25 February 1900: One Immigrant's Story

On this day in Athens, and throughout the week, Albin Hajos Gallery ran this advertisement in the Daily Banner:

 

Albin Hajos spent only a few years in Athens, but made quite an impression while he was here. He was born in Austria on 4 November 1867, and arrived in the United States on Christmas Day, 1886, on the S. S. Aller, just two months after the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. On his passenger list, his age entered as 23, and his occupation as "Merchant."

After three years in Ohio, Hajos moved to Tennessee. The same week he became a naturalized citizen in 1892, he applied for a United States passport for himself and his 20-year-old wife, Jennie. In the application, he is described as being approximately 5'5" tall with a high forehead, small nose and mouth on a round face with a fair complexion with dark brown hair and gray eyes. He listed his occupation as "Book keeper."

In April, 1896, Hajos moved his family, which by then included a daughter, Emily, and a son, Charley, to Athens, where he set up his photography studio and gallery above the grocery store of George Williamson at 31 East Clayton Street. According to the Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Athens from 1898, his office appears to be in the same location as Cillie's Clothing is today.

Hajos advertised regularly in the Athens newspaper, typically simple one or two sentence ads about sales or feature products, such as "photo buttons." He made many photographs of the buildings in Athens, and in 1901 published a book, Souvenir of Athens, featuring homes and businesses from around the city. The interior photos of the Lucy Cobb Institute may have been made for submission to the Ladies Home Journal in 1897, when they requested images for their series of the "different interiors" of 100 American homes. The book was reissued in 2001, noting that half of the structures Hajos had included had since been torn down.

In 1902, Hajos moved his family to St. Louis, Missouri, and by 1910, was living in Chattanooga, Tennessee again. For several years after he left Athens, the dentist who leased his old space on Clayton Street would list "Hajos Gallery" has his location rather than the street address. In the 1920 and 1930 United States censuses, he and Jennie are living in Atlanta, where he works for Kodak as an "xray man;" there are occasional mentions in the society section of the Athens newspapers after 1910s of his wife coming back to Athens to visit friends, or Athens friends staying with the Hajos family in Atlanta. By the 1935 Florida state census, he is living in Miami, and lists his occupation as retired. He died there in 1939.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Feb. 1900 - Dec. 1908 Supplementary on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Weekly Banner, Nov. 1899 - Jul. 12, 1902 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• U. S. Census, 1910, 1920, 1930 on HeritageQuest online. (call 706-613-3650 for password)
• U. S. Passport Applications, 1795 -1905 on Footnote Library Edition. (call 706-613-3650 for password)
• Florida Census, 1935 on Ancestry Library Edition.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps collection on the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Souvenir of Athens by Albin Hajos in the Heritage collection.
• Strangers at the Door: Ellis Island, Castle Garden, and the Great Migration to America by Ann Novotny in the general collection.
• The Pioneering Image: Celebrating 150 Years of American Photography by Jerald C. Maddox in the general collection. 
• Reading American Photographs: Images as History by Alan Trachtenberg in the general collection.
• The Portrait: Professional Techniques and Practices in Portrait Photography by Don Blair in the general collection.
• A Handful of Dust: Photographs of Disappearing America by David Plowden in the general collection.
• Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and Fashion, 1840-1900 by Joan L. Severa in the Heritage collection.

Newsletters!

On this day, we'd like to remind you to subscribe to our two Heritage Room newsletters. They will be delivered to your email Inbox, and are a great way to keep up with genealogy and history throughout the year.

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from historical re-enactments of the Underground Railroad and library book sales to free lectures about Mitchell's Thunderbolts and using DNA for your family history research. Our area has many fantastic educational and research opportunities, and we also let you know about distance learning opportunities with webinars and online courses provided by other historical and genealogical societies.

Our Genealogy Tips and News newsletter makes sure you will not miss out on newly available resources and discoveries. With information and links to new searchable collections of city directories and military indices to details about the 2012 release of the 1940 U.S. Census, we make sure you know what is new, what is available, and what can be helpful for the family researcher.

Click here (or either of the above newletter links) to read the current newsletter and subscribe to have them delivered. It couldn't be easier, and is a great time saver, so sign up today!

20 February 1888: Aviator Ben Epps Is Born

On this day in 1888, Georgia aviation pioneer Benjamin Thomas Epps was born in Oconee County, the first of 10 children. After dropping out of Georgia Tech in 1904, he came to Athens and started a garage business at 120 E. Washington Street, where he repaired bicycles and automobiles, worked as an electrical contractor, and began to design and build airplanes.


In 1907, just a few years after the Wright Brothers' flight in North Carolina, Ben Epps took his first flight, believed to be the first in Georgia.  He was 19 years old. The plane had a 15-horsepower engine and a 35-foot wingspan. Epps launched the plane off a hill, and flew between Prince Avenue and Boulevard, approximately 100 yards at an altitude of 50 feet.

Over the years he would continue to build planes as a hobby while running his garage business, which had the first filling station in Athens.  He was married to Omie Williams Epps, and the father of 10 children; due to his family commitments, he was not drafted to serve in World War I.  

In 1917, he opened the Epps Flying Field, the first civilian airport in Georgia. He started the Rolfe-Epps Flying Service with L. Monte Rolfe, offering charter air service, aerial photography, and flight lessons to the general public. Epps also performed in airshows.

All of his sons, and most of his daughters, learned how to fly. Sometimes he would let his oldest daughter, Evelyn, skip a day at the Lucy Cobb Institute to buzz downtown Athens in his latest plane. When his oldest son, Ben, Jr., was the youngest person to fly solo at age 13, father and son were invited to the White House to meet President Herbert Hoover. 


Though he had several crashes, or "crack ups" over the years, nothing could dissuade Epps from flying. As his wife told a WPA interviewer less than two years after his death, "He was doing this before we married--how could I change him?" His children were largely cut from the same adventurous cloth. 

Ben Epps, Sr., was killed in plane crash in 1937 at the Athens airfield in a plane he'd built seven years earlier while giving a test ride. Mrs. Epps said that "his death has had no effect on us as to our belief in aviation. We are as interested in it now as we were in his lifetime. I am sure if Ben had known that was his last flight, he would have been happy to know he died or was killed in what he loved best, no matter how far he had to fall."


In 1989, Ben Epps was one of the inaugural members of the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame. A replica of his 1912 monoplane is on permanent exhibit at the United States Air Force Aviation Museum in Warner Robins, Georgia. 

The Athens Airport is on the same site as his Flying Field, and was later named the Athens-Ben Epps Airport. His grandson is raising money for a statue of Ben Epps, Sr. on Washington Street, across from his old garage, where the club 8e's is currently located.

Learn More:

• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens Memories: The WPA Federal Writer's Project Interviews, edited by Albert Hester in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens Daily News, Jan. 10, 1969 - Feb. 22, 1969 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Ben Epps Vertical File in the Heritage collection.
• The Ben T. Epps Statue website.
• Dictionary of Georgia Biography by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage collection.
• Aviation: A Smithsonian Guide by Donald S. Lopez in the Reference collection.
• Flying Machine by Andrew Nahum in the children's collection.
• The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950 by Robert Wohl in the general collection.
• Early Air Pioneers, 1862-1935 by James F. Sunderman in the general collection.
• Barnstormers and Daredevils by K. C. Tessendorf in the children's collection.
• Mastering the Sky: A History of Aviation from Ancient Times to the Present by James P. Harrison in the general collection. 
• Skyward: Why Flyers Fly by Russell Munson in the general collection.
• The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge by Paul E. Illman in the general collection.
• Airplane Maintenance and Repair: A Manual for Owners, Builders, Technicians, and Pilots by Douglas S. Carmody in the general collection.
  

17 February 1922: Six Chances to See Pitroff the Miracle Man at the Palace

On this day in 1922, the Athens Daily Banner ran the following advertisement:

The previous week, the Colonial Theatre had featured a magician, but not one who did this particularly startling new illusion of sawing a woman in half. The performance was offered as a bonus feature to the real attraction, a comedy-romance silent movie titled Lessons in Love starring actress Constance Talmadge.


The Daily Banner included an article republished from a national weekly about "Pitroff, the Miracle Man," that began

Magic--the Black Art--never seemed any blacker than when Pitroff, master of bewildering mysteries declared that without sheding [sic] any blood he could cut a person in half and put him together again--alive, none the worse for the experience.  People gasped and mumbled their astonishment. Was he crazy? Surely the law would intervene.

The piece goes on to describe Pitroff's selection of a young woman from the audience, gaining her permission to saw her in half, promising to pay her nearest relative $10,000 if she were killed during the illusion. 

Pitroff likely did not have $10,000 to give anyone. He had started out as an escape artist vaudevillian, similar to Harry Houdini, but on a much smaller scale. As vaudeville gave way to moving pictures, there were fewer opportunities for his style of entertainment. The "sawing in half" illusion was not his invention. It was first done publicly in the United States in 1921 by magician Horace Goldin, who later patented his method for the trick.

Learn More:

•  Athens Daily Banner, Nov. 1921 - Feb. 1922 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians by T. A. Waters in the Reference collection.
• Encyclopedia of Vaudeville by Anthony Slide in the Reference collection.
• Silent Stars by Jeanine Basinger in the general collection.
• The Silent Clowns by Walter Kerr in the general collection.
• Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic by David Blaine in the general collection.
• Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear by Jim Steinmeyer in the general collection.
• Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and Other Delusions by James Randi in the general collection.
• The Amazing Book of Magic: A Step-by-Step, Illustrated Guide to a Host of Simple Yet Spectacular Tricks by Jon Tremaine in the general collection.
• Knack Magic Tricks: A Step-by-Step Guide to Illusions, Sleights of Hand, and Amazing Feats by Richard Kaufman in the general collection.
• The Complete Beginner's Guide to Magic by Walter Brown Gibson in the general collection.
• Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions by Stephen L. Macknick in the New Books collection.
• The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini by Ruth Brandon in the Biography collection.

Learn How to Use DNA in Genealogy

On this day, we'd like to invite you to learn about using DNA in your genealogy research on Saturday, February 19th at 2pm in the library auditorium.


Terry Barton, a pioneer of in the field of genetic genealogy, will give an overview of the different types of DNA testing available, what it can or cannot tell you, and how to apply it to your genealogy research. Barton is president of the Barton Historical Society and co-leader of the 250+ member Barton Genealogy Project.


This program is free and open to the public, and is co-sponsored by the Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society and the Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room. A reception will follow in the Small Conference Room.


For more information, contact the Heritage Room via email or call (706) 613-3650, ext. 350, or the Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society at cogsgenealogy@gmail.com. We hope to see you there!

13 February 1900: The First Meeting of the Athens Humane Society

On this afternoon in 1900, the Athens Humane Society had their first official meeting since their charter was granted on January 30th in a Special Term of Superior Court.

The group had applied for a charter in October, 1899, to form an organization that would work "to prevent cruel treatment to children, protect them from vice and excessive or dangerous labor, and to aid in the enforcement of the laws of said state enacted for the protection of dumb animals from cruel treatment, and the prevention of all cruelty by humane education in the houses and schools and otherwise."


They also asked for power to sue, as well as be sued, and "to do all other acts as are necessary for the legitimate objects of the association." Charter members of the society were E. I. Smith, H. M. Edwards, Rev. Troy Beaty, Simon Michael, Mrs. L. D. DuBose, Mrs. Billups Phinizy, Mrs. E. T. Brown, and Miss Louise DuBose. In the 1900 U. S. Census and the 1889 Athens City Directory, Dr. Orr is listed as the town's Sanitary Inspector.


Though children are mentioned in the charter, it seemed understood that the organization's primary goal was the protection of animals. The day after their charter was granted, the Athens Daily Banner noted that "the attention of merchants and the owners of hacks is called to this organization and they are requested to notify their drivers to be careful in the observance of the laws touching the treatment of animals." 


The paper also stated that "It is expected that this society will exercise a very wholesome influence in Athens."


In their first few months, the organization took a stand against a Clarke County law that required dogs to be muzzled. Especially in hot weather, when there were flying insects about, the committee believed "muzzles would have a tendency to irritate dogs to a point of madness." However, the Council preferred to establish the law, rather than impose a tax on dog owners to register their animals. As the daily papers for 1900 are largely absent after May, it is unclear if they were able to change the law that year. 


Today, Athens is a dog-friendly city, where it is not unusual to see people dining at sidewalk tables outside cafes and restaurants downtown with dogs lying at their feet, happily panting and people-watching. Some establishments, like Big City Bread, offer bowls of water to their canine patrons on their patio. Local companies, such as Pawtropolis and Z-Dog Bakery, cater to the needs of Athens pet population, as well as sponsoring adoptions through their own and the many other rescue organizations in town, such as Athens Canine Rescue and CatZip Alliance, as well as the Athens-Area Humane Society. 


Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Feb. 1900 - Dec. 1908 Supplementary on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Clarke County (Ga.) Superior Court. Charters. 1891-1909. on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive on the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 1889 Athens City DIrectory in the Heritage collection.
• 1904 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• 1900 United States Census in the HeritageQuest Online database in GALILEO. (call 706-613-3650 for password)
• Child Labor: An American History by Hugh D. Hindman in the general collection.
• The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA by Norm Phelps in the general collection.
• Lost and Found Dogs, Cats, and Everyday Heroes at a County Animal Shelter by Elizabeth Hess in the general collection.
• Saved: Rescued Animals and the Lives They Transform by Karin Winegar in the general collection.
• Animals and Society: The Humanity of Animal Rights by Keith Tester in the general collection.
• Ask Now the Beasts: Our Kinship with Animals, Wild and Domestic by Ruth Rudner in the general collection.
• Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals by Temple Grandin in the general collection.
• If You Tame Me: Understanding Our Connection with Animals by Leslie Irvine in the general collection.
• Therapy Pets: The Animal-Human Healing Partnership by Jacqueline Crawford in the general collection. 
• Canines in the Classroom: Raising Humane Children Through Interactions with Animals by Michelle A. Rivera in the general collection.
• Making Kind Choices: Everyday Ways to Enhance Your Life Through Earth- and Animal-Friendly Living by Ingrid Newkirk in the general collection.
• First Friend: A History of Dogs and Humans by Katharine M. Rogers in the general collection.
• Tribe of the Tiger: Cats and Their Culture by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas in the general collection.
• List of Animal Welfare Organizations in Athens.

Start the Year by Getting Started with Genealogy!

On this day, we'd like to remind you about our Getting Started with Genealogy class on Thursday, February 17th, 2011, from 2-4:30pm in the Heritage Room.

In this free, informal session, we'll walk you through the basics of researching your family history. The class is designed to help you begin the construction of your family tree, and to teach you about the resources available in Athens that will be useful to you. The class includes handouts, and is useful even if you aren't looking for relatives in Georgia.

Free and open to the public, but registration is required. Call (706) 613-3650, ext. 350 or email us at heritageroom@arlsmail.org to register.

7 February 1917: Guarantee Purity and Insure Cleanliness "In a Bottle Through a Straw"

On this day in 1917, this Chero-Cola ad appeared in the Athens Daily Herald:

 

Chero-Cola was the predecessor of the Royal Crown Cola available today. It was originally created by Columbus, Georgia pharmacist George Hatcher, and proved so popular at his soda fountain, that bottling the drink became the family business.

The company later introduced ginger ale, root beer, and strawberry-flavored soft drinks, and became Nehi when Coca-Cola sued over their use of the word "cola" in their name. The drink was discontinued in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but was brought back in 1934 as Royal Crown Cola. The company is now owned by the Cadbury-Schweppes Corporation. 

The emphasis on purity and quality of the drink was part of the "pure food movement" of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when revelations about conditions in slaughterhouses, and the toxicity of preservatives used in America's foods became a national issue. The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 brought much-needed regulation and transparency to the nation's food supply as it became more industrialized. Terms like "purity" and "wholesome" were undefined but popular selling points during the Progressive Era, similar to the use of "all natural" on food labels today.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Herald, Jan. - Jun. 1917 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Columbus on the Chattahoochee by Etta Blanchard Worlsey in the Heritage collection.
• Soda Pop! From Miracle Medicine to Pop Culture by Michael Karl Witzel in the general collection.
• A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage in the general collection.
• Soda Science: Designing and Testing Soft Drinks by Bernie Zubrowski in the children's collection.
• Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation by Philip J. Hilts in the general collection. 
• Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health by Marion Nestle in the general collection.
• The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan in the general collection.
• A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era by Steven J. Diner in the general collection.

3 February 1922: Relics of a Love Story

On this day in 1922, the Athens Daily Banner ran the following announcement on their Society page:

 

Poet John Howard Payne, most famous for penning the lyrics to the song Home, Sweet Home,  was "an actor, a playwright, an editor, a cosmopolitan, a peripatetic man of the world," who came to Georgia in 1836 to meet with Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, John Ross. Georgia authorities, who were suspicious of Payne's intentions, arrested him and put him in prison in Spring Place. Payne carried with him a letter of introduction to General Edward Harden of Athens, who had him released from prison and insisted Payne stay at his home rather than take a room in a local inn. 

The Harden family was known for their hospitality. Formerly of Savannah, they had entertained General Lafayette during his famous 1824 tour of the United States, and "brought from Savannah all the graces of that city's social life" when they moved to Athens the following year.

During Payne's time in the Harden home, he apparently became enamored with General Harden's daughter, Mary Eliza Greenhill Harden, who was in her mid-twenties at the time. Though some believed the story of their courtship "has been often told and oftener exaggerated," letters between them indicate that Payne did later ask Mary to marry him. Her reaction to the proposal is unknown, but the couple never married, and it was believed that General Harden "knew Payne was a rolling stone; and while he admired the poet's genius he may have doubted his ability to support a helpmate." 

Mary never spoke publicly about her relationship to John Howard Payne, though it was known he sent her a handwritten copy of his poem, Home Sweet Home, at her request. Neither Payne nor Mary ever married. Payne died while acting as American Consul to Tunis, North Africa, in 1852 at the age of 60; Mary lived another 35 years, spending her whole life in Athens, and was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery, next to her mother, in 1887. 

Though Mary Harden kept her relationship to Payne private, her cousin's daughter, Evelyn Harden Jackson, eventually came to inherit the Harden home, and strongly promoted the legend. In 1918, she even published a small booklet, Souvenir of the Harden Home, with portraits, photographs, and short articles from newspapers and magazines about Payne, the Harden family, and the rumored love story. She also hosted events like the one above as fundraisers for charitable causes.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Nov. 1921 - Feb. 1922 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• Souvenir of the Harden Home, compiled by Evelyn Harden Jackson in the Heritage collection.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I by Charlotte Marshall Thomas in the Heritage and general collection.
• A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians, Volume III, by Lucian Lamar Knight in the Heritage collection.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• John Howard Payne to His Countrymen by John Howard Payne in the Heritage collection.
• Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears by Theda Perdue in the general collection.
• Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People by Thurman Wilkins in the Heritage collection.
• Cherokee Removal: The Journal of Rev. Daniel S. Butrick, May 1, 1838 - April 1, 1839 by Daniel Butrick in the Heritage collection.
• Driven West: Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears to the Civil War by A. J. Langguth in the general collection.
• The Return of Lafayette, 1824-1825 by Marian Klamkin in the biography collection.
• China As I See It by Pearl S. Buck in the general collection.
• China, 1890-1938: From the Warlords to the World War by Suyin Han in the general collection.
• Listen to Home Sweet Home.

Heritage Room Newsletters Open the Door to a Great Research Year!

On this day, we'd like to remind you to subscribe to our two Heritage Room email newsletters. They will be delivered to your email Inbox, and are a great way to keep up with all that is going on in genealogy and history throughout the year.

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from author events and genealogy classes to historic exhibits and battlefield tours. Many societies are commemorating the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and this newsletter makes sure you won't miss any of the great learning opportunities available.

Our Genealogy Tips and News newsletter makes sure that you will not miss out on new resources and discoveries, even as your schedule picks up speed with the new year. With news about new online collections from large organizations like Family Search and Ancestry to smaller groups like genealogical and historical societies, dates for summer genealogical research vacation cruises, and restructuring of government resources so you will always know where to look, it's an indispensable resource for the family researcher.

Click here (or either newsletter link above) to read the current newsletter and subscribe. It couldn't be easier, so sign up today!