Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

October 14

1735 Joining James Oglethorpe in sailing from England were 136 new Georgia colonists, including John and Charles Wesley. John Wesley went to minister to the Savannah colonists, though his real hope was to become a missionary among the Indians. Charles Wesley, John's brother, went to serve as secretary to James Oglethorpe with respect to Indian affairs, as well as to do some missionary work with the Indians.

John Wesley (left) and Charles Wesley

1735 John Wesley made the first entry in his famous, 55-year-long journal that would continue until his final entry on Oct 24, 1790.

1857 U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph R. Lamar was born in Ruckersville, Ga. After graduating from Bethany College, he studied law at Washington and Lee University. He was admitted to the bar in 1878 and practiced law in Augusta from 1880 until 1903. Lamar also served in the Georgia General Assembly (1886-89) and in 1895 was named to codify the statutory laws of Georgia. In 1901, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Georgia Supreme Court, though he had to resign after four years for health reasons. In 1910, Pres. William Howard Taft appointed Lamar to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. He held that office until his death on Jan. 2, 1916 in Washington D.C. His body was returned to Augusta, where he was interred in Summerville Cemetery.

1914 In a unanimous decision, the Georgia Supreme Court turned down Leo Frank's motion for a new trial.

Click here to read about one of the most famous – and many would say infamous – trials in Georgia history.

1942 The U.S. War Department renamed the Wellston Air Depot in Houston County the Warner Robins Army Air Depot. The name change honored the late Brigadier General Augustine Warner Robins, who had been a friend and mentor of the Wellston Air Depot's commander, Col. Charles Thomas.

Brig. Gen. Augustine Warner Robins

Robins, born in 1882, graduated from West Point in 1907 and was assigned to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he served in the cavalry. In 1917, he left the cavalry for the Army Air Corps, where he became a pilot in 1918. In 1939, Robins became commandant of the Air Corps Training Center at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas. It was here he died on June 16, 1940.

1964 The Nobel Prize Committee announced that Martin Luther King Jr. had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1964. King became the youngest person in history to win the peace prize. He would donate the $54,000 cash award to the civil rights movement.

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on Oct. 14:

1891 Piedmont (Pike County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1735 In his journal of Trustees' proceeding, the Earl of Egmont reported the departure from England of James Oglethorpe and 136 new colonists destined for Georgia:

"Mr. Oglethorp embark'd at Gravesend [a Thames River port city near London] on board the Simons, Capt. Cornish, and with him Mr. John Wesley A.M. in Priest's orders, and Charles Wesley his brother in Deacons Orders, who is to be Minister at Savannah while his elder brother endeavours to convert the Indians. The whole number that went in his Ship were 125 of whom 102 at the Trustees charge. On the 20th of the same month, Mr. Oglethorp was joyn'd by 136 persons more in the Downs, on board the London Merchant, Capt. Thomas, of whom 129 went at the Trustees charge. The Saltsburgers that went with him were 59. And about the 29th of same month Capt. Geo. Dunbar of the Princess of Wales carry'd from Scotland 180 persons, of whom 130 were contracted to be at the Trustees expense, but our Accompt. believed these last would be but 120."

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. 114.

1775 A desperate James Wright, Georgia's royal governor, wrote to Lord Dartmouth, British secretary of state for the colonies, about the independence movement in Georgia:

"My Lord: Since my last [letter] a party of the backcountry people went armed to a small stockade fort on the ceded lands which was garrisoned by a party of the rangers and compelled the commanding officer to deliver it up to them, and they then immediately sent a messenger express to the Council of Safety here, to acquaint them what they had done and receive their directions, and those people ordered them to deliver up the officer and return to their habitations. It is this day reported that another small fort on those lands has also been taken from the rangers who garrisoned it. In short, My Lord, the poison has infected the whole province, and neither law, Government or regular authority have any weight or are at all attended to."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Georgia: History written by Those who lived It (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1995), p. 39.