a stern and shrewd businessman and agriculturist. He was one of the first to recognize the potential of growing Peaches commercially. Although he was growing cotton on portions of his acreage, J. R. Gay diversified his agricultural interests early, a step which mitigated, for him, the fall of the cotton economy.
Peaches had been a favorite fruit for antebellum planters. However, because they are highly perishable they were usually grownfor home consumption, food for hogs or for making Brandy. With the expansion of the rail system in the South which allowed quick distribution, the commercial peach industry reached a peak in 1850 to 1860. But the Civil War put an end, temporarily, to this expanding enterprise. After the war, Georgia led the nation in peach productionuntil the crash in 1929, after which it declined permanently.
After the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad was built through Gayin 1908, the peach industryin Meriwether centered around the town. Gay became an important peach packing center. J. R. Gay had begun growing peaches around the turn of the century and a peach packing house was built in Gay by 1915. In fact, J. R. Gay was one of the biggest peach growers in the state and his Eagle Brand peaches were renowned.
More About Joseph Roswell Gay and Ella Kathleen Dunlap:
Marriage: October 27, 1915, Chipley, GA.
Children of Joseph Roswell Gay and Ella Kathleen Dunlap are:
- +Dorothy Elizabeth Gay.
- Marion Louise Gay, b. August 14, 1916, Gay,Meriwether CountyGeorgia, d. March 17, 1974, Gay,Meriwether County,Georgia.
- +Kathryn Roswell Gay, b. January 27, 1922, Gay, Meriwether County Georgia, d. February 20, 1984, Atlanta,Fulton CuntyGeorgia.
- +William Franklin Gay II, b. October 03, 1927, Gay,Meriwether County, Georgia, d. May 17, 1985, Gay, Meriwether County, Georgia.