Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

August 21

1739 James Oglethorpe and Creek chiefs signed the Treaty of Coweta Town at Coweta on the Chattahoochee River. The treaty confirmed--but more clearly defined--the Creeks' earlier 1733 treaty identifying areas open to British settlement.

1906 Gov. Joseph Terrell signed an act appropriating $15,000 for erection of a monument to Georgia founder James Edward Oglethorpe in Chippewa Square, half to be disbursed in 1907 and half in 1908. Terrell signed a second act appropriating $15,000 for an equestrian statue of John B. Gordon to be placed on the capitol grounds.

1907 Gov. Hoke Smith signed an act proposing to amend Georgia's constitution by imposing a literacy test as a requirement for registering to vote. Hoke had campaigned for office in 1906 on a platform to disfranchise black voters in Georgia. The Constitution of 1877 had imposed as requirements for voting that the voter be a male citizen of the U.S., be at least 21 years of age, and be a resident of Georgia for one year and of the county for six months prior to the election. Additionally, a voter must have paid all taxes owed since 1877. The 1907 proposed constitutional amendment, however, added literacy, good character, and a citizenship test as additional requirements to register. Also, the proposed amendment restricted participation in party primaries or party conventions to qualified voters. Georgia voters would approve the disfranchisement amendment in the general election on Oct. 7, 1908.

1907 Gov. Hoke Smith signed an act making it illegal to fish in any waters in the state on Sunday. Violation of the ban was made a misdemeanor offense.

1911 Gov. Hoke Smith signed an act reducing the maximum number of hours textile mill workers could be required to work from 66 to 60 per week.

1911 The Georgia General Assembly adopted a joint resolution calling on Georgia's congressional delegation to vote to terminate the U.S.'s 1832 treaty with Russia allowing citizens of each country to travel to the other enjoying the same rights and protections as the natives of the country being visited. Specifically, the resolution charged that Russia declined to honor U.S. passports held by American Jews and refused to give American Jews in Russia the same rights and protections as afforded non-Jewish Russians.

1913 On the twenty-second day in the trial of Leo Frank. Final arguments began this day, with aides to the two main attorneys (Hugh Dorsey for the prosecution and Luther Rosser for the defense) speaking first. The prosecution portrayed Frank as a Jekyll-and-Hyde character who could mask his deviant tendencies from his family and friends. The defense contended that Jim Conley was the murderer and concocted his story to save his own neck. Click here for a detailed accounting of the case.

1921 Gov. Thomas Hardwick signed an act authorizing a uniform county manager form of county government for Georgia counties. The law specified the respective powers and duties of the board of commissioners and the county manager, as well as the procedures for adopting this form of government.

1938 Singer -- and former Athens-area resident -- Kenny Rogers was born in Houston, Texas.

1961 The city of Atlanta argued in federal court that it no longer practiced segregation in city parks.

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 21:

1905 Rentz (Laurens County)

1906 Center (Jackson County), Crosland (Colquitt County), Dillard (Rabun County), Enigma (Berrion County), Junction City (Talbot County), Lawson (Gwinnett County), Marshallville (Macon County), Milan (Telfair and Dodge counties), Naylor (Lowndes County), Saint George (Charlton County), Senoia (Coweta County), and Summertown (Emanuel County).

1911 Alvaton (Meriwether County), Denton (Jeff Davis County), Inman (Fayette County), and Woodville (Greene County)

1916 Chester (Dodge County)

1929 Montrose (Laurens County)

Other acts affecting Georgia towns and cities approved on August 21:

1929 Rockledge (Laurens County) charter repealed

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1740 In Savannah, Trustees' secretary William Stephens recorded in his journal an example of how one man's idea of fun proved dangerous to others:

". . .Mr. Jones calling on me this Afternoon, and conferring a while . . . was not gone far from my House, when a Gun went off; and he returning immediately, asked me if I know whence that Shot was, for that it was with a Ball, which he heard whiz very near him: He went away again but a little Way, when another Shot was made from the same Quarter, with a Ball also, and that I clearly heard pass over my Head as I stood at the Gate of my Yard looking out; whereupon I called on Mr. Jones (not yet out of Sight) and when he came, upon laying these these Things together, we thought the Circumstances attending it were pretty remarkable; wherefore Mr Jones taking the Tything-man with him . . . went directly and seized the Fellow, who was yet standing on, or near the same Spot from whence he had fired, and had his Gun again ready loaden. . . . Upon examination the fellow owned that he was not shooting at any Mark or other particular Thing whatever, but only diverting himself with the Gun; when we asked him whether he thought it a reasonable Diversion or not, to stand without the Town and fire Ball into it, levelling his Piece directly: He had nothing to say more, than that he did not mean any Harm: But Mr. Jones not satisfied with that answer, and which I neither could think a very sufficient one; he committed him for the present, and took the Gun from him. . . ."

Source: William Stephens, A Journal of the Proceeding in Georgia ([no city cited]: Readex Microprint Corporation, 1966), Vol. II, pp. 485-486

1864 Atlanta merchant Samuel P. Richards wrote of Sherman's artillery bombardment of the city in his diary:

". . . It is said that about twenty lives have been destroyed by these terrible missiles, since the enemy began to throw them into the city. It is like living in the midst of a pestilence, no one can tell but he may be next victim. . . ."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1954), p. 631.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia

If you have a date related to Georgia history or people that ought to be included, or if know of entries that should be corrected, send a note to Ed Jackson or Charles Pou.

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