Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

September 15

1744 James Oglethorpe and Elizabeth Wright were married in Westminster Abbey in London. After the ceremony, they left for Westbrook Manor, the Oglethorpe family home in Godalming, a small Surrey County town about 35 miles southwest of London. [Click here to see map and images.]

1824 A hurricane drowned 83 people on St. Simons Island on the Georgia coast.

1831 Dr. Elizur Butler and Dr. Samuel Worcester -- missionaries to the Cherokees -- were tried in state court in Lawrenceville after having been arrested on July 7 for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to Georgia and its policy of disfranchising Cherokees. Butler and Worcester were sentenced to four years of hard labor in the state penitentiary in Milledgeville. Subsequently, Gov. George Gilmer offered a pardon if they would leave Georgia -- but they refused. The case of Worcester v. Georgia went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Chief Justice John Marshall ruled against Georgia. Butler and Worcester were released from prison and returned to their work. However, Cherokee removal from Georgia forced them to continue their missionary work with the Cherokees in the west.

1834 Lawyer and politician William H. Crawford died at age 62 near Elberton, Georgia. Born in Virginia on Feb. 24, 1772, he and his family moved to the area north of Augusta in 1783. He was admitted to the bar in 1799 and moved to Oglethorpe County, where he built a plantation just west of Lexington. In 1803, Crawford was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, where he served until the General Assembly elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1807. In 1813, Crawford was named U.S. Ambassador to France, and two years later was named U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. By the 1820s, Crawford was believed to be the strongest candidate to succeed James Madison as U.S. president. However, what may have been strokes in the fall of 1823 and the spring of 1824 seriously hurt his chances, and John Quincy Adams won the presidency. Adams asked Crawford to continue as Treasury Secretary, but Crawford declined and returned to Georgia. In recognition of Crawford, the General Assembly named a new county in his honor in 1822. In 1827, Crawford was named a superior court judge in Georgia, a post he held until his death in 1834. [Click here to view a U.S. revenue stamp featuring Crawford.]

1895 Glenn "Pop" Warner arrived in Athens, Georgia, as the University of Georgia's new head (and only) football coach. Warner came to Georgia at a salary of $340 for ten weeks. As Warner recounted later, he arrived homesick and discouraged to find that Georgia had no athletic facilities. The only place for playing football or any other sport was a bare field behind New College where rocks stuck out of the red clay. The University of Georgia's entire student body in 1895 consisted of just 248 students, and only 13 of those showed up to play football. As a result,Warner's first team--the 1895 squad--had 3 wins against 4 loses. Warner was rehired for the 1896 season at a salary of $40 per week. The 1896 squad--Warner's last Georgia team----went 4-0, giving the University of Georgia its first undefeated season. [Click here to view "Pop" Warner commemorative stamp.]

1926 Florida Airways began U.S. airmail service between Atlanta, Macon, Jacksonville, Tampa, Fort Myers, and Miami. This route was discontinued on the following Dec. 31 because of limited use. This was because the airports involved were not equipped with lights for night landing--and overnight train service got there just as quickly.

1933 Symptomatic of many businesses during the Great Depression, Southern Bell Telephone Company reported to the Georgia Public Service Commission that its gross operating revenues were $1,718,535 lower in 1932 than they had been in 1929, but during that time operating expenses could only be cut $800,359.

1945 Noted American opera singer Jessye Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia.

1981 Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrived at Robins AFB on his way to Plains, Georgia, to visit former President Jimmy Carter. Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat and his wife had also passed through Robins on their way to Plains on August 9, 1981.

Georgia cities and towns incorporated by acts approved on Sept. 15:

1883 Abbeville (Wilcox County)

1887 Rising Fawn (Dade County)

1891 Leary (Calhoun County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1736 After accompanying John and Charles Wesley to Georgia, Benjamin Ingham wrote to Sir John Phillips in England. Phillips was interested in supporting missionary work among Georgia's Indians as well as helping the Salzburgers:

"Notwithstanding all the opposition of men and devils, I trust there is a door now opening for the conversion of the Indians. There is already a school built amongst them, the house 60 foot long and 15 wide. . . . It stands on a little hill which we call Irene, by a book side, about half a quarter of a mile above Tomochichi's town, where the River Savannah divides itself into three streams. . . .The Indians, though at first they would hardly be persuaded to let one child learn, yet they now are very willing to have them taught and even some of the men seem to have a desire to learn.

"When the head men came down this summer to see Mr. Oglethorpe, Chickillee, the chief of them, was well pleased when he saw the children say their lessons, and he said perhaps the time is now come when all our children are to be taught learning.And Molatchee, who is next him said, if he had 20 children he would have them all taught. . . .

"Tomochichi is lately recovered from a dangerous sickness, wherein their own doctors gave him up, but it pleased God to restore him by the care of Mr. Oglethorpe, through the prayers of several Christians for him. I hope he will live to hear the glad tidings of the glorious Gospel. He has been very earnest to promote the school. . . .

"If Mr. Oglethorpe was in England he would undertake to collect charities towards founding and maintaining schools amongst the Indians. . . . What I wish for at present is one or more of my dear Oxford friends to come over and help me. I cannot indeed say that I am alone because the Moravian brethren join heartily with me, and from such helpers one may expect good success. As your worthy Society has sent over two transports of Salzburgers, I heartily wish they would contribute towards bringing over some more of the Moravian brethren from Hernhuth, for they are not only the most useful people in the colony, but also they are certainly the holiest society of men in the whole world.

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), pp. 278-279.

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

If you have a date related to Georgia history or people that ought to be included, or if know of entries that should be corrected, send a note to Ed Jackson or Charly Pou.

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