Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

November 3

1757 Creek chiefs and Georgia officials signed the Treaty of Savannah, which confirmed all previous treaties and ceded to Georgia three islands--St. Catherines, Ossabaw, and Sapelo--as well as their reserve above Savannah. However, the Creeks had previously ceded to Mary Musgrove Bosomworth, and it would be three years before a court in London would resolve the rival claims giving her clear title to St. Catherines plus £2000 as a settlement for the other two islands going to Georgia.

1786 Georgia authorities signed the Treaty of Shoulderbone Creek with certain Creek Indian chiefs at a location on a creek by that name in present-day Hancock County. In the agreement, the Creeks made no new land cessions, but they reaffirmed the treaties of Augusta (1783) and Galphinton (1785), in which they had given up large areas of Creek land to Georgia--including the vast area between the Ogeechee and Oconee rivers. Chief Alexander McGillivray, however, refused to recognize the three treaties. Their legality was further in question because Georgia--not the U.S.--had negotiated them with the Creeks, despite the fact that under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had exclusive right to negotiate with Indian tribes. Settlement of the debated cessions would only be resolved when the U.S. and Creeks signed the Treaty of New York in 1790.

1804 In his capacity as U.S. Indian Agent, Benjamin Hawkins negotiated a treaty with Creek chiefs at his Indian Agency on the Flint River in which the Creeks ceded the land between the confluence of the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers northward to High Shoals on the Apalachee River. In return, the U.S. would place $200,000 in trust at 6 percent interest, with the principal held in trust and the interest distributed semi-annually to the Creeks. However, the U.S. Senate objected to the amount of money the U.S. was committed to pay, and thus refused to ratify the treaty.

1813 U.S. troops under Gen. John Coffee destroyed a Creek Indian village at Talladega in the Alabama Territory. Coffee owned a plantation near the Ocmulgee River in Telfair County, Georgia. In addition to his campaigns during the Creek War, Coffee served in the Georgia House, Georgia Senate, and the U.S. Congress. Later, the states of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee honored Coffee by naming counties after him.

1847 George Towns was sworn in as Georgia governor (1847-1851). Born in Georgia on May 4, 1802, Towns was elected by the voters of Georgia in 1847 and served two two-year terms. He died July 15, 1854. Two years later, the General Assembly created a new county from portions of Union and Rabun counties and named it in his honor.

1868 In the presidential election, despite Reconstruction, Georgia voters supported Democratic candidates Horatio Seymour of New York and his running mate Francis Blair, Jr. of Missouri over Republican candidates Ulysses S. Grant and his running mate Speaker of the U.S. House Schulyer Colfax of Indiana. The race was especially close in Atlanta and Fulton County.

1914 Carl Vinson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, beginning a public service career that would span over fifty years. He was elected to 26 consecutive terms, and became one of the nation's most influential legislators.

1914 Georgia voters ratified four constitutional amendments creating Barrow, Candler, Bacon, and Evans counties--respectively Georgia's 149th, 150th, 151st, and 152nd counties. The constitutional amendments were necessary because Georgia's constitution then limited the number of counties to 145. A single constitutional amendment could have been offered simply to raise the 145-county limit to 152. However, the General Assembly preferred to leave the limit in place and simply require a constitutional amendment for each new county over the 145-limit.

• Barrow County, named for University of Georgia chancellor David Barrow, was created from portions of Gwinnett, Jackson, and Walton counties.
• Candler County, named for former governor Allen Candler (1898-1902), was created from portions of Bulloch, Emanuel, and Tattnall counties.
• Bacon County, named for former U.S. senator Augustus Bacon, was created from portions of Appling, Pierce, and Ware counties.
• Evans County, named for Confederate general Clement Evans, was created from portions of Bulloch and Tattnall counties.

1936 With the city of Atlanta $3,000,000 in debt and facing bankruptcy, the mayor and city council passed a resolution authorizing payment of city employees with script [see photo] paying 3 percent interest. This deficit--and charges of financial mismanagement against mayor James Key--had allowed William B. Hartsfield to beat Key in his bid for reelection in a September runoff primary.

1970 Jimmy Carter was elected governor of Georgia. He had won the Democratic primary in a run off over former governor Carl Sanders.

1992 Former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, Cynthia McKinney became the first black woman elected from Georgia to the U.S. Congress. She won office in the newly created 11th congressional district, which had a black majority and stretched from Atlanta almost to the Atlantic ocean. McKinney was reelected in 1994, but subsequently the U.S Supreme Court decision struck down several of Georgia's congressional districts--including the 11th--as unconstitutionally drawn. [Click here for story.]In 1996, McKinney successfully won election in Georgia's new 4th district (which had a white majority).

1992 Georgia voters approved a constitutional amendment legalizing a state lottery in which the net proceeds are earmarked for educational purposes. Specific legislation implementing the amendment--contingent on voter ratification--has been passed at the 1992 session. The amendment passed by a 52-48 percent vote.

1993 In his first season with the Atlanta Braves after the Chicago Cubs, pitching ace Greg Maddux became the first player to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards playing on different teams. The "Cy Master" went on to win the Cy Young in 1994 and 1995--the only player in history to win the National League's top recognition for pitchers four consecutive times.

1998 In the general election, Thurbert Baker and Mike Thurmond were elected respectively as Georgia Attorney General and Commissioner of Labor--becoming the first two African Americans in the history of Georgia to be elected to statewide office in the executive branch of state government. Thurmond also scored another first. Every black that previously held statewide office in Georgia's executive or judicial branch initially gained that office via appointment by the Governor to fill a vacancy following the resignation of the incumbent. Thurmond, however, became the first African American in Georgia history to gain statewide elective office without first having been appointed to fill a vacancy in that office.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1736 Phillip Thicknesse, who came to Savannah as a servant for Thomas Causton, wrote to his mother back in England of his favorable impression of Georgia:

"I have been landed in Savannah about two months and I think I know as much of this town as I can, so I shall give you a little account of it and myself. There are upwards of 300 houses, besides huts. The country seems to agree with me very well, for every coat and waistcoat I have is so much too little for me, that it will not button within four inches and I am grown tall and tanned with the sun, so that nobody guesses me to be under twenty years of age. . . .

"I like the place very well and would choose to live in it sooner than any part of England. But not in the town, for there is an island about twelve miles off, where there are but ten lots and there are are about seven of them taken. And I am sure of one, if I will. And the reason why I take it is, because I am for a retired life, and again the island is surrounded with salt water, which is much healthier than the town, and one may keep one's cattle there safe and upon the mainland one can't. . . . Fresh provision is scarce and dear. They live most upon salt beef and rice boiled instead of bread, though I can say I never made a meal in Savannah with bread and fresh meat, which never a passenger that came with me can say. For I live with the Governour of the town [actually Thomas Causton was first bailiff and storekeeper] and work for him too. They use me more like parents than strangers. . . . I wish I had a servant, which would be extremely useful to such as one as I. You will [think] it is odd, my talking of having a servant, but it is quite different here from what it is in England. Several as young as I have servants. Sixteen is looked upon as one-and-twenty in England. If a man dies, his child inherits his improvements at sixteen. . . . This county is a fine place for any sort of game. You need not fear shooting of a deer every day if you will, turkeys and wild ducks swimming, thousands of them in the river all the winter. . . . This is a very pleasant country. The town stands fifteen miles up a freshwater river and as high as a house above the river. There is a great bluff all along the riverside and upon the bluff stands a well-fortified fort, where I am obliged to mount guard once in seventeen nights. . . . I can't think of anything more to tell you, only that we had a pleasant passage of nine weeks. . . ."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), Vol. I, pp. 280-282.

1864 From his plantation near Rockbridge, Thomas Maguire recorded in his journal his desperation over Union foraging raids:

"What will become of us. God only knows."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Its Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of original 1954 volume), p. 648.

1864 Col. Fredrick Winkler of the 26th Wisconsin Infantry wrote his wife from outside of occupied Atlanta about Sherman's impending campaign through Georgia:

"The all engrossing thought and subject of speculation now is the impending campaign. I had a call from Colonel Dustin today, who has been commanding our division till within a few days, General Ward being on leave of absence. The surmises are that Atlanta will be destroyed and abandoned, the railroads leading to and from it destroyed as far as possible, a portion Of Sherman's army to demonstrate against Hood from Chattanooga, Huntsville or Rome, and the balance, including the 20th Corps, to cut loose from all communications and move deep into the enemies' country, either towards Mobile or Savannah, to find a new base of operations. General Slocum has told Colonel Smith of the 1st Brigade, that he would afterwards regret if he did not participate in this campaign. It will doubtless be an interesting one, into a new country, living on the land as we go along, no hostile fires to oppose us. We will go in strong force. The enemies' main armies will be employed elsewhere. Their cavalry may pick up our stragglers, but otherwise no evil can befall us. We may be called upon to start at any moment after the 4th of November. We have had a good long rest and must not complain. We have to send all our things away tomorrow, keep nothing but a change of clothes, blankets and writing material. I have two five dollar notes, secession money, one payable six months and one two years after the ratification of peace between the Confederate States and the United States of America. Ah! are they not elegant rags? I have today read a most eloquent speech, delivered by General Meagherat Nashville in favor of the election of Lincoln and Johnson. We will probably be cut off from communication for a long time. When you get letters again they may have to go by way of some port on the gulf or the Atlantic coast. We will probably be long on the way."

Source: Civil War Letters of Major Fredrick C. Winkler, 1864 in 26th Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers Home Page

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