Memorial Day-2010

On this day we honor and remember............

Its fuller reaches underneath the hammer!

The Four Georgians

Here’s an interesting fact….Helena, Montana was founded by the “Four Georgians” following a gold discovery along the Last Chance Creek on October 30, 1864.

Hmmmm…..the “Four Georgians”.

Who are these folks and how did they get a label like that?

The four Georgians are thought to be John Cowan, D.J. Miller, John Crab, and Reginald (Robert) Stanley. History is really a strange thing because only one of the four was a true Georgian…John Cowan. The others hailed from other places. D.J. Miller came from Alabama, John Crab was an Iowan, and Reginald Stanley was from England.

Many folks who have researched the four men had come up with the theory that the gang of four was called the Four Georgians not because they were from Georgia but because they used the Georgian method of placer mining.

The four had moved about Montana for six weeks looking for gold and finally returned to one of the first places they had visited. They had aptly named it Last Chance Gulch because they decided to try it one last time before giving up.

On July 14, 1864 they found flat gold nuggets and gold dust and the Last Chance Bonanza had begun. Three years later the four men sold out their claims and went about their lives as wealthy men.

This site states, “Once the news spread about the gold discovery, Helena became a boom town seemingly overnight. In only a few short years, several hundred businesses opened up shop in Helena, and more than 3,000 people called Helena home. Also, many previous mining strikes in other areas of Montana began to play out. As a result, many miners in these areas gravitated toward Helena.As the gulch began to fill up with people, the miners decided they needed to come up with a name for the town. The name “Helena” was not immediately bestowed upon the town. The “Four Georgians” originally named it Crabtown after John Crab, one of the founders. However, many of the miners from Minnesota began to call the town Saint Helena, after a town in Minnesota. The name was eventually shortened to Helena, its current name.”

Today, the same creek where the Four Georgians found their gold, runs underneath Helena’s main street. Helena even has an elementary school named for the Four Georgians.

Of course, as many historical events go there are two sides to the story. John Cowan returned home to site of the old mill (the original burned awhile back) is now a great restaurant. The website for the The Old Mill Restaurant advises John Cowan did travel to Montana with his cousins Frank and Tom Cowan. Also along for the trip were John Boring, Bill Palmer, and Henry Rusk all from Forsyth County.

Notice that Cowan’s traveling companions are not the same men mentioned in the local area history I found for Helena listed earlier in this article.

The Old Mill Restaurant website further states that after several months John Boring and Tom Cowan returned home to Georgia. Along the way John Boring was killed by Indians, but Tom made it home. This left John Cowan, Frank Cowan, Henry Rusk, and Bill Palmer in Montana….four men, four Georgians.

Hmmm….the only Georgian we know for sure was in Helena is John Cowan.

I just hate it when I research something and can’t find the answers I want.

I’ve sent an email to The Old Mill Restaurant…..perhaps they can clear this up for us.

For now we have a mystery on our hands.

Yes, you aren’t seeing things. This post ran here at Georgia on My Mind in September, 2009 and the reason why I’m re-running it can be found here. I never did hear back from the Old Mill Restaurant. :(

Theodore Roosevelt's Southern Roots....The Bullochs of Roswell

My parents were like many young people that come from a small town where everyone knows each other and more than likely has some sort of family connection to every face they see. Once they married they moved away, and in the case of my parents they exchanged small town Canton, Georgia for the big city of Atlanta.

As a little girl living in the southern suburbs of Atlanta I made the trek to Canton with my parents often and loved the trip. Over the years our route would change depending on which new roads had opened in an ever growing city. One of our routes utilized I-285, or the Perimeter, that totally encircles Atlanta. We would follow Roswell Road through Sandy Springs, Roswell, and enter Cherokee County via state route 140.

This was my favorite route to visit the grandparents. I loved to look out the window at all of the businesses, apartments, and restaurants that lined Roswell Road. I loved going across the Chattahoochee River and would get excited as we turned this way and that up the long hill towards the oldest part of Roswell. Funny.... today the hill doesn't seem to be as long, as curvy, or as steep as I remember it.

Even before the city fathers promoted their historical past, old Roswell had a historic atmosphere. Once we got to the top of the hill and passed by quaint shops and restaurants such as Panos and Pauls I would beg my mom to turn down the side streets so I could see the old homes such as Mimosa Hall, Barrington Hall, and Bulloch Hall.

Bulloch Hall had such a mysterious look to it. It looked worn and tired and was quite scary looking especially on a rainy day. It was to say the least intriguing to me especially once I read and watched Gone with the Wind in middle school. I knew the Greek revival mansion had to have great stories to tell. I’d pepper my mother with questions. Who lived there a long time ago? Did anyone live there now? Was the land once part of a plantation? Do you think any of your people or Dad’s people might have known the folks who lived there?

Mother wasn’t sure, but she did know it had been a fine home in its day. I would have loved to see the inside, but in those d ays tours weren’t given, and my parents didn’t normally take up time with things of that sort.

Since my childhood I’ve learned a few things about the family that lived in Bulloch Hall, and if you have ever learned anything about President Theodore Roosevelt then you have inadvertently learned a bit about Bulloch Hall as well.

Major James Stephen Bulloch and Martha Stewart Elliot were similar to my mother and father in that they married and left their own childhood home of Savannah. Many have surmised that the Bulloch’s move north was the discovery of gold in North Georgia, but it was actually due to a bit of a scandal as as this particular site attests:.

Mittie's father, the "impetuous" Major James Bulloch, after his fighting days were over, married his stepmother-in-law, Martha Stewart Elliott, and in a flurry of scandal over the marriage left Savannah behind, packed up his wife, their children from previous marriages, and slaves, and moved to Roswell, Georgia. In Roswell the Bullochs settled on land which the Cherokees had recently held, before gold was discovered and President Andrew Jackson forced the native people to walk to Oklahoma on the infamous Trail of Tears.

Major Bulloch was well known because he had been a highly decorated soldier during the Texas War for Independence, and Georgia’s esteemed citizen, Archibald Bulloch, was a direct decendant. Archibald Bulloch had been the Speaker of the Royal Assembly, the President of the Provincial Congress, and was instrumental in Georgia signing the Declaration of Independence. Martha was well connected in her own right as she was the descendant of General Daniel Stewart of Revolutionary War fame. Both had been married before so their family was an early example of the Brady Bunch with his, hers, and ours offspring.

Another draw to Roswell was Bulloch’s friendship with Roswell King, the former overseer for the Butler Plantation in Savannah. He encouraged the Bullochs, as well as a few other Savannah families, to move north for economic opportunities. Roswell was a prime location for various types of mills due to the rushing waters of Vickery Creek that flowed into the Chattahoochee River.

So while the Bullochs of Roswell did own slaves they did not necessarily have a plantation. In 1851, records indicate there were 29 slaves at Bulloch Hall, and today the slave quarters have been restored. A plaque rests there that name all 29 slaves though there may have been as many as 31, but the names have not been verified. The slaves were mainly house servants or assigned outside duties to keep the property in order as Major Bulloch earned a large majority of his income through the mills of Roswell and other concerns.

After the Major’s death in 1849, Martha Bulloch continued his work, but it didn’t take long for some of her fortune to wane. The family was not destitute, however, by the time her daughter, Mittie, was married she had to sell four slaves just to pay for the wedding festivities.

It’s with the wedding that the story of Bulloch Hall becomes entwined with the Roosevelt family. Apparently Mittie was very beautiful and there is a story that when Martha Mitchell was writing Gone With the Wind she interviewed one of Mittie’s bridesmaids. It is said Mitchell used her research to model the character Scarlett after Mittie. Many years later Mittie’s second son, Elliott, would grow up to father Eleanor Roosevelt who eventually married her fifth cousin once removed, Frankin Delano Roosevelt. Elliott described his mother as “a sweet Dresden monument”, and her daughter Corinne remembered her mother as someone who wore white all the time no matter the season and commented on the beautiful skin her mother had.

So, it is no wonder that Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., the father of Theodore Roosevelt, the President, would fall under the Southern Belle’s charm. Mittie and “Thee” were married in the parlor at Bulloch Hall in 1853 in what has been described as the social event for many years to come in Roswell, Georgia.

From a web article by Lu Hickey:

The young Mrs. Roosevelt, who had written her fiancé just weeks earlier [before their marriage] that he was the "only person who could so suit me and I put every confidence in you," now gamely set out with her new husband for the trip north. During the journey--partly in a carriage and partly by ship, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt had plenty of time to think about what she was leaving behind. She may have had some doubts about the family she was marrying into, but not because of any feelings of inadequacy about her own family tree. Quite the contrary, she had reason to sense a slight edge on her part, especially if she ignored money and counted up the many achievements of her ancestors. An unbiased observer might have backed her up. Seven generations of Roosevelts had lived in America without achieving much fame, but their star rose quickly after she married into the clan.
This post first appeared here at Georgia on My Mind in August, 2007 .

The Gift

Back during another lifetime in the 1970s you would have found me on Friday night sitting in front of our family television….the one where the knob had fallen off and we had to resort to using needle-nosed pliers to change it…patiently waiting for my favorite television show to air.

There I was – gazing up at the screen – watching a parade of commercials and happily munching on taco-flavored Doritos – then I would hear the theme song I can sing to this day and even if you won’t admit it, you can as well.

Here’s the story…of a lovely lady…who was bringing up three very lovely girls…All of them had hair of gold like their mother’s…the youngest one in curls.

Here’s the story…of a man named Brady…who was busy with three boys of his own…They were four men…living all together…yes, they were all alone.

I loved the Brady Bunch. They were different. They were not a cookie-cutter version of my very average family. Not everyone was related by blood, not everyone got along all the time, but there was a lot of love and acceptance. Take two families with former tragedy and throw in a dash of Alice and presto! An Instant American family I would have loved to be a part of.

Look around in any American classroom or neighborhood. We have more families with steps and halves and live-ins than ever before, and if you are like me you have often side-stepped an important facet of American History….our family history.

It’s easy to ignore these days , isn’t it?

I have had students who have their fair share of tragedy….parents on drugs, in jail, molestations, mental illness, a different uncle in the house every week or so, physical violence…a plethora of mixed families that make the Brady Bunch-type family impossible to achieve, so I can understand why educators might be leery of asking children to examine their families, to answer the question why their families are important, and to decide how their family fits into the American quilt even with all the baggage that sometimes accompanies family life these days.
But, how can we ask students to connect to a bunch of folks discussed in the study of history that they’ve never heard of and will never meet unless they can connect to how they fit in….how their family fits into our society no matter the baggage and no matter the circumstances?

A brand new book has dropped into my lap that I think would serve as a great reminder that families come in all shapes and forms. A family doesn’t necessary have to be a group of people all related by biology….they have to have things in common and those things bind us together in love.

The book I’m talking about is called The Gift. Its author and illustrator, Karen Craft, just happens to be my dear sister.

In The Gift, Karen tells the true story of Baby Boy who came to live with a family who wanted a little boy very much. The book covers numerous themes from family love, overcoming tragedy, and even an honest look at what makes the concept of family what it is and to be more precise what makes the concept of a mother….a mother.

As the first page of the book states, “A Mama isn’t just someone that gives birth to you. She’s someone that sits with you when you’re sick, and doesn’t mind. She’s the one who bakes you cookies late into the night, when you forgot to tell her earlier. She will clap louder than anyone at your piano recital. She reads your favorite book to you over and over. And over. She really listens to you when you need to talk and when you’re scared she makes you feel safe. She teaches you to be polite and chew with your mouth closed. She’s the last person you see when she kisses you good night, and the first person you want to see in the morning. You know in your heart that she’s your Mother, you Mom, your Mama. She’s your gift and you are hers. Sometimes biology just isn’t so important after all.”

The Gift is a great book to open the door to discuss adoption with students of all ages, to discuss blended families, to discuss losing a family member, and to discuss how non-family members….our friends and neighbors….are important parts of our families as well.

Children will love the story details regarding Da, Mama, Sister Dear, and Baby Girl. The story even has its own version of Alice in the guise of Nanni-K who in reality happens to be my dear niece.

It is a great resource for your classroom library, a media center, or a home library. Students, young and old, will love The Gift as a read aloud as they make Mother’s Day cards and presents, and the book lends itself well to small group reading activities for older students.

Karen Craft’s illustrations are brought to life even in more exact detail by artist Meghan Branscomb from Mornin’ Glory Studios. As you can see from the story illustrations I’ve scattered through this post they are exceptional and make the story even more entertaining. I’m already thinking about making a few slides of the illustrations in enlarged detail to show to students as the book is read.

It’s a great book to purchase for your child or another child you know. With Mother’s Day around the corner it is also a perfect gift for your mother, mothers you know young and old, and even those motherly-types you have in your life. I have a few of those….and I know you do too.

Visit Karen Craft's website, Just Sharing a Story, to purchase your copy of The Gift.

You can become a fan of Karen’s on Facebook and get updates on future publications HERE

This post originally ran at my other site History Is Elementary. If you are wondering why I’m recycling posts see my explanation HERE.

New Updates for the Blogroll!!!!!!!

Here are a few new Georgia Blogs I’ve added to the blogroll:

1. Gena Knox...has one of the best cooking blogs on the Internet today. Gena states on her “about” page, “Like everyone who grew up in the south, my story is full of food, family, and tradition. Some of my earliest memories are of the smells and tastes from my grandmother’s kitchen. I remember the flavor of corn creamed as soon as it came off the cob, the smell of warm peaches, and the incredible sweetness of her caramel cake. All of them are still my favorites, although the caramel cake is a tough recipe that might take me a lifetime to master.”

2. Pink Roses and Other Passions…. Scrolling through this blog for the first time I quickly decided I would become a regular reader…..fantastic posts and the pictures are so inspiring…..I immediately came away with five or six ideas I could use for my home.

3. Plugged a business blog for RedBPower located in Statesboro, Georgia….a business offering powerful solutions for personal and commercial electrical needs.

4. Southern Georgia Living ….a blog that portrays family living in south Georgia…..Cairo, Georgia to be exact.

5.Vanishing South Georgia…..photography by Brian Brown....check out his blog index by county and by city to see all of the photographs. WONDERFUL!

6.View From a Hearse a blog by Bruce Goddard…..a humorist, motivational speaker, undertaker, and author. Lots of good reading here….

7. ….and finally, Rural Pen…..a blog that has been on the Georgia Blogroll for quite some time has been changed to Farmer South. In the “about” section the blog author states, "Trying to keep family farms alive in the face of corporate consolidation and sprawling land development.”

Changing Pockets....Again

It seems appropriate that I would re-run this post today....tax day... since it begins with a discussion regarding how money seems to go from pocket to pocket, but actually this post is about a pocket that can exist in geography....

Money…it does make the world go round. It also seems to move around at a fast pace. Money hops from pocket to pocket to pocket. A famous quotation states, “Money is always there, but the pockets change.”

I agree. Pockets do change, but what you might not realize is the word pocket can mean more than a place to keep your money before it flies out into another’s pocket.

Sometime ago over at History Is Elementary I posted Historians Observe Their Surroundings. The post centers around an activity I use at the beginning of the year to help students understand our geography is constantly changing. Twenty years ago would you recognize the place where your home or office sits? Fifty years ago? One hundred years ago? Two hundred years ago? Mother Earth is constantly changing due to natural and human circumstances.

Do we give the past a second thought as we drive through our state? Do we wonder what might have once been in a pine thicket we zoom by along the interstate? Look at the picture I’ve posted above. It seems like a very rural, natural setting. Notice the ridge line. It’s important to my point.

Geographically speaking a “pocket” is a plain surrounded entirely by mountains and amazingly Georgia has one of these rare geographical features. GeorgiaTrails.com advises a pocket is a geologic formation that was formed when most of Northwest Georgia was covered by a vast sea.

Imagine that!

Weaker limestone was eroded and left the surrounding iron ore ridges. Out west this type of formation is known as a “hole”, and two of the most famous are Jackson Hole and Hole in the Wall.

An article entitled Remembering the Pocket by Daniel M. Roper from the Winter, 1994 issue of North Georgia Journal explores the history of Georgia’s pocket enclave that is now virtually abandoned except for hikers and fishermen who make the trek inside.

Hardy settlers first reached the pocket following the land lottery that was a result of the Treaty of New Echota which provided for the sale of the remaining Cherokee lands in Georgia. Many who received the right to own land in the area were elderly and they simply sold their right to settle to younger and hardier pioneer stock.

Between the 1840s and 1860s settlers carved out a settlement in The Pocket which had several farms as well as a gristmill and sawmill located on Johns Creek in the narrow gap between Johns and Horn mountains. A blast furnace also existed which utilized the iron ore from Horn Mountain and formed wash pots and skillets.

Researchers have been able to learn many things about the life of The Pocket settlers from journals and letters. James Elijah White and his son L.P. White maintained a journal from 1835 until 1935. The article refers to several entries that are just simply observations of daily life in The Pocket. Here is a sampling:

“Their was the greatest yield of hickory nuts in 1895”
“The night of May the 24 (1908) it rained a frog down the chimney.”

“On September 1913 John Blasengaines left for Oklahoma for the charge of fornication”

“1919 January the 12, Sunday morning a aroplane flew over this valley today about ½ after 9”

“Me and Sarah Elizabeth went to Villanow to hear holy rollers.”
The article advises by the 1890s there were several hundred people living in the valley. Farming and logging were the primary industries with tan bark being the most lucrative. Chestnut oaks were in abundance. The bark was hauled to the rails at Hill City to be taken to a tannery in Chattanooga. The tannin was then used on animal hides.

The Pocket was touched by the Civil War when the Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Sherman’s lieutenant, Major General James B. McPherson, marched through Snake Creek Gap—the strategic route between Horn and Rocky Face Mountains—and flanked the Confederate army at Dalton. The Confederates retreated to Resaca where they engaged the Federal army in a major battle on May 14 and 15, 1864.

GeorgiaTrails.com advises when advancing through the area during the Civil War, men under the command of General James McPherson “discovered” the road, which was not on their maps. A great deal of concern was expressed in the Official Records about the accuracy of the maps.

Samuel Pilcher was a Pocket resident who served with the “Wright Infantry”. He was one of the lucky Confederates who made it home and lived along life farming on his land in the valley. He died in 1897 and his grave is maintained by the U.S. Forest Service. A nearby pond, Pilcher’s Pond, is named for him and many anglers have sought this secluded spot to wet a hook.

George W. Bailey was a Confederate from The Pocket who experienced being a prisoner of war. He served with the “Calhoun Blues” and was captured by Union troops in August, 1864 during the Battle of Atlanta. He was finally released from Fort McHenry nine months later where he returned to The Pocket and raised a large family.

The Pocket experienced many years of prosperity following the Civil War, however, by the 1940s most residents had left the area creating a virtual ghost valley. The combination of the boll weevil and The Great Depression hit The Pocket’s agrarian economy hard. Many residents were lured away by the offer of jobs in the factories and mills of Rome and Dalton.

The Pocket is a valley south of the community of Villanow, surrounded on three sides by the steep rocky ridges of Horn and Johns Moutains. To reach The Pocket you need to travel north on I-75 to the exit for Resaca (Highway 136). Travel 15 miles to the town of Villanow and take a left on East Armuchee Road. There are signs to follow by the byway that is known by hikers and bikers as the Pocket Trail”. Eventually if you follow the signs you are led back to the famous general store. Some sites mention that the signs at the left turn onto US 27 and the left turn onto Floyd Springs Road might be missing. Additional information regarding the location of the pocket can be found at North Georgia Scenic Drives.

GeorgiaTrails.com advises the area is rich in Native American, Civil War, and Civilian Conservation Corps history. Other attractions include Keown Falls, the Johns Mountain Overlook, Johns Creek, Johns Mountain Wildlife Management Area, and the Pinhoti Trail.

This post first ran in June, 2006.
Find out why I’m re-running old postings HERE

Another View of the Red Oak Train Depot

I grew up in Red Oak, Georgia…..a little strip of real estate between College Park and Fairburn. I attended elementary and high school while living there…..I made life-long friends there…..I did the Girl Scout thing there…I was baptized there…..I learned to drive there……I LIVED there , and it was a fantastic place to grow up back in the early 70s.

I loved that place…..I still do even though most everyone I knew is long gone including me, my home, and even the train depot.

Of course….the train depot seen with this post was long gone before I ever moved to Red Oak, but I rode by its location at least twice a day for many years.


I originally wrote about the train depot in December , 2007 when I was lucky enough to locate the original building plans for the depot which you can see HERE along with some of recollections of my daily visits to downtown Red Oak.

Go on….click through….you KNOW you want to read that post as well. :)

At that time someone by the time of C.E. Waltz commented and advised his grandfather had been the postmaster until the mid 60s and his grandmother had run a store out of the depot as well. He also advised that instead of the building being demolished it had been torn down and moved….and it had become a restaurant.

So , now the plot thickens. I wonder if any of my Red Oak friends I’ve hooked up with on Facebook or new friends that find me through Google searches know where the old depot building wound up and if it is still a restaurant…….
I’m waiting, and I'd love to know the rest of the story…:)

I snagged the depot picture from the Atlanta History Center site……HERE. I hope they don’t sue me for posting it……I’m giving full credit though.

And……it’s the season of the mulligan here at Georgia on My Mind while I’m busy telling myself I can write a book I'm revisting some of my older postings…..for an explanation see the link HERE.