Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

February 2

1733 James Oglethorpe presented gifts to the Yamacraw Indians in appreciation for being allowed to settle the Georgia colonists on Yamacraw Bluff.

[Note: Letters, diaries, and records of this time show dates based on the Julian calendar (referred to as "Old Style") then in effect in Britain and the American colonies. The Gregorian calendar ("New Style") was adopted in 1752. Thus, Feb. 2, 1732/33 (Old Style) represents Feb. 13, 1733 under our calendar now in effect. For a fuller explanation, click here.]

1804 Former Georgia governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence George Walton died in Augusta, Ga. [Click here for biographical information.]

1848 Following the Jan. 29 election of Moses W. Formwalt as Atlanta's first mayor and six city council members, the Atlanta city council held its first meeting in the store of Jonas Smith, one of the new council members.

1870 The Georgia General Assembly ratified the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits denying the right to vote because of race or color.

1899 Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie announced that he would donate $100,000 to give Atlanta a public library, providing the city would provide a site and agree to spend at least $5,000 per year maintaining the library. [See letter below in "In Their Own Words . . ." section.] On the following March 2, the city agreed to his offer.

1923 Poet and novelist James Dickey was born in Atlanta, Georgia. While Dickey's most famous work was his novel Deliverance, he was primarily a poet. His poetry was published in several volumes: Buckdancer's Choice (which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1966), Into the Stone, Drowning with Others, The Eagle's Mile, and The Whole Motion: Collected Poems (published in 1994). Dickey died January 19, 1997 in Columbia, S.C. [For more biographical information, click here.]

1956 In the Georgia House of Representatives, S.B. 98 (which would change Georgia's state flag) had its first reading and then was sent to the Committee on Historical Research. This was a Thursday, and both houses of the General Assembly voted to adjourn until Monday.

1969 Atlanta Constitution editor and publisher Ralph McGill died in Atlanta. [See Feb. 3 entry for biographical information.]

1982 Jim Williams was convicted of the murder of Danny Hansford in Savannah. The case was dramatized in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, later made into a movie.

1988 The Georgia Senate approved a House resolution ratifying the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides that no law changing the compensation of any member of Congress can take effect until an election of representatives shall have taken place. Gov. Joe Frank Harris would not sign the joint resolution until March 28, though the U.S. Secretary of State recognizes the day of ratification as the day the second house of a bicamerial legislature approves the amendment -- not the day that a governor signs a joint or concurrent resolution.

1992 Atlanta-born "Miss America" host and actor Bert Parks died in La Jolla, California. [For more information, click here.]

2000 Willie B., Zoo Atlanta's famous resident gorilla, died.

2002 Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank purchased the Atlanta Falcons.

Actions affecting Georgia cities and towns approved on Feb. 2:

1943 Worth (Turner County) charter repealed

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1740 In January, James Oglethorpe had taken a force of almost 200 men southward from Frederica, past the St. Johns River, and on to St. Augustine to see personally the size and location of Spanish forces. After his probe, Oglethorpe returned to Frederica, where he wrote William Stephens (who was president of the northern half of the colony) in Savannah:

"Since the Spaniards began hostilities by attacking Amelia and murdering the men there, I pursued them into Florida, swept the River Saint Mathao, by the Indians called Alata which the Spaniards would fain now call Saint John's.

"I landed on the Spanish main, drove their out-guards and the Indians burnt three guard houses. I proceeded one day's march towards Saint Augustine, stayed three days hunting their cattle and ravaging the country, but could not provoke them to action. Their horse and a party of Negroes and Indians appeared, but when off upon a gallop and took shelter in their forts.

"The Spaniards had in Florida, besides the fortress of Augustine, the fort of Saint Mark's [the Castillo de San Marcos], with a garrison of 80 regular troops, 100 Spanish transports, besides Negroes, Indians &c. . . .

"They had also a new fort called Saint Francis de Pupa on the British side of Saint Mathao or Alata above mentioned. This fort was an encroachment and built not long since to protect a ferry over the River Alata to defend their communication with Saint Mark's and to give them an entry into that part of Georgia inhabited by the Creek Indians and also all the Northern parts of Georgia and Carolina by land. . . .

"Over against this, on the South side the Alata, which is there so wide as to be no longer a river but a lake, they had a fort called Picolata in the shape of a star and a ferryboat, going from the one fort to the other.

"They had also the fort of Saint Diego, seven leagues from the Alata, six from Augustine, and three from the sea.

"They had another called Rossa with a garrison mostly Indians.

"Another called Chiketo, with four bastions, the garrison mostly Indians and partly regular troops, and lies about a league from Augustine.

"Another called Pinion.

"And they were building a new one of stone, called Moosa, to protect the plantations they had granted to runaway Negroes, who were armed and officered in order to garrison the same. . . ."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), Vol. II, pp. 451-452.

1797 Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins was very serious about his work and kept detailed records, as shown in the following journal entry:

"The second man of the town and Owlelo Mico visited me, the former with a request that I would permit Hardy Reed to reside and trade in their nation; that he had been to Colerain and obtained goods to the amount of 4 or 5 hundred dollars, part on credit . . . that he had not obtained a license. I explained the law on this subject, and told them how Mr. Reed was to act. . . . I directed Mr. Reed not to attempt to sell his goods in the town where he was as there were two traders long resident there, but to go to some place, where there was a vacancy, and there reside until he was informed where the agent of the War Department would reside and grant license, and then to conform himself in future to the law. I sat [set] out this day on a visit to the village of the Tussekiah Mico, on the waters of Hatcheethlocco, the course E.; continue on 2 miles on flat land, thin, open, hilly, piney, the moist hollows covered with reeds; continue on 13 miles, very little alteration in the land, come to a creek running to the right, and 5 miles farther arrive at the house of this Mico. He expected this visit, and the few men in the village were at his house and received me in a manner that did credit to the Mico and was highly pleasing to me. . . ."

Source: Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. IX, Letters of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1806 (Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1916), pp. 69-70.

1899 Members of Atlanta's Young Men's Library Association had launched a campaign earlier to encourage city official to fund a public library for Atlanta residents. After the president of Y.M.L.A. saw reports of Andrew Carnegie funding libraries in other cities, the organization invited Walter M. Kelley, who represented Carnegie Steel Corp. interests in the Southeast, to sit on the board of directors of the Y.M.L.A. Subsequently, members encouraged Kelley to use his influence with Carnegie to obtain financial support for a library in Atlanta. On Feb. 2, 1899, Carnegie wrote Kelley the following letter:

"In reply to yours just received, it will give me great pleasure to present Atlanta with $100,000 to build a free public library, provided the city finds a site and agrees to maintain it at a cost of not less than $5000 per year.

"I leave the subject with you and will provide the money as you spend it, but everything must be attended to be the authorities of Atlanta. I can do nothing but provide the money and look to you to give proper attention to the matter.

"I have especial pleasure in doing some of the South, a portion of the country to which I have been much attached and in whose problems I am deeply interested."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of 1954 original volume), Vol. II, p. 376.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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