On this day in 1735, a group of Scottish Highlanders sailed from Inverness, Scotland, aboard the Prince of Wales, bound for Georgia. They disembarked on the northern bank of the Altamaha River, where they founded New Inverness – later named Darien – 60 miles south of Savannah. The Scots were among the finest soldiers in […]
When James Oglethorpe and the English colonists arrived in Georgia in 1733, Tomochichi was here to greet them. It was his artful diplomacy between the English settlers and the native population that ensured Georgia’s peaceful beginnings. Tomochichi was chief of the Yamacraw tribe, which he created from a group of Creek and Yamasee natives. They […]
Long before Plymouth, or Jamestown, or even St. Augustine, there was another settlement in North America: the very first European attempt to establish a permanent colony on the mainland since the Vikings 500 years earlier. Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon and 600 Spanish colonists landed on Georgia’s coast on this day in 1526, over 200 years […]
Three Georgians died on the Titanic. One of them was Archibald Butt. He was born in Augusta on this day in 1865. Archie Butt became a journalist for the Macon Telegraph. The Atlanta Constitution made him its Washington correspondent. The U.S. State Department appointed him Secretary of the American Embassy in Mexico. He was there […]
The beginnings of the infamous Cherokee Trail of Tears could well be traced to a Lawrenceville courtroom. Governor George Gilmer made Cherokee removal a top priority in the 1820s. But in 1827, the Cherokee Nation established a government and declared themselves sovereign. In response, furious Georgia leaders abolished Cherokee government, and annexed Cherokee land. Meanwhile, […]
Horace King, one of the most renowned bridge builders in Georgia and American history, was born a slave in Chesterfield, South Carolina. His owner, John Godwin, brought him to the Columbus area in 1830, and together they built the first bridge across the Chattahoochee River connecting Georgia and Alabama.Godwin recognized King’s talents as both engineer […]
On this day in 1964, sculptors began taking a third crack at the Confederate Memorial Carving on Stone Mountain, first proposed 50 years earlier by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Renowned sculptor Gutzon Borglum envisioned seven central figures leading an army of thousands. But World War I and funding problems delayed work. Artistic disagreements […]
