October 23

1794 Physician Richard Banks was born in Elbert County, Georgia. One of thirteen children, Banks was the only one to attend college. After attending both the University of Georgia (for one year) and the University of Pennsylvania, he received his M.D. degree. After practicing in Philadelphia for a year, he returned to rural northwest Georgia and set up practice not far from his original home. He was so skilled and popular that he eventually moved to larger offices on Gainesville, Georgia. Despite having limited medical facilities, Banks performed numerous successful surgeries, some (like removing a parotid gland) which had never been done before. Even though he was among the most talented physicians of his day, Banks never sought publicity or fame for his work, preferring to quietly help his neighbors and friends. After thirty-five years of such dedicated service, Banks died in Gainesville on May 6, 1856. Fame was to be his, however, as the General Assembly named a county in his honor on December 11, 1858.

1869 Legendary football coach John Heisman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. [See Oct. 3 entry for a brief biography.]

1871 Georgia Republican governor Rufus Bullock submitted his resignation from office to Georgia's secretary of state. After Georgia's readmission to the Union and the removal of federal troops in 1870, Georgia voters had elected large Democratic majorities to both houses of the legislature in the Dec. 1870 election. Many members of the new House of Representatives had pledged to impeach Bullock for his actions during Reconstruction. Rather than face impeachment, Bullock resigned one week before the new General Assembly convened and fled the state. However, his resignation was kept secret until Oct. 30, the day it became effective. [See Oct. 30 entry.]

1896 Politician Charles Frederick Crisp died in Atlanta, Georgia. Crisp was born in England on January 29, 1845 while his parents were there on a visit. His parents were both actors who toured the antebellum South and settled in Ellaville, Georgia. Crisp served briefly in the Confederate Army before being captured at Spottsylvania. After his release in 1865 he returned to Georgia and studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1866. In 1873 he was appointed solicitor-general of the Southwestern Judicial Circuit.

He began his political career in 1882, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was to remain a representative until 1896, becoming Speaker of the House in 1891. Crisp was the leading candidate to replace Georgia Senator John B. Gordon (who had resigned) in 1896. Despite being in poor health, Crisp still conducted a vigorous campaign and handily won the general primary. But while awaiting confirmation from the General Assembly, he died in Atlanta. The General Assembly named a county in his honor in legislation approved on August 17, 1905.

1932 Campaigning in the South, Franklin D. Roosevelt took a train through Kentucky, Tennessee, and into Georgia. Stopping briefly at an Atlanta station, Roosevelt was greeted by roughly 10,000 admirers before going on to Warm Springs, Georgia. This was his twenty-fourth visit to his "second home." Crippled by polio and seeking relief from his condition, Roosevelt had first visited Warm Springs ten years earlier. On this day, he returned rejuvenated and in triumph as his election time neared. Atlanta Constitution writer L.A. Farrell described the scene: "Today Georgia welcomes him in heartfelt, joyous acclaim, a modern Moses who is to lead a darkened America out of a wilderness of depression." A crowd of over 10,000 people enthusiastically welcomed Roosevelt home to the small hamlet in south Georgia.

1957 Martin Luther King III--the second child of Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. --was born in Montgomery, Alabama.

1971 Coca-cola began one of its most loved and remembered marketing projects, featuring the song "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."

1972 Cumberland Island National Seashore was established on Georgia's southernmost barrier island. (Click here to view the Cumberland Island Photo Gallery.)

1991 Clarence Thomas was sworn as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1991 The Atlanta Braves won fourth game of the 1991 World Series, beating the Minnesota Twins by a score of 3-2.

1996 Playing at home in the fourth game of the 1996 World Series, the Atlanta Braves looked like sure winners with a 6-0 lead, when the New York Yankees staged an 8-run comeback. Tied 6-6 in the 10th inning, with two outs and the bases loaded, Braves pitcher Steve Avery walked Yankee pinch-hitter Wade Boggs. The Yankees scored one more run in their 8-6 victory, which tied the series 2-2.

1999 Playing at home in the first game of the 1999 World Series, a solo homerun by Chipper Jones gave the Braves a 1-0 lead. But, the Yankees and their pitching ace Orlando Hernandez were too much, winning 4-1. 

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on Oct. 23:

1889 Coleman (Randolph County)
 
 

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1864 Col. Fredrick Winkler of the 26th Wisconsin Infantry wrote his wife from near Atlanta:

"Trains are to go through from Chattanooga to-morrow, and then we shall have our regular mails again. To-morrow, I am officer of the day. George Jones has gone to Atlanta with the wagon, in hope of getting a new mule team in place of the lost one. If successful he will bring back a load of brick, and we will have fire-places made to-morrow. It is too uncomfortable without them; after four o'clock, it is so cold that one can do nothing but shiver.

"We are over whelmed with a flood of political prints and pamphlets; they are all on the Republican side. I don't know how my regiment will vote; it used to be strongly democratic, still I think the officers are, save one or two, for Lincoln. I never talk to them on political subjects. I am going to vote the Republican ticket straight through, but beyond that will not meddle with politics. Mr. Lincoln is personally no abler or stronger than Mc Clellan, but the influences which surround him, both of political and military-men, are such as to Support and strengthen him. I have little doubt that Lincoln will be elected, but the greater his majority, the more emphatic will be the blow to the enemies of the country.

"I am going on a foraging expedition tomorrow; besides my own regiment, I am going to have one hundred men from each of four others, and will probably be gone three or four days. A good many trains have gone into Atlanta, but none have come out from there. Our nearest neighbor, Colonel Case, of the 129th Illinois, has a Chicago paper nearly a month old, containing an account of General Sheridan's battle of the 19th of September. Our terrific losses in consequence of that surprise are sad to contemplate, but the skill and daring of General Sheridan certainly challenges the highest admiration. Almost any other general would have made his men work like beavers to secure themselves against further disaster by strengthening their position, when his bold spirit reorganized his broken and defeated battalions and led them against his victorious and exultant foe. It is the first time in this war that such a thing has been done or even been thought of. Sheridan has shown himself to be the greatest leader of battle that has yet appeared on the American field on either side."

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

1868 The Atlanta Constitution published the following poem by Elzey May reflecting the sadness and bitterness still felt three years after the close of the Civil War:

Rusting on the Wall

Only a shattered blade

Beaten and worn,

Back in the scabbard laid

Useless, forlorn;

There let it proudly lay,

Wasting in slow decay.

Conquered -- we sadly say,

Of its strength shorn.

Not ever thus it hung

Rusting in gloom:

Once its bright metal rung

Midst cannon-boom;

Eager eyes met its flash

In the mad battle crash

Where friend and foeman clash

Over their doom.

Broken and battered now

There let it rest.

Yet there was once a vow

Deep in the breast,

Where one heart to heaven swore

Rest it should never more,

While foeman trampled o'er

South land oppressed.

Dim now the eager eyes,

Cold the proud heart-

Low in the ground it lies

Mouldering apart.

Gone is the sword to rust,

Fallen the form to dust,

Every hope of the just

Struck from the chart.

Though now there's none to wield

Liberty's blade,

Yet on some battle-field

In time, undismayed,

There are heroes unborn

In the future's bright morn

That shall rescue from scorn

What traitor's betrayed.

We love thee, O sacred steel--

Relic of those

Who 'gainst the wrongs we feel

Proudly uprose:

Though tongue can but feebly tell

What they wrought ere freedom fell,

Their blood hangeth like a spell

Over our woes.

 

Source: Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 23, 1868.