A Life of Service
Sheriff George Moses Celebrates his 90th
Birthday
Retired Macon County Sheriff George
Moses
and his wife Margaret have fond memories
of Macon County; the home where they were
born, attended school, and raised their family.
and his wife Margaret have fond memories
of Macon County; the home where they were
born, attended school, and raised their family.
Many of the people they cherish, have passed away, but it was
the citizens of Macon County that helped George Moses make
a huge career change in 1970. Looking back, George recalled,
“Macon County is a special place. I wanted to make a
difference, and give back to the county that’s given so
much to me.”
George Moses didn’t consider a law enforcement career
until he was forty-years old. In 1969, he was working as a
mechanic at Beldin and his wife Margaret was a supervisor at
Van Raalte. They had good jobs and a fifteen-year-old son and
were living quiet lives, but their situation changed drastically
when George committed to protecting and serving Macon
County.
Several of George’s co-workers suggested that he run
for sheriff in the next election. He and Margaret began
discussing the possibility of his becoming the next sheriff
of Macon County and the sacrifices the job would require.
After much thought and prayer, George told his wife, “I’m going
to do it!” “Margaret recalled, “I supported him because I knew
I had to do that. There was no way, with the demands of the
job, that he could serve without my support.”
George Moses served two terms as sheriff, being elected
first in 1970 and later in 1982. The job was a family effort,
because Margaret often helped at the old jail with meal
preparations and their young son Wally shared his dad with so
many others requiring time from Sheriff Moses.
During the election of 1970, George defeated two-term
Republican sheriff, Bryce Rowland, in a close race. George
campaigned somewhat by radio but mostly by talking to people
about their hopes for Macon County. He campaigned mostly
on combating illegal drugs such as hashish which had just
begun entering the county.
George Moses took the oath of office for sheriff on
December 8th, 1970. The sheriff’s office and the county that it
served were both in transition. Dixie Hall was prominent during
the Civil War and for many years, served as the justice center
in Macon County. Dixie Hall and the old jail would soon be
replaced when the current justice center was completed in
1972.
George Moses’s chief deputy, who was living at the
old jail resigned. The Moses family, like Bryce and Alba
Rowland who preceded them, moved into the facility. “The
living arrangements at the jail were very uncomfortable, and
prisoners don’t make good house guests. We were thankful
that we were only there for six months,” George and Margaret
recalled.
The jail had living quarters and a kitchen. Margaret
cooked for the prisoners and watched over the jail while
the deputies were on patrol. Often, the Franklin P.D. helped out
while the county deputies were on an important call.
Late one afternoon, Margaret heard a loud noise. One of
the prisoners were attempting to join the list of escapees that
the jail couldn’t hold over the years. Margaret remembered,
“The inmate had broken a sharp metal piece off the bedframe
and was digging through the wall toward daylight.” If the
prisoner had successfully dug through the jail wall they would
have been free, because modern security, such as cameras or a
fenced prison “yard” were unheard of.
In the 1970’s there were very few regulations at jail
facilities like there are today. The old jail had no air-
conditioning and had seven cells. The older jail held
more inmates than the new justice center did when
it was built in 1972. At the older jail, each cell held as many
bunks as the space would allow, and multiple inmates used
each cell. The old jail’s capacity increased on the weekends,
when a few drunks came through the doors.
The county that George served in the early 1970’s was very
different than Macon County is today. There were a few
summer homes, but the Florida migration was much smaller.
Macon County consisted of families that had lived here for
several generations. Family names such as the Henrys, Rays,
Fouts, Higdons, Brysons, and Rabys were very familiar and
longtime friends about whom George and Margaret cared
deeply.
Macon County consisted of hard-working country folk
with good sense, and much of the time deputies could reason
with them. George recalled, “Many of people the Sheriff’s
department dealt with, we knew well and often we made a
friend during a call to a home.” Of course, often the calls were
much more serious and didn’t have a happy ending.
In law enforcement, spouses rarely get the deserved credit
for what they must endure and the support they give behind-
the-scenes. Margaret Moses remembered that, “When I was
was aware of a serious incident taking place, I often waited by
the phone at 2:00 A.M. or 5:00 A.M.” She would walk the floor,
waiting for Sheriff Moses to call her and let her know he was
okay. When the incident was completed she was relieved!
In the early 70’s prior to the 911 addressing system,
dispatch was handled in a private residence. A call would be
answered and the question was asked, “Who do you live
near?” The directions would often be something like “A short
piece above Tom Henry’s or Garmon Raby’s!” Radios often
didn’t operate in remote parts of the county and there was
rarely backup, if it was needed.
The predominant crimes in the early 1970’s were a rash of
larcenies at the homes of out-of-state summer residences. With
the limited resources of the Sheriff’s Department, officers
mostly concentrated on larceny and the new drug problem in
the county.
The Sheriff’s Department had very few resources in
1970. Today, the budget for the Sheriff’s Department is six
million dollars, but in 1970 it was 250,000 dollars. Most of the
special law enforcement units that we know of today, such as
SRO’s, Canine units and DARE officers didn’t exist in that era.
The entire staff of the Sheriff’s Department consisted of
Sheriff George Moses, deputies Claude Curtis, Dewalt Hyde,
and Carl Zachery. The officers provided their own uniforms
and weapons. There was rarely backup on a call, and it was a
real challenge to patrol the remote communities of Macon
County.
The job of a rural sheriff was much different than that in
urban areas. In those days, the sheriff made $8000 a year, had
no secretary, and no computers. Police reports were kept in
manila folder. Most of the time, Sheriff Moses was just out
patrolling the county with the other three deputies who helped
keep Macon County safe.
Considering the limited resources available to the
Sheriff’s department in the early 1970’s, George and his
three deputies did an amazing job protecting Macon County.
“We worked hard and just did the best we could with the
few resources that we had at the time,” George remembered.
Those teenagers who remember Sheriff George Moses
recall that when he’d speak to them on Main Street, he’d ask,
“Whose boy are you anyway?” He often knew their father
and the rest of the family too. A call to Dad normally
straightened out any rowdy behavior.
The county police cars of the day were Fords and Dodges.
One young boy, who saw Sheriff George’s patrol car on Main
Street, looked up at him and said, “My big brother told me that
your car would burn rubber and scoot real fast!” “Not as fast as
that antenna right there,” George told him.
The patrol cars had very little equipment other than
a billy stick, a weapon, a radio, mace, and briefcase with
paperwork. Sheriff Moses didn’t carry a weapon most of the
time, but kept it under the seat of his car.
In those days, radar guns and speeders were the domain of
the Highway Patrol. In the early 70’s the pin system became
available allowing law enforcement to call dispatch and check a
tag. “In the days before the pin system, if I stopped a vehicle, I
didn’t know if the car was stolen or if the driver was a suspect
because you couldn’t run the tag,” George remembered.
Much of the information that the Sheriff’s Department
received came from a someone in the community, who had
seen or heard something. In 1973, a tip led to surveillance of
Middle Creek, an area located near the Georgia state line,
where an illegal liquor still was operating. The men who were
working the liquor still came riding by in their own trucks, near
where the deputies were standing. The ATF handled the
investigation and estimated that the still was a “whopping”
one-hundred gallons. It was one of the biggest ever “busted” in
Macon County.
The men were making rot-gut whiskey, distilled through
radiators and sold to victims in Atlanta or Greenville, who had
no knowledge of how it was produced. The bounty was later
poured into the storm drains on Main Street, and the
confiscated equipment was auctioned on the courthouse steps.
One of the many characters that George and the Sheriff’s
Department tolerated, were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mast.
They arrived in Macon County from Texas in the early 1980’s,
driving two dark-colored Cadillacs. The couple camped in
Swain County at Deep Creek Campground but spent much time
around Franklin, posing as evangelists and seeking donations.
The pair was impossible to miss because their Cadillacs
had colorful Bible scriptures painted all over them with sayings
like “God’s Chariot of Salvation” or “Car Approved by The
Almighty God!”
The Cadillac’s would cruise into a service station on
Highlands Road or Georgia Road, and George recalled,
“The driver of the Cadillac often asked the station attendant,
“Do you want to give a tank of gas to God?”
Later, a call came from law enforcement in Texas, seeking
information about the two characters. It turned out that their
two “Cadillacs by God” were stolen, and Mr. and Mrs. Mast
were extradited back to the Lonestar State. Charles Mast left
Macon County with one last blast of wisdom, saying “God
told him to steal two black Cadillacs!”
Thinking of the court cases and the characters that
George Moses encountered in his law enforcement career
brought back memories of those he helped, and the ones that
he couldn’t help. George couldn’t give many people a break
because their crime was to serious. Some of the youngsters he
was able to help, and those individuals have found success.
Recently, George spoke to one of those adults in town
that had gone astray as a teenager but today has found
success. George recalled that, “it was rewarding to see a
success story, and someone that had turned their life around!”
George Moses left the sheriff’s office in 1986 after being
defeated by Homer Holbrooks in the election. Many citizens
thanked Sheriff Moses for being treated with respect and
dignity. Superior Court Judge Friday had a long career, knowing
many Sheriffs in the local region. He commented that, “Sheriff
Moses was a good man who served Macon County well.” Judge
Friday told Margaret Moses that, “He had never met or worked
with a sheriff who worked harder, cared more, or was more
conscientious about his job than Sheriff George Moses.”
Law enforcement is quite different today from what it was
in 1970, but in one profound way it hasn’t changed at all. Today
in 2019, it still requires men and women of strong character
who sacrifice their lives for a job that is often “thankless” but
very rewarding. Thankfully, a few good men and women still
care, work hard, and are willing to give their life for others, as
George Moses exemplified during his law enforcement career.
(Matthew Baker is the author of “My Mountain Heroes: Stories of Inspiration and Courage from Macon County’s Greatest Generation.” The book can be purchased at Book’s Unlimited or the Macon County Historical Museum. For more information about the book call 828-347-6164)
