Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

January 14

1733 After visiting with South Carolina officials in Charles Town, James Oglethorpe returned to the ship Anne in the early morning hours of the 14th. Later that day, the Anne departed Charles Town harbor with crew and the first Georgia colonists to sail southward to Port Royal.

[Note: Letters, diaries, and records of this time show dates based on the Julian calendar (referred to as "Old Style") then in effect in Britain and the American colonies. The Gregorian calendar ("New Style") was adopted in 1752. Thus, Jan. 14, 1732/33 (Old Style) represents Jan. 25, 1733 under the calendar now in effect. For a fuller explanation, click here.]

1783 Future Georgia congressman and governor Wilson Lumpkin was born in Pittsylvania County, Va. [See Dec. 28 entry for biographical information.]

1784 The Continental Congress assembled in Annapolis, Maryland, and ratified the Treaty of Paris, signed the preceding Sept. 3 by representatives of the United States and Great Britain. The ratification formally ended the American Revolution and formalized the United States' status as a sovereign nation.

1799 Cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney received an important U.S. government contract. But, it had nothing to do with cotton gins. Rather, the pioneer in making interchangeable parts was being asked to produce 10,000 muskets.

1833 Mercer Institute began operations in a rural area seven miles north of Greensboro in Greene County. Four years later, the legislature enacted its charter, renaming it Mercer University. Mercer remained open during the Civil War--the only college to do so. In 1871, Mercer University moved to Macon. For more information, see Mercer University. [Submitted by Michael Cass, Mercer University]

1835 Savannahian James M. Wayne was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed by Pres. Andrew Jackson, Wayne participated in the controversial Dred Scott decision.

Despite the secession of his home state, Wayne remained on the Supreme Court – prompting some in the Confederacy to label him a traitor and confiscate his property. He continued serving on the Supreme Court until his death in 1867.

1856 Businessman and philanthropist Thomas Egleston was born in Charleston, South Carolina. His family moved to Georgia in 1870, where young Thomas soon was employed by an insurance firm. Quickly becoming adept at the business, he was co-owner of the firm, now called Perdue and Egleston, within a decade.

An astute businessman, Egleston underwrote major construction projects in Atlanta invested his profits well, becoming one of the South's first millionaires. He also lobbied to have uniform legislation regarding insurance throughout the South and, as president of the Southeastern Tariff Association, worked to provide uniform rates, forms, and services. The formative influence in Egleston's life was his mother, a woman of strong character who brought her children through the disasters of the Civil War and became beloved by all who knew her for her acts of kindness and friendship. After she died in 1912, Egleston bequeathed the money to construct a hospital for sick and needy children to be named in her honor. In October 1928, the Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children opened. In 1998, Egleston Children's Health Care System and Scottish Rite Medical Center merged to form Children's Healthcare of Atlanta – one of the largest pediatric systems in the country.

1990 Jim Williams, a well-known Savannah antique dealer and the central figure in the case later dramatized by the book and movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was found dead in his house.

In Their Own Words on This Day . . .

1865 From her older sister's plantation near Albany, Eliza Frances Andrews wrote about a problem Georgia would later become nationally known for – dirt roads that were impassable when it rained, as noted in this journal entry:

". . . Father keeps on writing for us to come home [Washington, Ga.]. Brother Troup says he can send us across the country from Macon in a government wagon, with Mr. Forline for an escort, if the rains will ever cease; but we can't go now on account of the bad roads and the floods up the country. Bridges are washed away in every direction, and the water courses impassable."

Source: Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1908), p. 68.