COLUMN: On their shoulders rode a county

On Feb. 8, former Jackson County Clerk of Superior Court Billy Elder died, followed by former Probate Judge J.T. Wilkes on March 1 and former Tax Commissioner Henry Doster on March 30.

These three were remarkable men, not just because they were public officials, but also for their individual commitments to serving their community in other ways as well. All were involved in their churches: Doster and Elder at Galilee Christian Church and Wilkes at Jefferson First United Methodist; all were involved in civic clubs — Lions, Kiwanis, VFW, Tumbling Waters Society just to name a few.

If you could chart all three men’s families, they would in some way or another be related to about half of Jackson County’s citizens, at least those who lived here before 1990. And if they weren’t related, they were friends with the other half of the population.

Elder was (no pun intended) the elder statesman of the three, having served as Clerk from 1953 until he retired in 1991. Wilkes served for 20 years in his public office until his retirement in 1992 and Doster served as tax commissioner in the late 1970s into the late 1980s. All three men were on the 1984 ballot (we found a copy) and were together in other years as well on the ballot.

So what was important about these three men?

They represented — embodied, really — a key transition generation in Jackson County.

Until the 1960s, Jackson County had lost population. It was a rural, some would say backwards county known mostly for its moonshine and bootlegging and car-thieving.

But that began to change following the murder of Solicitor Floyd Hoard in 1967. The county’s ingrained political establishment was shaken to the core.

It was in the wake of these changes that Wilkes and Doster took office. Although Elder was already in office, he was in age a contemporary of Wilkes.

Other new faces followed and by the mid-1980s, a new county government had emerged. Henry Robinson, who had been tax commissioner, was county commission chairman. And Stan Evans, Wilkes’ nephew, was elected sheriff in 1984.

By 1985, Jackson County was on a new path as it began to shed its lawless image. The opening of the Mitsubishi plant that year in Braselton marked the beginning of the “growth era” as both industrial and housing growth became the norm. (Although all was not well as the county’s former textile industrial base began to decline with changes in federal law and massive amounts of offshore imports.)

These three men were part of that bridge generation who held a steady hand on the rudder even as the county got tossed about in the turmoil of change.

And that wasn’t just in political office, but also in their personal and private efforts. They were involved in the preservation of Hurricane Shoals Park and other events that have since come to define Jackson County.

A lot of good people have served, and continue to serve, in Jackson County government. A lot of people also serve this community with volunteer efforts in the larger civic community.

But J.T. Wilkes, Billy Elder and Henry Doster served in those roles at a time when there were fewer people to carry the burden and a much smaller pool of people from which to draw community leadership.

Jackson County was fortunate. On their shoulders these men carried much of what the county has become today. They loved Jackson County deeply and in ways large and small, made a huge difference in this community over a span of many, many years.

And while their deaths within a two-month span is pure coincidence, there is something of a poetic emotion to it, as if their work had been done, the torch passed and the circle of life completed.

Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.