Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

The University of Georgia

June 17

1703 Methodism founder John Wesley was born today in Epworth, England. In October 1735 he and brother Charles sailed for Georgia as Anglican ministers for the new colony. John's stay in Georgia would prove unhappy years. First, he had hoped to become a missionary to the Indians, but James Oglethorpe had him serve the colonists instead. Second, he fell in love with Sophy Hopkey and sought her hand in marriage. After she turned him down and married another man, John refused to administer Holy Communion to Sophy, leading her new husband to file charges against John. In December 1737, John Wesley would sail from Georgia for England, where he launched a traveling ministry that developed into a movement that became known as Methodism.

1865 Pres. Andrew Johnson appointed James Johnson provisional governor of Georgia. [See Feb. 12 entry for biographical information on Johnson.]

1871 African-American lawyer, lyricist, U.S. diplomat, civil rights activist, novelist, poet, and educator James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Fla. He attended Atlanta University, where he wrote over 30 poems while a student. At graduation ceremonies in 1894, Johnson gave the senior address for his graduating class. Three years later, Johnson became the first black admitted to the Florida Bar, though he is even better known for composing what many consider the black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," in 1899. In the early 1900s, Johnson served as U.S. consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua. In 1920, he served as executive secretary of the NAACP, later becoming a writer. In 1930, he became a professor at Fisk University. On his birthday in 1938, while driving in a thunderstorm to his summer home in Maine, Johnson's car was hit by a train. He died from the injuries on June 26.

1898 The U.S. Post Office Department issued a stamp commemorating John C. Fremont, who was born in Savannah and was the Republican Party's first presidential candidate in 1856. [Click here to view stamp image and story.]

1914 Mary Lyndon became the first woman to graduate from the University of Georgia.

1929 Delta Air Lines (then based in Louisiana) began passenger service between Atlanta and Dallas.

1943 On this day in 1943, Newt Gingrich was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Son of an Army officer, Newt lived in Kansas, France, and Germany before moving to Columbus, Georgia, where he graduated from high school in 1961. After earning a Ph.D. in European History from Tulane in 1971, Gingrich joined the political science faculty of West Georgia College. In November 1978, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where in 1995 and again in 1997, the Republican majority elected him as Speaker of the House.

1978 President Jimmy Carter and Panama leader Omar Torrijos completed ratification of the Panama Canal Treaty.

1980 Young Harris College graduate Ronnie Milsap reacheed the top of the country-and western chart on this day with his recording of "My Heart."

2003 Voters of Chattahoochee County and Cusseta, the county seat and only incorporated municipality in the county, approved a referendum to consolidate into a single government. The unification traced to the fact that much of the county is part of Fort Benning, leaving a small tax base for the county and single city in the county. Cusseta-Chattahoochee County became Georgia's fourth and the nation's 34th -- and smallest -- consolidated government

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1736 In his journal of Trustee proceedings, the Earl of Egmont recorded evidence that the colony of Georgia apparently was not universally supported in England:

"I was privately inform'd this day that Tho. Frederick, Esq., a Member of the Common Counsel designs to come no more among us, he being very intimate with Sr. Robert Walpoles Lady who is a great enemy to our Colony. Neither is Sr. Robert [at the time Robert Walpole was Britain's equivalent of prime minister] and the Employment Men friends to us, because Some of our Board vote in Parliamt. against the Ministerial measures. They also pretend our Charter gives us too much power, and makes us Independent of the Crown."

Source: Robert G. McPherson (ed.), The Journal of The Earl of Egmont: Abstract of the Trustees Proceedings for Establishing the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1738 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1962), p. 170.

1737 Savannah baliff Thomas Causton had a very trying position. In addition to dealing with various disagreements among settlers, he received the following complaint as noted in his diary for this day:

". . . Mr. Wesley lately acquainted me that there were Several Deists in the place, & now gave me a long account of a discourse between him & Dr. Garratt: I told him I did not doubt but he would be able to Set people right in these matters, & that I should be always ready to give the assistance of a Civil magistrate in discountenancing & punishing bad morals whenever any particular Fact should make it necessary. ..."

Source: [no author or editor cited], Our First Visit in America: Early Reports from the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1740 (Savannah: The Beehive Press, 1974), pp. 256-257.

1775 In a letter to Lord Dartmouth, Georgia royal governor James Wright wrote about what now was open defiance of his authority by Georgia patriots:

"It gives me much concern to acquaint Your Lordship that on Thursday, the 13th instant, the Liberty Folks here assembled in the town of Savannah and put up a Liberty Tree and a flag and in the evening paraded about the town, I am informed, to the number of three hundred, some say four hundred. The Liberty Tree and flag were kept up from Tuesday [Thursday] morning till now and is still flying in contempt and defiance of the Court and of all law and Government and which here as well as elsewhere seems now nearly at an end. . . . [T]hey have entered into an Association, and whatever is agreed upon by the Continental Congress will undoubtedly be adopted and carried into execution here and will meet with little or no opposition, for those who disapprove of these things . . . .

"There is soon to be meetings in every part of the province and at Savannah on the 22nd instant in order to choose delegates to meet in Provincial Congress at Savannah on the 4th of July . . . .They presume that there is no power to prevent them and proclamations &c. are only laughed at.

I have laid a state of the proceedings of all the Liberty People before His Majesty's Council and desired their opinions and advice what was proper to be done, whether any legal steps or whether by proclamation to take notice of their conduct and point out the illegality and dangerous consequences of such proceedings. All that were present were unanimous in opinion that no legal steps should be taken, because, as things are circumstanced, no prosecutions would prove effectual and it would only exasperate and inflame. . . .This is very galling!

Source: Mills Lane (ed.) Georgia: History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), pp. 28-29.

1864 From north of Marietta, Maj. Fredrick Winkler of the 26th Wisconsin Infantry wrote his wife about the progress of the Atlanta Campaign:

"We advanced two miles day before yesterday, fighting our way; our brigade was in reserve and, towards evening, for about half an hour, was subjected to the sharpest artillery fire that I have experienced since Gettysburg. The noise of whizzing and exploding of shells, especially in the woods, is terrific, but compared to infantry its destructiveness is slight. I had two men wounded. The regiment having taken position near the enemy's works, our troops put up breastworks; yesterday as the lines were pretty close together, there was a good deal of firing between the pickets and our artillery threw shells, but the dense woods in front prevented an accurate aim. Just at dark, the rebels opened a brisk discharge of shell upon one of our batteries; we were in line right behind this battery, and for a brief time the things burst around us with most uncomfortable vividness. A number exploded right over my line. Immediately after we went to the front, relieving another regiment. At daylight this morning, our pickets reported the rebels gone. I have just been over to the position they occupied; it is very strongly fortified. I conjecture that some movement upon the enemy's right flank caused the evacuation. A portion of our army seems to be following up and we will doubtless move soon. We did move this morning after the above was written, and have advanced some miles and come to a halt Our artillery is busy throwing shells at the rebels and skirmishers not over half a mile in front of us, and we have come to a halt."

Source: Civil War Letters of Major Fredrick C. Winkler, in 26th Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers Home Page