By Charles Shiver

Owners of old bank building find historic ‘treasure trove’

SPARKS, Ga. – The Bank of Sparks building, erected in 1909 by E.J. Fuller, recently revealed a treasure trove for its new owners.

While being renovated for a new indoor shooting range, the business owners found more than 300 documents dating from 1820 to the 1950s – some a full 40 years before the Civil War began.

The forgotten documents and other artifacts were in 100 safety deposit boxes behind the old bank vault’s 8,000-pound steel door. The building owners reached the individual boxes by moving a 6,000-pound steel box around on rollers, and then using a power drill to help loosen 28 screws (from 1910) so they could take the back off the big box. This task took three days for three healthy men.

Asked what the searchers discovered, Tom Skinner, a business partner in TEN X Indoor Pistol & Rifle Range, said the awesome find contained several thousand dollars worth of silver coins and white gold nuggets.

Even more importantly, they recovered a variety of documents ranging from birth certificates and warranty deeds, from personal letters to insurance policies, that had been stored over a time span of more than 130 years.

The oldest document discovered so far is the land grant for 490 acres in Land Lot 472 in what was then Irwin County, but was part of what is now the Greggs Community in Cook County.

The grant paper shows where the land was surveyed in 1820 and then signed over to the ownership of pioneer Richard P. Hutchinson in 1840.

Tom Skinner noted the elegant flourishes where quill pens had been used for the signatures.

Some of the documents involved The Bryan Bank, a long-vanished financial institution.

Also discovered were World War II coupons used for sugar, gas, and tires; an insurance policy for Sparks Collegiate Institute, two buildings of which were destroyed by an arson fire in 1928; a birth certificate from 1914; life insurance policies taken by young local men headed off to the Second World War; a local warranty deed from 1901 in what was then Berrien County; the copy of a 1917 marriage license for Russian immigrants in New York City; fading second place red ribbons and third place green ribbons from winning entries in the 1920 Cook County Fair (the categories were pumpkin pie, potatoes, rice, and beans); and so much more.

A unique item found in one of the safety deposit boxes is a vest chain dating back to November 1884; the chain holds a medallion that identified its owner as Elizebeth Wingate of Hempstead, Ga.

The finds brought unofficial stories from the area’s old days back up in Tom Skinner’s memories, from what he had been told years ago by older family members and friends. Skinner recalled anecdotes about a notorious bank embezzler being literally tarred and feathered, but being so fat that he kept falling off the rail that a mob was trying to use to carry him out of town.

Skinner also told the tale about a Sparks bank president encountering legendary robber Jesse James Roberts when the crook entered the business to ask for change for $100 in the 1960s.

Jesse James had just robbed the banks in Lenox and Alapaha, and had his eyeglasses damaged during a shootout with an Alapaha bank official. However, the old bandit left the Sparks bank without causing any trouble after a Sparks police officer arrived with flashing lights on his patrol car.

Tom Skinner and his cousin Sherry Whiddon Napier have been working hard to document the materials found in the bank vault.

Valdosta State University’s Archivist Deborah Davis Skinner (no relation to Mr. Skinner) has been cataloguing and recording the documents and other items that were discovered.

Skinner said he hopes to place some of the discoveries in safekeeping with VSU Archives and the Historical Societies in Cook, Irwin, and Berrien Counties. Items that may be of personal interest will be given to the families involved, he said.

The Bank of Sparks building, erected in 1909, became Citizens Banking Co. of Sparks in 1929 and then a branch of Adel Banking Co. in more recent times. The interior of the building is currently being renovated for TEN X Indoor Pistol & Rifle Range.

The historic front exterior is being maintained.

On July 4th, community leaders, including business partners for TEN X Range, staged a fireworks display on Goodman Street beginning around dusk. They also offered an Independence Day cookout, complete with hamburgers, hotdogs, and all the fixings, for local people.

The 11-lane range should open soon. The range will be the only indoor facility of its kind in this area of South Georgia.