Oglethorpe University began its career as a liberal arts and sciences university in 1835 in the community of Midway, Georgia, not too far from, what at that time, was the state’s capital, Milledgeville. The Civil War interrupted Oglethorpe’s progression and the university closed its doors in 1862.
Category: Stories of Atlanta
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She lived long enough to realize what might have been
In 1826 the State of Georgia ordered a transportation survey to be undertaken. Ostensibly, the purpose of the survey was to evaluate the feasibility of building a canal through North Georgia and up into the frontier of Tennessee. Such a conveyance, it was reasoned, would allow Georgia merchants to gain access to the northern part […]
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From Atlanta He Sold to the World
As sure as there is breakfast, lunch and dinner, there is snacking. Satisfying those between-meal cravings is a need we all have. While some people are able to eat healthy snacks, many of us cannot resist the lure of less healthy foods. Snacking certainly is not a new innovation. It goes back, in some […]
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It was an unusual home run to say the least
Atlanta’s major league baseball team, the Braves, began their Atlanta baseball history in 1966 but baseball’s history in Georgia predates the Atlanta Braves by nearly 100 years. Before the Braves, there were the Atlanta Crackers, a member of the Southern League and the Atlanta Black Crackers, charter members of the Negro Southern League. Though they […]
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It was unusual, unheard of and it happened in Atlanta
It is obvious that for pretty much everything there had to be a beginning, a first, something that got the ball rolling. Sometimes if you’re the first you get to control the category. The name of your product actually becomes the name of all products in the same category: Coke, Kleenex, Jello, Xerox, Gatorade, Cuties. […]
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It’s unlikely that this record will ever be broken
When asked to name something that is quintessentially American, right after apple pie people usually will say…baseball. It is a long-held belief that baseball is, in fact, America’s national pastime. And while there are many who maintain that football has eclipsed baseball in American popularity, it is hard to argue with the facts of baseball’s […]
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The race does not always go to the fastest…or does it?
This week’s story comes to us from Saporta Report reader and all-around Atlanta history buff Greg Hodges who wrote to ask if we knew the story of Richard Petty’s 1959 victory at Atlanta’s Lakewood Speedway. We did not and it turns out that it is just our kind of story. Long-time Atlantans will remember the […]
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A caring parent can make all the difference
History is replete with examples of the power of one person to make a difference. There are, in fact, so many examples of the ability of one person to affect change that what is surprising is that we still marvel when it happens. Such is the case with Selena Butler. Selena Sloan Butler was born […]
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The value of a mentor
One of the more interesting aspects of looking into Atlanta’s history is finding out about links that Atlanta has to events and people that are larger than the city itself. On a personal note, it’s those kinds of surprising connections that I find most interesting about living in a city the size of Atlanta. This […]
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Atlanta was one of only a few American cities to host the special visitor
When the 1895 Cotton States Exposition opened in Atlanta 120 years ago as of this writing, it represented the culmination of years of planning and fund raising on the part of the exposition’s organizers. It was a big time undertaking costing over $2 million dollars, which, by today’s currency standards, equates to around $57 million […]
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The speech didn’t go exactly as he had planned
In 1895 Atlanta put its best foot forward for all to see with the Cotton States and International Exposition. It was a coming out party of sorts for Atlanta and designed to show the world, and particularly South American countries, that Atlanta had moved past its pre-civil war mentality and had taken its rightful place […]
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He had a lot of nerve to come riding into town like that
In November of 1864, having occupied Atlanta for a little over two months, William Sherman left the city to continue his march to the sea. About three miles out, he paused briefly and gazed back at Atlanta. Years later he wrote of that moment, “Behind us lay Atlanta smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke […]
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It’s all in how you deliver the message
They say that when you die, whether you’re going to heaven or hell, you have to go through Atlanta first. Though made popular by Atlanta’s very busy airport, that saying actually originated back in the day when Atlanta was a major railroad junction. At its peak, over 300 trains a day came and went through […]
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The dragon that reaches out and grabs you
Roger Babson is the founder of the Gravity Research Foundation, an organization with the stated purpose of studying, understanding and, ultimately, harnessing the force of gravity. It was the childhood drowning of his older sister in a river near Gloucester, Massachusetts that sparked Babson’s life-long interest in finding a way to control the effects of […]
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This week, it’s a time travel story…with a twist
Time travel. It has been a part of the plot of many a movie over the years and, no doubt, the daydream of almost everyone at one time or another. Who hasn’t thought of what they could do if only time travel were possible? From sparing the world the pain of a future calamity or […]
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What they felt the town really needed was an evening business school
Reconstruction was the term given to the period following the Civil War during which the United States set conditions under which the rebellious Southern States would be allowed back into the Union. Coming out of Reconstruction, the City of Atlanta was experiencing growing pains but one of the more positive results of Atlanta’s emergence as […]
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If you think you’ve seen this statue before, there’s an interesting reason why
If you think you’ve seen this statue before…you’re probably right.
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His life might have been very different without his stepfather
Donn’s father was a well-respected mathematics and psychology professor. He was, in fact, the chairman of the mathematics department of an Oklahoma university. Unfortunately for Donn, he lost his father at the age of six months to Leukemia. The family moved to Atlanta, where Donn would graduate from Booker T. Washington high school. It was […]
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Alvin York Slept Here
America’s entry into World War One required the country ramp up its training efforts in order to accommodate the thousands of conscripted servicemen who were joining the war effort. Sixteen temporary camps, or cantonments as they were known, were built at locations around the country. One of those camps was constructed on the outskirts of […]
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He missed the bus but eventually got to Atlanta
I was following a thread on a message board recently in which the participants were discussing the question, “What makes a city a major city?” My first thought was that the term “major city” is one of those eye-of-the-beholder descriptions, a phrase that doesn’t really have a precise definition. Something akin to Supreme Court justice […]
