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.

28 November 1916: See Georgia Play Alabama!

On this day in 1916, the Seaboard Railroad advertised this round-trip deal to see the University of Georgia football team take on the University of Alabama football team in their last game of the season on Thanksgiving Day: 

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Georgia won 3-0 in a game that ended on a last-minute turnover when a Georgia player scooped up an Alabama fumble from inside the 5-yard line. Alabama had won its first six games of the season, but ended 6-3 after the loss to Georgia, who also ended the 1916 season at 6-3.

By the time the next season would have begun, most of the Georgia football players, as well as Coach Cunningham and Assistant Coach Dave Paddock, were engaged in World War I; five would not survive the war, and only two of the lettermen, Owen Gaston Reynolds and Arthur Pew, Jr., would return to the gridiron.

The 1917 and 1918 seasons were cancelled, and Georgia did not play football again until October 4, 1919, in a win over the Citadel. Coach Cunningham returned in 1919 to coach Georgia to a 4-2-3 season, but then left college athletics to pursue a career in the United States Army, where he reached the rank of General.

When Memorial Hall was opened in 1929, it was dedicated to the 47 University of Georgia men who died in the Great War.


Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Nov. 1916 - Mar. 1917 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• The Red & Black Historic Newspaper Archive collection on the University of Georgia Libraries website.
• The Atlanta Constitution in the Fold3 database via GALILEO.
• A Walking Tour of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the general collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History by Thomas Dyer in the general collection.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• University of Georgia Football History web pages on the UGA Athletic Association website.
• University of Alabama Football Archives web pages on the UA Athletic Department website.

19 March 1918: "Loaded With Southern History"

On this day in 1918, the Athens Banner reported that one of the city's most prominent citizens, Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford, the principal of the Lucy Cobb Institute, was denied passage on a train to Richmond, Virginia, because the trunk of books she was carrying was "away over the weight allowed by the railroad." 

Mildred Rutherford devoted her life to the Lucy Cobb Institute and advocating for "the truth" about the Civil War and the South. Her historical writing, which featured a sentimental view of the Old South, plantation life, and slavery, would not be considered appropriate today, yet her belief that her female students could and should learn as much as male students, as well as be prepared to work in the real world, seem almost ahead of her time. 


Known around town as "Miss Millie," she was the daughter of Williams and Laura Cobb Rutherford, the niece of  Governor Howell Cobb and T.R.R. Cobb, who established the Lucy Cobb Institute in 1859. The school was named for Miss Millie's cousin, who died prior to the school's opening. The Rutherfords lived across the street from the school.


Mildred Rutherford graduated from Lucy Cobb in 1868, and a few years later moved to Atlanta to teach. She lived with another female cousin, and spent eight years there before returning to Athens at the request of her parents to take over the financially unstable Lucy Cobb Institute. When she took over the school in 1880, only 24 students were enrolled; by 1882, student population reached 104.


The curriculum under Rutherford was modelled on the traditional male course of study in preparation for college. Students were taught Latin, higher mathematics, logic, rhetoric, philosphy, science, literature, and history. For an extra charge, parents could have their daughters trained in traditionally female course work of French, art, and music. During this time, she was also actively writing textbooks about English, French, American, and Southern literature that she felt were more appropriate for female students. She often hired former students as teachers, and brought in more instructors with advanced degrees.


In 1895, she stepped down as principal of Lucy Cobb, while still continuing to teach Latin, history, literature, and the Bible. In 1896, she started the Laura Rutherford chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and served as its president until 1906. Mildred Rutherford was the state UDC Historian General for life, and from 1901-1903 was also the group's president. In 1911, she was appointed Historian General of the national UDC, and the organization twice made exceptions for term limits so she could continue to serve until 1916. 


The collection of books she had to repack are now part of the United Daughters of the Confederacy collection at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. The Banner published the list of titles in Rutherford's trunk on page 7:

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Rutherford used her speeches, books, essays, and newsletters as a way of "righting the wrongs against the South," where she advanced her belief that secession had been legal, slavery was not the cause of the war, and that the plantation system was not merely just, but a gentle society. Despite her own career and the fact that she never married, Rutherford believed the proper place for women was the domestic sphere of her family, as wife and mother, and spoke out strongly against women's suffrage. 


From 1880 until 1928, Rutherford taught at Lucy Cobb. She returned to her role as the school's principal, and later, president, several times, from 1907-1908, 1917-1922, and 1925-1926. In her last year leading the school, Rutherford had tried to raise money to keep the school independent of the county school system and the University of Georgia, but was unsuccessful in her fundraising. The school closed in 1931, and is now the home of the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government.


Her family felt the last year as Lucy Cobb president had compromised her health, but Rutherford taught at the school until her death. She had been a force at Lucy Cobb for nearly 50 years, and two thousand people, including many alumnae, attended Mildred Lewis Rutherford's funeral in August, 1928.  She is buried with her family in Oconee Hill Cemetery.  




Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jan. 1918 - Nov. 1918 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Higher Education for Women in the South: A History of the Lucy Cobb Institute, edited by Phinizy Spalding in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume I, edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood in the Heritage collection.
• Case, Sarah H. "The Historical Ideology of Mildred Lewis Rutherford: A Confederate Historians New South Creed." The Journal of Southern History 68.3 (2002): 599-628. ProQuest Platinum; ProQuest Research Library. 17 Mar. 2012 . Via GALILEO.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I, by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• Addresses Delivered by Mildred Lewis Rutherford in the Heritage collection.
• Miss Rutherford's Scrapbook: Valuable Information About the South by Mildred Lewis Rutherford in the Heritage collection.
• The South in History and Literature by Mildred Lewis Rutherford in the Heritage collection.

1 January 1917: "A Great Deal of Excitement Was Caused"

On this day in 1917, news of an eclectic collision on Milledge Avenue was reported in the Athens Daily Herald:

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Herald, Jan. 1917 - Jun. 1917 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Horsecars, Cable Cars, and Omnibuses by John H. White, Jr. in the general collection.
• Breaking Gridlock: Moving Toward Transportation That Works by Jim Motavalli via PINES.
• Getting There: The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail in the American Century by Stephen B. Goddard in the general collection.
• Henry's Wonderful Model T, 1908-1927 by Floyd Clymer in the general collection.
• Saddlery and Horse Equipment by Sarah Muir in the general collection.
• Cable Car by Christopher C. Swan in the general collection.
• Harvest of the Cold Months: The Social History of Ice and Ices by Elizabeth David via PINES.
• Get Up and Go: The History of American Road Travel by Sylvia Whitman in the children's collection.
• Automobile Age Atlanta: The Making of a Southern Metropolis, 1900-1935 by Howard Preston in the Heritage collection.
• Buses, Trolleys, and Trams by Charles S. Dunbar in the general collection.
• The Athletic Horse: His Selection, Work, and Management by Carol Foster in the general collection.
• Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of American Progress, 1903-2003 by Douglas Brinkley in the general collection.
• Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life by Tom Lewis in the general collection.
• Travels with Zenobia: Paris to Albania by Model T Ford, A Journal by Rose Wilder Lane in the biography collection.

21 October 1903: 44 Bushels of Apples to Clemson

On this day, news of a promise to the Clemson College football team by the University of Georgia football team was published in the Athens Banner:

Georgia had opened the 1903 season with a 29-0 loss to Clemson, then lead by legendary college football coach John Heisman. The following year, Heisman would leave Clemson to begin a 15-year tenure as the coach of Georgia Tech. 

This 73-0 victory remains Clemson's biggest win over Georgia Tech in the history of the two teams' meetings. Unfortunately, the surviving newspapers do not tell how long it took the Georgia team to make good on their promise.

In 1903, six points was the most that could be scored on a single possession: touchdowns were worth only five points, with the modern one-point kick to add to the score.  Field goals, however, were also worth five points. They would not be lowered to the modern three-point score until 1909, and the goal posts would not be moved to the back of the end zone until 1927.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, May 1902 - Oct. 1903 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate by Bill Cromartie via PINES.
• Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: Gridiron Grudge Since 1893 by John Chandler Griffin via PINES.
• The Heisman: A Symbol of Excellence by John T. Brady via PINES.
• The Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football by Richard Wittingham in the general collection.
• Southern Fried Football: The History, Passion, and Glory of the Great Southern Game by Tony Barnhart in the general collection.
• The Apple Cookbook: More Than 60 Easy, Imaginative Recipes by Nicloa Hill in the general collection.
• In Praise of Apples: A Harvest of History, Horticulture, and Recipes by Mark Rosenstein in the general collection.
• If You Like My Apples: A Simple Guide to Biodynamic Gardening by Clue Tyler Dennis in the general collection.
• Apples for the 21st Century by Warren Manhart in the general collection.
• A Place Called Sweet Apple by Celestine Sibley in the Heritage collection.
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures from the Table by Ruth Reichl in the general collection.

4 July 1911: "College on Wheels"

On this day in 1911, the Athens Banner ran the following editorial about the recent railroad tour of the state made by the State College of Agriculture, which at the time was still a separate institution from the University of Georgia:

 

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In 1911, the train from the State College of Agriculture visited 154 towns in 120 counties in 47 days. The train carried a passenger car for the educators and staff, livestock cars, and cars with modern farming machinery, with a center flat car that served as a stage. At each stop, the flat car was used for speeches promoting proven practices in farming methods, demonstrate the farming machinery, and exhibit the livestock. The train would stop overnight, with those on board eating at local restaurants and staying in local hotels near the railroad station, a boost to Georgia businesses outside agriculture.

These tours of extension education to improve agricultural outputs in Georgia began in 1908 and lasted until 1917. Extension work was highly promoted by College President Andrew M. Soule, and were immediately popular. Their first tour in 1908 brought out only about 150,000 people, but had ballooned quickly to "nearly four hundred thousand people" within just a few years. Dr. Soule believed that the State College of Agriculture was truly "the college with the state for its campus." 

Other outreach work included welcoming Georgia farmers to the campus farm and other cooperating farms for "field days" where they could demonstrate results of pasture development, winter grazing and foraging crops for livestock, and the effects of different practices on crop and livestock production. One of the earliest successful outreach campaigns was conducted with the Veterinary School to introduce the widespread vaccination of hogs to protect that industry from a devastating strain of cholera.

Formal offices for Agricultural Extension Services were not created until 1914. In later years, working at first with the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs, the College's extension work expanded to other areas, with demonstrations of fireless stoves and iceless refrigerator, and the effectiveness of screening the home to prevent disease from insects. Later, new female Home Economics graduates from the College of Agriculture would hold community meetings to discuss health and nutrition, parenting techniques and child training, canning and pickling for food preservation, art, and physical education. 

The Agriculture College also helped set up "corn clubs" for boys around Georgia, a forerunner to the current 4-H Clubs. Within just a few years, the average per acre yield of corn by the boys' Georgia corn clubs was three times higher than the average per acre yield for the rest of the state.

The result of this groundwork in Georgia agriculture over the past century is Georgia's strong industry today: one-third of the state's land is used for farming, and sales of agricultural products earn nearly $7 billion. Despite ranking #28 in the United States for number of acres devoted to farmland, Georgia is the #1 producer of broilers (chickens), peanuts, and pecans; #2 in cotton, cotton seed, cucumbers, spring onions, rye, and snap beans; #3 in cantaloupes, bell peppers, sweet corn, and watermelon; and #4 in blueberries, peaches, and squash.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jul. 1911 - Nov. 1911 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 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.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• The University of Georgia Under Sixteen Administration, 1785-1955 by Robert Preston Brooks in the Heritage collection.
• UGA College of Agriculture and Environmental Science website.
• UGA Cooperative Extension Services website.
• Georgia Statistics web pages on the National Agricultural Statistics Service website.
• The United States Department of Agriculture website.
• The United States Census Bureau website.
• The Georgia Department of Agriculture website.
• Linoleum, Better Babies, and the Modern Farm Woman, 1890-1930 by Marilyn Irvin Holt in the general collection.
• The American Family Farm: A Photo Essay by George Ancona and Joan Anderson in the Heritage collection.
• The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry in the general collection.
• The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land, edited by Norman Wirzba in the general collection.
• Atlas of American American Agriculture: The American Cornucopia by Richard Pillsbury and John Florin in the Reference collection.
• The Profitable Hobby Farm: How to Build a Sustainable Local Food Business by Sarah Beth Aubrey in the New Books collection.
• Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil by Andrew Lee and Patricia Foreman in the general collection.
• Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance, edited by Deborah Burns in the general collection.

25 June 1889: Paper Predicts Horses May Become One of "Our Rared Monsters"

On this day in 1889, the Weekly Banner published the following editorial:

The decline of the horse as transportation was not as rapid as it may have seemed in 1889. Though automobiles gained in popularity, liveries still did a good business in Athens into the 1910s, and the Athens police used mounted patrols for downtown for more than 100 years after this editorial was published.

Learn More:

• Southern Watchman, Aug. 1888 - Dec. 1889 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia's Protected Wildlife by the Game & Fish Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in the Heritage collection.
• The Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next?" by Mark Stevenson in the New Books collection. 
• Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand in the general collection.
• Secretariat's Meadow: The Land, the Family, the Legend by Kate Chenery Tweedy in the New Books collection.
• The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds by Diane Ackerman in the general collection.
• The Wonderful Future That Never Was by Gregory Benford in the New Books collection.
• The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species by Scott Weidensaul in the general collection.
• Inevitable Surprises: Thinking Ahead in a Time of Turbulence by Peter Schwartz in the general collection.
• A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals by Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten in the general collection.
• Probable Tomorrows: How Science and Technology Will Transform Our Lives in the Next Twenty Years by Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies in the general collection.
• No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species by Richard Ellis in the general collection.
• I Live in the Future and Here's How It Works: Why Your World, Work, and Brain are Being Creatively Disrupted by Nick Bilton in the New Books collection.
• Extinct Species of the World by Jean-Christophe Balouet in the general and Reference collections. 
• Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth by Curt Stager in the New Books collection.
• The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 of the World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half Century, edited by Mike Wallace in the general collection.
• The Dilbert Future: Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century by Scott Adams in the general collection.
• MountedPolice.com website.

23 May 1907: Injured Odd Fellows Return to Athens

On this day in 1907, Athens residents who had been hospitalized in Macon after surviving  a Central of Georgia Railway train wreck on May 20th, returned to their homes. The announcement ran in the Weekly Banner:

 

According to news reports, other Athenians injured in the wreck were A. C. Bishop (shoulder), F. H. Bowden (cuts on head and left shoulder), A. B. Harper (left hip), H. L. Garabald (general shake-up), R. L. Bramlett (right leg and shoulder), J. W. Baker (bruised on head), and J. W. Fox (sprained left knee).  

The No. 18 train from Athens was 20 minutes from it's next stop in Macon when it derailed at a speed of 30 to 35 miles per hour (reports vary).  On board were approximately 50 passengers, including a special coach with a delegation of Odd Fellows members from Athens and area towns en route to the week-long state convention in Columbus. After being checked by doctors, those passengers not hospitalized continued on to the state convention.

The wreck was described in the Macon Twice-A-Week Telegraph:

As the engine struck the curve two miles south of Hillsboro the rails turned, probably caused by the weight of the engine coming around the curve. The locomotive, however, was over the rail before it had turned sufficient to throw it and so escaped. The three coaches were hurled about ten feet from the track, the first and last being badly smashed and the second, somehow, miraculously escaping damage and being laid intact against the embankment at the side of the track.

It was first thought impossible that the coaches could be so completely wrecked and yet no one have met their death, and all were greatly relieved when it was verified none had been killed. This was all the more miraculous as the train was unusually crowded because of the Odd Fellow's party.

The morning after the wreck, a short Atlanta Georgian and News update noted that "no cause is known for the Hillsboro wreck other than it was a derailment on a sharp curve." In 1907, train accidents were fairly common across the country, and this particular accident had too few injuries to garner much media attention.

The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows began in England, and were established in the United States in 1819 in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1851, they became "the first national fraternity to include women" with the establishment of the Rebekah Degree. They still exist today, with 10,000 lodges in 26 countries, working toward their mission "To visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan."

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.
• Macon Telegraph Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Atlanta Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Central of Georgia Railway Album by W. Forrest Beckum, Jr. and Albert M. Langley, Jr. in the Heritage collection.
• Central of Georgia Railway Steam Locomotive and Trains by James H. Goolsby, Jr. and Albert M. Langley, Jr. in the Heritage and general collections.
• 1909 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• 1904 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• Inside Secret Societies by Michael Bensen in the general collection.
• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam, available through PINES.
• Station to Station by Steven Parissien in the general collection.
• Zephyr: Tracking a Dream across America by Henry Kisor in the general collection.
• Great American Rail Journeys by John Grant in the general collection.
• Making Tracks: An American Rail Odyssey by Terry Pindell in the general collection.
• Tom Mouse by Ursula K. LeGuin in the children's picture book collection.
• From a Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson in the children's picture book collection.

2 March 1882: A Page in the Life of Athens

On this day, and many others, the Southern Watchman devoted the most of their third page of the newspaper to bits of news that either did not merit or had not been pursued as full news stories. 


Each column would often begin with short, one-sentence pieces that seemed more like small talk than news, then expand to editorial opinions, sarcastic quips about conditions or people in town, and, at times, corrections to stories previously run in the newspaper.


The first column of the page was called "Personal Mention," and devoted to what would later be published in other local papers as "Society Notes" or "News of Interest to the Ladies," and consisted of mostly gossip and the various travels and health situations of locals:

Holman thinks he has the swinney.

Prof. White has the prettiest team in the city.

Major Miller Lumpkin reached Athens this week and is sick.

Hon. H. H. Carlton has returned from a trip to Atlanta.

Joe Hodgson has a six months boy that weighs 25 pounds.

Mrs. Crawford Long has one of the handsomest homes in Athens.

A highly aesthete whisky-poker club has been organized in Athens.

Miss Emma Mell will assist Mrs. Crawford with her school.

Ed Potter can look in a chicken's mouth and tell its age to a day. 

A Hancock avenue belle will be the next victim to Cupid, so Madam Rumor says.

Miss America Carlton has returned from a pleasant visit to friends in Oglethorpe.

Policeman Arnold, the boys say, arrested a little contraband for appearing on the street with her shoes unbuttoned.

Frank Rhodes says he is thinking seriously of joining the church. When Frank reforms the devil will go into bankruptcy.

Tom Hampton gets excited every time a pretty girl enters his store and has been known to tie up a gallon of molasses in a paper sack and put a dollars' worth of sugar in a jug.

Policeman Pierson's mustach [sic} looks like some fellow had just "hollered" boo! and woke it up; while Ben Culp reminds us of a man who suffers with hereditary nightmare.

The second column was "A Bird's-Eye View of the City," and covered more general topics:

Mule trade lively.

Flower garden work progresseth slowly.

Athens needs about 1,000,000 pounds of paint.

The twittering of the blue bird is heard in the land.

A number of new buildings are contracted for in Cobbham.

Our Jewish friends have a large and flourishing Sabbath-school.

The Athens Foundry has four new apprentices. This is a fine business.

Brooklyn, a large colored village near the city, speaks of incorporating.

A number of our citizens have contracted for windmills, to pump water.

We have engaged the services of a first-class society editor, young ladies.

Col. Huggins says with $10,000 he will build a street railroad in Athens.

Mr. Gleason died at the house of his sister, and not in jail, as reported to us.

The students from the Agricultural College ought to pay frequent visits to Mr. Meeker's farm.

Manager Jones has lost money on the Opera House this season, which is a reflection on Athens.

An Athens gentleman is working on some Northern capitalists to get them to build another factory in or near our city.

What policeman was it that the other night listened for two hours to water dripping on a tin roof, under the impression that he had found a burglar?

The next three columns were short items that each had a short headline: 

A SECRET.

Our police force have been for several days working up a highly interesting and sensational case, but they want it suppressed until the affair ripens.

PRINCETON BRIDGE.

This work was completed last week and is pronounced one of the best in the county. Its cost is about $3,900. King, the builder, has a contract to build another bridge in Fulton county.

THE ROADS.

The roads leading to Athens are badly cut up, and it is almost impossible for wagons to travel them. Farmers are getting short of supplies and unless the weather breaks starvation will stare some sections in the face.

NO ACTION.

There was called a meeting of Council Monday evening to take some action in regard to the Oconee Cemetery; but owing to the absence of the Mayor no official action was taken. Council will doubtless take charge of this cemetery, and elect a regular keeper.

IMPROVING.

We are happy to announce that Mrs. Julius Cohen, who has been very low for some time, is somewhat better at last accounts.

MORE RAIN.

It seems like the very floodgates of heaven have been raised this winter. There has been almost continuous rainfall since Christmas, with very few clear days. It is injurious to business and ruinous to our farmers, who have no opportunity to break or prepare their lands.

MONEY SCARCE.

We never knew money matters so tight. The bad roads have quarantined our trade, and even some of our best men find it hard to collect enough to meet their monthly bills. There seems now, however, to be a break in the weather, and if it will only stay clear for a few days our streets will be filled with wagons and the blockade raised.

R. H. LAMPKIN.

In connection with his first-class bar Mr. R. H. Lampkin has opened a fine restaurant and has also nice beds for his patrons. This is the best equipped bar in the city, and only the purest liquors sold. The old Gibson rye and Maxey's corn specialties. His rooms have just been newly furnished, and the public will be well cared for. Now don't forget the place. The only ten-pin alley in the city.

SUFFERING.

There is no disguising the fact that there is great want and destitution in our midst. Not only many blacks, but even some whites, are actually suffering for the necessaries of life. Owing to the wretched weather they could not get work, and both their money and credit are gone. A gentleman remarked to us the other day that he had a load of wood thrown off at his door, and in less than an hour had seventeen applications to cut it up. And yet hundreds of negroes leave the farms to seek employment in the city.

THREE CHEERS.

On Monday last an unbroken schedule went into effect, extending over the Northeastern Railroad to Clarkesville. There is no change of cars between Athens and that point. This shows that the R. & D. intends to act in good faith toward our city and our people are joyous.

Learn More:

• Southern Watchman, 1882 - 1885 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• Strolls About Athens During the Early Seventies by Sylvanus Morris in the Heritage and general collections.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens, A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage, Reference, and general collections.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection on the Digital Library of Georgia website.

30 January 1892: Georgia Is Victorious in First Football Game, Creates an Athens Obsession

On this day in 1892, "the Black and Crimson" welcomed Mercer University ("the black and yellow") to the University of Georgia campus for "the first intercollegiate football game in the Deep South." Kickoff was at 3pm, and more than a thousand people attended the game on what is now known as Herty Field on North Campus.

The Weekly Banner set the scene:

The Mercer boys came in at twelve o'clock and brought with them two cars full of students and citizens of Macon, Madison, and other places along the line of the Macon & Northern. They were taken in charge by the University boys and entertained at their different homes. The Mercer colors, black and yellow were seen on nearly two hundred breasts, and several young ladies from Macon were along to attest their faith in the Mercer boys. It was a fine delegation of young men and young ladies, and a nicer crowd never came on a visit to Athens.

The University campus was decorated with black and crimson and on the field one goal was decorated in University colors, the other in Mercer colors. Long before three o'clock the crowd began to assemble and the yells of the two colleges were alternately raised with a vim by the boys. The University goat was driven across the field by the boys and raised quite a ripple of laughter. At three o'clock there were over one thousand people on the ground, and the presence of so many young ladies from the city, the Lucy Cobb and the Home School added inspiration to the occasion.

Georgia dominated the game, and was leading 28-0 at the end of the first half. At the time, touchdowns counted for just four points, with two points awarded for the post-touchdown kick, and field goals were worth five points.UGA Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Charles Holmes Herty, brought the sport to campus and acted as the team's first football coach.

The Banner's description of the second half begins thusly:

By this time the game is irretrievably lost to Mercer, but the black and yellow were not tamed in their enthusiasm. They were true grit and when the time was called they lined up like men and went at the second half with a will.

The final score of the game would be 50-0, though later, Georgia right tackle A. O. Halsey said the team had scored another 10 points that were missed when the scorekeeper left the game to ensure he made it to the liquor dispensary before it closed at sundown.

After the game,

Enthusiasm was supreme, boys were riding around on a sea of shoulders, even the goat was ridden.

The Mercer boys took defeat very gracefully, and were escorted to the train by the University boys and went off amid the yells of both crowds.

Georgia's next and final game would be against Auburn in Piedmont Park in Atlanta on February 20th. The Black and Crimson finished their first football season with a record of 1-1.

Learn More:

• Athens Weekly Banner, Jan. 1891 - Jun. 1892 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Pictorial History of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage and general collections.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• I've Seen 'Em All: A Half Century of Georgia Football by Charles E. Martin in the Heritage collection.
• Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football by Richard Whittingham in the general collection.
• Chemistry at the University of Georgia by W. H. Waggoner in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Goat Handbook by Ulrich Jaudas in the general collection.
• Georgia Football History page on the UGA Athletic Association website.

2 November 1909: You Won't Feel the Electricity

On this day in 1909, the Athens Banner ran a new series of ads by the Athens Electric Railway Company touting their products for the home--this week, the electric heating pad.

The Athens Electric Railway Company was the Athens trolley company. In October, 1896, they moved their generator to their new hydroelectric station at Mitchell Bridge Road. Not only did this improve the reliability of their trolleys, but the company could now offer electricity to local businesses and residences. In1910 they became the Athens Railway & Electric Company, emphasizing they powered not only the city's public transit system, but also the Athenian streets, homes and businesses, as well as offering a variety of electricity-powered household appliances and features for sale to individual consumers.

Ads depicting the elegance of entertaining with a chafing dish (plugged into the electric light socket hanging above your modern dining table) called it "without peer as a promoter of good fellowship and appetite." Their tagline in 1910 included the snappy, "Electricity Is All Right!" in connection with ads aimed at local shop owners, promising that a warm, electrically-lit show window would "coax bashful dollars from tightwad pockets."

The first portable electric vacuum cleaner was patented in 1908 by James Spangler, who sold his design to his cousin's husband, William Hoover. In this 1913 ad, also from the first week of November in the Athens Banner, Athens Railway & Electric Company urged housewives to "Do It Electrically!" and offered a free 10-day trial of the new time-saving machine.

Learn More:

• History of Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens: A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage, Reference, and general collections.
• 1909 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• 1912-13 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Buses, Trolleys, and Trams by Charles Stuart Dunbar in the general collection.
• Vacuum Cleaners by Elaine Marie Alphin the children's collection.
• How Electronic Things Work and What to Do When They Don't by Robert L. Goodman in the general collection.
• Consumer Reports Buying Guide available through GALILEO. (call for current password)