Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

September 11

1734 Thomas Lownds' proposal for a Georgia lottery [see Aug. 28 entry] was brought before what was to have been a meeting of the Georgia Trustees' Common Council. However, only James Oglethorpe, the Earl of Egmont, and two other trustees were present, so no official action could be taken, and the matter was deferred to a future meeting of the Common Council.

1752 Officially, this day did not exist in Georgia. See Sept. 3 entry for reason.

1864 After Hood had been unable to persuade Sherman to allow Atlanta residents to continue living in their homes during the occupation, Atlanta families began registering with Union authorities for their removal. Over the next nine days, 446 families and their furniture and household goods were loaded into Union Army covered wagons and moved southward to Rough and Ready, where they were met by Confederate forces who transported them to Lovejoy's Station, where they caught trains to Macon and other locations. A total of 79 slaves accompanied their masters, though most ex-slaves decided to stay with the Union Army.

1892 Milton Luther Fleetwood was born in Asheville, North Carolina. As a child, his family moved to Thomasville, Georgia, where he dropped out of high school to work for the Thomasville Times-Enterprise. In 1918, Fleetwood moved to Bartow County, where he got a job with the weekly Cartersville Tribune News. Two years later, he purchased the newspaper. In 1946, Fleetwood moved to a daily format for the newspaper. He also began editorializing for improving local government, soil and water conservation, and development of the Etowah River region. Fleetwood was an important force in encouraging the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers to construct the dam on the Etowah that created Lake Allatoona in 1946.

1911 Former Confederate general William R. Boggs died in Winston-Salem, N.C. [For biographical information on the Augusta-born engineer, see the Mar. 18 entry.]

1928 Ty Cobb had his last at bat in major league baseball.

1952 Gov. Herman Talmadge sent a letter to the judges and ordinaries (probate court judges) urging them to support a constitutional amendment in the upcoming general election that would write the county unit system into the state constitution. (The amendment would fail.)

1976 Jimmy Carter returned to Plains, Georgia after a week-long, ten-state, 4000-mile campaign trip. In response to Republican accusations that he was too liberal, Carter said he intended to stress the conservative themes of his campaign in the upcoming weeks -- namely a balanced federal budget and stronger local governments. As Carter explained, "I just want to restore what I believe was an accurate description of me in the primary season."

1991 Playing in Atlanta, the Braves won a 1-0 no-hit victory over the San Diego Padres. It was the 13th no-hitter in the Braves history. But what made the National League record books was the fact three different Braves pitchers -- Kent Merker, Mark Wohlers, and Alejandro Peña -- were used in the combined no-hitter.

2001 Georgians, like all Americans, reacted with shock, horror, and anger at the news that terrorists had hijacked airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Penatgon in Washington D.C., and another one apparently bound for Washington, which crashed in Pennsylvania when the passengers tried to take control of the plane.

2005 Playing in Washington, D.C., Atlanta Braves outfielder Andruw Jones hit two home runs in a game against the Nationals establishing a new Braves franchise record of 49 homeruns in a single season. A day earlier, Jones had tied the team record of 47 held by Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron.

Georgia cities and towns incorporated by acts approved on Sept. 11:

1883 Chauncy (Dodge County)

1891 Chickamauga (Walker County), Stellaville (Jefferson County), and Kite (Johnson County)
 
 

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1734 In London, the Earl of Egmont recorded in his diary an evening of negotiations between the Trustees and the Yamacraw Indians that had accompanied James Oglethorpe back to England. Their discussion reveals that James Oglethorpe apparently had made the decision not to return to Georgia:

". . . We passed the evening in conference with the Indians about settling our trade, as the weights, measures, goodness, prices and quality of the things we traffic in, wherein we found them very sagacious and reasonable. They also desire there might be but one dealer for each of their towns, and he licensed, that they might know who to complain of, and more easily have redress in case of ill-usage. They said multitudes of dealers only bred confusion and misunderstandings. they told us when they came over they expected Mr. Oglethorp would return with them, but, since that could not be, they desired our King would send over some gentleman, or that one of our Board would go, to assure the other nations that the word they brought from England was all true, otherwise those nations would not believe them.

"We replied that could not be, nor was necessary, for the magistrates Mr. Oglethorpe left there had all the necessary power to make good our agreements, and were besides obliged to follow our directions, and the Interpreter [John Musgrove] then with us should himself go to all those nations. Mr. Oglethorpe added that if any of our people abused them, and they found no redress, he would go over on purpose, and punish the guilty. . . ."

Source: U.K. Historical Manuscripts Commission, Diary of the First Earl of Egmont (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1923), Vol. 2, pp. 125-126.

1736 From Savannah, Anglican minister John Wesley wrote Trustee James Vernon in London about the problems of doing missionary work with Georgia's Indians -- particularly the Chickasaws -- while also serving the religious needs of the English colonists:

"What will become of this poor people [Chickasaws], a few of whom now see the light and bless God for it, when I am called from among them I know not. Nor indeed what will become of them while I am here. For the work is too weighty for me. A parish of above 200 miles in length laughs at the labour of one man. Savannah alone would give constant employment for five or six to instruct, rebuke and exhort as need requires. Neither durst I advise any single person to take charge of Frederica or indeed to exercise his ministry there at all. Unless he was an experienced soldier of Jesus Christ that could rejoice in reproaches, persecution, distresses for Christ's sake. I bless God for what little of them I have met with there and doubt not but they were sent for my soul's health. My heart's desire for this place is, not that it may be a famous or a rich, but that it may be a religious colony. And then I am sure it cannot fail of the blessing of God, which includes all real goods, temporal and eternal."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), Vol. I, pp. 277-278.

1740 From Ebenezer, John Martin Boltzius recorded in his journal a problem the Salzburgers were having with some uninvited guests:

"Although the few Indians who had been with us for some weeks left a few days ago, today we got all the more of these uninvited guests. An old man who is supposed to be their king came to me, sat down at my table, at his fill, and his son what he could not eat. The Englishman at Old Ebenezer had to have his corn guarded from these people last night, and hence there is concern here that they will do more harm than the previous ones. This evening I will admonish the congregation not to enter into any trade with these people; for in this way we may be rid of them that much sooner. If they bring meat into the house the people must not send them away but rather accept what they bring and give the something else for it, otherwise one will incite the Indians against us."

Source: George Fenwick Jones and Don Savelle (ed. and trans.), Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America . . . Edited by Samuel Urlsperger (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983), Vol. 7, p. 234.

1772 Savannah merchant James Habersham replied to John Mountie, Lt. Governor of East Florida, who had written inquiring about the possibility of a road connecting the two provinces. Habersham's reply was not encouraging, though he too wished to see such a road:

". . . I am sorry its not at present in my Power to inform you where a future road in this Province will terminate on the St. Mary's River, and neither do I know, whether any road has been attempted to be made between that River and the River Altamaha, where there are very few Setlers [sic] . . . I clearly see the Necessity of having an easy and commodious Communication between this province and East Florida, which must be mutually beneficial, and be assured, Sir, if it lays in my Power, I will spare no pains to effect it, but I have no fund for such Purposes, or even to defray the least public service, and when we shall have an Assembly, that will be wise enough to understand their own Interest, I know not. . . ."

Source: Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VI, The Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 1756-1775 (Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1904), pp. 207-208.

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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