Yesterday I reviewed my Oakland Cemetery
photographs. I came across the above tombstone of
Franklin Miller Garrett (1906 - 2000) and I thought of the time I talked to Mr.
Garrett on the telephone.
Between 1975
and 1990 I found out what CSA unit one of my ancestors was in during the Civil
War. I had no idea what action or where at this Confederate Unit my ancestor belonged to.
This was before Google and on-line research. I did
the next easiest thing, I called The Atlanta History Center. I told the lady that
answered the phone that I wanted to know the movements of a certain
Confederate unit in the War.
She
connected me to Franklin Garrett, the official historian of The Atlanta History
Center. I told Franklin what I was
looking for and he took notes and told me just a moment, it might take a few
minutes to find it. Then I heard him put
down the phone and steps, like walking up bare wooden steps.
In a few
minutes I heard footsteps again, like coming down the stairs the phone making a
noise, and he told me the information I
had asked him for.
But! The information he gave me opened the door
for more questions, which I promptly asked.
Franklin
said, "Just a minute" And I
could here the phone being put down, steps, then heavier steps stepping up the
wood steps.
Because this
time he probably knew where to look, he was back
quicker and gave the information. I
wrote it down and thanked him and said something like, "Since I have you
on the phone, I want to ask about another ancestor's unit..."
I told him what else I would like to know and in a polite gentle way he asked me
did I have any more questions, that he
could get while he was up there... gently he
said walking up and down the stairs was wearing him out.
Later I
found out Mr. Franklin Garrett was not born in Atlanta but grew up in Atlanta,
and was an expert on the history of Atlanta and had written several books on
Atlanta. I see by his cemetery stone
that he was born in 1906. He was probably between
69 and 75 or 76 when I gave him a good stairs workout.
Whew! It wears me out just thinking of it.
Franklin Miller Garrett
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