Fourth Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Community Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's fourth class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, April 4th, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room's ACCA Hoyt Street location. The title of the class is Finding Those Who Served: Military Records.

If you missed the first class, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you are set on the basics, but want to know more about service records or using draft cards and pension records in your research, just sign up now for the April 4th class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.

In our forth installment, we'll demonstrate the width and breadth of the war-related information available and useful for genealogical research. Our overview will cover what the records are, what sort of information they contain, and where they are located going back to Colonial times.

For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

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:

(click to enlarge image)

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.

13 November 1867: "with a view to matrimony"

On this day in 1867, the following personal ad was run in the Southern Watchman:

The names used by the young women placing the ad are likely pseudonyms, since they are engaging in somewhat forward behavior for "refined and accomplished" ladies "of good family." However, the war had changed the social world and expectations for many young southern women. Even before the end of the conflict, "changed attitudes and often changed strategies proved necessary as women recognized that men were becoming ever scarcer resources."

Due to poor record keeping during the war, the exact numbers of casualties on either side of the hostilities are unknown.  Of the estimated 1.2 million men who served in the Confederacy, approximately 250,000 were killed in action or by disease, and another 90,000 were wounded.  Estimates for Georgia were that of the approximately 120,000 men who served, between 11,000-25,000 men died in the war. It is generally believed that the country lost nearly 25% of military age (also marriageable age) men. 

Though there is record of some women embracing "spinsterhood" has a patriotic endeavor, "more common...were those single women who remained committed to increasingly impossible hopes." 

Learn More:

• Southern Watchman, Sep. 1864 - Dec. 1867 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Civil War Cemeteries article on the New Georgia Encyclopedia website.
• This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust in the general collection.
• Mothers of Necessity: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust in the general collection.
• These Men She Gave: Civil War Diary of Athens, Georgia by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Confederate Athens by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Woman's War: Southern Women, Civil War, and the Confederate Legacy, edited by Edward D. C. Campbell in the general collection.
• The Civil War as a Crisis of Gender: Augusta, Georgia, 1860-1890 by Leann Whites in the Heritage collection.
• Southern Watchman, Athens, Georgia: Civil War Home Front Coverage, 1861-1865 by Faye Stone Poss in the Heritage and general collections.
• Confederate Cemeteries, Volumes I & II by Mark Hughes in the Heritage collection.
• Scarlett Doesn't Live Here Anymore: Southern Women in the Civil War Era by Laura F. Edwards in the general collection.
• Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner in the general collection.
• Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times, edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood in the Heritage collection.

1 June 1911: Knox Institute Graduation Exercises Attract Diverse Crowd

On this day in 1911, the schedule for graduation exercises at the private Knox Institute were published in the Athens Banner:

The Knox Institute began as the Knox School in late 1867, established by the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedman's Bureau. The land for the school was purchased in 1867 by three local African-Americans, Mr. Courtney Beal, a property owner who would later be noted by the Southern Watchman newspaper as the "wealthiest negro in the state;" Reverend Floyd Hill, who established the first African-American Baptist Church in 1867 across from the school property; and Madison Davis, who would elected to the Georgia House of Representatives the following year and continue to be active in Republican politics. 

The three men donated the land specifically to be used to "to educate freedmen's children or children of any race." However, no white children attended the school, and it was sometimes used as a meeting place for political rallies for Republican and African-American candidates.

The school was named for Major John J. Knox, the Freedman's Bureau Assistant Commissioner for a 10-county subdistrict around Athens. He oversaw the building of the two-story building located on the southeast corner of Reese and Pope Streets, across from Hill First Baptist church. Knox also saw the benefit of moving ownership of the school to the African-American community and the American Missionary Association, which was active in establishing schools and colleges for African-Americans all over the country. 

Initially, the teachers at Freedmen schools were AMA members from the North, mostly white women who were often unable to find places to live in the Georgia communities where they taught, and faced personal threats for doing their work.  By the time of these graduation exercises in 1911, most of the teachers were African-Americans who had trained in Atlanta or at the AMA-founded Fisk University in Tennessee. In 1912, teachers were paid $35 per month, $25 in cash and $10 in their room and board on campus.

Tuition for Knox Institute was 50 cents per month for primary grade education, and up to $1.50 per month for upper level coursework including special music classes. The school attracted students from all over Georgia and other states as well, with a curriculum of academics as well as domestic science, industrial training (such as carpentry and typesetting), and music. Composer Hall Johnson was one the school's 20th century alumni, graduating in 1902 at the age of 14. 

Over the next 15 years, the Knox Institute expanded its campus and enrollment, peaking in the 1924-1925 school year with 339 students from five states, and became the first African-American school to receive accreditation from the University of Georgia's Accreditation Committee. However, in 1928, financial difficulties caused the school to close. From 1933 to 1936, the city of Athens leased one of the buildings for the Athens High and Industrial School, but it was torn down in the 1950s, and remains an empty lot. In 2010, the Georgia Historical Society put up a marker commemorating the Athens High and Industrial School and Knox Institute in the location.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jan. 1911 - Jun. 1911 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael L. Thurmond in the Heritage, general, and Young Adult collections.
• Enduring Legacy: Clarke County, Georgia's Ex-Slave Legislators, Madison Davis and Alfred Richardson by Al Hester in the Heritage and general collections.
• Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Clarke County, Georgia: Deeds and Mortgages on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Postcard History of Athens by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens: A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage, general, and Reference collections.
• Christian Reconstruction: The American Missionary Association and Southern Blacks, 1861-1890 by Joe Martin Richardson in the Heritage and general collections.
• A History of Education in Georgia by Dorothy Orr in the Heritage collection.
• Education: Reflecting Our Society by Gina Giuliano in the Reference collection.
• Teaching Equality: Black Schools in the Age of Jim Crow by Adam Fairclough in the general collection.
• Separate but Not Equal: The Dream and the Struggle by James Haskins in the children's collection.
• Faithful, Firm, and True: African-American Education in the South by Titus Brown in the Heritage collection.
• What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated by Alfie Kohn in the general collection.
• The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding by Kieran Egan in the general collection.
• The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer in the general collection.
• The American Missionary Association and the Promise of a Multicultural America: 1839-1954 online exhibit by the Amistad  Research Center at Tulane University.