Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

August 19

1890 The federal government established the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

1905 Gov. Joseph Terrell signed legislation abolishing the "colored troops" of the State of Georgia, active and retired, from the state militia. The act further discharged officers and enlisted men of such colored troops from Georgia military service.

1912 Gov. Joseph M. Brown signed legislation creating the state Department of Insurance to regulate insurance companies doing business in Georgia. The new agency was placed within the Office of the Comptroller General, who was made ex officio insurance commissioner.

1913 After Leo Frank's statement the previous day, the twentieth day of his trial was rather anti-climatic. The defense continued its parade of character witnesses, one of whom prosecutor Hugh Dorsey got to admit that he had once seen Mary Phagan talking with Leo Frank -- and that Phagan seemed to be backing away. There was another bitter disagreement between the opposing attorneys over the defense team's attempts to discredit the statement of Minola McKnight. McKnight was the housekeeper for the Selig family (Frank's in-laws with whom he and his wife lived) who had signed a statement saying Leo Frank was intoxicated and talked of suicide the night after Phagan's murder. Though McKnight later repudiated the statement, which had been signed after she spent a night in jail and undergoing hours of intensive questioning, Dorsey still introduced it as evidence, leading to yet another vehement argument between the opposing sides. Click here for a detailed accounting of the case.

1916 Women were allowed to practice law in Georgia due to an act signed by Gov. Nathaniel Harris on this day.

1916 Georgia's first compulsory school attendance law was signed by Gov. Nathaniel Harris. The legislation required children aged 8-14 attend school for at least four months each year. However, a long list of exemptions seriously weakened the law. For example, school attendance was not required of children who (1) had completed the fourth grade, (2) who needed to work to help support their family, (3) whose parents could not afford to buy books and clothing, or (4) who lived over three miles from school. Additionally, local boards of education could excuse children from attending school "for other good reason."

1919 Gov. Hugh Dorsey signed an act of the General Assembly placing the entire state in the Central Time Zone as of Sept. 1, 1919. Previously, Georgia was divided into Eastern and Central time zones.

1919 Gov. Hugh Dorsey signed an act of the General Assembly creating the Georgia Training School for Mental Defectives. [That was before the days of PC.]

1921 Georgia baseball great Ty Cobb got his 3,000th career hit. At age 34, he was youngest professional baseball player to reach this milestone .

1981 Dr. Betty L. Siegel became the first woman president in the University System of Georgia when the Board of Regents unanimously chose her to head Kennesaw College, replacing charter president Dr. Horace W. Sturgis, who retired on March 9, 1981. In 1972, Siegel had become the highest ranking female administrator in the University System of Florida, when she became Dean of Academic Affairs for Continuing Education at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In 1977, she left Florida to become Dean of the School of Education and Psychology at Western Carolina University, the post she held until her appointment at Kennesaw. During her tenure at Kennesaw, graduate programs were initiated in 1985 and enrollment grew from 4,195 students in 1981 to 12,537 students in 1996. [Contributed by Dr. Tom Scott of Kennesaw State Univesity.]

1992 Atlanta Brave starting pitcher Tom Glavine won his 13th consecutive game, a franchise record for the 20th Century.

1993 Former four-term Georgia congresswoman Iris Faircloth Blitch died in San Diego, California.

1996 The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved changing the name of Georgia College to Georgia College and State Univesity. The name change came after the Board of Regents upgraded the Milledgeville college to university status in July 1996.

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 19:

1905 Byromville (Tattnall County) and Ohoopee (Toombs County)

1907 Screven (Wayne County)

1911 Benevolence (Randolph County), Cleveland (White County), Folkston (Charlton County), Middleton (Elbert County), Morris (Quitman County), and Scotland (Telfair and Montgomery counties)

1912 Canoochee (Emanuel County), Charing (Taylor County), Constitution (Fulton and DeKalb counties), Crest (Upson County), Luella (Henry County), Mableton (Cobb County), Modoc (Emanuel County), Mount Zion (Carroll County), Orchard Hill (Spalding County), Osierfield (Irwin County), Tarrytown (Montgomery County), and Vanna (Hart County)

1916 Tallulah Park (Habersham County) and Taylorsville (Bartow County)

1919 Offerman (Pierce County) and Osierfield (Irwin County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1734 In London, the Earl of Egmont recorded in his diary an account of the Yamacraw Indians' visit with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the previous day and on the Yamacraws views on God and praying:

"They were yesterday to see the Archbishop of Canterbury, and were extremely pleased with their visit. They had apprehensions that he was a conjuror, but the kind reception he gave them altered that imagination. The Archbishop would have put some questions to them concerning their notions of religion, but they have a superstition that it is unfortunate to disclose their thoughts on these matters, and refused to answer. They attributed the death of their companion [Tomochichi's cousin, who had died of smallpox] to having too freely spoke thereof since they came over. Nevertheless the King [Tomochichi] was so taken with the Archbishop that he said he must come again alone to talk with him. At coming away he said he now really believed they should have some good man sent them to instruct them and their children.

"He showed his politeness in that visit. The Archbishop refused (out of respect to them) to sit down, though so weak as to be supported on the arms of two servants all the time they were with him . . . .

"I have in another place mentioned their notions of religion; their belief of one God who resides above, their wishes that He will prosper them, which implies a Providence, and a happy place for souls departed. . . .

"They say God will, when He pleases, reveal knowledge to them, but they expect it will be to their youth, for the grown men having killed an enemy are polluted and must not expect it. They have a dependance [sic] on God, that He will do what is best for them, and that He knows better what is fit than they; wherefore they look on it as foolish to tell God their wants, or pray to Him. . . . Moreover, they believe it a great fault to pray to images, as they see the French and Spaniards do, and imagine the Cross to be some bad spirit to whom they pray."

Source: Historical Manuscripts Commission [U.K.], Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont. Diary of the First Earl of Egmont (Viscount Percival) (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1923), Vol. II, p. 121-123.

1740 For a variety of reasons, many of Georgia's early colonists decided not to stay. In this entry in his journal, William Stephens, the Trustees' secretary, recorded the imminent departure of some he would not miss:

". . . The next Movement of any of our settled Inhabitants, it is expected will happen among our restless Gentry of the Club, some of whom, namely, Dr. Tailser and Jenkins, I have before taken Notice were preparing to send off their Wives and Families; but that not yet being done, it is now publickly [sic] given out, that they themselves also are preparing to go with them, and were putting their Goods on board a small Sloop lying near, formerly built by Mr. Robert Williams, but never yet employed, whereof another of the Club was to go Master on this Occasion, whose skill in Navigation is supposed not to be great; and when I see this come to pass, I shall think the Colony happily delivered from the most mischievous Set of People that ever sat down in it. . . ."

Source: William Stephens, A Journal of the Proceeding in Georgia (no city cited: Readex Microprint Corporation, 1966), Vol. II, p. 483.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia

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