Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

January 4

1780 During the American Revolution, Richard Howley [also spelled Howly] was elected governor by Georgia's Whig legislature while meeting in Augusta. In the war against the British, things weren't going well for the patriots at this time, and on Feb. 3 Howley and the executive council designated Heard's Fort in Wilkes County as the temporary seat of government. Two days later, the legislature elected Howley to represent Georgia in the Continental Congress. In June 1780, he left for Philadelphia, where he served in the Continental Congress until August 1781. Howley returned to Georgia, where he was elected to the legislature. The next year, the legislators elected him to be a judge, but in 1783, he returned to the legislature.

Little is known about certain aspects of Howley's life. He is believed to have been born near Savannah around 1740. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Howley practiced law in Sunbury, Ga., where he owned a plantation. In early 1779, he fled to Augusta to avoid capture by the British. There is no record of him performing military service in the Revolution. Also, it is not clear if he served in any governmental capacity prior to being elected governor -- though he apparently was respected as a lawyer. After the Revolution, Howley moved to Savannah, where he died in Dec. 1784.

1798 Lawyer, military officer, and politician William Crosby Dawson was born in Greene County, Ga. After graduating from the University of Georgia in 1816, Dawson read law in Lexington before attending law school in Connecticut. Returning to Georgia in 1818, he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Greensboro. In 1822, Dawson was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, where he served 12 years. During that time, he was appointed to compile a state code that included also laws enacted from 1819 to 1829. In 1834, Dawson was elected to the the Georgia Senate, where he served two terms. In 1836, he raised a company of volunteers in Greene County to go fight against the Creeks and Seminoles in southwest Georgia. As captain of the unit, he was recognized for distinguished service, which helped him get elected in 1836 to the U.S. House of Representatives to fill the term of Georgia congressman John Coffee after his death.

Dawson was reelected to Congress on two occasions, but in 1841 resigned to run for governor of Georgia. He lost the race in a close election and returned to the private practice of law. In 1847, the General Assembly elected Dawson to serve in the U.S. Senate. Here, he became a recognized and influential politician--both in Congress and Pres. Millard Fillmore's administration. After one term, Dawson returned to Georgia and private practice. He died on May 5, 1856, in Greene County.

1905 Actor and animated film voice Sterling Price Holloway was born in Cedartown; Ga. Early, he became interested in acting, but because of his unique high-pitched voice and bushy hair, Holloway's early stage roles were generally those of comical youth characters. In 1953, he became a regular character on the television series, "The Life of Riley." But of all roles, Holloway is best remembered not for his acting but for his instantly recognizable voice as Winnie-the-Pooh in the Walt Disney animated films. He died on Nov. 22, 1992 in Los Angeles, California.

1960 John Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M., was born at the base hospital at Fort McPherson. His parents--John (who served in the U.S. Army) and Marianne -- lived in Decatur, Ga., where Michael grew up. He enrolled at the University of Georgia in 1978 intending to major in art. Soon, however, music became the important force in his life. In 1980, Stipe helped form the band that would become known as R.E.M. Quickly, the band became the most famous group to emerge from the Athens music scene, gaining national and international fame.

1995 Newt Gingrich was formally elected Speaker of the House, becoming the first Republican speaker in forty years. Gingrich also was the third Georgian to serve as Speaker of the House, following in the steps of Charles Crisp (1892-1896) and Howell Cobb (1850-1851).

1999 In Decatur, Ga., Al Wong was sworn in as DeKalb County State Court judge. Wong, who was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the U.S. at age 16, was elected to the post in August 1998, becoming the first Asian-American judge in the Southeast.

1999 After broadcasting this evening's Fiesta Bowl for ABC, Georgia-born Keith Jackson -- who has been called the "national voice of college football" -- retired. For 31 years, Jackson broadcast college football games for ABC developing one of the most recognized voices in television sports history. Despite his retirement, Jackson returned in 2000 to broadcast a limited number of games--mainly on the West Coast. On April 27, 2006, at age 77, he retired from all football broadcasting.

On Jan. 7, 2010, Jackson made a brief television appearance at the 2010 BCS National Championship Bowl in Pasenda, Calif., where he was given the honor of flipping the coin at the beginning of the game.

See Oct. 28 entry for biographical information on Jackson.

2009 Atlanta Falcons' head coach Mike Smith was named NFL Coach of the Year after leading the team from a disastrous 4-12 season in 2007 to a record of 11-5 and a berth in the playoffs in 2008.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1865 From the plantation of her older sister near Albany, 24-year-old Eliza Frances Andrews wrote in her diary about recovering from a severe case of measles. But she had an even greater concern -- fear that Yankee soldiers were coming to take revenge on civilians for Andersonville Prison:

"I am just getting well of measles, and a rough time I had of it. Measles is no such small affair after all, especially when aggravated by perpetual alarms of Yankee raiders. For the last week we have lived in a state of incessant fear. All sorts of rumors come up the road and down it, and we never know what to believe. Mett [her younger sister] and I have received repeated letters from home urging our immediate return, but of course it was impossible to travel while I was sick in bed, and even now I am not strong enough to undertake that terrible journey across the burnt country again. While I was ill, home was the one thought that haunted my brain, and if I ever do get back, I hope I will have sense enough to stay there. I don't think I ever suffered so much before in all my life, and dread of the Yankees raised my fever to such a pitch that I got no rest by night or day. I used to feel very brave about Yankees, but since I have passed over Sherman's track and seen what devastation they make, I am so afraid of them that I believe I should drop down dead if one of the wretches should come into my presence. I would rather face them anywhere than here in South-West Georgia, for the horrors of the [Andersonville] stockade have so enraged them that they will have no mercy on this country, though they have brought it all on themselves, the cruel monsters, by refusing to exchange prisoners. But it is horrible, and a blot on the fair name of our Confederacy. Mr. Robert Bacon says he has accurate information that on the first of December, 1864, there were 13,010 graves at Anderson[ville]. It is a dreadful record. I shuddered as I passed the place on the cars, with its tall gibbet full of horrible suggestiveness before the gate, and its seething mass of humanity inside, like a swarm of blue flies crawling over a grave. It is said that the prisoners have organized their own code of laws among themselves, and have established courts of justice before which they try offenders, and that they sometimes condemn one of their number to death. It is horrible to think of, but what can we poor Confederates do? The Yankees won't exchange prisoners, and our own soldiers in the field don't fare much better than these poor creatures. Everybody is sorry for them, and wouldn't keep them here a day if the government at Washington didn't force them on us. And yet they lay all the blame on us. Gen. Sherman told Mr. Cuyler that he did not intend to leave so much as a blade of grass in South-West Georgia, and Dr. Janes [Jones?] told sister that he (Sherman) said he would be obliged to send a formidable raid here in order to satisfy the clamors of his army, though he himself, the fiend Sherman, dreaded it on account of the horrors that would be committed. What Sherman dreads must indeed be fearful. They say his soldiers have sworn that they will spare neither man, woman nor child in all South-West Georgia. It is only a question of time, I suppose, when all this will be done. It begins to look as if the Yankees can do whatever they please and go wherever they wish - except to heaven; I do fervently pray the good Lord will give us rest from them there.

"While I was at my worst, Mrs. Lawton came out with her brother-in-law, Mr. George Lawton, and Dr. Richardson, Medical Director of Bragg's army, to make sister a visit. The doctor came into my room and prescribed for me and did me more good by his cheerful talk than by his prescription. He told me not to think about the Yankees, and said that he would come and carry me away himself before I should fall into their hands. His medicine nearly killed me. It was a big dose of opium and whisky, that drove me stark crazy, but when I came to myself I felt much better. Dr. Janes was my regular physician and had the merit of not giving much medicine, but he frightened me horribly with his rumors about Yankee raiders. We are safe from them for the present, at any rate, I hope; the swamps of the Altamaha are so flooded that it would take an army of Tritons to get over them now. . . ."

Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), pp. 63-66.

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