Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

January 9

1780 Publisher and writer Robert Grier was born in Wilkes County, Ga. Growing up in frontier Georgia, Grier did not have a formal education -- but he did have access to his father's extensive library, where he read voraciously. An amateur astronomer and accomplished mathematician, Grier put his knowledge to good use by publishing an almanac predicting sunrises and sunsets, lunar eclipses and phases, plus general weather trends. So accurate and popular was his almanac that it became an annual publication until Grier's death, at which point another publisher took the reigns, and then another. Grier's Almanac has now been published annually for almost two hundred years, and its sales have exceeded two million.

While the almanac is Grier's lasting claim to fame, he did play another important role in Georgia history. His sister, Margaret, died three months after the birth of her son in 1812. Grier and his family assumed a considerable role in raising the child, especially after his father died in 1826. The boy always felt close to his uncle, and like the young Robert, enjoyed reading in his grandfather's library. Georgia can thank the Griers for doing such a fine job of raising their orphaned nephew, for he became one of the most distinguished and intellectual figures in Georgia and southern history -- Alexander Hamilton Stephens. While serving in Congress in the 1840s, Stephens, at the prompting of his knowledgeable uncle, proposed legislation to establish a national weather bureau. Stephens ultimately went on to serve as vice-president of the Confederate States of America. Grier, meanwhile, became wealthy from his almanac publishing and purchased a home in Butts County, Georgia, where he lived out the remainder of his years. He died and was buried there on May 4, 1848.

1784 John Houstoun (pronounced "House-ton")was inaugurated for his second term as governor. Born in Georgia (some sources say Aug. 31, 1744), he was elected governor in 1778 -- becoming the first Georgia-born governor. Houstoun had been among the group of men who met regularly at Tondee's Tavern in Savannah to plan resistance to the British in the years just prior to the Revolutionary War. Houstoun was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress, but none of the Georgia delegates attended. Also elected to the Second Continental Congress, Houstoun did attend, but left long before the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence, believing his services were needed more at home in Georgia. In January of 1778 Houstoun was elected for his first term as governor. When the British occupied Savannah, he moved the seat of government to Augusta, then fled to Charleston when the British also captured Augusta. He returned to Georgia after the British were forced to abandon Augusta.

After the war, Houstoun was elected to the House of Assembly, then in 1784 he was again elected governor. While his first administration was under duress from the British, in his second he was able to concentrate on land grants, Indian problems , and a border dispute with South Carolina. Houstoun went on to serve in several different capacities after his term as governor, including church vestryman, justice of the peace, and superior court judge. In 1790, Houstoun was elected mayor of Savannah, where he died on July 20, 1796. Upon his death, Houstoun was eulogized by historian Charles C. Jones as being "amongst the most zealous advocates of the rights of the colonists." The Georgia General Assembly named a county in his honor on May 15, 1821.

1786 Edward Telfair began his first term as governor. Born in Scotland around 1735,he came to Georgia in 1766. Almost immediately, Telfair became a successful businessman in partnership with his brother. He was elected to the Commons House of Assembly in 1768 and also held some local offices in Savannah. As a merchant, Telfair was not pleased with British policies on taxing American colonies. He was among those who convened in 1774 to denounce the Intolerable Acts, and later he was a delegate to both the first and second provincial congresses. Telfair was among the group of Whigs who seized the ammunition stored in Savannah on May 11, 1775. Telfair remained devoted to the American independence movement -- even when his brother cast his lot with the Loyalists. Elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress, Telfair was one of the Georgians to sign the Articles of Confederation. After the Revolutionary War, he was elected to the state legislature, served as a justice, and worked on several committees. Elected as governor in 1786, Telfair was chosen again in 1789 -- serving until 1793. As governor, Telfair was influential in moving the state capital from Savannah to Augusta, worked to resolve the Georgia-South Carolina boundary dispute, and was beset by Creek Indian problems in his last year in office. After 1793 he retired from public life. He left a large fortune upon his death in 1807, which his descendants used to establish the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. Telfair died in Savannah on Oct. 17, 1807. Two months later, the legislature named a new county in his honor.

1787 George Mathews was inaugurated for his first term as governor of Georgia. Born Aug. 30, 1739 in Augusta County, Virginia. Mathews served with Virginia troops in the Revolutionary War until he was captured at Germantown in 1777. After spending four years in captivity, he was exchanged in 1781. He then served one year in the southern army of General Nathanael Greene. Soon after the war he moved to Georgia, where as a war veteran, he was granted thousands of acres of land in Wilkes County. He served four terms in the assembly as a delegate from Wilkes County, before being elected governor in 1787. His term saw the settlement of the Georgia-South Carolina boundary dispute, but also witnessed increasing problems with the Creek Indians.

Upon completion of his first term as governor, Mathews was a delegate to the convention that voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution, worked as an Indian commissioner, a judge, and as a delegate to the state constitutional convention. In 1793, Mathews was elected to a second term as governor. During this term Mathews was forced to deal with Elijah Clarke's attempts to capture East Florida and to set up an independent republic across the Oconee River. More importantly, Mathews signed the infamous Yazoo Land Act, leading to the illegal granting and selling of large tracts of Georgia's western lands. Naturally this left him unpopular in Georgia, and he moved to the Mississippi territory permanently in 1797. Subsequently Mathews was appointed an agent of the Madison administration, charged to acquire Florida from the Spanish if possible. Mathews' method of doing this was to attempt to stir up revolt among the Indians in Florida, whereupon Madison repudiated his activities. Upon hearing of this Mathews angrily started for Washington to confront Madison, but died (on his seventy-third birthday) in route at Augusta, Ga. -- where he was buried in St. Paul's churchyard.

1805 Politician and doctor Noble Wimberly Jones died in Savannah. Born in England around 1723, he and his family were among the original Georgia colonists who arrived with James Oglethorpe in 1733. At age 16, Jones became a cadet and subsequently an officer in Oglethorpe's military force. By the late 1740s, he had learned the practice of medicine from his father and partly from his own experiences. In 1755, after Georgia became a royal colony, Jones was elected to the Commons House of Assembly, where he was elected speaker (1768-69). Soon, however, Jones became part of the Whig movement, and by 1774 was an active patriot. During the American Revolution, he was captured by the British and imprisoned at St. Augustine. After the war, Jones moved to Charleston, but in 1788 returned to Savannah. Here, he practiced medicine the rest of his life, getting involved with politics one more time to preside over Georgia's 1795 constitutional convention. As a measure of his reputation as a doctor, Jones was elected first president of the Georgia Medical Society in 1804.

1861 Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union. It would then take an active role in attempting to convince Georgia and other southern states to also secede.

1904 Confederate general and Georgia politician John B. Gordon died in Miami, Florida. Born Feb. 6, 1832 in Upson County, Ga., Gordon attended the University of Georgia. After reading law, he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Atlanta. Gordon also was involved in a coal mining operation when the Civil War broke out. Though he had no previous military training, Gordon quickly distinguished himself through great courage and inspirational leadership. By the end of the war he had attained the rank of lieutenant general -- one of only three Georgians to do so. At the Battle of Antietam he was wounded five times, but refused to leave the field, ultimately losing consciousness. Gordon fought at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Petersburg, and Appomattox, in addition to smaller battles. Gordon and Nathan Bedford Forrest are considered the two the finest untrained leaders the Confederacy produced during the Civil War.

Gordon's military accomplishments made him quite popular at home in Georgia, and he was soon drawn into a political career. Opposing radical reconstruction, Gordon was elected to the United States Senate in 1873. Gordon, Alfred Colquitt, and Joseph E. Brown were to dominate Georgia politics in the post-war era, becoming known as the "Bourbon Triumvirate." In 1886, Gordon and Atlanta Constitution editor Henry Grady persuaded ex-Confederate president Jefferson Davis to come to Atlanta for the unveiling of a statue. Other Civil War heroes were also present; Gordon used this emotional appearance to announce his candidacy for governor. With his popularity, personal magnetism, and distinguished good looks, along with a healthy dose of Grady's publicity, Gordon won the 1886 election. As governor he oversaw the establishment of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the beginnings of Grady's "New South" dream of cities, factories, and railroads. After his term as governor, Gordon became commander-in-chief of the newly formed United Confederate Veterans, a post he held until his death. In 1903 he published his account of the battles in which he fought - Reminiscences of the Civil War. He also traveled extensively, delivering a famous speech entitled "The Last Days of the Confederacy." He died during one of these trips in Miami. His body was returned to Atlanta and buried in Oakland Cemetery. Later, a statue of Gordon in uniform sitting on his horse was erected on the northwestern corner of the Georgia State Capitol square (see photo).

1951 Herman Talmadge was inaugurated for his second and last term as governor. [See Aug. 9 entry for biographical information.]

1952 Georgia-born Jackie Robinson became the highest paid baseball player in Brooklyn Dodger history to that time.

1959 U.S. district court judge Frank Hooper declared regulations for segregated seating on Atlanta city busses unconstitutional. The case arose after two Atlanta black ministers -- Samuel Williams and John Porter -- challenged the practice of forcing blacks to sit at the back of the bus.

1961 Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter arrived at the University of Georgia campus to complete the registration process. A special edition of the campus newspaper, the Red and Black, calls for calm and urges students not to attempt to interfere with the federal court order. While things were relatively peaceful in Athens, it was quite different in Atlanta. There, federal judge William Bootle had scheduled a hearing on the state's appeal of his integration order. At the state capitol, Gov. Ernest Vandiver announced that if the state's appeal for a stay of the federal desegregation order is turned down, he may close the University pursuant to a 1956 state law forbidding the co-education of black and white students. By chance, the 1961 session of the General Assembly had convened on this day, and what to do to keep the University of Georgia segregated occupied everyone's attention. Suddenly word reached the state capitol that judge Bootle had granted a stay, prompting tremendous cheering in each chamber. The celebration didn't last long, for two hours later, federal circuit court judge Elbert Tuttle overrode Bottle's stay. Georgia Attorney General Eugene Cook caught a plane to Washington D.C. to appeal to Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to reinstate judge Bootle's stay.

Back in Athens, the rumor had spread throughout campus that Gov. Vandiver was going to close the University the next day. That night after a basketball game, a crowd of about 1,000 students gathered in the streets to protest court-ordered desegregation scheduled to take place the next day. Two students were arrested, but there was no violence. A little after midnight, University president Aderhold announced that he had received no official order to close, so classes would proceed on schedule on Jan. 11.

1967 The Georgia House of Representatives finally seated Julian Bond. Two years earlier, he had been elected to the legislature. However, because of Bond's public statements opposing the Vietnam War and the draft, the House refused to seat him based on the state constitution's provision that each house shall be the judge of the elections and qualifications of its own members. Bond challenged the action in federal court. In 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Georgia lawmakers had deprived him of his constitutional rights to freedom of speech, so on the opening day of the 1967 session, Bond was given the oath of office and his seat in the House. 

1999 Playing before a sold-out Georgia Dome, the Atlanta Falcons beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-18 to win the western division of the NFL's National Football Conference. This set the Falcons up for their first-ever NFC championship game. One more win and the Falcons would play the AFC champion in the Super Bowl.

2001 University of Georgia Athetic Director Vince Dooley won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award, presented to the  “individual, group or institution whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football.”

2004 Jim Mora, Jr. became the coach of the Atlanta Falcons, replacing acting coach Wade Phillips, who took over after former coach Dan Reeves resigned with three games left in the season. Before coming to Atlanta, Mora was defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1860 Throughout the ante-bellum period, free blacks were always a thorny problem to supporters of slavery. Eventually, laws were passed prohibiting slave owners from providing for their slaves' freedom, leaving manumission -- the act of freeing a slave -- solely in the hands of the state legislature. The number of state and local restrictions on free blacks continued to grow. By the eve of the Civil War, some supporters of slavery were publicly advocating a prohibition on free blacks in Georgia, a position supported by this editorial in Atlanta's Daily Intelligencer:

"We are opposed to giving free negroes a residence in any and every Slaveholding state, believing as we do, that their presence in slave communities is hurtful to the good order of society, and fraught with great danger to our 'peculiar institution'; and we speak of this matter now, as the question has been raised, for the purpose of awakening the sentiment of the community to the dangerous element which manumission has placed among us. . . ."

Source: Spencer B. King, Jr., Georgia Voices: A Documentary History to 1872 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974 reprint of 1966 original volume), p. 202.

1870 Gertrude Thomas and her husband experienced numerous financial problems during and after Reconstruction. These in turn led to marital problems, which left her feeling helpless:

". . . I find that I cannot confess even to you my Journal without condemning Mr.T. I must say this much, that habitual profanity consequent upon loss of property has become a sad habit with my husband. Perhaps I ought not to mention this but if I could learn my children how terrible it is in its consequences I would gladly do so. . . . It is impossible for a person with my reverential ideas to hear the name of God profaned so constantly without great pain. Alas I fear I am becoming accustomed to it and as I do my reverence for God lessens and my ideas and faith become bewildered. I remonstrate but in vain. And my nature, never gentle, becomes indignant & and I am no meek and lowly disciple but like Peter am hot headed & say words for which I am sorry. . . . The clouds gather around us and betoken a heavy storm. Mr. Thomas is again worried terribly about his property. . . . Well I expected nothing more. I sit and with Mr. Thomas and try to cheer him taking care not to worry him by saying 'I told you so' but what can I do? . . . My theme is unpleasant, my fire is going out. I am cold and disheartened. . . . I can neither look backward or forward but feel that I am drifting wither I know not."

Source: Virginia Ingraham Burr (ed.), The Secret Eye: The Journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), pp. 325-326.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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