Each year members of the Lumpkin County Historical
Society honor those in the community who have contributed to the
preservation of local history. This year's award ceremony was held
April 10, with eight people receiving certificates of appreciation
and two being honored with the Madeleine K. Anthony Award.
Anthony dedicated much of her life to preserving the history and
heritage of Lumpkin County. She was largely responsible for saving
the old county courthouse, now the Dahlonega Gold Museum, from being
torn down and turned into a parking lot. She also was one of the
driving forces behind collecting Dahlonega gold to gild the State
Capitol dome in Atlanta. In addition, she is responsible for
preserving hundreds of photographs and documents pertaining to
Lumpkin County's history.
Receiving certificates of appreciation were:
Daniel Davis, a junior at Lumpkin County High School, for his paper
on “The History Of Education in Lumpkin County” for his social
studies class. Davis located old photographs of the Dahlonega
Academy and other historic pictures, secured a speaker for his class
who told the history of the one-room school houses used by the
county from 1840-1957, and shared his information with several
middle school classes.
Cynthia Horne received a certificate for being the driving
force behind obtaining a grant from the Georgia Humanities Council
to fund the digital processing of the 99 glass plate images made by
local photographer G.D. “LON: Bruce in the late 1800s and early
1900s. The plates had been gathering dust at North Georgia
College & State University's Stewart Library until Horne
discovered them and rescued them from oblivion. Horne also assisted
in researching the life and work of Bruce.
Dr. Pamela Sachant, Assistant Professor of Art History at NGCSU,
researched the life and work of Bruce, and also received a
certificate of appreciation for her work. Sachant's knowledge of
women's clothing styles enabled her to recognize that many of the
photographs were made in the 1880s. She presented interesting and
informative programs about Bruce and his subjects at the
university's library in November 2007, and as the keynote speaker at
the Society's annual business meeting in January.
Linda Merritt, founder and editor of 400 Edition, received a
certificate for making a page available in each issue for the column
“Lumpkin Gold,” presenting information about the history of
Dahlonega and Lumpkin County.
For refurbishing of the 1855 Payne House with an attractive and
historically accurate coat of paint, Woodrow Parks was awarded a
certificate of appreciation. Parks began delivering groceries for
his father's grocery store and meat market at the location as a
youth, and has worked there nearly his entire life. He has operated
Parks Clothing Store in the building since the late 1940s, when he
retuned from service in WWII.
Skipper Bryant and his crew of city workers received an award for
their cooperation with the Historical Society's requests to mount
and place markers in Dahlonega this past year, as well for designing
and installing antique bricks at the base of the markers.
Kate Woody received an award for her preservation of historical
artifacts and sharing her knowledge of the history of Auraria.
Lee Ann Roy received an award for organizing the county's 175th
birthday party. Roy said the award should rightly go to county
commissioner Steve Gooch, county manager Stan Kelley and office
personnel Ruth Bohac, Kathleen Walker and Debbie Stower.
“Steve added the history elements, like listing all the past
governing bodies since 1832 on the program and bringing in the
‘around 100 year old' citizens. He made the decision to hold the
event at the old courthouse and to bring in the band and chorus and
Doc Johnson. All I did was organize and set-up his ideas, and even
that involved everyone in the board of commissioners office,” she
said.
The Society also honored two middle school students for essays
written on a person, place or event in Lumpkin County history. The
contest was instituted eight years ago to encourage eighth graders
to become interested in local history. Usually, a first, second and
third place winner is chosen, but this year the Society voted to
award two first place prizes, $75 U.S. Savings Bonds.
Winners were Jennifer Vincent, who wrote about the Old Lydia School,
one of the county's one-room school houses. Whitley Grindel wrote
“War of Greed,” dealing with the removal of the Cherokee after the
discovery of gold in Lumpkin County.
Two Madeleine K. Anthony awards were given out this year to honor
those who have made a significant contribution of historical
preservation. One award went to Walt Garlinghouse for his extensive
research in attempting to identify the iron diving bell pulled out
of the Chestatee River in the early 1980s.
“If Walt Garlinghouse had not recognized the historical importance
of the diving bell and dedicated himself to finding answers to his
questions about who designed it and when and where it was built, it
would still be just an interesting curiosity whose real significance
might never be known,” said local historian Ann Dismukes Amerson.
For years, Amerson said, “a rusty iron hulk” was seen sticking up
out of the water on land that is now the Achasta golf community. It
was “assumed to be a smoke stack,” she said, but it turned out to be
a diving bell once used to search for gold on the river bottom. The
Owens family, who once owned the land, offered the bell to the Gold
Museum, but the Department of Natural Resources decided there was
not enough space to display it and that it would be too expensive to
maintain.
When Birch River purchased the property in 1997 they hired local
welder and iron smith Larry Lingerfelt to repair a tear in the top
of the bell and put a protective coat of paint on it. Since then the
bell has been sitting in the open in a maintenance area, largely
forgotten, until Walt Garlinghouse heard about it from Canoe Outpost
owner Ben LaChance in 2007.
Garlinghouse, a former military diver, got permission to view the
bell.
“He knew it was far more than a curiosity,” Amerson said. “Having
closely followed the raising of the C.S.S. Hunley [the Confederate
submarine that was the first to sink a warship, although it was lost
in the process], Walt noticed a number of similarities between the
submarine and the diving bell, such as pressure valves and turn
switches and an advanced (for its time) ballast system.”
Through many emails and much research, it was discovered that the
bell brought up from the Chestatee bears a striking resemblance to a
diving bell designed by Benjamin Maillefert in 1858 - “a ‘missing
link' in the history of American enterprise and engineering for
working in the depths that has come light,” said Jim Delgado,
Executive Director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas
A&M University.
Although no link has been able to be established between Maillefert
and the Loud & Cook Mining Company, known to have operated the
diving bell in the Chestatee 1876-1876, “it seems more than
coincidental that Maillefert was salvaging sunken ships in the
Charleston harbor 1873-1875, and the diving bell showed up in
Lumpkin County in the summer of 1875,” Amerson said.
“At this point it is not known where the diving bell will end up,
but everyone agrees that it needs to be both protected and available
for viewing. One possibility is Port Columbus, a naval museum in
Columbus.
“If Walt Garlinghouse had not recognized the historical importance
of the diving bell and dedicated himself to finding answers to his
questions about who designed it and when and where it was built, it
would still be just an interesting curiosity whose real significance
might never be known.”
Freida Welch Bafile also received the Society's highest honor for
being the driving force behind the award-winning documentary, “The
Legend of the Smith House Mine,” conducting extensive research,
casting and publicity and for sharing her knowledge with several
groups.
Bafile's research included the life of F.W. Hall, who built the
Smith House; gold mining; Jim Bosclair and other information about
Dahlonega and Lumpkin County history relevant to the find. To share
the research with others, Bafile and her family (the Welches) had a
professional video produced that is now for sale to the public. It's
first showing was at the Hollty Theatre for a group of about 300
people.
Bafile and her family were careful to save the artifacts found in
the mine shaft, and they are now on display at the family-style
restaurant.
Bafile also coordinated a field trip for local sixth graders just
before Christmas to visit several historical sites in Dahlonega, eat
lunch at the Smith House and view the video.
The Society meets the second Thursday of each month, 7 p.m., usually
at the Community House. Anyone with a passion for history is invited
to attend and become a member of the Society.
