Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

December 8

1735 After a stay of almost 18 months in England, James Oglethorpe sailed for Georgia from the port of Cowes on the Isle of Wight off the southern coast of England.

1765 Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, was born in Westboro, Mass. Whitney grew up in New England and attended Yale. He came to South Carolina at the request of a friend who managed General Nathanael Greene's Plantation outside Savannah, Georgia. When the promised job did not materialize in South Carolina, Whitney came to Georgia, possibly because he was infatuated with Greene's widow, Catharine.

At her suggestion, Whitney set to work modifying a gin useful only for Sea Island cotton into one for use on the short-staple cotton grown in the rest of Georgia. Within six months he had completed the modifications, and left Georgia for Philadelphia to get a patent on his invention and to manufacture them where there was more skilled labor available. The patent was issued in March of 1794 and Whitney returned to Georgia with six cotton gins ready for use.

Soon thereafter Whitney left Georgia for good, in order to manufacture the gins in New Haven, Conn. Others soon copied his invention, thus he received relatively little financially for his work. Whitney went on to manufacture arms for the government, and was rewarded with a big contract during the War of 1812. In the process of his arms manufacturing, he developed the idea of interchangeable parts, ultimately as important as his development of the cotton gin. Whitney did not marry until the age of fifty-four, after Catharine Greene had died. His health began to decline in 1820, and he developed very painful prostate problems in 1823. Ever the inventor, Whitney developed an instrument that eased his discomfort more than anything done by his doctors. He died in New Haven January 8, 1825.

On Oct. 7, 1940, the U.S. Post Office issued an Eli Whitney commemorative stamp.

1823 Gov. George Troup signed legislation creating Decatur County.

Decatur County, Georgia's 58th, was created from portions of Early County and named for U.S. Navy Commodore Stephen Decatur. Although he had no ties to Georgia, Decatur was an American hero who defeated the Barbary pirates in Tripoli Harbor in 1804. Also involved in naval actions against the British in the War of 1812, Decatur was killed in a duel in 1820.

1860 Native Georgian Howell Cobb resigned his position as Secretary of the Treasury of the United States in order to join the secession movement in Georgia after the election of Abraham Lincoln as President on November 6.

For more information see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation on Amnesty and Reconstruction that provided for the restoration of the Confederate states into the Union.

Lincoln offered Georgia and other southern states a full pardon and restoration of their rights if they were willing to take an oath of loyalty to the Union and accept the end of slavery. The offer was rejected.

For more information see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1864 With Sherman departed and the Confederate flag once again flying over Atlanta, Fulton County Militia commander Lt. Col. Z.A. Rice issued an order for all men in Fulton County between the ages of 16 and 55 to report to the city hall for military duty.

For more information see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1899 Gov. Allen Candler signed an act imposing a tax on each dog in Georgia over 4 months of age at the rate $1.00 for male dogs and $1.50 for females.

1936 The NAACP presented the Springarn Medal posthumously to John Hope for his achievement as president of Morehouse College and for his leadership in the founding of the Atlanta University Center.

1941 Within an hour of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's signing a joint resolution declaring war on Japan, Gov. Eugene Talmadge created a Citizens' Defense Committee to coordinate internal war efforts in Georgia.

1942 University of Georgia running back Frank Sinkwich was awarded the Heisman Trophy for collegiate football's most outstanding player. He was the first player from a southern school to win the prestigious award. He led the Bulldogs to an 11-1 record and a win over UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Sinkwich had already enlisted in the Marines by the time of the award dinner, and accepted the award dressed in a Marine uniform.

Photo Courtesy of Georgia Bulldog Prints

1947 Gregg Allman – singer, guitarist, keyboardist, and songwriter for the Allman Brothers Band – was born in Nashville, Tenn.

1953 Actress Kim Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia. After attending high school in Athens with Keith Strickland of the B-52's, she went on to an acting career that included such movies as Nine 1/2 Weeks, Batman, and My Stepmother is an Alien. She gained some local fame in Georgia when she bought the town of Braselton in Jackson County (though a later financial judgment against her forced her to sell it).

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved on Dec. 8:

1806 Athens (Clarke County)

1839 Hawkinsville (Pulaski County)

In Their Own Words on This Day . . .

1737 Trustees' secretary William Stephens recorded in his journal:

". . . In the Afternoon I has some Conference with Mr. Causton (as indeed it was necessary to impart our Thoughts how to break through this stubborn Knot of ill-designing People, and restore Unity as far as possible) and it was both our Opinions, that if the Parson [John Wesley] had taken a few more with him [back to England], of such as he then made his Companions; the colony would be better without them. . . ."

Source: William Stephens, A Journal of the Proceeding in Georgia ([no city cited]: Readex Microprint Corporation, 1966), Vol. I, p. 53.

1860 The Southern Banner of Athens published a special edition devoted to the secession crisis, and left no doubt as to where they stood on the issue.

1861 The Daily Federal Union of Milledgeville printed an editorial comparing the Civil War troubles Georgia was experiencing with similar trials they had faced in the Revolutionary War.

For more, see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1864 Sherman's secretary, Maj. Henry Hitchcock, recorded in this day's diary entry:

"[T]wenty-third day out, . . . . Roads today heavy sand and both yesterday and today very bad at swampy places and creek crossings -- same thing in fact, for all the creeks seem to spread into swamps . . . . Stopped at house of Rev. Mr. Heidt – fifty-four years old, Methodist, very well off, barns, etc, full of all sorts of forage when we came. Fluent talker, pretty shrewd, but foolish enough to argue with General about importance of cotton; General down on cotton."

Source: M.A. DeWolfe Howe (ed.), Marching with Sherman: Passages from the Letters and Campaign Diaries of Henry Hitchcock, Major and Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers, November 1864-May 1865 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 156-157.