Moreland: a charming town with a storied past
Written by JENNIFER DZIEDZIC
The annual Fourth of July barbecue in Moreland has been held since 1947. This 1979 photo illustrates preparation for the big meal at the midpoint of its 75-year history. Men and women, young and old, pitched in to help pull off the big event, including Miriam Miller, second from left. “It was a day to get together and have fun,” recalls her daughter, Emily Miller Wilbert. Photo by Bill Miller, courtesy of Emily Miller Wilbert.
The town of Moreland was first called Mt. Zion Community, then Wright’s Crossing, and then Puckett Station. The charming little town with a one-mile circumference changed its name to Moreland in 1888 to honor railroad physician and stockbroker John F. Moreland.
Families settled into the area where agricultural production of fruits and cotton flourished. By 1904, the H.W. Camp Mercantile and W.A. Brannon Mercantile stores were open, and the town had a drug store, two grocery stores, three churches, a school, and other small businesses, factories and mills. The Moreland Banking Company was added in 1905.
By 1910, the population was more than 300, and a new Moreland School was erected to replace a structure consumed by fire in 1909.
In 1947, as First Baptist Church of Moreland installed gas heat and troops were coming home from World War II, the first annual Fourth of July barbecue was established by townsfolk.
Carol Chancey, director of Moreland Cultural Arts Alliance (MCAA), says: “This year makes 75 years the barbecue has been an ongoing tradition in Moreland. It started as a way for people who were coming home from War to get together and have a homecoming. That’s what it was originally called, a homecoming, and they had a party. In the tradition of community activities when there just weren’t places to go and things to do, it was the annual event everybody looked forward to.”
Over the years, local churches have sponsored the annual barbecue, but for the last couple of years, MCAA funded it. This year, the town of Moreland took the reins on the event, which was held July 2 since July 4 was on a Monday.
“Traditionally, the Independence Day barbecue is held on the Fourth, except when the Fourth falls on Sunday or Monday,” says Chancey.
Alongside the 75-year-old barbecue, MCAA’s Puckett Station Independence Day Celebration has been held for more than 30 years. It features exhibitor booths, handmade and homemade items, and food vendors.
“Each year going forward, we are creating an environment that lets you experience some of the sights and sounds of a particular period in history, and this year, we picked the 1940s,” says Chancey.
Exhibits, music and lots of surprises having to do with the 1940s entertained visitors to Moreland’s biggest annual event, which also featured a Best Decorated Pet Contest and Kids Bike Contest and Parade.
Proceeds from the annual barbecue are donated to charities, while Puckett Station proceeds go to Moreland Cultural Arts Alliance, a nonprofit that hosts programs and operates two local museums, one for each of the town’s famous authors, Erskine Caldwell and Lewis Grizzard.
Sweet Moreland Memories
Born in 1947, the now 75-year-old Emily Wilbert is a Moreland resident, having moved to the area
in 1992 with her husband after he retired from the military and became a teacher in Coweta County. The Wilberts purchased the house that her Great-Uncle Frank had built next door to her parents’ home.
Wilbert’s family heritage goes back to the 1820s when her family first settled in Moreland.
“My mom’s dad was Hugh Camp, one of eight brothers and two sisters,” she says. Though she didn’t grow up in town,Wilbert remembers visiting her grandparents every summer in Moreland and going to the annual barbecue.
“All of these people knew each other because they worked together,” she says. “When they decided to do the barbecue, it was a hit. People came from miles around, and in election years, the haranguing started early in the morning and went ’til late at night. I can remember when they always closed the Fourth of July celebration here in Moreland with a street dance with a live band. I don’t know what they played, I don’t know who was there, but I do know there were a lot of people clapping, cheering and dancing.”
Wilbert recalls when the barbecue was held at noon in the old Masonic Lodge.
“I remember running around, fully dressed up, mind you,” she says. “This was patent leather shoes and white socks and cute little frilly dresses, the whole thing because Grandmother Camp was showing me and the other cousins off to everybody else that was showing their grandchildren off.”
When the barbecue was ready, people would gather in line with tickets in hand for the tea lady sitting outside.
“The tea was served in huge galvanized tubs,” says Wilbert. “Every person probably in the community brought their tea and dumped it into these big tubs together. There were half lemons floating around in there, and lucky was the person who got one of those half lemons in their tea glass.”
Ladies of the churches would bake beautiful two- and three-layer cakes and elegant, crisp pies for sale by the piece. The men of Moreland handled the hog roasting.
“Only the men and boys would go up and flip the hogs,” Wilbert recalls. “We could drive by and see them, and Daddy would give us a wave because he would help out granddaddy, basting them and flipping them. Then in the morning, the ladies took over and pulled the pork off of the bones.”
In the last 10 years, whole hogs have been switched out for pork butt and are cooked in smokers, according to Wilbert. She and her husband now enjoy taking their grandchildren to the barbecue because, she says, “It’s a pleasant, old-fashioned time.”
Promoting Literacy in Coweta
Moreland is also host to the FERST Annual Lewis Grizzard and Catfish Memorial Bike Ride, which is set this year for October 2 at Moreland Mill on Main Street.
Pat Tidwell is chairman of the board for the Coweta FERST Foundation, an early childhood literacy group. Proceeds from the event provide books to Coweta County children every month from birth until they turn 5. The group has been hosting their most successful fundraiser for more than 13 years with 12-mile, 25-mile, 48-mile and 66-mile rides available.
About 150 people participate, including families and bike organizations who come to ride, according to Tidwell.
“It’s a beautiful ride,” she says. “Coweta County is so gorgeous. We mark the roads, and we have signs. Even if you aren’t an experienced rider, you can follow the route. Then we feed riders lunch and give them a goody bag that includes a T-shirt. There are folks who like to collect those. It’s a fun day for everybody involved.”
To register for the event, visit www.active.com/moreland-ga/cycling/races/ferst-annual-lewis-grizzard-and-catfish-memorial-bike-ride-2022.
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
In 2021, Moreland Cultural Arts Alliance held its first Lewis Grizzard Invitational Softball game.
“We invited county officials and had lots of them come out and play against the elementary school where Lewis attended,” says Chancey, noting the Alliance plans to host the event again this year, but a date and time have not been set.
Bill and Frances Lowry
Bill Lowry, 96, was a Moreland School bus driver for 38 years. School children knew him affectionately as “Mr. Bill.” His wife, Frances, worked for years as the Moreland School lunchroom manager.
“He still has children who come up and say, ‘Mr. Bill, I rode your school bus,’ and now they’re old men,” says Frances.
Bill recalls driving Lewis Grizzard on his bus.
“Is that what made me famous?” he says, laughing.
Bill remembers joking around with the young Grizzard – and that he was wel-behaved on the bus.
Along with driving a routine school route, Bill also drove students to and from ball games and other activities, such as hauling a busload of Moreland fifth graders to Atlanta to see the Ringling Brothers Circus for their year-end field trip.
The Lowrys live on their family farm in neighboring Grantville. The 1800s original log cabin that his family built still sits in their backyard. Though living in Grantville, the Lowrys would drive the few miles to Moreland for the Fourth of July barbecue every summer, taking their children, and then grandchildren, to the festivities.
Married in 1947, Bill and Frances celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary this year, sharing an anniversary with the Moreland Fourth of July barbecue they love so well.
When asked how they met, Bill and Frances both laugh.
Frances says they rode the school bus together as young children and that school was always their connection.
Bill adds, “Well, that’s something funny right there. Somebody asked her [Frances] about how we met, and she told them that we had never met.”
“That’s because we’ve always known each other,” Frances concludes. NCM
