Today is the 97th anniversary of the lynching of Leo Frank after he was abducted from the state prison in Milledgeville and driven overnight. At sunrise on Aug. 17, 1915, a crowd in Marietta gathered around his body, hanging from a tree on the property of former sheriff William Frey. A hard-to-spot historical marker stands on the spot along Roswell Road just west of the Interstate 75 overpass. It’s the only known instance in American history of a Jew being lynched, and it was carried out with the involvement of some of Marietta’s leading citizens in revenge for the murder of 13-year-old Mary …
August 15, 1978 Congress added Georgia's Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area to the National Park System. August 15, 1921 Gov. Thomas Hardwick signed an act creating the Georgia State Board of Forestry to promote Georgia’s forest resources. This agency later became the State Forestry Commission, according to the Georgia Historical Society and University of Georgia. Keep up with all the news you care about by subscribing to our free email newsletter, liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.
August 14, 1888 Because of a yellow fever epidemic in Jacksonville, Florida, many residents of that area fled by train to Atlanta. Fear that that the epidemic would spread to Atlanta led city officials to require that every incoming passenger train be inspected by a doctor, according to the Georgia Historical Society and University of Georgia. August 14, 1945 President Harry S Truman announced the surrender of Japan, ending World War II. Across the Georgia, residents took to the streets to celebrate. In downtown Atlanta, thousands of civilians and servicemen gathered on Peachtree Street to …
Aug. 13, 1910 Gov. Joseph M. Brown signed Georgia's first law regulating the use of automobiles, according to the University of Georgia. Among the provisions, every vehicle had to: Be registered with the Secretary of State; Have a license plate bearing the registration number; Have at least one headlight capable of projecting a beam 100 feet; and Have at least one red taillight illuminating the license plate. Keep up with all the news you care about by subscribing to our free email newsletter, liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.
Aug. 10, 1921 Gov. Thomas Hardwick signed legislation enacting Georgia's first motor fuel tax of one cent per gallon. The tax was not an excise tax but an occupation tax on fuel distributors, defined as anyone who imports or manufacturers motor fuel. Keep up with all the news you care about by subscribing to our free email newsletter, liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.
August 9, 1910 The General Assembly adopted a joint resolution calling on Gov. Joseph M. Brown to take the necessary steps to restore and preserve the Texas, which was used by the Confederates to pursue and recover the locomotive General in the Great Locomotive Chase. The Texas was refurbished and moved to the site of old Fort Walker in Atlanta's Grant Park. The Texas now resides in the Atlanta Cyclorama, where it was restored and repainted. Georgia Tourism created a free audio tour and driving tour brochure to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the famous chase The Story of the Great …
August 8, 1925 Gov. Clifford Walker signed an act prohibiting dancing on Sunday at any public place in Georgia. Any owner allowing dancing in a public place could be charged with a misdemeanor, according to Atlanta History Center and Georgia Info, The University of Georgia. Keep up with all the news you care about by subscribing to our free email newsletter, liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.
Join historian Brad Quinlin as he commemorates the 150th anniversary of the 37th session of Congress, which passed the bill to create the National Cemetery System in 1862. This tour around Marietta’s National Cemetery is scheduled for July 17 from 6:30-8 p.m. It is limited to 35 people. Tickets cost $35 per person and can be purchased at the Marietta Museum of History. Reservations also can be made online. Keep up with all the news you care about by subscribing to our free email newsletter, liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.
On this day in 1943, Capt. Charles Dobbins was reported missing in action in World War II after its plane didn't return from a raid on Sicily. Dobbins was a co-pilot of a C-47 in an Air Force paratroopers division. Dobbins Air Reserve Base was named in Dobbins' memory. Dobbins was the member of a prominent Marietta family, and was a member of the Marietta Country Club and Marietta First United Methodist Church.
Take a closer look at the Marietta Museum of History here. To learn more 1about the history of Marietta check out these stories: Colored Civil War Troops in the Marietta National Cemetery Living in Marietta During the 1850s Marietta Honors Battle of Midway Survivor How Should We Remember Mary Phagan? Marietta Square, Arts and the Strand Looking at the Marietta National Cemetery Marietta a Resort Destination Marietta National Cemetery to Be Featured on Military Channel The Cherokee Syllabary The Battle for Leo Frank and The Trial of Leo M. Frank Keep up with all the news you care about by …
Earl Reece, executive director of the Strand Theatre, talks Marietta, the Square, the arts and, of course, the Strand Theatre. What is your favorite thing about Marietta? I was born in Marietta across the street where the parking deck is, that use to be the old Marietta hospital, and when I was young my mother would bring me and my brother to the Strand every Saturday, so even before I worked here this was my favorite building on the Square, in the state. What impact do you think the Strand has on Marietta? Well, I can answer that with statistics. The Strand brings over 62,000 people to the …
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Local historian Brad Quinlin has begun work on a 50-part TV documentary about the Marietta National Cemetery called “Generations: Beyond the Glory.” The documentary will air on the Military Channel in January 2013. Quinlin is the unofficial, unpaid, unstoppable historian of the cemetery where 18,838 gravestones, 10,312 Civil War-era gravestones, stand. Quinlin has been researching the American Civil War for 30 years. For the past decade, he has made it a personal mission to identify the "unknown" soldiers buried in the Marietta National Cemetery. There are 258 United States colored troops …
Many of us drive by it every day without really knowing what this historic home is all about. Stepping through the threshold of the Root House is like stepping back in time and into the home of a Marietta merchant in the 1850s. The home depicts middle-class life in Georgia during that time period. The Root House was built in 1845 by William and Hannah Root. William Root was Marietta's first druggist and one of the earliest merchants in the city. Location Originally located at the corner of Church Street and Lemon Street, the home now sits at the corner of North Marietta Loop and Polk Street…
Two bronze statues will be unveiled at the Marietta Confederate Cemetery on April 15, following the observance of Confederate Memorial Day. The statues show a mother and son leaving the cemetery after visiting the grave of a loved one. Sculptors T.J. Dixon and James Nelson also did the statue of Mattie Harris Lyon in the Marietta City Cemetery and the various bronze pieces located on benches throughout the cemetery and Brown Park. The Garden of Heroes Statue Dedication will begin at 1 p.m. The statues are located at the wagon road entry from Brown Park into the Marietta Confederate Cemetery, …
by Tech. Sgt. Jeff Nix, Dobbins Human Resource Development Council Serendipity abounds; there are no coincidences, is a phrase I often use in attempt to explain the abundance of goodness that exists among what people normally perceive as ordinary. Such was the remarkable life and the historical contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The actual imprint he has left on humanity will long survive the fading memory of the significance of his contributions. King is singularly credited as being the progenitor of the modern civil rights movement in the United States. Many people reference him …
Did you miss the Root House Museum and Garden during the Christmas Pilgrimage? Take a look at the house in its holiday state. The Root House was built in 1845 at the corner of Church and Lemon Streets by Hannah and William Root, one of Marietta’s earliest merchants and its first druggist. The Greek Revival house is now two blocks from its original location at the corner of North Marietta Loop and Polk Street. The house is one of the oldest surviving frame houses in Marietta. In 2008, the Root House served more than 3,800 visitors from 27 Georgia cities, 39 states and 16 foreign countries, …
For many of us who are passionate about local history, our interest extends back to a time when Marietta was yet to be built and Cobb was yet to be formed. I am, of course, speaking of the Cherokee, the people who occupied the area northwest of the Chattahoochee for more than 500 years. For some, this interest runs deeper than curiosity or fascination; many of us, both Caucasian and African-American, have Cherokee ancestors. Even those who do not (my own Native American roots are with the Muscogee Creek) feel with them a “tender kinship from the earth,” to borrow a phrase from George Eliot. …
In the weeks following Leo Frank’s conviction for the murder of Mary Phagan, two separate campaigns to free the condemned man began to take shape. The first was a legal battle conducted by defense attorneys Luther Rosser and Reuben Arnold, who would appeal the case to the trial judge, the Georgia Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. All of these proved to be of no avail. The second battle, which was both more successful and more incendiary, would take place in the court of public opinion with the news media as its principle combatants. It was in this …
As far as I can tell, the popular mythology about the Leo Frank case runs something like this: Leo Frank was charged with murdering Mary Phagan for two reasons: He was a Jew, and he was the last person known to have seen her alive. Anything else was just icing on the cake. He was then railroaded by a prosecution, judge and jury made up of anti-Semitic Georgia bigots who trusted the word of a black man over that of a rich Jew. After the inevitable conviction, Gov. John Slaton, seeing the case for the travesty that it was, stepped in and commuted Frank’s sentence. In reaction to this, an angry …
