Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

December 18

1707 Minister and hymn lyricist Charles Wesley was born in Epworth, England. An Anglican priest, he came to Georgia in 1736 to serve as James Oglethorpe's secretary for Indian affairs. Wesley remained in Georgia for only six months before returning to England, where he would compose the words to over 6,500 hymns and also with brother John help organize the Methodist Church. Wesley died Mar. 29, 1788 in London. 

1833 Gov. Wilson Lumpkin signed an act creating Walker County as Georgia's 90th county. Created from portions of Murray County, Walker County was named for Georgia U.S. Senator Freeman Walker.

1834 Gov. Wilson Lumpkin signed an act chartering the Georgia Methodists Conference Manual Labor School, which would be located at Oxford, Ga. Two years later, the school would gain a new charter as Emory College. In 1915 it changed its name to Emory University and in 1919 the campus was relocated in Atlanta, Ga.

1857 Gov. Joseph E. Brown signed legislation creating Pierce and Milton counties as Georgia's 120th and 121st counties respectively. Pierce County, created from portions of Appling and Ware counties, was named for former president Franklin Pierce (whose term had ended in 1857). Milton County, created for portions of Cherokee, Cobb, and Forsyth counties, was named for former Georgia secretary of state John Milton. [By an act of July 30, 1931, Milton County became part of Fulton County effective Jan. 1, 1932.]

1865 The Thirteenth Amendment -- which outlawed slavery -- officially became part of the U.S. Constitution.

1866 Gov. Charles Jenkins signed an act creating a state Superintendent of Public Education and Georgia Schools. Duties of the office included submitting plans to the General Assembly for the "management and improvement and better organization of the Georgia schools" and to "generally superintend the operation of this system of Georgia schools, and see that the laws in relation thereto are enforced."

1886 Baseball great Ty Cobb was born in Banks County, Georgia. Cobb is recognized as one of the premiere baseball players of all time. He reached the major leagues at age eighteen, with the Detroit Tigers. Embittered from the hazing he received at the hands of the older players, Cobb became a loner with a fierce determination to excel in every phase of the game. Excel he did, batting over .300 for twenty-three consecutive years, three of which he hit over .400. His style of play -- extremely aggressive and intimidating -- made him one of the most feared and hated players in the game. But his talent could not be denied; in 1936 he was the leading vote-getter among the first five players inducted into professional baseball's Hall of Fame. Cobb became a wealthy man through wise investments of his baseball earnings, primarily his investment in home state Coca-Cola stock. After retiring for some time in Nevada, he returned to north Georgia, where much of his fortune was donated to charities. He died in 1961, one day short of his seventy-fifth birthday.

1894 Gov. William Atkinson approved a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to make the office of State School Commissioner elected by the people instead of appointed by the governor.

1897 Jazz pianist, arranger, and conductor Fletcher "Smack" Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was born in Cuthbert, Ga. He traveled to New York, where he played piano and served as musical director for W.C. Handy's music publishing business. Henderson soon was accompanying Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters on records, and by 1923 he had his own orchestra. His innovative jazz arrangements led to the birth of swing music, and he is considered one of the most influential pioneers in big band jazz music. Henderson died in New York City on Dec. 28, 1952.

1901 William Flank Perry (photo) died in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Born March 12, 1823 in Jackson County, Georgia, he was a teacher, superintendent of education, college professor before the war. In 1862, Perry enlisted as a private in the 44th Alabama. He advanced rapidly to the rank of colonel by September 1862, colonel in 1863, and finally brigadier general in Feb. 1865. Perry fought in the battles of Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. After the war, Perry returned to teaching.

1917 Actor, director, and screen writer Ossie Davis was born in Cogdell, Ga. He would go on to appear in over 50 movies. He died in Miami, FL February 4, 2005.

1961 Martin Luther King Jr. was released from jail after reaching an oral agreement with the Albany city commissioners that the city would desegregate the train and bus facilities in return for the demonstrators' ending their boycott and protests. The commissioners later reneged on the agreement. [Contributed by Dr. Lee Formwalt, Albany State University]

1971 Lawyer and amateur golfing great Bobby Jones died in Atlanta.

1972 Georgia Tech beat Iowa State 31-30 in the Liberty Bowl.

1990 The Atlanta Braves signed free agent shortstop Rafael Belliard.

1997 Ground breaking ceremonies were held in Albany, Ga. for the renovation of the Old Mount Zion Church into the Mount Zion Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved on Dec. 18:

1817 Sandersville (Washington County)

1834 Cumming (Forsyth County)

1884 Frazier (Pulaski County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1864 From Columbus, Ga., John Banks wrote about the status of Sherman's March to the Sea, as well as the location of three of his seven sons who fought for the Confederacy:

"Sherman's army passed on via Sandersville and to Waynesboro, Burke County, skirmishing all the way without any important fight. A branch of his force turned to the west and reached Thomasville near the Florida line, and thence on to Savannah, where they now are, from the reports that reach us.

"George, Sims and Gilmer are at Savannah. Had no letters from them for some days. Reports say Sherman has surrounded Savannah. This is a day of great anxiety with us. Our forces, or a part of them, have crossed the Savannah river and had a fight at Grayhamville, some miles from Savannah in South Carolina. The result seems to be uncertain. We are daily looking for a decisive battle at Savannah.

"Provisions still going higher and higher. Corn, $10 per bushel, wheat, $40, pork, gross, $24. Cotton, 75 to 80 cents."

Source: John Banks, Autobiography of John Banks, 1797 - 1870 (Austell, Ga.: privately printed by Elberta Leonard, 1936), p. 35.

1864 General Sherman wrote a letter to Grant outlining his plans to attack Savannah. In his memoirs he wrote:

"On the 18th of December, at my camp by the side of the plank-road, eight miles back of Savannah, I received General Hardee's [Dec. 17] letter declining to surrender, when nothing remained but to assault. The ground was difficult, and, as all former assaults had proved so bloody, I concluded to make one more effort to completely surround Savannah on all sides, so as further to excite Hardee's fears, and, in case of success, to capture the whole of his army. We had already completely invested the place on the north, west, and south, but there remained to the enemy on the east the use of an old dike or plank-road leading into South Carolina. . . . "

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Marching Through Georgia: William T. Sherman's Personal Narrative of His March Through Georgia (New York: Arno Press, 1978), p.177.

1894 Until the 1970s, Atlanta's Lakewood Park Fairgrounds hosted the annual Southeastern Fair. Today, it is principally known for concerts by popular music entertainers. But it originally began with a different purpose, as noted in this article published in the Dec. 18, 1894 Atlanta Constitution:

"Atlanta is to have a summer resort next season that will meet the wants of the pleasure loving people of the city.

"The old waterworks property and lake south of the city has been leased for the purpose, and to its natural advantages as a delightful place will be added several thousand dollars worth of modern means of improvement and entertainment.

"The property has been secured for a number of years by the Hale Investment Company and will at once be transformed into a pleasure resort which will be the delight of Atlantans. . . .

"The plan of improvement consists of the building of an immense bathhouse, music stand, an open air theater, an aquarium, and a large and elegant pavilion. In addition to that several dozen rowboats and a number of elegant electric launches will be placed on the lake. . . .

"Electrical displays will be arranged around the lake and the grounds will be made suitable for the holding of picnics, by fitting them up with water coolers, swings, croquet sets and other things for the amusement of the people.

"The new electric railroad to the grounds will be known as the Atlanta electric railway and will run from a central point of the city. . . ."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1966 reprint of 1954 original volume), Vol. II, p. 299.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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