Spring 2021

Description

SPRING 2021 • VOLUME 20, NUMBER 1 | TABLE OF CONTENTS

5
Along the Backroads: In April & Sanguinaria
Early spring presents special beauties to those visiting Pigeon Mountain.
BY DANIEL M. ROPER • NORTHWEST GEORGIA

7
Vanishing Georgia:  The Photography of Jack Delano
His life and work from the Ukraine to the Pacific Theater of Operations to Puerto Rico included becoming Georgia’s most prolific Depression-era photographer.
BY DANIEL M. ROPER • GREENE COUNTY & STATEWIDE

14
Reunion
Our living – and our dying – enhance awareness of what it means to be family.
BY TERRY KAY • HART COUNTY

17
Killing Fields
Fate randomly played its hand in the death of a GBI agent near Swainsboro in 1948.
BY JAY JARVIS • EMANUEL COUNTY

22
The Wizard from OmegaWillis Dysart could do things with numbers that made the world gasp.

BY BONNE DAVIS CELLA • TIFT COUNTY

23
Searching for the Ultimate Truth
Did James Dickey make an appearance one stormy night beside a mountain river?
BY WILLIAM WALSH • GILMER COUNTY

28
Heaven in a Blossom

In our Southern landscape, the magnolia reigns supreme.

BY MARY ANN ANDERSON • SOUTH GEORGIA
31
For the Relief of Distressed Paupers

The search for an old pauper farm revealed much about ealry efforts to aid the poor and unfortunate.

BY MARGARET HOLIFIELD • JACKSON COUNTY

35
Historic Rural Churches of Georgia:  Stapleton Methodist
A year prior to a 79-year-old pastor’s death, he made a 200-mile journey on horseback to intercede in the exectuion of a young woman convicted of murder.
BY SONNY SEALS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN KIRKLAND • JEFFERSON COUNTY

38
Readers Remember Georgia
Reverend Hezekiah Best, a future Georgia plantation owner, received this quilt upon his departure from the interdenominational Seaman’s Bethel in Baltimore, Maryland, where he had served as chaplain.

39
To the Gallows, Not Dreading Death

Mental illness and youthfulness contributed to a murder resulting in multiple executions.

BY DR. FAY STAPLETON BURNETT • WEBSTER AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES

43
Remembering Georgia’s Gallant Sons of the Great War

An archival book memorializes more than 1,200 Georgians who died in World War I, unfortunately omitting more than 2,900 others who suffered that same fate.

BY SAMUEL L. WEHUNT • STATEWIDE

46
First Grade Guilt

Intense childhood regret stemmed from a yearning to be accepted.

BY WILLIAM C. NOBLE • DOOLY COUNTY

47
Adventures of a Boy Scout

Seventy years later, a man reflects on the scouting years that shaped his boyhood.

BY TRAVIS MCDANIEL • COBB COUNTY

53
Soul of a Southerner
A southerner fondly writes her memories of growing up and living in the South.
BY MARY ANN ANDERSON • GEORGIA

55
Genuine Georgia Backrodas: Vienna to Providence Canyon

A tour of the West Georgia countryside features historic courthouses, schools, churches…and one epic gully.

BY DAVID B. JENKINS • WEST GEORGIA

61
Civil War Portrait

Captain Thomas M. Merrit served with the 2nd Georgia Cavalry Regiment.

BY DAVID W. VAUGHAN • MARION COUNTY