May 3, 2023 - Most of you have seen the old picture of the downtown square – the one with the oxen and horses on the flat and unpaved square with a fence around the Courthouse lawn instead of the step-up we have today. It was taken on May 5, 1923 by local photographer Roy R. Loving.
On May 5, 2023 a photo will be taken in honor of the photo’s 100th Anniversary. We would love for everyone to be on the square and in the picture. The photo will be taken around 2:00pm on Friday, May 5th. It will be a fun comparison to the changes on the square in the past 100 years. More information will be available at a later date.
Below is the article written about the event, published on May 9, 1923 in The Champion.
“A four-up ox team appeared on the streets here Saturday and it created more attention than anything else in town. Horses were hard to get to pass the team as it stood on the street and the general citizenship inspected them. It was noticeable that the horses were afraid of the oxen and cared nothing for the many automobiles around them. This is a reverse of conditions of only a few years ago.
"While the ox team was “parked” on the square Photographer Loving took a street scene picture with the ox team, a Cadillac touring car and Federal Truck parked with the team. This picture will be printed in this paper at a later date, also a picture of a street scene in Center 19 years ago. The ox team here referred to belongs to Mr. McDaniel, north of town, and he has two of the four-up teams. There only a few teams in the county at this time and the only thing that they are used for is logging and that only in sections where it is hard to get mule teams in the woods.”
Thank you to J.J. Ford for finding the above article.
It was during this time that Mr. H.B. Johnson (the Chamber’s first Chairman of the Board) was responsible for passing two major bonds, one of which was used for paving the streets around the square and to extend the pavement down the main streets leading into the square. The streets were paved a year or so after the picture was taken.
It was the task of the Chamber to get all the stores in Center to close in order for the male employees to work on the road projects. At that time, roads into town were “pretty bad” and not maintained. All males over the age of 21 years, were required to give five days a year working on the roads, or hire someone to take his place.
Electric lights were also introduced around this time period.
