Genealogy American History

On the genealogy program WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? last night did the heritage of TV star Scott Foley.

Interesting, one of his ancestors was in George Washington's "Life Guards".  I thought life guards were people that hung around swimming pools with little red cross patches on their bathing suits that would jump in and save you if the need came up. 

But in the Revolutionary War Life Guards were about 50 elite soldiers who had proven themselves and their primary duty was to protect the Continental Army General, namely George Washington.  I did not know there was such a unit.

They got about 100 of the top soldiers together and George himself picked slightly over half to be his Life Guards.

The requirements to be considered to the Life Guard Unit:  Obedient, combat ready, good physical shape, handsome, and height 5'10".

Those last two requirements are strange.  Did George Washington want to be surrounded by 50 handsome men?  And why be 5'10"  tall?   I think I know that one.  George Washington was 6'2".  Four inches taller would make him about a head taller than the people around him.  He wanted to be seen and recognized.

Also on up the same family line of Scott Foley, I think it was his eight time great grandfather in Massachusetts was suspected of being a witch.  He confessed he was a witch.  Then later, said he was lying, he was not a witch... which got him out of any burning at the stake they might have had in mind.  Smart move. 

This Date in History, Sherman Captured Atlanta

On This date in history, September 2, 1864:  Union General William T. Sherman captured Atlanta.  I don't know what he wired and told President Lincoln about the capture.  I do remember reading about when he captured Savannah he wired the President and said something like "I present you  Savannah as a Christmas gift".

Maybe when he captured Atlanta he wrote the president and said something like, "I got you a Labor Day present, sorry about being late, but you wouldn't believe the mad crowds around here, but anyway, three guesses what I got you! - do you want some hints?"

Pink Dogwoods on West Paces Rd, Atlanta

Above is a postcard of a driveway leading off West Paces Road in Atlanta.

Interesting, this driveway is just down the street a few blocks from the Governor's Mansion.  Also, it is almost across the street from the front yard of what was supposed to be the Butler's estate in GONE WITH THE WIND, but the yard itself is not there now, in its place is a subdivision.    

I knew then  a worker at the Atlanta Post Office that lived within a house of two of this picture.  It was a house his wife inherited.  He threw packages all night long with an apron on.  But his neighbors did not know that, he left for work every evening wearing a suit and carrying an  briefcase with his lunch in it.

One time while throwing packages  he heard one that was ticking or hissing.   He hollered over to his supervisor and told him and they evacuated the building.   It was his moment:  He grabbed the package and ran out of the building, in case it exploded.  I don't know if the evacuees ran back in to get away from the bomb or not.  The bomb squad came and took over .  He was a hero.  He got a promotion to supervisor.

Below is a picture I took unknowing  the existence of the above post card at the time.  I thought through the years they might have been the same driveway but now I don't think so.  The slope of the driveways looks differently.

The Atlanta Union Station and Me

This was the Union Train Station in Atlanta.  It was across the street from where I worked for the Postal Service for years, until they tore it down to make way for the non-descript Richard B. Russell Federal Building.   The  Union Station was empty  the whole time it was there during my stay.  The vacant little walkways and empty buildings attracted drunks and the homeless but  generally we walked right through a little cement walkway to and from the parking lot without much problems.    About the biggest problem  was accidentally kicking a wine bottle or stepping on a human  turd.  Although, within its bowels close to the RR  tracks I was mugged once - had a blade stuck to my throat until I forked over all my money.  The guy told me he just escape from prison.  When I emptied my pockets and he was convinced he had more money than I did he felt sorry for me and sung me two religious longs about how Jesus loves me - then  I ran out of his grasp. 

  

 I just enjoyed looking at the grand old building.

I wondered what those towers were for?  For a watch to stay in one of them  and announce: " LOOK!  Here comes a train!"?

July 1864 in Atlanta

Atlanta looked something like this about 149 years ago this summer, according to the creators of the Atlanta Cyclorama and the movie GONE WITH THE WIND.  Looking at the photos of the ruins afterwards, I believe them.

Author Janice McDonald Discussed the book FOX THEATER at the Marietta History Museum

At  the Marietta Museum o f History last night Janice McDonald spoke about her book FOX THEATER that was published by Arcadia Press.

She started off by saying she has written two other Arcadia Books, one about where she used to live, Myrtle Beach and one about The Varsity.

She was easy going and gave a n interesting talk on the subject.  She knows her FOX THEATER plus  endless trivia and stories about strange forces that came into play several times to save it or renovate it.  It seems  mystic forces were guarding it.

Did you know during the renovation once the big over head lights with a shiny background were discovered to be  just  run of the mill wash tubs.  They fit in  the space needed with the metallic reflection working just right.

Joe G. Patton brought the Mighty Moe Organ back to life by replacing all the electrical components  in his spare time at no charge,.  His tireless efforts saved the Fox on more than one occasion.  For being such a hero, the Fox Foundation awarded him with an apartment at the Fox for life located just off the Egyptian Ballroom.  Foundations and owners changed hands, and the new owners took the attitude of "But what had Joe done for us lately?"   Money is the bottom line.  Free rent?  "We'll see about that!" They tried to renege on the original agreement and kick him out.  He fought them in court and won.  Although, he did have to give up his Fox keys and  has to pay for his own ticket when he attends the theater.

Janice McDonald's talk about the Fox inspired our curoisity to want to know more.  We bought the book, and the museum book store has more copies if you are curious.  It looks like it will be a good read.

Jan Galt Russell, Director, introducing:

Janice McDonald

Mrs Lawrence attends every lecture.

Postcard of Asa Chandler's Home

Back when this postcard (1920s) was made the way you spelled COCA COLA was:
 Y-E-S-S-I-R M-R-.  C-H-A-N-D-L-E-R-!

And the way you spelled Asa Chandler was C-O-K-E.

The Old Atlanta Civic Center - Post Cards

I seen a little bit of everything here: a Circus, concerts, an Opera, boat shows, auto shows, and the rest has blended in time.

Memories of a Time Period in Atlanta 40 Years Ago

Today I thought of when I was a timekeeper for the Postal Service at the Federal Annex in Atlanta. At that time the Federal Annex had several thousand employees that were managed in three shifts, 24x7. I remembered, being a timekeeper, the next two days after a time change you could always count on a lot of people either being one hour late, two hours late, or early – it was dependent on just what they did when setting their clocks, falling back or springing forward, or if they did nothing.

Then I thought of across the Spring Street of the Federal Annex, The Atlanta Train Terminal (above picture).

While I worked at the Federal Annex that beautiful landmark (the train terminal) was bulldozed away. After it was deleted from the face of the earth for years it was a big vacant lot. Weeds and bushes grew high. It was on the edge of the Atlanta viaducts which would in a few years become Underground Atlanta.

But before it became Underground Atlanta the big vacant lot became a hangout for postal employees on their breaks, lunch and regular breaks. There sometimes in the middle of the night a supervisor named George, from Rome, and I would go out to the vacant lot and smoke and watch the socializing and loud music playing, it was always party time, around the clock.

About a 100 feet away under the viaducts the homeless hung out. I parked my car there until I a man who just escaped from prison pulled a knife on me, took my money, then got me in a bear-hug and sung religious songs to me. After he let me go, I knew Jesus Loved Me, Yes He Did, Because the Man With a Knife Told Me So.

Yessirree! Memories!

Creating Atlanta and Then Distroying It

Yesterday we went to a lecture at the Marietta Museum of History on “Atlanta, the Unexpected City” given by Rob Hill.

Rob Hill and his father run the real estate firm Hill Corporate Partners of Atlanta. His trade is real estate and his heart is in the history of Atlanta, which he has done well at discovering and explaining how things in Atlanta came to be.

His power point execution onto a big screen showed how first Atlanta came to be as a meeting of three railroad tracks. First called Terminus, then Marthasville, after the daughter of then Governor Lumpkin, Atlanta roads led to and from the railways. He showed early Atlanta maps to explain what he was saying.

Did you know why Marietta Street in Atlanta is so wide? It was not to accommodate the traffic, but was designed to have a wide open space between a certain household and the post office. The household was owned by a man who owned the land in that area who wanted a clear space between his house and the post office. When he had mail, the post master would have some type of visual signal outside alerting him to come get his mail.

When Sherman came to Atlanta they more or less ran all the civilians out for a while. He and his troops occupied the city for several months. During this time there were many photographers of the Matthew Brady breed that came to capture history. Now those pictures are available, many at the library of congress. In his studies of these pictures, Rob found background details that were unnoticed by the naked eye, showing good human interest stories as part of his lecture. For instance, in one picture is a paper sign nailed to a wall telling of a benefit dance and concert. This sign was sponsored by the invading Yankees. The funds raised were to go to a surviving widow and the 6 children she was left to raise. Imagine the enemy helping out the enemy! The lady they were helping was Southern, a part of the enemy they were there to squash. Rob's personification of the sign brought the story to life.

Another picture of vast piles of rubble in Atlanta showed several Union soldiers clustered around something. Zooming in, he could see they were surrounding something with holes or openings. With some research he found it was a contraption to show illuminated pictures, a forerunner of the View Master. And why would soldiers, hundreds of miles from their homeland be cluttered around a machine to look at a box with pictures? What kind of pictures? Do you think they were waterfalls? No, Rob showed an example of the kind of pictures that was shown in those contraptions – they were scantily clad women; the forerunner of the adult XXX store.

At the top of this post is a famous picture of the Slave Auction company on Whitehall Street in Atlanta. There is a Union soldier sitting on the curb out front. Rob stated this photo was partially staged. When he zoomed in on the soldier you could see he is a black soldier, which proves it is staged. Sherman had no black soldiers in his command.

Rob Hill also had pictures to explain the reasoning behind the creation of Underground Atlanta.

It was an enjoyable and educational hour.

On This Date, November the 15th, in History:

1864 - Sherman burned Atlanta. Tch tch. Shame! Bad General! Bad!

Psst! Sherman also made POWs walk ahead of the Federal troops in case of hidden mines.




"War is Hell." William T. Sherman

On This Date in History, November the 8th:

1895 Wilhelm Rontgen discovers x-rays.

How do you discover x-rays? Wouldn’t you first have to discover a x-ray machine first?







1900 - Margaret Mitchell, writer (GONE WITH THE WIND) was born.

At a finishing school in the North, Margaret Mitchell refused to attend one of her classes because of an attending black student.





above: Days cast in 1992

1965 "Days of Our Lives" premiers on TV.







1978 Norman Rockwell artist, dies in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at 84

Lively Oakland Cemetery, October 2, 2011

Sunday was the 32nd Annual Oakland Cemetery Day and was just a fine day to get out in the nice weather and appreciate all the history it has to offer.


Atlanta was first named Terminus because of the railroad crossings. Next it was named Marthasville after Martha Lumpkin, daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin, who is buried here.



Another Oakland resident is Franklin Garrett, the official historian of Atlanta. Strangely, he wasn’t born in Atlanta but in Milwaukee, moving here with his family when he was young where he took an academic interest in its history. Once I called the Atlanta History Center to ask about a CSA troop movement I was researching and was connected to Mr. Garrett. I knew his name and was somewhat surprised I got hooked to such a well known historian. I asked him my question, and he said just a moment. I heard him put down the phone, a door squeaked open and noises on a staircase. In minutes he came back and told me what I needed to know. Then I asked him another question and he said just a moment and again I heard the doors squeak and the clomping of someone climbing the stairs. In minutes he came back slightly out of breath with the answer. I asked him another question and he said, still breathing heavily, “Are you going to have any more questions after this?”




The following momuments and people are what make Oakland Oakland.











We happened to walk by this “in memory marker” just when a docent was telling the group its history. Mr. and Mrs. Neal had seven children. Initially from Atlanta, they moved away but several of their children died. Shortly after their return to Atlanta, their last daughter died. Mrs. Neal went into a deep depression and died a year later. Her husband had this statue erected in their memory.



The next few pictures are Confederate Soldiers’ area.







Below is the Varsity food vendor truck offering food at the event. We were ready for a lunch, so I went to scout out what was available. As I was walking I was reading the menu and suddenly I took a step in mid–air, then hitting the ground with a hard impact. I did not see the brick rain gully next to the cemetery street. My knee and leg were skinned to a bloody mess and it hurt! Our choice was Varsity dogs to eat, using Coke to clean the blood off. A lady came over to offer polysporin. It’s amazing the kindness of strangers in times of need. When we finished eating we hobbled down the street to the EMT truck who saw our situation and were preparing to come to our aid.

I noticed through the day the leg did not bother me so much when I was walking and getting circulation, but when I stopped and then moved after being immobile for a while, it hurt like hell! Now, over 24 hours later, it is still painful when I bend the leg or put all my weight on it. I think it is getting some better and maybe I’ll live.



This is not a real statue. Watch him long enough and he will move to another classic pose. See the video.



There were musician groups here and there around the cemetery playing music to suit the mood of the dead or to put some life in such a deadly place. The musicians really made the atmosphere very enjoyable.






I don’t think climbing all over the memorial for the Unknown Confederate Dead, as this guy is doing, is the most respectable act, but he did it anyway.





A lot of people wore costumes dressed from various periods, i.e., Civil War days and Victorian, turn of the Century and even a touch of Halloween. When I got this group to smile for my video, they all had vampire fangs, which I guess fits in the cemetery theme. Vampires seem to be everywhere lately. What a deal!



There was an exhibit of classic cars, which seem to appear at most every event or fair like atmosphere. Here they seem to have a “Driving Miss Daisy” touch to the season.







Oakland, rest in peace until next year.