22 January 1897: Prisoners Saw Bars Off Cells in "Daring Escape" from Clarke County Jail

On this day (well, earlier this week) in 1897, the Weekly Banner shared this daring story of a six-person escape from the Clarke County jailhouse:

Physical descriptions of the suspects were provided in the paper:

John Spratlin is about 22 years old, 6 feet tall, weight about 180 pounds, ginger cake colored.

 Taylor Findley, about 27 years old, 5 feet 10 inches, weight about 160 or 165 pounds, ginger cake color.

Linton Findley, black, about feet 10 inches, weight about 160 pounds, short beard on face when escaped, about 27 years old. 

Robert Harris, mulatto, about 22 or 23 years old, thin mustache, right leg a cork one, weight about 130 pounds. 

Henry Armstrong, about 23 or 24 years old, 5 feet 7 inches, weight about 150 pounds, black. 

George Whitfield, very black, about 5 feet 10 inches high, weight about 160 pounds, 22 years old.

The escape actually occurred several days before, but daily papers from the week of the event are not available. Despite one of their escapees having only one good leg, the sheriff and the special deputized officers searched all night and found "not a clew," calling the escape with a saw "a profound mystery." The paper reassured its readers that "It is believed they will be captured...sooner or later."

By February 26th, the $25 reward offered for Armstrong, Harris, and Whitfield were withdrawn, but kept in place for the Findley brothers and John Spratlin. Linton Findley was later caught in Putnam county in March, where officers there collected a $175 reward (the $25 from Clarke and $150 offered by the state of Georgia). He was tried and found guilty of murder in April, and scheduled to hang on May 7th. There is no mention of his brother or the other escapees being captured within the next year.



Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Aug. 1895 - Jan. 1897 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• I Am A Fugitive From a Georgia Chain Gang! by Robert Elliot Burns in the biography collection.
• Criminal Justice, edited by Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld in the Reference collection.
• The Writer's Complete Crime Reference Book by Martin Roth in the general collection.
• It's All the Rage: Crime and Culture by Wendy Kaminer in the general collection.
• Careers in Focus: Public Safety in the general collection.
• On the Run by Al Browning in the general collection.
• Most Wanted: A History of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List by Mark Sabljak and Martin H. Greenberg in the general collection.

18 January 1831: A Local Census Tally

On this day in 1831, the Athenian posted this breakdown of the population count for Clarke county and the city of Athens:

In 1831, Clarke county was significantly larger than it is today, including all of the land now in Oconee county, which cut Clarke in half when it was created in 1875.

The black population is almost equal to the white population, but most interesting is the 29 "free colored" people living in Clarke county in 1831. Georgia had some of the harshest laws for free blacks, including forbidding them from becoming masons or mechanics, skills that would likely lead to economic stability. Georgia and Virginia were the only two southern states that did not allow free blacks to vote.

The state also gave anyone who suspected their supposedly white neighbors of  only pretending to be white to take them to court to make them prove they had less than 1/8th "Negro blood," lest they continue to have the privileges of marriage, literacy, suffrage, and professional employment. However, despite such hardships, free African-American communities did exist, such as Springfield near Augusta, Georgia.

Learn More:

• Athenian, January 26, 1827 - March 13, 1832 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael L. Thurmond in the Heritage, young adult, and general collections.
• Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History 1513-2008 by Henry Louis Gates in the new books collection.
• Freedom: Georgia's Anti-Slavery Heritage, 1733-1865 by Michael L. Thurmond in the general collection.
• Neither More Nor Less Than Men: Slavery in Georgia, edited by Mills Lane in the general collection.
• Black Heritage Sites: An African American Odyssey and Finders Guide by Nancy Curtis in the reference collection.
• Springfield: A Free African-American Community in Georgia website.
• "I Was Not Born a Slave, Nor in a Log Cabin" by UGA history student Daniel Jenkins.
• Antebellum African-American Resources from the free Archives.com Experts section.
• Before Freedom Came: African-American Life in the Antebellum South, a bibliography compiled by the Smithsonian Institution.
• Free Blacks in Antebellum America in the African American Odyssey exhibit of the Library of Congress' American Memory site.

14 January 1903: The Athens Chamber of Commerce Is Organized

On this day in 1903, the initial members of the newly created Athens Chamber of Commerce elected their first officers and formally established the organization and committees. 

The officers were L. F. Edwards, President; W. F. Bryan 1st Vice President; M. G. Michael, 2nd Vice President; T. W. Reed, Secretary; and C. H. Phinizy, treasurer.

Earlier in the month, the Weekly Banner published this list of charter members of the Athens Chamber of Commerce:

Abbott, S. K.

Abney Brothers Co.

Anderson, J. T.

Arnold Grocery Co.

Arnold, John L.

Ash, W. C.

Athens Banner, The

Athens Gas Co.

Athens Hardware Co., The

Boley, Sidney

Bondurant, E. J.

Brandt, R.

Brooks, A. L.

Bryan, W. T.

Burnett, W. B.

Carithers, J. Y.

Collett & Ingle

Conway, H. C.

Cooper, J. C.

Darwin, John A.

Davison, A. H.

Dearing, A. P.

Dornblass, J.

Dorsey & Funkenstein

Dorsey, E. H.

Dorsey, J. H .

Dozier & Co.

DuBose, R. Toombs

Edwards, L. F.

Eppes-Wilkins Co.

Flanigen, C. D.

Fleming, T. & Sons

Fleming, W.

Globe Racket Store

Green, T. F.

Griffeth Implement Co.

Griffeth, J. H.

Griffith, A. E.

Griffith, C. B.

Haselton, D. P.

Head & McMahan

Hodgson Cotton Co.

Hodgson, A. H.

Hodgson, C. N.

Holder, Jr., B. F.

Hulme & Co., Geo.

Humphrey, J. E.

Hunnicutt, J. A.

Johnson, M. C.

Joseph, Max

Kenney, D. M.

King & Co., J. S.

Klein & Martin

Lipscomb, F. A.

Mallory, W. A.

McCurdy, J. M.

McGregor, D. W.

McMahan, J. C. C.

McNeely, W. A.

McWhorter, Hamilton

Michael Bros.

Miller, D. F.

Morton, I. P.

Morton, John White

Moss, R. L., Jr.

Motes, C. W.

Nicholson, G. R.

Nicholson, M. G.

O’Neal, W. B.

Orr Drug Co., The

Palmer, H. R. & Sons

Peeples, W. J.

Petrie, C. B.

Philpot, S. T.

Phinizy, Billups,

Pitner, J. A.

Quillian, D. D.

Reed, T. W.

Rhodes, Alex

Rhodes, J. F.

Shackleford, T. J.

Sizer, R. W.

Skalowski, M. H.

Sledge, E. D.

Smith, E. I.

Stern, Chas. & Co.

Strickland, J. J.

Talmadge Bros. & Co.

Talmadge Hardware Co.

Thomas, W. W.

Tuck, H. C.

Turner & Hodgson

Vincent, T. P.

Vonderau, W. P.

Webb & Crawford

Wilkins, J. J.

Williamson, G. H.

Willis, E. F.

Wingfield, W. C.

Mayor J. F. Rhodes was chairman of the committee to draft a constitution and by-laws for the organization, and after his presentation, both passed with "a few minor amendments." 

The meeting schedule would be on the 2nd Tuesday of every month, with quarterly items on the agenda in January, April, July, and October, and their annual meeting in January. 

A total of 17 committees were being formed, covering Agriculture, Education, New Enterprises, Express Service and Railroad Transportation, Advertising and Publicity, Postal and Telegraph Service, and one covering Streets, Roads, and Parks.

The Board of Directors would be the officers and the chairmen from the Arbitration, Finance, and Manufacturers committees. Once committees were organized, they would "take up several matters of importance to the city and discuss and act upon them."

Stated the Weekly Banner, "It is the universal opinion that this new business organization will do much toward advancing the interests of the city."


Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Aug. 1902 - Dec. 1905 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• History of Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens of Old by the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce in the Heritage collection.
• Athens, Georgia: In the Heart of Expansion, a Very Pleasant Place to Live by the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce in the Heritage collection.
• Athens, Georgia, the Classic City: Tradition with Progress by Donald A. Smith in the Heritage collection.
• Localvesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It by Amy Cortese in the general collection.
• World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy by Rosabeth Moss Kanter in the general collection.
• Athens Area Chamber of Commerce website.

9 January 1903: Nine-Month School Year and Night Schools Are Established in Clarke County

On this day in 1903, the Weekly Banner noted the changes to the Clarke County school year gave it the distinction of being "the only county in the state of Georgia...that can boast of a system of rural schools of nine months term each year."

 

(click to enlarge image)

Though the article comes across as more town bragging by the editors of the Banner, they were right that the nine-month school year was an outlier in American public education at the time. 

In the early 1900s, children in the United States encountered school years that were typically 4-5 months long (officially 147.2 days as an average), and attendance was closer to 3-4 months (101.7 days were average) every year. The low attendance is likely a side effect of the expectation that children had to help support their family, either with planting, harvesting, or other areas of the family business.

Also announced in this article were the night schools established at two of the primary factories in town. These schools were aimed at children who worked at the factories (and often lived close by) to make it possible for them to gain a basic education despite the economic demands placed on them. Children who worked elsewhere, such as making harnesses or buggies or being apprenticed to a blacksmith or another trade, were also welcome at these evening classes.

The National Child Labor Committee, a group advocating for child labor restrictions, formed in 1904, but federal regulations and oversight would not be passed in the United States until 1938.

Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Aug. 1902 - Dec. 1905 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Transition to an Industrial South by Michael Gagnon in the Heritage and general collections. 
• History of the Princeton Factory and the Princeton Methodist Church by Horace G. Crouch in the Heritage collection.
• The New South: A Chronicle of Social and Industrial Evolution by Holland Thompson in the  Heritage collection.
• The American Dream and the Public Schools by Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick in the general collection. 
• Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America by Mike Rose in the general collection. 
• The American Spirit in Education: A Chronicle of Great Teachers by Edwin E. Slosson in the general collection.
• Among Schoolchildren by Tracy Kidder in the general collection.
• Mother Jones and the March of the Mill Children by Penny Colman in the children's collection.
• Kids At Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor by Russell Friedman in the children's collection.
• Child Labor: An American History by Hugh D. Hindman via PINES.
• 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait (.pdf) by Thomas D. Snyder on the National Center for Education Statistics website.
• Child Labor Public Education Project website, part of the University of Iowa Labor Center.
• Georgia Child Labor Work Hour Restrictions website.

Please Note Our Holiday Hours!

On this day, we want you to be aware of the holiday hours for the library and the Heritage Room collection. We will keep our normal hours most days during the season, but will have some changes.

For the Christmas holiday, the library will be closed on 

• Monday, December 24th, 2012.
• Tuesday, December 25th, 2012.
• Wednesday, December 26th, 2012.

The library will reopen at 9am on Thursday, December 27th, 2012. 

For the New Year holiday, the library will close at 6pm on Monday, December 31st, 2012, and be closed on Tuesday, January 1st, 2012. 

The library will reopen at 9am on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2012.

While we are closed, you can still do genealogy research using our GALILEO databases from home, such as Fold3 and HeritageQuest.  

You can also access the Athens Historic Newspaper Archive and the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps in the Digital Library of Georgia from the comfort of your decorated living room.

We hope you have a great holiday season!

21 December 1906: Heavy Sleet Takes Out Trolley

On this day in 1906, news of long delays in service for the Athens Electric Railway's trolley service was published in the Weekly Banner:

"Quite a while" in this case was until early January, 1907, when the company began installing new poles and stringing "heavier" and "much better" wire throughout the system. It was promised that "there would be no further delays caused by broken wire." (This promise was kept until a severe sleet storm in February, 1908.)

The first successful electric railway system was developed by Frank J. Sprague, who created the suspension and pulley system that became the standard for cities all over the world. It was installed over 12 miles of tracks in Richmond, Virginia, in 1887, and by 1895, 900 U.S. cities had electric railways, with 11,000 miles of rails. 

Most cities had privately run systems, such as Athens Railway & Electric company, which ran the trolley system until March, 1930, when they changed over to a short-lived city bus system.


Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Jan. 1906 - Dec. 1908 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• History of Athens and Clarke County by H.J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• Buses, Trolleys, and Trams by Charles S. Dunbar in the general collection.
• The Electricity Story: 2,500 Years of Experiments and Discoveries by George deLucenay Leon in the children's collection.
• Electricity: From Faraday to Solar Generators by Martin J. Gutnik in the general collection.
• Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity by David Bodanis in the general collection.
• Frank J. Sprague article on the Inventor of the Week Archive on the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website.
• Richmond Union Passenger Railway, 1888 article in the Milestones section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Global History Network website.

15 December 1909: A "Christmas Suggestion"

On this day in 1909, the Southern Land Company offered a free piano to anyone buying one of the few remaining lots in the relatively new Lynwood Park subdivision.

Lynwood Park was originally part of the Ferdinand Phinizy estate, near the Cobbham area. In 1906, the suburb was mapped out into lots, spanning from Milledge Avenue to the city limits, and included the West Hancock and Reese Street areas. It became "a little town within itself" for the African-American doctors, dentists, educators, builders, ministers, business owners, and other professionals lived and worked.


Learn More:

• Athens Banner, January - December, 1909 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Strolls About Athens During the Early Seventies by Sylvanus Morris in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael L. Thurmond in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County by Frances Taliaferro Thomas in the Heritage and general collections.
• Cobbham Historic District by Christopher W. Barry in the Heritage collection.
• African-American History Driving Tour (pdf) on the Athens Welcome Center website.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Georgia in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Natural History of the Piano by Stuart Isacoff in the general collection.
• The Everything Piano Book by Evan A. Copp in the general collection.
• Piano: An Easy Guide by Chris Coetzee in the general collection.

Hark! Have You Subscribed to Our Newsletters?

On this day, we'd like to remind you about our two free Heritage Room newsletters. 

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from Christmas tours at state parks and plantations around Georgia to Census classes at the Atlanta History Center. We make sure you know about webinars that are coming up, such as Researching Your Irish Roots and lunch-and-learn series at the National Archives about using DNA for genealogy research. The events newsletter makes it possible to plan your schedule and ensure you don't miss a chance to learn, explore, and discover new things.

Our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter keeps you in the loop with the latest resources available for research, such as the expanded marriage records holdings by FamilySearch.org and primers on searching for your War of 1812 ancestors. It also includes tips on how to use general software apps for genealogy and lets you know about new sites for sharing what you find with friends and family.

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!

2 December 1904: Love Locked Up

On this day in 1904, the Weekly Banner published news of a recent local marriage that required some persuasion of the bride's parents:

LOCKED

Up Young Bride, But Parents

Finally Give Blessings

to Happy Couple.

   Love laughs at locksmiths is true but sometimes love forgets and gets locked up again.

   The first part of the aphorism was proven true on Sunday afternoon when Mr. Pink Hilyard and Miss Ophelia Hughes were married at the home of a friend near Winterville.

   Mr. Hilyard brought his bride back to the city and they went to the home of the bride's parents. A stormy scene followed and the parents refused to let Mr. Hilyard see his wife.

   Later during the evening the refusal was still adhered to and not until yesterday morning did the parents of Mrs. Hilyard relent and give the young couple their blessing.

--Weekly Banner, 2 December 1904, p. 5, col. 7.

Alas, Mr. and Mrs. Hughes had good instincts. Robert Pink Hilliard was well known in town for being arrested as drunk or disorderly (or both) rather than for being an industrious young man with a bright future. He was also only 18 years old, and Ophelia had only turned 16 a month earlier. In the 1904 Athens City Directory, his profession is listed as painter.

(click to enlarge image)

According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Ophelia and Pink were living with his parents on Lumpkin Street, with Ophelia at home, caring for their two sons, Hughes, age 4, and Douglas, age 2, and Pink listed as now working as a "hackman," or public carriage driver. 

However, the 1909 Athens City Directory lists Ophelia as living with her sister on Oconee Street, indicating the marriage was already showing signs of strain. Pink continued to rack up fines from his frequent appearances the Mayor's Court, to account for his for disorderly drunken behavior, at a cost of $2.50 to $30.00 per conviction. In 1912, he and two of his friends were convicted of robbery and sent to prison. Pink was pardoned and released in 1915.

In the 1920 U.S. Census, Pink is found living in a boarding house in Augusta, Georgia, with an occupation of "painter" and marital status of "married." Ophelia and her boys are still living with her older sister, Alma, who worked as a bookkeeper for Bernstein Brothers Furniture Store and was active in the Y.W.C.A. Extension Club. Though Ophelia lists her marital status as "divorced," she would not officially file for divorce from Pink until August, 1928. 

Neither Ophelia nor Pink would ever remarry. Pink would live out his days in boarding houses and Y.M.C.A. rooms in Augusta, dying in 1958 at the age of 70. Ophelia spent her life in Clarke County, dying in 1965 at the age of 77.


Learn More: 

• Clarke County, Georgia, Ordinary Records. Marriages, Book K, 1901-1906 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 1900 - 1940 U.S. Censuses in Ancestry Library Edition in GALILEO.
• Clarke County Marriages 1803-1909 by Faye Poss Stone in the Heritage collection.
• Athens City Directories, 1889 - 1927 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Death Certificates, 1919-1998 in Ancestry Library Edition in GALILEO.