Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

October 26

1749 At the direction of the Georgia Trustees, a convention of the "most able" Georgians convened with instructions to decide what regulations were necessary to introduce slave labor into the colony of Georgia. Convention delegates signed a letter urging the Trustees to allow slavery immediately. Among the conditions suggested: that the percentage of slaves to whites be regulated, that slaves not be allowed to learned any trade except coopering "as it would thereby injure the poor white artizan," and that Trustees keep a record of all slaves imported or brought into Georgia. The letter was then sent to the Trustees in London.

1765 Georgia Sons of Liberty protested the Stamp Act by burning effigies of British officials. In Georgia and other colonies, protests also included hanging effigies of tax collectors, burning tax stamps, and holding public demonstrations.

1865 A constitutional convention meeting in Milledgeville repealed Georgia's Ordinance of Secession.

1870 Gov. Rufus Bullock signed legislation creating Dodge County from portions of Montgomery, Pulaski, and Telfair counties.

Dodge, Georgia's 136th county, was named for New York industrialist William E. Dodge, who owned large tracts of Georgia forest land and helped push through federal legislation removing timber taxes.

Dodge was also involved in the creation and building of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. After the creation of Dodge County, Dodge personally funded construction of a two-story county courthouse in Eastman.

1910 Former Georgia governor Allen Candler died in Atlanta. For more information on Candler see Nov. 4, 1834 entry.

1945 Novelist Pat Conroy was born in Atlanta.

1960 Martin Luther King Jr. was taken to the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville in the middle of the night.

Reportedly, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy contacted Georgia Gov. Ernest Vandiver to urge his intervention to secure King's release. Because of the Kennedy brothers' efforts on behalf of his son, Martin Luther King Sr. and many southern blacks who were traditionally Republican switched their support to the Democratic Party in the 1960 presidential election.

1970 In Atlanta, Muhammad Ali returned from three years of forced retirement from boxing for conviction of draft evasion arising from his refusal to serve in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War because of his religious beliefs. Although his conviction was on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, most states boxing commissions refused to license Ali to fight. Through the efforts of state senator Leroy Johnson, the fight was held in Georgia, which at the time had no state boxing commission. Ali beat Quarry by a technical knockout in the third round.

1976 Campaigning in South Carolina and Illinois, Jimmy Carter accused the Ford administration of "slanderously" attacking him and members of his family in a newsletter mailed to some two million homes. Things were better on the home front as the Atlanta Constitution ran a front page editorial enthusiastically endorsing Carter for president.

1991 Georgia Gov. Zell Miller signed a proclamation recognizing Robins Air Force Base on its 50th anniversary and declaring this date "Robins AFB Day" in Georgia.

Robins AFB launched a two-day open house and air show to commemorate its 50th anniversary as well as to pay tribute to the allied troops of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The Navy's Blue Angels made their first appearance at Robins.

1991 In the sixth game of the World Series, the Minnesota Twins beat the Atlanta Braves in the 11th inning to tie the series and deprive the Braves of the club's first World Series championship since 1957.

1993 ValuJet (now AirTran) was launched in Atlanta.

1995 In the fifth game of the 1995 World Series, the Cleveland Indians defeated the Atlanta Braves by a score of 5-4. Atlanta's Greg Maddux recorded the loss, while Cleveland's Orel Hershiser was credited with the victory.

1996 In the sixth game of the World Series, the New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2. After losing the first two games at home, the Yankees came back to win the next four games and give the team its first World Series championship since 1978.

1999 Down 0-2, the Atlanta Braves went into the third game of the 1999 World Series playing the Yankees in New York. With the Braves ahead 5-1 in the bottom of the 5th inning, the Yankees battled back winning 6-5 on a home run in the 10th inning.

2005 Atlanta Braves center fielder Andruw Jones was named National League winner of the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the top offensive player in each league.

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated on acts approved on Oct. 26:

1870 Cedar Town (Polk County) and Norcross (Gwinnett County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1861 After the death of his wife and first daughter in July 1861, lawyer and Savannah mayor Charles C. Jones Jr. decided not to run for reelection. Instead, he left his surviving daughter with his parents and joined the an artillery battery defending Savannah. After the Civil War, Jones gained fame for his historical writings – especially his History of Georgia (1883). Some historians would later suggest that Jones' writings were sometimes nostalgic – a charge that his Oct. 26, 1861, letter to his parents might give evidence:

"I left the city [of Savannah] on yesterday morning and found our entire command in good health and fine spirits. . . .There is, I can assure you a [great] deal of hard labor in the efficient drill of men and horses and in the careful conduct of all the details which appertain to a mounted battery. The men, however, who compose our company are unusually efficient. They are gentlemen all and bring to the discharge of the duties incumbent upon them a degree of intelligence, industry and cheerfulness quite remarkable. I trust that our shores may never know the pollution of the enemy's presence. But if he does come, I sincerely hope that our battery may be detailed to resist his first attempted landing and to dispute every inch of ground in his contemplated march of desolation. I am beginning to appreciate the practical entertainment of the 'Dolce et decorum et pro atria more.'

"Our camp is advantageously located nine miles from Savannah on the Isle of Hope, upon a bluff overshadowed with some of the noble live oaks which impart such dignity to the forests of our local region. We occupy the site of the old Bulloch house, a few years since passing from the possession of the former owners and becoming by purchase the property of our present worthy and efficient Captain. You would be pleased with the appearance of our encampment. Our pure white tents contrast beautifully with the dark overhanging foliage of these attractive trees, and our burnished battery gleams brightly in the morning sun. Our garrison flag is floating freely in the quick air, and within a stone's throw of the guard tent a bold river moves onward between its low-lying shores toward the far-off sound.

"Our reveille is answered by no less than three encampments at distances of several miles above and below us along the coast. As I write, the campfires are all dead, save that which burns brightly still in front of the guard tent, where the 'watchers keep their vigils sharp,' and the stillness is unbroken, save by the lazy flap of the tent curtains, the soft ripple of the tide as it gently chafes with the shore, and the occasional note of some waking song-bird among the overshadowing branches. All else is hushed, not a sound from the stables, no challenge from the sentinels. They are keeping their posts, however, for every now and then I can detect the clank of the scabbard against the slings as they come to the about. Even the quiet breathing of the Captain, whom I can touch with my hand as he lies sleeping behind me on his camp cot, I cannot hear.

"And I am hold silent converse with you, my dear parents, and my heart is going forth in warmest love towards you and my sweet little Daughter. May a kind Providence prove ever near you, to bless and keep you from every harm. George is with me and attends well to his duties, and to my horse, 'Trick,' who I think will make a very fine parade horse."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), "Dear Mother: Don't grieve about me. If I get killed, I'll only be dead.": Letters from Georgia Soldiers in the Civil War (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), p. 80.