In 1890, a small hamlet in south-central Pickens County named Jockey arose near the Cagle Mills on Sharp Mountain Creek. A post office was created in the same building as the local merchandise store, thereby designating Jockey as a ‘post-hamlet.’ An October 11, 1890, Pickens County Herald article detailed the creation.
The Postmaster of the newly appointed post office was John Wesley Cagle. He was appointed under the term of President Harrison.
According to Alonzo Cagle, the name Jockey was chosen after interaction with men from the area of Jockey, Tennessee who were selling lightning rods. They told him of a post office named Jockey. In the 1880s, their Jockey was a hamlet located in Greene County, Tennesee.*
Like all small post offices throughout rural America, the post office of Jockey was based out of a house. The house, which doubled as a post office and residence, is located immediately southeast of Sharp Mountain Creek, on Land Lot 198 in the Sharp Mountain Militia District.
In February of 1893, during the last weeks of President Benjamin Harrison’s tenure, the Postmaster General of the United States, John Wanamaker, mailed a letter of gratitude to John Wesley Cagle for his service.
The 1900 Federal Census lists John Wesley Cagle’s occupation as that of miller. According to historian Robert Scott Davis, Jr. John Wesley Cagle helped to build the mill. The Cagle family had bought the land for the site as early as 1869 after a public sale of Mr. Nelson who was murdered by Benjamin McCollum's Raiders. The distillery at the site was one of a handful of Federally authorized distilleries in Pickens County. The Cagle brothers also operated a grist mill, blacksmith shop, furniture store, and lumber mill, and Cotton Gin at the site.
The Cagle family used their money from the distillery and other ventures to buy over 1,000 acres of land in what would later become known as Cagletown.
On J.W. Henley’s 1903 map of the county, the road just beyond the Jockey P.O. crosses Sharp Mountain Creek headed towards Cagletown.
Eventually, Jockey’s post office responsibilities were transferred to Jasper in April, 1907.
On the 1926 topographic map of the area, Cagle Mill can be seen on Sharp Mountain Creek. Almost immediately parallel to the Jockey P.O. location.
As late as the 1950s the buildings at the Cagle Mill property were still standing. Today, foundation pillars, metal machinery pieces, and ruins of several buildings are visible at the site.
In his later years, John Wesley Cagle enjoyed a more relaxed lifestyle and continued the family tradition of attending Bethany Baptist Church. He attended the church for nearly 70 years. For many of those years, he served as a Deacon and as a Superintendent of Sunday School. According to John’s son Tom Cagle, also a Deacon at the church, all the pews were hewn from one tree from his Uncle Peter’s property. John Wesley Cagle stayed in the Cagle Mill area until he died in 1949. He is buried at Bethany Baptist Church.
As of January 2024, the house that housed the Jockey Post Office still stands.
*In the 1998 Pickens County Georgia Heritage Book, it mentions that Alonzo Cagle of Texas, met men working from Tennessee selling lightning rods, and came from a village named Jockey, from which Pickens’ Jockey takes its name.
Next to Jockey, in nearby Greeneville, Tennessee, the Lightning Rod King of America, Col. J.H. Doughty resided. He had wagons that traversed most of the southern United States, selling lightning rods in large quantities.
As with Col. Sam Tate, Doughty’s title was honorary. A successful businessman and real estate purchaser, he had amassed a small fortune, estimated at a half million dollars in 19th-century currency.
Census data shows Daughty family members living in Tennessee, Texas, and Oklahoma. What were their occupations? Lightning Rod Agents. And most likely the same ones that Jockey was named for.
I love the history in Pickens County..
Thank you Chris
Love all this history!