ESTABLISHING CACKLE CORNER FARMS
Harry Kenneth (“H.K.”) Goode was some farmer, back in the day. The son of a farmer, he had established his own farm as a young adult, first in East Point, Georgia, then in nearby Ben Hill. He met Mary ‘Frances’ Waldrop, a city girl from East Point, and they married in 1941. He worked the farm, raising over 200 heads of hogs, thousands of chickens, and vegetables enough to feed their household. She worked from home, tending their family of five.
The year was 1952 when H.K.’s search for new farmland brought him to the Friendship Community in what is now Chattahoochee Hills. Miles of pastureland bordered the long stretches of gravel roads, with working farms and country homes dotting the landscape. A 75-acre parcel that included a modest home was just what H.K was looking for, so he closed the deal and started plans to make the house a home with his wife, Frances, and four children: David (10), Virginia (8), Harry (6), and John (1). (Children Susan and Allen were born years after moving to the farm.)
H.K. spent the next year or so preparing the new farm for his family – adding an indoor bathroom, tidying up the small home, and building his farm out-buildings. Once the family moved, they eased into the business of family farming, each doing their own part to help as they could.
MEMORIES OF CACKLE CORNER FARMS
– AS TOLD BY SUSAN GOODE CHAFIN
The Farm
My father raised White Leghorn chickens and sold eggs. He built the chicken houses and would buy 1,000 chicks at a time. They were delivered by the mail man in cardboard boxes when they were just a day or so old. He would raise them and feed them, inoculate them, etc. until they were old enough to lay farm fresh eggs! He named the farm, “Cackle Corner Farms.” He did most of the work, but the children did help with the chores along with our mother who stayed home and raised six children and supported the church and schools with her volunteer work.
Our father sold eggs and delivered to homes in East Point and also sold to several grocery stores and restaurants including Wingo's, Cruise Inn, Happy Homes Grocery, Melear’s Barbecue in Union City, and Hardy's Super Market in Southwest Atlanta. People would also come to the house and purchase eggs.
Two of his brothers were Jim and Hall Goode who are referenced in Truett Cathy's books about Chick-fil-A as "Goode Bros. Poultry". They sold Chick-fil-A their chicken filets at the first restaurant in Hapeville known as the Dwarf House.
The year was 1952 when H.K.’s search for new farmland brought him to the Friendship Community in what is now Chattahoochee Hills. Miles of pastureland bordered the long stretches of gravel roads, with working farms and country homes dotting the landscape. A 75-acre parcel that included a modest home was just what H.K was looking for, so he closed the deal and started plans to make the house a home with his wife, Frances, and four children: David (10), Virginia (8), Harry (6), and John (1). (Children Susan and Allen were born years after moving to the farm.)
H.K. spent the next year or so preparing the new farm for his family – adding an indoor bathroom, tidying up the small home, and building his farm out-buildings. Once the family moved, they eased into the business of family farming, each doing their own part to help as they could.
MEMORIES OF CACKLE CORNER FARMS
– AS TOLD BY SUSAN GOODE CHAFIN
The Farm
My father raised White Leghorn chickens and sold eggs. He built the chicken houses and would buy 1,000 chicks at a time. They were delivered by the mail man in cardboard boxes when they were just a day or so old. He would raise them and feed them, inoculate them, etc. until they were old enough to lay farm fresh eggs! He named the farm, “Cackle Corner Farms.” He did most of the work, but the children did help with the chores along with our mother who stayed home and raised six children and supported the church and schools with her volunteer work.
Our father sold eggs and delivered to homes in East Point and also sold to several grocery stores and restaurants including Wingo's, Cruise Inn, Happy Homes Grocery, Melear’s Barbecue in Union City, and Hardy's Super Market in Southwest Atlanta. People would also come to the house and purchase eggs.
Two of his brothers were Jim and Hall Goode who are referenced in Truett Cathy's books about Chick-fil-A as "Goode Bros. Poultry". They sold Chick-fil-A their chicken filets at the first restaurant in Hapeville known as the Dwarf House.
The House
Ed Milton wrote a historical book titled, "Growing' Up in Hapeville (And South Fulton).” He said his family moved to the (Cackle Corner) house in 1928 when he was 10 years old. He remembers the house as “a large, two-story log house with large rooms and high ceilings, with a tremendous fireplace that burned logs, not coal. (The house was later covered with asbestos siding.) It had a well, a path and an outhouse.” When I lived in the house almost 30 years later, not much had changed. It had a metal roof and was unfinished upstairs except for two bedrooms at one end of the house. The rafters were in place, but the other rooms were never finished as long as I lived there. There was a large bedroom downstairs with a living room, and a kitchen with a fireplace in it. A bathroom and “tv” room were added at some point before I was born. Virginia remembers an “outhouse” when she first moved in. The House |