Gene Talmadge

Barack Obama took office without a stumble, except for that oath of office.  Just after World War II, the State of Georgia saw a much more difficult transition.

The November 1946 election for governor saw the people of Georgia do what they’d done three times previously – elect the red suspenders wearing Gene Talmadge to the state’s highest office.

But “Ol’ Gene” was in bad health – he lived through the election but died from cirrhosis of the liver on December 21, 1946 – only weeks before inauguration day.

Now, a word about Georgia politics. Until very recently it was a one-party state. Everyone was a Democrat – but that didn’t lessen disagreements. Then, as now, the party is filled with factions. In 1947 the two largest factions were the Talmadge faction and the anti-Talmadge faction.

Before the 1946 election, Talmadge faction leaders knew about Gene’s poor health and organized a write-in campaign for Gene’s son, Herman, as insurance against Gene’s untimely death.  Their plan centered on a Georgia law which said that if an elected candidate died before inauguration, the General Assembly would elect a governor from the next two highest vote-getters.

But the Talmadge faction ran into two problems with their plan. First, Herman finished third, not second.  Supporters creatively solved the problem when then claimed to find an “uncounted” box of ballots  in Telfair County – the home county of the Talmadges. There were enough ballots to put Herman into second place behind only his late father.  Eventually,  elections officials noticed all the “uncounted ballots” were written in the same hand, were voted in alphabetical order, and that some were cast by residents of a Telfair County cemetery.

The second problem for the Talmadge forces was not so easily solved. In 1945, the people of Georgia approved a new constitution – a constitution that created, for the first time, the office of Lt. Governor. And unlike other in states, the Georgia Lt. Governor was an independent politician – not the running mate of the governor.

M.E. Thompson, an anti-Talmadge activist, won election as Georgia’s first Lt. Governor in that same 1946 election. He shocked people when he stood up to the Talmadge faction and claimed to be governor, arguing the new constitution said the Lt. Governor would succeed the governor if the governor dies.

Herman Talmadge sworn in

Talmadge faction members filled the General Assembly – and quickly elected Herman governor – he was sworn in at 2AM on January 15, 1947.  Outgoing governor Ellis Arnall, an anti-Talmadge, refused to leave office – saying Herman was a pretender.

People expected trouble. The National Guard had recently returned from World War II and supported Talmadge. The State Guard, organized to take the place of the overseas National Guard, supported Arnall. Some feared these two armies would go to war on the State House grounds in downtown Atlanta.

Talmadge ordered Adjutant General  Marvin Griffin to escort Governor Arnall home to Newnan – about 40 miles from Atlanta – and to change the locks on the door of the Governor’s office.  Griffin accomplished his mission, but Arnall drove back later in the day. He was refused admission to “Governor Talmadge’s office” by security.  Incensed, Arnall commandeered the information booth at the door to the Capitol and set up his own governor’s office.  Arnall moved only after a pro-Talmadge legislator dropped firecrackers into the booth from a balcony above.

Arnall claimed the governorship for three days until he “resigned” in favor of M.E. Thompson.  The Lt. Governor proclaimed himself acting governor and set up his own governor’s office in the Lt. Governor’s suite.

Various state office holders took sides. The attorney general refused to bond Talmadge’s choice for state revenue commissioner. The state treasurer refused to honor spending requests. The secretary of state hid the state seal in his wheelchair.

Talmadge proposed that both he and Thompson resign and rerun the election. Thompson refused and filed suit.

In March 1947, the Georgia Supreme Court decided the General Assembly should have declared Ol’ Gene governor-elect even though he’d been dead for three weeks. The court made Thompson governor.

Herman Talmadge had the last say, however.  In the special election of 1948, Talmadge trounced Thompson.

And it was not the last Georgian’s heard from Ellis Arnall.  In 1966, he played an important role in the appointment of another man to the offive of governor – Lester Maddox.

Swanquarter lies on the coast of the Tarheel State. It’s so small it’s unincorporated – the only unincorporated county seat in America. Swanquarter’s people have fished the waters of the Pamlico Sound for hundreds of years. But the waters, and God, never played a more dramatic role than they did on September 16th and 17th, 1876.

In the mid-1870s the people in Swanquarter decided they needed a church building. The congregation had been meeting in homes and other buildings, but there was no full-time church. So, they formed a building committee, found volunteers to construct the building, and took up a collection to buy land.

After praying, the committee members found a perfect piece of land. It stood on a corner had a beautiful view of Swanquarter Bay. The committee members knew the lot was an answer to their prayers. But the landowner had other plans for the property and refused to sell.

The committee found another lot. The congregation was disappointed. Volunteers began to build the church, and, as soon as the structure was closed in from the weather, the congregation showed its thanks by holding services.

On the night of September 15th, a storm began to blow in from the Atlantic. By the next day, the people in town were sure a hurricane was on the way. Water rose to five feet above street level, and houses began to flood.

On September 17th, the hand of God arrived. As the wind and water increased, townspeople were shocked to see their unfinished church break free of its foundation and float into the street. It sailed down the center of the road and missed other buildings.

The church gently bumped into the town’s general store doing no damage, turned 90 degrees, sailed across a canal, hit a couple of saplings, and turned to face the street. It had stopped on the original lot in the exact place the committee members had originally wanted to build their church.

The landowner was as stunned as the church members. He met the committee chairman at the courthouse, and he donated the property to the church congregation. The grateful members voted to name it Providence Church.

A newer brick building stands on the spot today, but around in back the old wooden building is still serving God by hosting Sunday school classes. And above the front door is the sign – “The Church Moved By The Hand of God.”

Bishop John Freeman Young

Bishop John Freeman Young sleeps in Jacksonville’s Old City Cemetery. While there’s nothing on his tombstone to indicate it, he’s known internationally for his English translation of the world’s favorite Christmas carol – “Silent Night, Holy Night.”

Young was born in Pittston, Maine on October 30, 1820. He graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in April, 1845 and a month later was assigned to St. Johns Episcopal Church in Jacksonville. He was ordained in Tallahassee the next year, and he served as one of only two priests in the state until 1847.

From Florida he moved to various posts in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In 1855, he became assistant pastor at Trinity Church in New York City.

The hymn “Stille Nacht! Heillge Nacht!” was written in Austria by Rev. Josef Mohr in 1816. It was originally a six verse poem. Two years later, the Reverend was assigned to a parish in Oberndorf, where he met Franz Xaver Gruber. Mohr asked Gruber to set the poem to music. The parish’s organ had fallen in to such disrepair, Gruber wrote the music for choir accompanied by guitar. Rumors say that the song was set to be performed on Christmas Eve when Mohn and Gruber found that the church’s organ had been damaged by mice. They quickly wrote the arrangement for guitar to save the performance.

However, Gruber’s son wrote in a letter, “During the time when my father was the organist of the church of St Nikola, there was a very poor almost unusable organ there. This may well explain why the Reverend Mohr preferred to accompany the carol on a well-tuned guitar than on an off-pitch organ.”

Silent Night score

In New York, Young continued his interest in hymnology. He collected and translated Christian hymns from churches all over the world. It’s not known how Young came to know the song, but in 1859 he published “Carols for Christmas Tide”, a 16-page pamphlet, containing “Silent Night, Holy Night.”

In July, 1867, the Rev. Young was consecrated as the second Bishop of Florida and returned to Jacksonville. During his nearly two decades as bishop, he increased the number of parishes from 20 to 48, established both a boy’s school and a girl’s school in Jacksonville, and helped revive The University of the South at Suwannee, Tennessee. In Key West, he established St. Pauls, the first Episcopal church for African-Americans, and St. Johns, a Spanish-language parish for Cubans.

During a trip to New York, Bishop Young caught pneumonia and died on November 15, 1885. His body was returned to Jacksonville. Two years later, St. Andrews Church was dedicated to him. St. Andrews still stands as headquarters of the Jacksonville Historical Society.

The gravesite, like many in Old City Cemetery, fell into disrepair. In July, 2008, the headstones of both Bishop Young and his wife were restored through the efforts of Flagler’s Bill Egan and the Episcopal Diocese of Florida. Bishop Young’s gravesite is decorated every year by the Austrian Silent Night Society.

“My great-grandfather was Mayor of Jacksonville Beach,” says Sue Ann Sanders. “He built the golf course called, at the time, Jacksonville Beach Golf Links. It was later changed to Ponte Vedra Country Club.”

Sanders was born in Duval County but moved to Sarasota when she was four. She now lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, so to learn about her family, she turned to the Internet.

She volunteered to maintain a genealogy page for Duval County and to set up a mailing list so that people could communicate about the county’s history and families. It was a natural effort as she designs web pages for a living.

“It’s really helped me personally, so it’s been a real win-win thing,” Sanders says.

Patricia Pate tries to help people who ask questions on the mailing list. “I know a lot of the history of Duval County, and what I don’t know, my husband does.” Pate was born in Duval County, and her husband Ed is the fourth generation born in the county.

Both Pate and Sanders agree that more and more people are researching their roots.

They say there are three primary reasons: an aging population that wants to get in touch with its roots, more mobile people who want to maintain some connection with family, and the aid the Internet gives in tracing one’s roots.

Genealogists generally want to achieve one of three results. Some want to create a traditional family tree in which they trace back their male, and sometimes their female, ancestors. Others create an extended family tree, which shows all descendents and spouses of a particular early ancestor. And a third group creates an ancestry chart. Those people want to trace as many direct ancestors, both male and female, as possible.

Other researchers have a different goal. They want to create a Family History, which consists of biographical research with the aim of producing a well-documented family history. It puts flesh on the skeleton of genealogy.

John Pacetti wanted to fill in family rumors when he moved to Duval County in 1992. He’d always heard his ancestors immigrated to St. Augustine from Spain, and that they were involved with Cuban freedom fighting.

“I went to the St. Augustine Historical Society,” said Pacetti. “They had complete records on the family. I found confirmation that my ancestors had emigrated from the Spanish island of Minorca. “

“I also learned that my several times great uncle, Gumersindo Antonio Pacetti, had been a sort of swashbuckler. He landed in Cuba in 1850 with a band of Americans led by General Narcisco Lopez, who wanted to free Cuba from Spanish rule. Many of the Americans wanted Cuba to become a U.S. state. Family legend says Gumersindo carried ashore the Cuban national flag, but when the Spanish prevailed, he had to escape the island and return to Key West by hiding in a barrel towed behind a ship.”

“I have found historical records which show the first ever Cuban national flag was made in 1849 by exiles living in New York. It was exhibited in New York and Tampa, so Gumersindo could have been the flag bearer. The Lopez raid was a well-documented failure, and American filibusterers had to escape by any means at hand, so the barrel story could be true, too. I like the story, so I choose to believe it.”

“I had an easy time,” says Pacetti. “A lot of other people had done the work for me and it was in the library in St. Augustine. I never had to touch my computer.”

But Jean Barbour, who lives in Neptune Beach, has used her computer over the past two years to trace her mother’s side of her family back to Denmark.

After finding her immigrant ancestor, Barbour did what many genealogists do. She took a trip to the country of her ancestors and did more research there.

“I was lucky,” she says. “All the Scandinavian countries keep their records in the church parishes. There were two parishes involved, and between both of them, I was able to find everything I needed to know.” Barbour says getting started is easy. You get a copy of your own birth certificate and marriage license, and get the same records for your parents. Then, she says, “You get on Internet sites and ask questions.”

Sue Ann Sanders agrees. “I wasn’t really familiar with Mineral City, Cummer Lumber and all. I asked the Internet list and people would write back. They’re just a wealth of information.”

A lot of the information on the web consists only of lists of documents, rather than the documents themselves. Volunteers supply much of the information, and they may make errors. That’s why Patricia Pate recommends checking out what one learns on the Internet. “They may have their facts straight, and they may not.”

She says to double check records by checking in libraries, as Pacetti did, the courthouse, and even close to home. “Many parents put a lot of information in baby books,” says Pate.

Genealogists routinely look in county record books on marriages, births, will abstracts, and cemetery records.

Other researchers look for clues in old school annuals, class photographs, and names listed on invitations to events such as parties, graduations, and church functions.

Pate also says to check the records of various genealogical associations, such as the Jacksonville Genealogical Society or the Southern Genealogy Association. Both of these local groups have libraries.

The Jacksonville Genealogy Society also keeps what it calls Pedigree Charts. George Gallamore organizes the charts for the society, and members pass along information on names they research. “That way, anyone looking for information on the same family can find it,” says Gallamore.

Betty Burke of Ponte Vedra Beach does all of her research the old fashioned way. She says she’s never learned to operate a computer. She recommends getting as much information as possible from relatives. An 80-year old grandparent may have information on his grandparent, which would take a researcher back more than 100 years.

She also says to get in touch with aunts and cousins who may have information.

There are thousands of books in libraries, but Burke warns the books are kept by county rather than city and state. An atlas showing county names can be invaluable.

Burke also says to avoid being rigid with the spelling of names. She points out that many of our early ancestors were illiterate and did not know the correct spelling of their names.

John Pacetti says national origin can sometimes play a role, too. The original ancestor of the Pacetti family of St. Johns County was an Italian who married a Minorcan woman. His name was forced into both Catalan and Castillian Spanish so that, Pacetti says, he has found records that spell the name Pasetty, Pasetti, Paxety, and Pasety as well as the original spelling.

Burke warns that families frequently repeat given names from generation to generation. If a researcher finds more than one “William Jones” he should analyze ages to see if the age span makes sense.

The various U.S. censuses are also good sources of information. The first was taken in 1790, and it’s been taken every ten years after. The 1890 census burned, so it’s not available for research. Privacy laws keep census information secret for 70 years, so the latest available is the 1920 census.

Researchers say to not overlook deed and land grant records in the county courthouses. Some churches have libraries at their denominational headquarters. They also say to take a look at the lists of names on the war monuments which dot town squares and other public places. Each state has an archive where various records can be found.

Many genealogy groups teach newcomers how to do proper research. Some of the sites are on line, while others are taught in a classroom. They teach how to check military records, courthouse records, and church records.

Phil Stringer writes in “Getting Started in Genealogy and Family History” that for legal and financial reasons there are accepted standards for doing genealogy properly. He recommends learning the correct method.

Perhaps the largest single source of information is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). They have Family History Centers in most cities, including one on Ft. Caroline Road in Jacksonville. The Mormons believe ancestors can be saved through retroactive baptism. Members of the church have collected the names of millions of people around the world. Much of this information is available at the Family History Centers, and the church is testing asearchable database on line. The church also teaches correct methods of genealogical research.

Some Internet sites teach genealogy or offer help. The Genealogy Home Page (http://www.genhomepage.com) is one such site offering tips and lessons. Another is Treasure Maps (http://www.firstct.com/fv/tmaps.html), which bills itself as the how-to genealogy site. It offers steps to getting started, hints on deciphering old handwriting, and tips for writing a successful genealogical query.

New software available for both Mac and PCs can also help research. The Learning Company, for instance, publishes three packages that are aimed at three different experience levels. Family Tree Creator is targeted for beginners, Family Tree Maker is for mainstream users, and Ultimate Family Tree is for more advanced users. Many other programs are available at software stores.

Some researchers are using free software downloaded from the Internet. The SimTel software repository is a huge collection of freeware and shareware mostly for windows, msdos, and Unix/Linux machines. One way to reach it is through Oakland University’s site at http://www.acs.oakland.edu. Follow the links to the site’s search engine and type in genealogy. People with ftp programs can reach it at oak.oakland.edu and then following the links pub/simtelnet/win95 (or win3 or msdos) and then clicking on genealgy – yes, it’s misspelled to fit within the old eight character computer limitations.

The Genealogy Home Page also includes free software and shareware for downloading. It has more Mac software than the SimTel sites, and it also includes windows and Linux programs.

New sites come on line daily, so a search with Excite, Yahoo, AltaVista, or some other search engine may turn up others. Excite, for instance, links to more than 4500 genealogy sites.

Regardless of the tools genealogists use to conduct their searches, genealogy is just detective work. And sometimes they find surprises.

Sue Ann Sanders was delighted to find a photograph of her great grandfather sitting in a 1905 Oldsmobile on the banks of the St. Johns River.

John Pacetti says he learned an ancestor was the mayor of St. Augustine who surrendered the city to Federal troops during the War Between the States.

As Patricia Pate says, “Get involved in genealogy, and you’ll get involved in history, because it becomes your history.”

(Ed note – this article was written in 1999 for The Beaches Leader newspaper.  Because they never paid me for the article, even though they published it, I’ve reclaimed the copyright.)

Parents at the Beaches will soon have a special place to take their children during the day. Cambridge Prep School is opening a new preschool and day care in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Cambridge’s owner, Eve Kratsas, says the school is designed for professional parents needing a full day’s childcare combined with one of the best preschool programs available today. They teach children in three age groups: 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and 4 and 5-year-olds.

Kratsas opened her first Cambridge Prep more than two years ago. It’s located at 13109 Professional Drive in Jacksonville (near the intersection of Atlantic Boulevard and Hodges.) She held the groundbreaking for the new Ponte Vedra school in June and expects to be open for business in early January. It’s located at 185 Landrum Lane.

Kratsas says the schools are something she has always wanted to do. She has an academic background in both childhood development and psychology.

Sherrie Marzi is the director of the new school. She’s built a 22-year career in early childhood education including service in New Jersey and at the Bolles School.

Marzi emphasizes the standards at Cambridge Prep. “Our teachers meet or exceed the state requirement of a child development associative certificate, meaning they’ve had about 150 hours of coursework,” she says. “And our student/teacher ratio is far lower than state requirements.”

Marzi says the low ratio gives the teachers much more time for sitting down and working with one child individually while others participate in supervised group activities.

Kratsas says parents especially like being able to check on their children during school. Parents are encouraged to drop by and spend time in the classroom. Each classroom also has an observation window where parents can look in on their children from the lobby.

And Kratsas says their KinderCam system is becoming a very popular option for checking in on the children. Cambridge equips each classroom, as well as the outside playground, with cameras, and parents and other relatives can look in on their children over the Internet. The system uses a secure password so only authorized folks can use it. Kratsas says the system is particularly popular with grandparents, aunts and uncles who live in distant cities.

“The KinderCam system gives extended family members a chance to be a part of the child’s day,” says Kratsas.

The school also sends home written reports on how each child spent his or her day. Two-year olds bring home the Rainbow Report. It’s a detailed look at the child’s day with everything from what the child ate to what happened in the various classes.

Cambridge uses a curriculum, which is both teacher-directed and child-directed.

“Our goal is to make learning fun while preparing the child for the future,” says Marzi. “We cover everything from shape, color, and size to science and special activities. This month they’re exploring not only turkeys, but the animals in the forest.”

Each classroom has separate learning centers called The Cambridge City. Each city has a fire department, a post office, a bank and Grand Ma’s Grocery. The child-sized rooms contain dress up clothes and various things that teach. The post office contains numbers and letters. Grand Ma’s grocery contains the things one finds in a grocery store. Marzi says the children love the creative activities in The Cambridge City.

The children in both the three-year-old and four and five-year old classrooms also get to use computers. Cambridge has a wide range of programs for the children to enjoy. The programs reinforce the different tasks and skills the children are learning.

Kratsas emphasizes that Cambridge gets the children ready for kindergarten with a quality curriculum, and that both the teachers and children have fun doing it.

“We strive for a warm and fuzzy feeling – for both the children and the parents,” says Marzi. “We try to give the children as much TLC as possible at this age.”

Cambridge is currently enrolling students for its Ponte Vedra Beach school. Parents can bring their children by the Professional Drive location to take a look and get a feel of the school. Kratsas says she will have an open house at the Ponte Vedra location in December. Parents can call either school for information. The telephone number for the Ponte Vedra Beach school is 285-7997. The Professional Drive location is 220-7737.

“Level swing. Level swing.”

Dugout chatter is the same from little leagues to major leagues, and it also livens up college women’s softball. While the game is often played on recreation department fields rather than on campus, it is quickly gaining popularity across Georgia.

More than 200 fans filled a Milledgeville recreation field and cheered Tuesday’s game between the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Fillies and the Georgia College Lady Colonials. The pairing was unusual because ABAC is a junior college while Georgia College is a four-year school.

“Aw, come on Red, hit that ball. We got 30 hits yesterday.”

Red is the Fillies’ catcher.

Through seven regulation innings the score is tied, 3-3. Red singles with one out in the eighth.

“O.K. Cindy, that’s the winning run. Don’t leave her.”

Jones County native Amanda Maddox leads the Fillies. She plays third base and hits in the clean-up position. She graduated from Jones County High School in 1987, played on the Lady Hounds teams, and also played on the champion Elite Coatings 18-and-under girl’s teams.

“I would never have a coaching problem if all my players showed the dedication Amanda does,” says Fillies coach Ellen Vickers. She calls Amanda a team leader and points to a batting average that’s been above .400 all season.

“That’s it, Cindy. Good eye, good eye.”

The count reaches 3-0 on the DH.

Amanda is in her final quarter at ABAC. “I’m looking at senior colleges where I can play ball and get a good education,” she says.  She expects sports to always be important in her life.  “I want a career in sports medicine.”

The Fillies’ bench erupts as Cindy walks. The next batter, the shortstop, also walks on five pitches. The center fielder follows with a fly ball out to the Lady Colonials short-fielder.

Amanda Maddox comes to the plate with two out and the bases loaded. The go-ahead runner claps at third.

“Come on Amanda. You can do it.”

In the game, Amanda was three-for-three. Her third-inning double drove in the Fillie’s second and third runs. Her relay throw to home in the bottom of the seventh stopped a Lady Colonials’ rally that would have won the game.

Amanda was set up for legend, but real life occurred instead. She didn’t hit a homer – nor did she strike out. She walked on five pitches and sent the go-ahead runner trotting in from third. It was enough. The Fillies won 4-3.

Amanda points with pride to ABAC’s successful program including the Fillies 24-16 record this season. ABAC has had women’s softball only two years, and the team has played in the National Junior College tournament both seasons. This year, the tournament will be played in Hanceville, Alabama from May 5 through May 7.

(Originally written for The Jones County News)