12 June 1913: Benefit for the Model Training School at the Morton Theatre

On this day in 1913, the Athens Banner ran an unusual notice for a benefit at the Morton Theatre for the Model Training School on Danielsville Road:

The Model Training School was founded in 1903 by Judia C. Jackson, a native of Clarke county; she married another well-known local African-American educator, Samuel F. Harris, in 1912.  She donated her own land for the school, which was across the road from her home. Funds from the General Education Board of New York for the building and Clarke county paid for the building and school furnishings. 

The curriculum was grammar, algebra, Latin, black history, art, music, and drama. The students would occasionally perform in pageants or plays written by Ms. Jackson Harris, and hold the performances at the Morton Theatre or Colonial Theatre. Displays of student projects were sometimes given a window at Michael Brothers department store downtown to show examples of the work accomplished at the school. Many of her students went on to college and became educators and community leaders themselves.

The Model Training School also acted as a county community center. Ms. Jackson Harris helped organize Land Owner Clubs, where local African-American farmers would pool their money to buy land that they could then divide amongst themselves to cultivate. The school hosted agricultural fairs for the community, featuring prizes for canned goods, cakes, livestock, pickles, and other farm products. In the summer, Ms. Jackson "operated a summer cannery for the local farmers and their families." By 1915, the clubs owned 440 acres, a community saw mill, a cotton gin, and a thresher. 

Unfortunately, there was no review of the benefit concert in the Athens Banner the next day, nor is there any record of how much money was raised for the school. The school was later renamed the Judia Jackson Harris Model and Industrial School. Ms. Jackson Harris remained principal of the school until 1950, when she retired. In 1956, the Athens city schools merged with the Clarke county schools, and the Model Training School was finally closed.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Feb. 1913 - Jun. 1913 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 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.
• Athens: A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage, general, and Reference 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.
• Black Vaudeville, the TOBA, and the Morton Theatre: Recovering the History 1910-1930 by Thomas L. Riis in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Morton Theatre, Athens, Georgia: Adaptive Rehabilitation of a 1910 Theatre by the Clarke County Office of Cultural Affairs in the Heritage collection.
•  Morton Theatre website.
• Judia Jackson Harris Elementary Charter School website.

15 May 1856: "In plentitude, and even splendor..."

On this day in the Southern Watchman, the following paid announcement was published on page 4:

John Flournoy was a frequent "correspondent" in the Athens newspapers of the 1850s. Approximately six weeks later, he published another notice on this topic:

NOTICE.

THE public will be re-assured to observe that I will pay nothing not cognisable by me as a debt! My wife alternately leaves me and returns, and is now re-absconded--uncertain whether or not to come home any more. My offence is inability to support her in the extravagance she wants.  I can scarcely call a dollar my own.  The genius of woman is the talent of Satan. She it is, as a tool--that brought all our woes; and she it is that MUST be overmastered! I would not give a thrip for such a society or liberty as we now have, until it be reformed in a thousand condign ways . So, no farther advice on this point.

J. J. FLOURNOY

Beyond requests for local merchants to ignore his "wife, ANY wife, or wives," Mr. Flournoy also had run-ins with local businesses and neighbors that would be aired in overwrought prose amongst the ads for patent medicines, mills for sale, new shipments of goods, and county legal notices. Athens newspapers were not alone; he regularly wrote to papers all over Georgia, including Augusta and Macon, and religious publications.

Mr. Flournoy was a resident of Jackson county. In Jackson county record abstracts, there is reference to both "J. J. Flournoy" and "John Jacobus Flournoy,"never a "John James Flournoy," but they appear to be the same person.

According to Historic Notes on Jackson County, Georgia, John Jacobus Flournoy had been a native of Clarke, but moved to Jackson County in 1839. He lost his hearing and speech when he was young, and is considered instrumental in having the Georgia General Assmbly create the School for the Deaf at Cave Springs, Georgia in 1846; the school still operates today. In the book, Mr. Flournoy is described as "quite eccentric," and notes that he "wrote various articles expressing his dislike for society in general."

In 1858, calling himself "Dr. J. J. Flournoy," he offered a cold preventative method for winter colds only; he admitted he had not yet found a way to prevent summer colds. In 1859, he requested that people not call him "old Flournoy," but rather "old Mr. Flournoy." By the start of the Civil War, his notices were no longer quite so florid, advertising for a lost horse, watch, and a runaway slave, and later being noted by the paper with other contributors to the Sick and Wounded Soldiers Wayside Home in Athens. 


In March, 1874, the Macon newspaper noted that J. J. Flournoy had "perhaps, written more letters, on more subjects, to more people than any man that ever lived or will live to the end of time." By the 1870s, his letters to the Athens papers were somewhat less frequent. An editorial in an 1886 Banner-Watchman mentions Mr. Flournoy as "lately deceased," and calls him "a gentleman of immense personal courage." His exact date of death is unclear, but his age is listed as 61 in the 1870 U. S. Census, so he was approximately 77 years old when he died.


Learn More:

• Southern Watchman, Jan. 1856 - Sep. 1858 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Macon Telegraph Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia. 
• 1870 U. S. Census in the Ancestry Library Edition database in GALILEO.
• Historical Notes on Jackson County, Georgia by Frary Elrod in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Southern Watchman, Athens, Georgia, Civil War Home Front Coverage, 1861-1865, abstracted by Faye Stone Poss in the Heritage collection.
• Confederate Athens by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny by Suze Orman in the New Books collection.
• The Frugal Almanac by Melodie Moore in the general collection.
• Thrifty: Living the Frugal Life with Style by Marjorie Harris in the New Books collection.
• The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better by Chris Farrell in the New Books collection.
• Women, Men, & Money by William Francis Devine in the general collection.
• What to Do before "I Do:" The Modern Couple's Guide to Marrige, Money, and Pre-Nups by Nihara Choudhri in the general collection.
• All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan by Elizabeth Warren in the general collection.

3 February 1922: Relics of a Love Story

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Learn More:

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

21 November 1843: Two Marriages in One Family

On this day in 1843, prominent local builder James R. Carlton attended the weddings of two of his children. In the morning, his oldest son, Dr. Joseph Barnett, married Thene Emma Moore in Jackson County. Reverend Alfred T. Mann, the minister of the First Methodist Church of Athens, performed the ceremony in Jackson County, then returned to Athens to perform a second Carlton wedding.

The second wedding of the day was for Mary Anne Carlton, who was marrying Dr. William H. Felton, who was about to graduate from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta after attending the University of Georgia in Athens. The couple later moved to Cass (now Bartow) County, where Dr. Felton gave up being a doctor to become a Methodist minister and farmer.

The two couples faced very different futures. Joseph and Theney (as she is listed on her Jackson County marriage certificate) remained in Athens and had five children, with two of their sons also pursuing careers in medicine. Jospeh would serve as surgeon  for Toombs Regiment during the Civil War, and represented Athens in the Georgia House from 1853-1856 and Georgia Senate from 1857-1858.

William and Mary Anne had only eight years together before she died, leaving a toddler daughter, Annie, who was born in 1849. William would marry future suffragist Rebecca Latimer in 1852, and both would have striking poltitical careers in Georgia and on a national level.

Learn More:

• Athens, Georgia, Newspaper Clippings (Southern Banner) Volume V 1842-1843 by Tad Evans and Elizabeth Evans Kilbourne in the Heritage collection.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• Clarke County (Ga.) Ordinary. Marriages. Books A-C, 1805 - 1867 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Antebellum Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by Ernest C. Hynds in the Heritage and general collections.
• History of Bartow County, Georgia (Fomerly Cass County) by Lucy Josephine Cunyus in the Heritage and general collections. 
• Clarke County, Georgia, Marriage Records 1803-1909 by Faye Stone Poss in the Heritage and general collections.
• Jackson County, Georgia, Marriage Records 1805-1910 by Patricia Freeman Hardin in the Heritage collection.
• The First Methodist Church, Athens, Georgia: Some History and Recollections, and Its Trustees by John P. Bondurant in the Heritage collection.
• More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Georgia Women by Sara Hines Martin in the Heritage and general collections.
• Rebecca Latimer Felton: Nine Stormy Decades by John E. Talmadge in the Heritage and general collections.

30 January 1918: Murder-Suicide on UGA Campus

On this day in 1918, sometime between 2am and 3am, three shots rang out in one of the dorm rooms housed in Waddell Hall. The first shot killed 17-year-old Belle Hill of Jefferson, Georgia; the next two shots were self-inflicted by 20-year-old Jaime Johnson, also of Jefferson. Neither was a student at the University, but had crashed for the night with three friends from their hometown on a rainy, cold evening in Athens.

The three students who lived in the room, Alva Pendergrass, Howard Dadisman, and Tom Holliday, were awakened by the last shots. They had to go to the New York Cafe on Clayton Street to use the phone to call the police, and the bodies were then taken to Dorsey Funeral Home, also on Clayton Street. The remains of Hill and Johnson were returned to Jefferson by train approximately 12 hours after they died. Both are buried in their respective family plots in Jackson County.

A couple days after the event, the Athens Banner published Jaime Johnson's suicide note in full. His tone is despondent as he asks his family and friends for forgiveness, lists debts of his to be paid, and states that "my burden is so great I can't go with it any further." He does not indicate why he murdered Belle before taking his own life.

The murder-suicide caused quite a sensation in Athens, with rumors flying around town about how and why it had occurred. At one point, rumors spread that the three students in whose room the crime took place had fled town, but actually they had gone to give Johnson's widowed mother, whom all three knew, the details of what had happened in person. The Athens Banner sought to debunk rumors as they arose, saying at one point that "the young men are all from splendid families," and hoped that investigation reports "will set at rest any wild rumors which may be afloat or have been circulated since the unfortunate occurrence."

Two inquiries into the case were held in Clarke County. First, a coroner's inquest to verify how the two young people died; and a second by the Clarke County Grand Jury, in an attempt to disprove all the rumors about the event, including clearing Pendergrass, Holliday, and Dadisman of any criminal wrongdoing. However, by the end of the second investigation, all three had been dismissed from the University for "knowingly permitting an unmarried couple to enter their room and disrobe for the night and occupy said room with said students."

Learn More:

• Athens Banner. Jan, 1918 - Nov, 1918 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Observer. Feb, 1992 - Feb, 1993 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Walking Tour of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage and general collections.
• Why Suicide? by Eric Marcus in the general collection.
• Living When a Young Friend Commits Suicide by Earl. A. Grollman and Max Malikow in the general collection.

5 December 1801 - Clarke County Is Created

On this day in 1801, there was no Athens yet, but the Georgia State Legislature did create Clarke County by carving out 250 square miles from Jackson County. Today, Clarke County is only about half that size, the geographically smallest county in Georgia.

The county is named for Georgia frontiersman and Revolutionary War General Elijah Clarke (1742-1799), who led the defeat of six hundred Loyalists at the Battle of Kettle Creek in Wilkes County, where he lived and fought with more than just those loyal to the Crown. There are indications the family actually spelled their name "Clark," but the county has kept the extra "e," as has the Elijah Clarke Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the Revolution.

Learn More:

• Map Guide to the U. S. Federal Census, 1790-1920 by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide in the Heritage collection.
• Antebellum Athens and Clarke County Georgia by Ernest Hynds in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Portrait of Athens and Clarke County, 2nd Edition by Frances Taliaferro Thomas in the Heritage collection.
• A Portrait of Athens and Clarke County, 1st Edition by Frances Taliaferro Thomas in the Heritage and general collections.
• Georgia Scenes: Characters, Incidents, &c., in the first half century of the Republic by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet in the Heritage and general collections.
• Hero of Hornet's Nest: A Biography of Elijah Clark by Louise Frederick Hays in the Heritage collection.
• Early Records of Georgia Volumes I & II, Wilkes County abstracted by Grace Gilliam Davidson in Heritage collection.
• Elijah Clarke Chapter of the DAR.