20 October 1899: A Burglary by "Dastardly Miscreants"

On this day in 1899, the story of the burglary of the "bedding, furniture, crockeryware, and clothing" of Mr. Joe Brightwell was published on the front page of the daily Athens Banner as well as the Weekly Banner:

Unfortunately, no further news was published about the robbery, so it is thought that Mr. Brightwell's goods were never recovered, nor the guilty parties ever brought to justice.


Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Aug. 1898 - Oct. 1899 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes by Roger Wilkes in the general collection.
• The Barefoot Bandit: The True Tale of Carlton Marris-Moore, New American Outlaw by Bob Friel in the New Books collection.
• Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief by Bill Mason in the biography collection.
• Crime Scene: The Ultimate Guide to Forensic Science by Richard Platt in the general collection.
• Best American Crime Writing, edited by Otto Penzler in the general collection.
• The Calamity Papers: Western Myths and Cold Cases by Dale L. Walker in the general collection.
• Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists, and Other Criminals Think by Sean P. Mactire in the general collection.

Learn How to Share Your Story on May 21st!

On this day we would like to invite you hear author Elizabeth Coursen discuss the importance of autobiography and share tips from her book, The Complete Biography Workbook. Coursen's exercises and suggestions make the writing process easy and enjoyable, whether penning your own memoirs or writing about your own ancestors.

Elizabeth Coursen will speak in the Library Auditorium at 2pm on Saturday, May 21st. There will be a reception and book signing following her talk in the Small Conference Room. This event 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.

For more information, call (706) 613-3650, ext. 350, or email us at heritageroom@arlsmail.org. We hope to see you there!

Stones & Scorpions for Fish & Chips This Sunday

On this day, we'd like to invite you to Stones & Scorpions for Fish & Chips: U. S. Peacekeepers on the Oconee and Civil Rebellion in Georgia, a program co-sponsored by the Athens Historical Society and Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room.

In the library auditorium at 3pm on Sunday, May 15, 2011, historian Steven Scurry will draw from 18th century archives to describe the early frontier along the Oconee River and the complex challenge Georgia presented for the fledgling United States of America during the Washington administration. Beginning in 1791, federal troops were garrisoned on the Georgia border, but that didn't stop Elijah Clarke from establishing the Trans-Oconee Republic or the scandal of the Yazoo Land Fraud that led some bribed legislators to flee the state for their own safety.

This program is free and open to the public. For more information, call us at (706) 613-3650 or email us at heritageroom@arlsmail.org. We hope to see you there!

30 March 1909: Bludwine Flows to the Pacific

On this day in 1909, the Athens Banner ran the following story:

 

Bludwine was the 1894 creation of Henry Claude Anderson of Oconee County and "a chemist friend" who developed the formula for a cherry-flavored drink that would be considered a healthy "food drink." Anderson originally wanted to call the product "G.D." for "good digestion," but settled on "Bludwine" and focused advertising on the drink's use as a blood tonic and digestive. The drink was "made principally from wheat, oats, lemons, oranges, ginger, peppermint, and grapes," and used the slogan "For Your Health's Sake." 

Anderson was active in the temperance and prohibition movements at the time, and wanted to produce "a non-alcoholic food drink with enough 'ginger' to make it invigorating, and with a pungency and flavor that would tempt the tippler and the toper to leave their toddy in perference for a drink that was more delicious and more wholesome." However, after prohibition was enacted in Georgia in 1908, finding whiskey-laced Bludwine in the glasses of public drunks was not an unusual circumstance.

At the time of this story about contracts in Hawaii, the company was still privately held. The following year, Anderson would incorporate with capital stock of $100,000, equal to $2,330,000 in today's dollars. By 1917, Anderson had 100 bottling plants in 26 states. After the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed, health claims could not be made without proof on labels. The company had to change its name to "Budwine" to remove reference to "blood." Its slogan changed to "Makes You Glad You're Thirsty," to remove health claims.

In 1929, the Anderson family sold the company to Joseph Costa, a member of the family behind Costa's ice cream parlor, an Athens institution since 1908. Business continued to dwindle, and by 1969, Budwine was only available locally in Athens. The company officially closed in the 1980s.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, January - December 1909 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens: A Pictorial History, 1801-2001 by James K. Reap in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians by Lucian Lamar Knight in the Heritage collection. 
• 1909 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• Alcohol and the Southern Church: A Survey of Propaganda by Judy Alves Bisplinghoff in the Heritage collection.
• Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800-1933 by Thomas R. Pegram in the general collection.
• Prohibition: Thirteen Years that Changed America by Edward Behr in the general collection.
• Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent in the general collection.
• Soda Science: Designing and Testing Soft Drinks by Bernie Zubrowski in the children's collection.
• The Big Book of Juices and Smoothies: 365 National Blends for Health and Vitality Every Day by Natalie Savona in the general collection.
• In Great Taste: Fresh, Simple Recipes for Eating and Living Well by Evelyn H. Lauder in the general collection.
• Measuring Worth website. 
• A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians by Lucian Lamar Knight in Google Books.

The History & Genealogy Expo Is March 19th!

On this day, we'd like to remind everyone that the Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society is hosting their annual History & Genealogy Expo this Saturday, March 19th, from 10am to 4pm. This year the Expo will take place at the Fellowship Hall at Campus View Church of Christ at 1360 South Lumpkin Street in Athens, across the street from the UGA track.

The schedule of activities includes: 

• 10:30am-11:30am: General session showing to use "Ask Granny" pedigree charts to collect family information.
• 10:30am-12:30pm: Dr. Robert Nix will be available to help you identify and find information in your old family photographs.
• 11:00am-12:00pm: Donald Summerlin will discuss the Digital Library of Georgia's historic newspapers collections.
• 1:00pm-2:00pm: Jim Morgenthaler will discuss Restoring Old Photographs.
• 1:30pm-3:00pm: How to use the "Ask Granny" pedigree charts with seniors to help them recall family information and stories.
• 3:00pm-4:00pm: Harold Lawrence spaks on Using Church Records for family history research.

There will be lineage and/or historical societies from Clarke, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Morgan, and Elbert counties, as well as several book publishers, including Mary Warren's Heritage Papers and Southern Historical Press from Greenville, SC. Many of the historical societies will also have their books available for purchase.

The Expo is free and open to the public--you don't want to miss it!

5 March 1954: Ham and Eggs Show!

On this day in 1954, the Seventh Annual Ham and Egg Show distributed awards at the Union Institute on the corner of Pope and Baxter Streets to competitors from Clarke, Oconee, and Madison counties. Athens and Hull dominated the proceedings.

First place overall winners were Tom Neely of Athens for Ham and Emma Lee Smith of Hull for Eggs. The 4-H Club Premium List student winners were Tom Neely of Athens for Ham, Benjamin Smith of Hull for Side, Betty J. Moore of Athens for Shoulder, and Robert L. Sheats of Athens for Eggs. Adult Premium List winners were C. G. Griffith of Hull for Ham, Valley Turner of Athens for Shoulder, Amos Smith of Hull for Side, and Emma L. Smith for Eggs. The first prize for Canned By-Products went to Corene Smith of Hull.

A total of 72 families entered 93 dozen eggs, 108 pieces of meat, and 36 canned by-products into the competition. There were adult and student prize categories, including a 4-H Club Premium list of winners for students. Prizes were donated by local businesses, but were not specified in the newspaper report. According to the University of Georgia extension agent for black Clarke County residents, Lloyd C. Trawick, the show had been the best yet for the three communities. 

The host of the two-day competition, the Union Institute, started life as the Jeruel Academy in 1881, a private school for African-American students that was supported by several rural churches. The co-ed institution had both resident and day students, and offered college preparatory, theology, industrial, and music instruction. They also had an intense football rivalry with the Knox Institute, the first African-American school in Athens. In 1886, the Jeruel Academy/Union Institute moved into their location at the corner of Pope and Baxter Streets, and would stay until the school's closing in 1956.

The Union Institute had hosted an Annual Farmers' Conference Course for Instruction for black farmers for nearly 40 years, featuring such speakers as University of Georgia Chancellor David C. Barrow and Dr. George Washington Carver. The goal of the conference was to educate black farmers about the latest practices in agriculture, and keep them aware of, and supporting, the work of the school.

Ham and Egg Shows began in 1916 when Otis Samuel O'Neal, the UGA county extension agent for Houston county's black farmers, was looking for a way to increase hog and poultry production amongst the residents in his district. The first show was simply called "The Ham Show," and featured 39 hams and 17 dozen eggs. In 1979, Fort Valley State University named their new veterinary medicine building after O'Neal. 

Today, only the Lowndes County Extension Service office still has Ham and Egg Shows, with entries of 46 cured hams and 40 dozen eggs in 2011. The show includes an auction for the winning items, with some hams selling for $25 per pound.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, January - April 1954 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael Thurmond in the Heritage, Young Adult, and general collections.
• Athens, A Pictorial History: 1801-2001 by James K. Reap in the Heritage and general collections.
• 1954 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• The People and the Land on the College of Agriculture, Home Economics and Allied Programs section of the Fort Valley State University website.
• Ham and Egg Show, an audio program part of the South Georgia Folklife collection on the Valdosta State University website.
• The Complete Pig: An Entertaining History of Pigs by Sara Rath in the general collection.
• The Incredible Egg: A Billion Year Journey by Dal Stivens in the general collection.
• The Joy of Keeping Chickens: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Poultry for Fun or Profit by Jennifer Lynn Megyesi in the general collection.
• The Useful Pig: 150 Succulent Pork Recipes by Roberta Wolfe Smoler in the general collection.
• The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham in the general collection.
• Babe on video cassette at the Bogart library.
• Chicken Run on DVD at the Royston library.
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss in the children's fiction collection.

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.
  

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!

24 November 1871: If Athens Gets a Courthouse, Watkinsville Gets a New County

On this day in 1871, a law was passed by the Georgia legislature that moved all county offices, county transactions, and court hearings to Athens from Watkinsville as of January 1st, 1872. Other provisions in the law were to use the ironwork from the Watkinsville jail to reinforce the Athens jail, and that alterations to the Athens Town Hall should be made immediately and paid for by selling to the highest bidder the public buildings located in Watkinsville.

After many years of grumbling and complaints, the Clarke county grand jury, consisting of mostly Athens residents, recommended in February, 1871, that the state legislature be petitioned to create a new county with Athens as its seat "for the reason that a large proportion of the litigation of our Courts, both civil and criminal, originates in and immediately around Athens, and a large majority of both parties and witnesses have no means of conveyances to and from the Courts at Watkinsville, and for the additional reason that there is no accommodations whatever in Watkinsville for the colored people, who are required to attend court."

At the time, Athens had a population of nearly 6,000 residents, while Watkinsville had only about 350. While Watkinsville had only a few stores, a single church, no newspapers, and a handful of professionals, Athens had 11 churches, 37 stores, 2 newspapers, and many professionals with both their own practices and who taught at the University. The editor of the Southern Banner advocated just moving the courthouse, not breaking up the county, calling the situation an "outrage" and that "it is unjust to a vast majority of those having businesses in our courts that they be forced to go to a remote and isolated county site simply because a few, a very few people at the county site will be injured if the courthouse is removed."

A resistance movement began to grow in Watkinsville, where residents "threatened reprisals" such as a ban on trade in Athens and no political support for any candidate from Athens. When the Georgia legislature convened that year, both cities sent three-man committees to lobby their side of the issue. Upon reaching Atlanta, the Athens committee, consisting of Emory Speer, E. P. Lumpkin, and A. L. Mitchell, decided the best course of action would be to work out a compromise with the Watkinsville committee, consisting of Milledge S. Durham, J. R. Lyle, and W. B. Haygood.

The compromise, signed by all six men, was the Watkinsville men would support the move of the Clarke courthouse to Athens if Mr. Lumpkin, Mr. Speer, and Mr. Mitchell would support and lobby for the creation of a new county with Watkinsville as its seat, and would not sell any public buildings in Watkinsville, since they would be required for the new county.The bill to move the courthouse passed, and though it did include a provision for selling the public buildings, that part of the law was never enacted due to the agreement between the six men.

Creating a new county, however, was not an easy task. The arguments for moving the courthouse from Watkinsville (small population with little capital) were considered arguments against creating a county for the city. The first three tries to pass the bill failed, and Watkinsville residents felt betrayed by Athens, even though the compromise had only promised to advocate for the new county, and did not guarantee the new county.

The Athens delegation did what they could to support the Watkinsville committee's bill for a new county, including the agreed-upon Athens petition of support signed by many residents, and supporting a Watkinsville man to fill the state House seat that opened when local representative Alfred Richardson died of pneumonia in 1872, but feelings ran high on both sides. Not everyone felt Speer,  Mitchell, and Lumpkin had the right to speak for Athens as a whole, that the county should not be divided, and those with political ambition did not want to take sides in such a volitile issue.

It would take another three years, until February 25th, 1875, before the creation of Oconee county became law, with the resulting new county taking more than half the land from Clarke.

Learn More:

• Southern Banner, Jan. 1869 - Mar. 1872 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Southern Watchman, Mar. 1871 - Dec. 1873 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The History of Oconee County, Georgia by Margaret F. Sommer in the Heritage collection.
• The Politics of Dividing a Georgia County: Oconee from Clarke by E. M. Coulter in Georgia Historical Quarterly, No. LVII, Winter 1973 in the Heritage collection.
• Dictionary of Georgia Biography, Volumes I & II, by Kenneth Coleman and Charles Stephen Gurr in the Heritage collection.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I, by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County by Frances Taliaferro Thomas in the Heritage and general collections.
• Another rivalry between cities.
  

10 August 2002: Ecology Pioneer Eugene Pleasants Odum Dies

On this day in 2002, Eugene P. Odum died in his Athens home, one month shy of his 89th birthday. It was believed he had a heart attack after working in his garden. Dr. Odum's research fundamentally changed the way the world understood the environment, asserting that "the ecosystem is greater than the sum of its parts."

Dr. Odum grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and was an avid ornithologist. After receiving his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Illinois, he spent a year as the naturalist at the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville, New York. In 1940, he came to the University of Georgia in Athens to teach zoology, though during WWII he taught "science to nurses, pharmacy-mates and pre-medical personnel."

When he started his career, Dr. Odum's holistic approach to ecology, that all life on the planet are an interdependent system, was considered unconventional. Since no textbook offered this perspective, he and his brother, Howard T. Odum, published Fundamentals of Ecology in 1953. The book revolutionized the way scientists and average citizens understood life on the planet, and for a decade was the only textbook that took a "top-down" approach to the environment. It was translated into 13 languages, and is currently in its fifth edition. The text made "ecosystem" a household word.

Over the years, Dr. Odum helped to create and establish the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (1951), the Marine Institute on Sapelo Island (1954), and the Institute of Ecology at UGA (1961), where he served as its first director until his retirement in 1984. During that time, Dr. Odum was the first UGA faculty member elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1970), helped pass Georgia's Coastal Marshlands Protection Act (1970), won the John and Alice Tyler Ecology Award (1977), and shared with his brother the Prix de l'Institut de la Vie (1977) and the Crafoord Prize (1987), considered to be the Nobel Prize for ecology science.

Dr. Odum was preceded in death by his wife Martha in 1995 and his son William, also an ecologist, in 1991. In his will, he left the profits from the sale of his 26 acres of property to the Eugene and William Odum Ecology Fund to support graduate student research at the Institute of Ecology at UGA, with $1 million set aside for an endowed Eugene P. Odum Chair of Ecology professorship. The will stipulated that 57% of the land must remain undeveloped, and would be overseen by the Oconee River Land Trust. There is now a small, 16-house development on the property, with 15 acres of walking trails through protected green space along the Oconee River near Five Points.

In 2007, UGA renamed the Institute of Ecology the Eugene P. Odum School of Ecology.

Learn More:

• Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist by Betty Jean Craig in the Heritage and biography collections.
• Ecology and Our Endangered Life-Support Systems by Eugene P. Odum in the general collection.
• Ecological Vignettes: Ecological Approaches to Dealing with Human Predicaments by Eugene P. Odum.
• The Georgia Landscape: A Changing Resource by the Kellogg Physical Resources Task Force (Eugene P. Odum, chair) in the Heritage collection.
• Essence of Place by Martha Odum and Eugene P. Odum in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens Banner-Herald, Aug. 1, 2002 - Aug. 15, 2002 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.

Getting the Most from Your Librarian and Archivist

On this day, we'd like you to mark you calendar for a program in the Library Auditorium on Saturday, June 19th, 2010, at 2:oo p.m. that will help you have more productive and useful visits to libraries and archives.

Our Heritage Room Librarian, Laura W. Carter, will provide you with tips and advice for the necessary sojourns to archives, libraries, and courthouses that are part of doing historical research. Starting with the most basic advice, that you know what information you are trying to find before you arrive, Ms. Carter will explain how to get the maximum benefit from your research trips, and how to phrase questions in a way that enable librarians and archivists to help you.

The seminar is free and open to the public, jointly sponsored by the Athens-Clarke County Heritage Room and the Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society. No registration is required, and there will be a meet & greet with refreshments in the Small Conference Room next to the Auditorium.

For more information, call (706) 613-3650, ext. 350 or email the Heritage Room. We hope to see you there for this informative and helpful presentation!

1 June 1923: Athens Has Always Loved the Farmer's Market

On this day in 1923, the Athens Banner-Herald reported that "Bright skies Friday indicated a large crowd at the Curb Market Saturday morning."

Potatoes, cherries, peaches, and beans were starting to "come in," and the paper reported that "the number of chickens brought to the market is increasing each day." The previous Tuesday, 65 chickens were brought from Oconee County, "where the farmers have organized a Co-operative Poultry Association."

Also available at the Broad Street market on Saturday would be turnips, turnip salad, potatoes, onions, English peas, hams, eggs, butter, "and other produce ...at reasonable prices." According to the paper, "The cabbage crop this year around Athens is fine and the vegetable brought to the Curb Market is very attractive."

The article also reported

Strawberries have about disappeared although two or three producers continue to bring them in and experience no trouble in disposing of them. Many Athens women want to preserve strawberries and buy several gallons each week for that purpose.

It is interesting to note the change in the condition of the products brought to Athens since the establishment of the Curb Market. Formerly most of the food crops brought to Athens were not selected and neatly packed and therefore could not command a good price.

Since the Curb Market began operation many farmers have learned from their neighbors who brought graded produce that they always sell out before those who did not pay much attention to the condition of the articles offered for sale. One man declared a few days ago the Curb Market has proved in a short while what the Agricultural College has been "preaching for fifteen years"--the necessity of grading products and packaging them neatly.

Prices for items at the market were given on the paper's "market page," which also included prices for items at stores such as Piggly Wiggly ("Fancy Groceries at Lowest Prices" included a quart of snap beans for 4 1/2 cents), The Wier Grocery Company (a 5-pound cloth bag of sugar cost 55 cents), King-Hodgson Company (1/2-pound can of Hersey's cocoa for 20 cents), and Combination Store Produce Department (Georgia string beans for 25 cents per gallon).

Market prices for Saturday, June 2nd, 1923 were:

Bean, string, 35 cents gallon.

Beets, 5 and 10 cents a bunch.

Strawberries, 15 cents a quart.

Dewberries, 15 cents a quart.

Butter, 30 and 40 cents a pound.

Cabbage, 5 and 10 cents a head.

Cake, home made, price according to size and variety.

Carrots, 5 and 10 cents a bunch.

Chickens, friers, 35 cents a pound.

Hens, 20 cents a pound.

Roosters, 12 cents a pound.

Eggs, 25 cents a dozen.

Eggs, selected, 30 cents a dozen.

Ham, home cured, 25 cents a pound.

Kale, 10 cents a peck.

Lard, home made, 20 cents a pound.

Lettuce, 5 and 10 cents a head.

Meal, corn, 2 1/2 cents a pound.

Onions, 5 and 10 cents a bunch.

Parsley, 5 cents a bunch.

Peaches, 35 cents a basket.

Peas, English, 20 cents a gallon.

Peas, field, 4 cents a pound.

Potatoes, Irish, 5 cents a pound.

Potatoes, Sweet, 25 cents a peck.

Sorghum Syrup, 50 cents a gallon.

Spinach, 10 cents a pound.

Turnips, 5 and 10 cents a bunch.

Turnip Greens, 15 cents a peck.

Squabs, 30 cents a piece.

Pure Bred Eggs, $1.00 a setting, orders taken.

Cherries, 25 cents a quart.

Today, Athenians can buy from local farms and other businesses from by attending the Athens Farmer's Market on Tuesdays downtown and Saturdays at Bishop Park. They run from May to November, and accept EBT payments. Year-round, Athens Locally Grown provides a weekly pickup of previously ordered items at Ben's Bikes next to the Reese Street Historic District. Though separate organizations, many area farmers participate in both markets, and both advocate the health and economic benefits of buying and eating local products.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 1923 - Aug. 1923 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Agricultural Handbook by the University of Georgia in the Heritage collection.
• Harvest: A Year in the Life of an Organic Farm by Nicola Smith in the general collection.
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver in the general collection.
• In My Garden: A Child's Gardening Book by Helen Oechsli in the children's collection.
• Vegetable Gardening from Planting to Picking: The Complete Guide to Creating a Bountiful Garden by Fern Marshall Bradley in the general collection.
• Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs: A Bountiful, Healthful Garden for Lean Times by James W. Wilson in the general collection.
• The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face, Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask by Barbara W. Ellis in the general collection.
• Storey's Guide to Raising Poultry by Leonard S. Mercia in the general collection.
• History of the College of Agriculture of the University of Georgia by Calvin Clyde Murray in the Heritage collection.
• The University of Georgia College of Agriculture: An Administrative History, 1785-1985 by Stephen J. Karina in the Heritage collection.
• Soil Survey: Clarke and Oconee Counties, Georgia by Stanley M. Robertson in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Peach Recipes by the University of Georgia in the Heritage collection.
• The Everything Canning & Preserving Book: All You Need to Know to Enjoy Natural, Healthy Foods Year Round by Patricia Telesco in the general collection.
• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan in the general collection.
• In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan in the general collection.
• Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating by Mark Bittman in the general collection.
• An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage in the general collection.