Planes, Trains & Heroes: A Story of Warner Robins and the Robins Region

and Bibb County purchased 3,108 acres from…
local farm families for just over $97,000 and
donated the property to the army air forces in
August 1941” (New Georgia Encyclopedia).
This acquisition was a continuation of
Middle Georgia’s efforts to bring jobs and people
to the area by making defense jobs available.
Women helped raise money for the war
effort. They worked in factories and held
positions in the armed forces.
When the Air Force base arrived, it signaled
changes for the Feagin family. A Pictorial History
of Robins Air Force Base says that,
The land which is now the site of Robins Air
Force Base was assembled from numerous
individual property owners but much of it was
once a part of the Feagin Plantation. In fact, the
grave of Henry Feagin (1795-1842) is on Robins
Air Force Base in the tiny cemetery on 10th
street, in the block between E and F streets. His
home, ‘The Oaks,’ was also on Robins Air Force
Base and was still in existence when the base was
built. For a time, during World War II, it was
used as the enlisted men’s Guest House. In 1966,
the house was sold and moved away from
Robins AFB (2).
Guide to the Robins Region Georgia says, “The
thriving city that is now Warner Robins was
once a small town known as Wellston, which
housed 50 residents and served as a train stop
for local farmers in the early 20th century. In the
1930s, the U.S. government entertained the
thought of building an Army Air Corps Depot in
metro Atlanta; that is, until [a Middle Georgia
partnership promoted] Wellston [and] promised
to build the depot cheaper and faster than its
urban competitor could” (3).
Members of the Feagin family remained in
Warner Robins and later gained employment on
the base.
Groundbreaking for Robins Air Field
occurred across a dirt road “in September
[1941]. Wellston town leaders, led by Bostwick
Watson and his brothers, helped win the
contract, at least in part, by donating land for
the town’s first school and other civic buildings.
[These] leaders also obtained a promise from
Wellston Housing Company to construct 2,000
affordable homes in 1942 and more later” (New
Georgia Encyclopedia). Nashville, Tennessee;
Atlanta, Dublin, Albany, Milledgeville, Cordele,
and Vienna, Georgia” were “also interested in
the new Air Corps facility” (Head 3). Atlanta,
who favored an Ellenwood site, and Macon,
who favored the Wellston site, were the final
two who competed for this contract. Wellston
(later Warner Robins) won.
As progress on the new base began, issues of
housing the civilian population arose. Macon
planned to build housing for workers in Bibb
Top, left: Nurses at Robins Air Force
Base during World War II.
Above: A photograph of the first
official blue Air Force uniforms.
Chapter Two ✦ 15