Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II, Part 57

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1274

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which the beloved Mrs. Isaac Winship was president. On April 15, 1866, inspired by a letter from the pen of Mrs. Charles J. Williams, of Columbus, advocating a Memorial Day, Mrs. Morgan requested Mrs. W. W. Clay- ton, with her two daughters, Julia and Sallie, afterwards Mrs. Hoge and Mrs. Crane, to unite with her in calling the ladies of Atlanta together. Accordingly a meeting was held at which initial steps were taken.

Re-enforced by Mrs. John N. Simmons, the above named ladies, within two days, raised $350 out of a pov- erty-stricken town with which to put the cemetery in or- der and to meet necessary expenses. Mrs. Morgan, with her father and mother, Major and Mrs. Hamilton Goode, the Misses Clayton, and others, went day after day to the cemetery, often taking a light lunch with them; and in person directed the hired labor until they had cleared the ground where the known Confederate dead were bur- ied. Cedar, out of which to make wreathes, was brought from Stone Mountain to Atlanta, free of charge, by the Georgia Railroad. Both of the local papers espoused the movement and urged the merchants of Atlanta to observe the day by a general closing of stores. There was no formal oration at the cemetery, due to positive orders from the Federal officers. But Col. E. F. Hoge, in a few well-chosen words, introduced the chaplain of the occasion, Rev. Robert Q. Mallard, pastor of the Cen- tral Presbyterian church, who offered a most eloquent prayer, prefaced by a few opening remarks.

As the immediate result of this simple service over the graves of the dead, there was formed in Atlanta, within the next few days a Memorial Association constituted as follows : President, Dr. J. P. Logan; 1st Vice-President, Mrs. Joseph H. Morgan; 2nd Vice-President, Mrs. E. B. Walker; 3rd Vice-President, Mrs. J. N. Simmons. Be- sides, there was chosen a board of directors, with the following members, to wit: Gen. G. T. Anderson, Col. John S. Prather, Col. E. F. Hoge, Major Austin Leyden, Capt. W. M. Williams, Dr. J. G. Westmoreland, Mrs. R.

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Bass, Mrs. J. M. Johnson, and Mrs. W. F. Westmoreland. Dr. J. P. Logan promptly declined the executive honors. whereupon Mrs. Joseph H. Morgan was elected presi- dent, an office which she filled for two years. In the spring of 1868, she relinquished her official duties on ac- count of a contemplated absence from the city for an indefinite length of time, but she had given the work its initial impetus. On returning to Atlanta, she resumed her place in the ranks, where she has ever since been tire- less in her manifold activities. Mrs. Morgan's success- ors in office have been as follows: Mrs. John B. Gordon, Mrs. J. M. Johnson, Mrs. W. W. Clayton, Mrs. John Milledge, and Mrs. W. D. Ellis. The last named lady has now been president of the Memorial Association for nearly twenty years. One whose name does not appear in the above list, but who, until her removal to Chatta- nooga was an unwearied worker in the ranks was Mrs. George T. Fry. Though still open to some dispute, At- lanta's Memorial Association was probably the first one organized as such in the Southern States.

Re-Interring the Dead.

During Mrs. Morgan's tenure of office, the building of a monument was first projec- ted. But the most imperative obligation at this time binding upon them was the re-interment of the dead soldiers then lying in the trenches around At- lanta. Accordingly, a petition was made to the city council for an additional area of ground in which to re- inter the dead bodies. This request was granted. But due to a lack of funds the work of removal was postponed for another year. In the meantime, Major Joseph H. Morgan painted and lettered five hundred head-boards with which to mark the graves of his fallen comrades. When the task . of removing the dead bodies from the trenches around the city was at last undertaken, Mrs. John M. Johnson became the most conspicuous figure in the activities of this period. Mrs. Johnson was the wife

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of a much-beloved physician of Atlanta and a sister of two noted Confederate Generals : Howell and Thomas R. R. Cobb. With a spirit which never once flagged, Mrs. Johnson superintended in her own person the work of re- moving the dead bodies. The sphere of her operations covered an area of ten miles around Atlanta. There was hardly a square foot of ground which she left unvisited. In some of the trenches, Mrs. Johnson found as many as eighty or a hundred soldiers, wrapped in war-blank- ets, with their hands crossed and with their caps over their faces. Lumber was needed for boxes; and since none was to be obtained at this time in Atlanta, Mrs. Johnson went to Stone Mountain, where she succeeded in obtaining supplies. She then supervised the making of boxes into which, first and last, some three thousand Confederate soldiers were reverently gathered and given the rites of Christian burial. When the dead bodies were re-interred, council granted the ladies permission to sub- divide the unoccupied ground into lots and to offer the same for sale. Out of the proceeds arising from this source, they were enabled to place marble head-stones over the graves, to unveil the Lion of Lucerne as a mem- orial to the unknown dead and to make other needed im- provements without calling upon the public for aid.

Atlanta's Con- On April 26, 1874, the magnificent federate Monuments. granite shaft in Oakland Cemetery was unveiled to the memory of the Confederate dead. Hon. Thomas Hardeman, Jr., of Ma- con, was the orator of the occasion, introduced to the as- semblage by Col. Robt. A. Alston; while the prayer of in- vocation was offered by Gen. Clement A. Evans. The monument is sixty-five feet in height. It is Romanesque in style, resting upon a base twenty feet square, from which it rises in a series of six gradations, is built of

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Stone Mountain granite, devoid of ornamentation, and contains only this inscription :

OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD-1873.

From base to apex, it represents a free-will offering to the South's heroic dead. The granite was donated by the Stone Mountain Granite Company and trans- ported free of charge by the Georgia Railroad. Mr. Wm. Gay, the designer, donated both the tablet and the in- scription. Dr. Amos Fox assumed the contract for its erection and Mr. Calvin Fay gave his services as super- vising architect. The total cost of the monument was only $8,000 though it represented a minimum value of little less than $20,000. Concerts, teas, suppers, cha- rades, moon-light picnics-these were some of the ways in which the money was realized. The corner-stone of the monument was laid on the day of Gen. Lee's funeral, at which time the oration was delivered by one of his greatest lieutenants-Gen. John B. Gordon. Some of the men of Atlanta who were unremitting in the help which they gave to the Ladies' Memorial Association were : Major Tom Williams, Capt. Wm. Williams, Mr. Charles Herbst, Mr. A. R. Watson, Col. E. Y. Clarke, Col. John S. Prather, Major Austin Leyden, Col. George W. Adair, Col. Thomas C. Howard, Mr. Neil Robson, Major Hamilton Goode, Judge W. W. Clayton, Major Joseph H. Morgan, Dr. Amos Fox, Gen. Wm. S. Walker, Col. E. F. Hoge, Mr. B. A. Pratte, Major W. D. Luckie, Mr. Anthony Murphy, and others. These names deserve to be embalmed in Atlanta's grateful remembrance. Two other Confederate monuments typifying the love of Georgia's capital city for the wearers of the gray are the Lion of Lucerne, unveiled to the Unknown Dead, in Oakland cemetery, and the handsome monument erected by the Confederate veterans to the private soldier of the South, in Westview.

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Miss Junia McKin- To be honored with a bronze memor- ley : Her D. A. R. ial tablet in the capitol of a great Memorial. State is a goal of ambition which few can ever hope to attain; but such is the tribute which an appreciative public sentiment has paid to one of the noblest of Georgia's gentle women : Miss Junia McKinley. On December 2, 1909, Piedmont Continental Chapter, D. A. R., by special permission of the State authorities, placed this handsome tablet on the walls of the State Library, near its main entrance. Inscribed upon the tablet, in beautiful raised letters, is the following record :

In grateful remembrance of our beloved founder, MISS JUNIA MCKINLEY. 1854-1907. One of the foremost genealogists, Daughters of the American Revo- lution organizers, educators and patriotic relief workers in the Spanish-American War.

This tablet is erected by Piedmont Continental Chap- 'er, Daughters of the American Revolution, Atlanta, December, 1909.

But the wording of this memorial is entirely too brief to be more than merely suggestive. When the tablet was unveiled by Piedmont Continental Chapter, Governor Jo- seph M. Brown made the speech of acceptance for the State, while Hon. Hugh V. Washington, of Macon, Ga., made the speech of presentation. Mrs. Lewis D. Lowe, Regent of the Chapter, and Mrs. William Lawson Peel, Honorary State Regent, also delivered short addresses, rich in tender memories. There was a large assemblage present, completely filling the spacious hall.

These exercises constituted an extraordinary tribute, but one fully deserved. In the ranks of her patriotic order, Miss Mckinley was a pioneer. She founded At- lanta Chapter, the oldest in the State, organized on the same day which witnessed the birth of the chapter in New York. When the movement was in its infancy she cherished it, loved it, brought to it her own marvelous

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resources of strength. When others faltered, she stood firm; when hope flickered in other hearts, her own en- thusiasm blazed the brighter. If she did not foresee its future destiny, she at least realized its inherent claims, its manifold possibilities. For months she united in her own person the various offices of her chapter and carried upon her willing shoulders the weight of its combined ac- tivities; but she found her reward in the joy of service and at the time of her death was honorary State Regent of the D. A. R.

Miss McKinley was also a gifted educator. At the age of sixteen she organized a private school which she conducted most successfully for more than twenty years. Her work was always along constructive lines. During the Spanish-American War-impelled by the spirit of Florence Nightingale-she established the D. A. R. Hos- pital Corps of Atlanta Chapter, becoming its vice-presi- dent. She gave her entire time to relief work at Fort McPherson and under the auspices of the American Red Cross, opened a diet kitchen for the invalid soldiers. In recognition of her work she received the appreciative thanks of a grateful government, engraved upon parch-

ment. Miss Mckinley was a kinswoman of the great President whose life, like her own, went out ere it reg- istered its maturest powers. Her day was brief-too brief; but, from dawn to dusk, it was full of the sum- mer's radiance, its precious moments were garnered, its golden opportunities were met, and it ended calmly, with the white promise of the stars.

Woodrow Wilson : Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth An Incident in His President of the United States, be- Career as a Lawyer. gan his career as a lawyer in Geor- gia's State capital. He was form- ally admitted to the bar in 1882; and his license to practice law in the courts of this State bears the sig- nature of Hon. George Hillyer, Judge of the Atlanta

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Circuit. Entering into a legal partnership with a bril- liant young barrister like himself, Edward J. Renick, the professional shingle of the new firm was displayed from a modest office on the second floor of the old Hulsey building, on the corner of Broad and Marietta Streets. But there was no immediate rush of clients, and becom- ing discouraged as weeks lengthened into months without materially swelling the bank account of either, they de- cided to dissolve the partnership agreement and to set out in quest of new pastures.

Mr. Renick became in after years assistant Secretary of State under President Cleveland. Still later he was made special representative of the great banking house of Coudert Brothers. He died in the city of Paris while on a very important mission concerning the Gould in- terests, and his death was deplored on both sides of the water. Mr. Wilson went to Baltimore, to pursue a spe- cial course of study at Johns Hopkins. He was then called to an adjunct professorship of history at Bryn Mawr; thence in 1888 he went to Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn., where he taught political science; and two years later accepted the chair of jurisprudence and politics at Princeton, relinquishing this chair in 1902, to become President of the Institution. The policy of his administration was to make this great seat of learning a Democracy. On account of a disagreement with his board of trustees touching a matter which he considered too vital to admit of compromise or surrender, he re- signed the helm of affairs, only to be tendered the Demo- cratic nomination for Governor of New Jersey.

Since his entry into politics, the career of President Wilson has been an open book. The following incident of his sojourn in Atlanta is taken from the files of the Constitution, under date of November 6, 1912:

"Two years after his arrival here the tariff commission appointed by President Hayes to visit the various sections of the country and report of the tariffs workings came to Atlanta and sent out invitations asking any one interested to meet with them and point out unjust discriminations as they saw them. John W. H. Underwood was the Georgia member of the

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commission. When the board assembled in the convention hall of the Kimball House they were greeted by a single man, come to talk over the tariff. For two hours or more he fired question after question at the tariff experts, turned the 'evidence meeting' into a debate between himself and the board and showed those gentlemen just what the situation was in the South, says Henry Peeples, one of Atlanta's best-known attorneys, in re- calling the scene:

" 'What is your name?" asked the commission of the young man.

" ' I am Woodrow Wilson, a lawyer, " he answered."

Though a native of Virginia, where he was born at Staunton, in the renowned Valley, the greater part of the President's boyhood was spent in Georgia. His father, Dr. Joseph R. Wilson, was a noted Presbyterian minister, who was for years pastor of a church in Au- gusta. Here the future president received his elemen- tary education, and one of his teachers at this time was Professor Joseph T. Derry, the famous historian and educator, now of Atlanta. It was in the town of Rome, at the residence of a cousin, that he first met and courted his future wife, then Miss Ellen Louise Axson. The marriage occurred, in 1885, at Savannah, the home of the bride's grand-parents, with whom Miss Axson was then living. Two of his children were born in the town of Gainesville, at the home of an aunt, Mrs. Brown, the mother of Colonel Edward T. Brown, of Atlanta. From this somewhat rapid biographical survey, his complete indentification with Georgia is made apparent, and there is no section of the State which the career of this fore- most citizen of the nation has not touched. Illustrious both in politics and in letters, he has written a score of standard books and received the doctor's degree from a dozen world renowned institutions.

Dedicated by a Woman. At à cost considerably in excess of $1,000,000, Fulton County has just completed a magnificent court-house, which will doubtless meet the demands of expansion for the next one hundred years. It is a massive structure of granite, the walls of which will often ring with eloquent appeals from gifted lawyers. But an interesting fact to be noted by the future historian is that the first speech ever made in Fulton County's temple of justice was made by

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a woman: Mrs. Richard P. Brooks, of Forsyth. On December 9, 1913, when the roof of the building was completed, there was a flag-raising under the auspices of Piedmont Continental Chapter, D. A. R., at which time Georgia's State flag was presented to the State of Georgia, to the County of Fulton, and to the city of Atlanta, by this patriotic organization. General Clifford L. Anderson, chairman of the Board of County Commis- sioners, presided. The ceremonies were held in the court-house basement, and the programme rendered was as follows:

Address of Presentation, by Mrs. Richard P. Brooks, Regent Piedmont Continental Chapter, D. A. R.

Speech of Acceptance for the city of Atlanta, by Mayor James G. Wood- ward.

Speech of Acceptance for the County of Fulton and for the State of Geor- gia, by State Historian, Lucian Lamar Knight.

Remarks, by Mrs. Sheppard W. Foster, State Regent, D. A. R.

Two Great Universi- Besides acquiring one of the twelve

ties : Oglethorpe regional banks, under the new cur- and Candler. rency system of the Wilson admin- istration, an achievement which in itself makes Atlanta one of the recognized financial cap- itals of the land, this favored metropolis has, during the . current year, 1914, secured two great educational insti- tutions-Oglethorpe University, a school endowed by the Presbyterians, and Candler University, a school founded by the Methodists. Oglethorpe University was formerly located at Midway, near Milledgeville, Ga .; but, after giving the immortal Sidney Lanier to American litera- ture and educating a future Governor in the person of Joseph M. Brown, it perished amid the wreckage entailed by the great Civil War. During the present year, chiefly through the splendid initiative of one man, Rev. Thorn- well Jacobs, D. D., who has made this magnificent project his dream and his passion, Oglethorpe University has been revived in Atlanta, with an endowment, aggregating in small subscriptions, over $1,000,000, besides an ex- tensive campus, at Silver Lake, on Peachtree Road, gen- erously donated by a syndicate owning this beautiful tract of land. It is fully expected that Oglethorpe will become a $5,000,000 plant before a decade has passed.

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When the Southern Methodists, in the spring of this year, relinquished Vanderbilt, at Nashville, Tenn., it was decided by the General Conference of the Church to es- tablish two great universities in the South, one on either side of the Mississippi River. Through the munificent liberality of Col. Asa G. Candler, who subscribed $1,000,- 000 to the fund-thus making the largest individual gift ever made to education by a Southern man, during his life- time-Atlanta has secured one of these great schools, while the other one is to be located at Dallas, Tex. Col. Candler's letter, accompanying his gift, thrilled and elec- trified the whole Christian commonwealth. Its deep re- ligious note and its true ring of piety make it an extra- ordinary document-one to be treasured in the archives of the Church; but aside from these characteristics its

significance is historic. Local pledges have already swelled the subscription to something beyond $2,000,000 and when the canvass of the South-eastern States is com- pleted it will doubtless result in a grand total of $5,000,- 000 for this colossal plant. Bishop Warren A. Candler has been placed temporarily at the head of the institu- tion and will doubtless be made its permanent chancellor. . As this work goes to press, the choice of a name for the proposed school has not yet been made; but throughout the bounds of the South there is only one voice and one sentiment; and if what seems to be the universal desire of the Church prevails it will bear a name illustrious in Southern Methodism; Candler.

The Burns Me- One of the most unique memorials in exist- morial ence is located on the outskirts of Atlanta,

Cottage. near the terminus of the Confederate Sol- dier's Home car line, just half an hour's ride from the town center. It is an exact reproduction in granite of the Ayrshire Cottage, in which the immor- tal bard of Scotland-humanity's best-loved poet-first saw the light of day. In 1907 the Burns Club, of Atlanta,

' Burns Cottage.'

Burns Club Grounds, Atlanta, Georgia, U. S. A.

In Allaway Aprshire, Scotland.

THE BURNS MEMORIAL COTTAGE, ATLANTA, GA,

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purchased in this neighborhood a tract of thirteen acres, luxuriantly wooded with forest trees, and selling in 1910 a fractional part of this property for a sum equal to three times the cost of the entire original tract of land, a fund was thus provided for erecting the Burns Cottage and for beautifying the adjacent grounds. The corner- stone of the cottage was laid on November 5, 1910, by the Grand Lodge of Georgia Masons, at which time Hon. J. H. Lumpkin, of the Supreme Court of Georgia, paid an eloquent tribute to the memory of the great bard. Three months later, on the evening of January 25, 1911, the cottage was formally dedicated with a dinner, every detail of which was most elaborately planned. The lit- erary address on this occasion was delivered by Lucian Lamar Knight, Esq., in addition to which feature of the program speeches were delivered by the following well- known Georgians, in response to toasts: Hon. John M. Graham, president of the Burns Club; Judge Marcus W. Beck, Judge Richard B. Russell, Judge Arthur G. Powell, Dr. Joseph Jacobs, Dr. E. S. Lynden and others. Two streets, called Ayr Place and Alloway Place, have been opened to the Burns Cottage.

GILMER

Ellijay. On the site of an old Indian village of this name arose the present town of Ellijay. When the new county of Gilmer was created out of the Cherokee lands in 1832, and named for Governor George R. Gilmer, it was found that the center of the county was not far from this Indian village, and accordingly Elljay was made the county-seat. It was incorporated by an Act approved December 20, 1834, with the following commissioners: Wm. P. King, Henry K. Quillian, B. L. Goodman, Na- than Smith, and Joshua Bourn .*

The Gilmer County Academy was incorporated in 1833.

*Acts, 1834, p. 247.

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GLASCOCK

Gibson. On December 19, 1857, an Act was approved organizing the new county of Glascock out of lands formerly included in Warren. It was called Glas- cock in honor of a distinguished soldier and civilian, then recently deceased, Gen. Thomas Glascock, whose father of the same name, was a gallant officer of the Revolution but unfortunately for his reputation, a Yazooist. The new county-seat was called Gibson, in honor of Judge William Gibson, of the Middle Circuit, who gave $500 toward the erection of the court-house.

GLYNN

Brunswick.

Volume I.

Brunswick's On November 10, 1906, under the auspices

Liberty Tree. of Brunswick Chapter, D. A. R., Mrs. E. F. Coney, regent, there was planted a Li- berty Tree, upon which the eyes of the nation have since been fixed with absorbed interest. The soil to nurture the roots of the tree came from every section of the United States and the occasion was one replete with such in- terest not only from a spectacular but from a patriotic point of view that other localities have since followed the example set by Brunswick, with the result that a new era has been marked in national patriotism. To make the occasion a success the Governors of the various States gladly co-operated in the matter, not only furnish- ing soil but writing letters of encouragement; and in addition to these letters there were scores of telegrams and messages received by the local chapter. Young la- dies from the Brunswick schools were chosen to repre- sent the different States. Dressed in the national colors, Columbia, with her thirteen maids of honor, representing the original colonies, came first, under a military escort,

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followed by the band. Then came forty-nine girls, each bearing a flag and a hand full of soil from the State which she represented; and passing down the line, to the music of "America," deposited the soil at the roots of the Tree. There is a handsome bronze tablet to further mark this historic spot in the heart of Brunswick, the significance of which is to remind the youth of our coun- try that sectional estrangement no longer exists and that in place of it we have today-

A Union of lakes and a Union of lands, A Union of States none can sever ; A Union of hearts and a Union of hands, And the flag of our Union forever !

Memorial of During the summer of 1913, the historic Bloody Marsh. battle-field of Bloody Marsh, on St. Si- mon's Island, was marked by a handsome granite memorial, unveiled under the auspices of two pa- triotic organizations: the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America, and the Georgia Society of Colonial Wars. Hon. Richard D. Meader, of Brunswick, Chan- cellor of the latter society, delivered the principal ad- dress, in which he discussed the far-reaching significance of this decisive battle, on the Georgia coast. Said he, among other things :

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Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II, Part 57

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933 Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co. Number of Pages: 1274

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1274