Summer 2022

Description

SUMMER 2022 • VOLUME 21, NUMBER 2| TABLE OF CONTENTS

4
Along the Backroads: Who We Were, Who We Are
How we handle the complex history of Louisville’s Old Market will reveal much about who we will become.
BY DANIEL M. ROPER • JEFFERSON COUNTY
6
Vanishing Georgia: The Treason of Aaron Burr
Each time Vice President Aaron Burr came to Georgia he was in distress or under duress.
BY DANIEL M. ROPER • WASHINGTON COUNTY & STATEWIDE
12
A Circuit Rider’s Wife Goes to War
During the opening months of the Great War, famed Georgia novelist Corra Harris served as a war correspondent in Europe.
BY RAY CHANDLER • ELBERT & BARTOW COUNTIES
17
Plane, Crane, Truck, Train
A cascade of unforeseeable events led to a convergence of conveyances at a railroad crossing in Chamblee in 1948.
BY WILLIAM R. COBB • DEKALB COUNTY
22
Soul of a Southerner
A southerner fondly writes her memories of growing up and living in the South.
BY MARY ANN ANDERSON • GEORGIA
23
Historic Rural Churches of Georgia: The Good Book
For one hundred years, the most influential printed work in our state’s history was surprisingly scarce.
BY CLAYTON H. RAMSEY • STATEWIDE
28
Still Rising in Dalton: The Spirit of “Dear Ole Emery” Thousands of historical treasures are housed in a newly refurbished school building that is now the Emery Center.

BY DR. ELIZABETH HOOLE McARTHUR • WHITFIELD COUNTY
34
Another Bottle of Belle’s
A family’s roots in Augusta include two men who pioneered the city’s brewery and soda businesses.
BY BILL BAAB • RICHMOND COUNTY
38
The Picture Show
A well-meaning but unfortunate family “casts” a young boy in its drama.
BY WILLIAM NOBLE • DOOLY COUNTY
39
Old Charley, the Fifer

Charles Benger’s long, notable life earned the respect of his fellow veterans and Macon’s citizens.

BY DR. FAY STAPLETON BURNETT • BIBB COUNTY
42
Top Ten Novels About Georgia

Revisit our 2009 ranking of the best novels set in Georgia, showing each writer’s aptitude at painting pictures with words.

BY DAN ROPER • STATEWIDE
46
Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Born in Georgia, a businessman in New York City, and owner of plantations in the Confederate States, Leroy M. Wiley endured a strange and complex Civil War.

BY DR. CAROLE E. SCOTT • HANCOCK & BALDWIN COUNTIES
49
Some Family Legends are Just That

A writer investigates why his great-great-grandfather’s gravestone faces the wrong way.

BY JEFF O’BRYANT • WHITFIELD COUNTY
51
A Dismal Howling of the Wind

The 1804 Hurricane wrought devastation on coastal Georgia, killing scores.

BY S.T. LANTER • GLYNN & McINTOSH COUNTIES
55
Genuine Georgia Backroads:  Benevolence to Fort Gaines

Quaint towns, striking architecture, and rich history characterize “frontier Georgia.”

BY DAVID B. JENKINS • SOUTHWEST GEORGIA
61
Civil War Portrait

Colonel Edward C. Anderson of the 7th Regiment Georgia Cavalry was wounded and captured but escaped.

BY DAVID W. VAUGHAN • CHATHAM COUNTY