Summer 2024

Description

SUMMER 2024 • VOLUME 23, NUMBER 2 • TABLE OF CONTENTS

4
Along the Backroads: Sunrise at Watson Mill Covered Bridge
This state park is a refuge for those wishing to escape urban and interstate pandemonium.
BY DANIEL M. ROPER • MADISON & OGLETHORPE COUNTIES
7
Vanishing Georgia: The Habersham County Photos of R.A. Romanes
Family photos from the 1930s led the writer to the remarkable work of a prolific immigrant photographer.
BY EVELYN DAVIS HARMON • NORTHEAST GEORGIA
14
Mirages of Colonial Spain
Ruins of Spanish missions became state parks in the 1930s, but questions then arose about their authenticity.
BY ANDREW J. BRAMLETT • SOUTHEAST GEORGIA
18
Hijacked History
Finding a photo from the Georgia mountains on the cover of Hillbilly Elegy, a famous book set in Kentucky, the writer looked into the photo’s back story, which led him to the rich history of a mountain family.
BY STEVE PROCKO • FANNIN & GILMER COUNTIES
23
Breaking the Magician’s Code
The son of a prominent Georgia magician discretely reveals a few family secrets.
BY DONALD MARTIN • ATLANTA
26
The Altamaha-HaThe writer is one of many who have encountered a mysterious cryptid river creature seen many times over two centuries.

BY MARY ANN ANDERSON • SOUTHEAST GEORGIA
30
Augusta Powder Works – Bulwark of the Confederacy
George Washington Rains’s briliance provided the Cofnederacy with vital munitions to fight a long war.
BY CLAYTON H. RAMSEY • RICHMOND COUNTY
35
Rampage of the Berrien Tiger
Hamp Guthrie got into a tousle with a big cat and carried a reminder of it for the rest of his days.
BY ROBERT D. HERNDON • BERRIEN & LANIER COUNTIES
37
Historic Rural Churches of Georgia: Talbot County Methodists
A few of the faithful established Methodism in Talbot County long ago. A few stalwarts keep it going today.
BY CLAYTON H. RAMSEY • TALBOT COUNTY
42
We are Rising!
Richard Robert Wright spoke prophetically when he announced in 1863 that he and his race would flourish.
BY DR. ELIZABETH H. MCARTHUR • WHITFIELD, FULTON & RANDOLPH COUNTIES
48
Untoward & Potentially Scandalous

Surprising DNA test results helped unravel a family mystery dating to 1879.

BY CORRIE BRYANT-HABIB • GORDON & PICKENS COUNTIES
51
Soul of a Southerner
A southerner fondly writes about growing up, and living, in the South.
BY MARY ANN ANDERSON • GEORGIA
53
To Touch the Hearts of a Great Many People

President Roosevelt’s death raised questions about what to do with his Little White House in Warm Springs.

BY G. JUDSON SMITH • MERIWETHER COUNTY
56
When Life Hands You Oranges

One of the hottest new agribusiness ventures in the state is citrus, of all things.

BY BRYAN MIMS • THOMAS COUNTY
58
An Indifferent Passenger

A pilot’s long and eventful flight to Georgia became more memorable when he picked up a passenger in West Virginia.

BY MELVIN ALRED • FLOYD COUNTY
61
Civil War Portrait

Private Elijah L. Anderson joined “Joe Brown’s Pets” to try to stop Sherman’s advancing army.

BY DAVID W. VAUGHAN • GWINNETT COUNTY