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Columns::November 5, 2001
Three faculty win NSF grants of $8.7 million for plant research
Educational leadership department to be reconfigured
ICE age
Building a healthy future
Governor presides over dedication for new new center for study of water
Holidays for calendar year 2002 announced
Forest Resources staff awards
Campus Closeup
College of Pharmacy names its first assistant dean for student affairs
Kudos
Celebrating beginnings (old & new)
Campus News
‘Ride of Five’
Community re-enacts birth of Athens Nov. 8
By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
The university’s North Campus will be transformed into a scene from the early 19th century on Nov. 8 as famous characters from UGA’s past appear for a series of events marking the 200th anniversary of the start of classes and the founding of Clarke County.
The events will include a re-enactment of the purchase of the land that became the university and a re-creation of the first
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class taught in 1801 by Josiah Meigs. President Michael F. Adams will portray Meigs, who was president, as well as the sole teacher, when the university began classes.
Other activities will include the unveiling of a plaque denoting the Old College building as the site of the first class, a concert in the Chapel featuring music from the early 1800s, and a festive dinner with music, dancing and food typical of meals served on the Georgia frontier in 1801. Open houses will be held in a number of North Campus buildings.
The activities, which are free and open to the public except for the dinner, are part of the university’s participation in the year-long celebration of Athens-Clarke County’s Bicentennial. The program is a joint effort of the Bicentennial Steering Committee, the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation and a UGA committee working with the bicentennial committee.
The UGA activities will climax a bicentennial event called “The Ride of Five.” The ride will re-create a journey five men made by horseback through the north Georgia wilderness in the summer of 1801 to purchase land for the University of Georgia. The riders, portrayed by local citizens, will begin the trip in Louisville, Ga., on Nov. 5 and pass through Washington and Watkinsville before arriving at UGA.
The real “committee of five” included Abraham Baldwin, who was chiefly responsible for writing the charter that created the University of Georgia in 1785 and was the school’s first president, and four other men prominent in early Georgia history--John Milledge, John Twiggs, Hugh Lawson and George Walton.
In June of 1801, state officials dispatched the committee to find a suitable location for the University of Georgia. Though the state legislature had established the university 16 years earlier based on Baldwin’s charter, it had never begun operations.
Leaving from Louisville--then the state capital--the committee rode for several days before arriving in what was then Jackson County. There the group met an entrepreneur named Daniel Easley, who owned a mill on the Oconee River. Easley sold Milledge 633 acres of land on a hill on the west bank of the river. Milledge turned over the tract, known as Cedar Shoals, to the state, and part of it became the university campus.
Three months later, Meigs stood before a group of teenaged boys in a rough log structure and taught the university’s first class. Meigs, a scientist, lawyer and former mathematics professor at Yale, had been appointed president after Baldwin resigned the position. For the first class, he probably read from works by classical writers such as Virgil and Cicero and gave instruction in arithmetic and bookkeeping.
The Nov. 8 events will begin when five Athens men portraying the “committee of five,” along with attendants and well-wishers riding in a mule-drawn wagon, form a small parade that will arrive in front of Old College about 3 p.m. The parade will begin in the Dial America parking lot on Williams Street and proceed east on Williams Street/Baldwin Street and north on Jackson Street, entering the campus through the main library parking lot.
The men who will play the roles of committee members are active in organizations and programs dealing with local and state history. They are Milton Leathers (portraying Baldwin), Toombs Lewis (Milledge), Lee Epting (Lawson), Daniel Epting (Twiggs) and Richard Hathaway (Walton).
About 3:30, the group will re-enact the land purchase from Easley, who will be portrayed by Athens Mayor Doc Eldridge. Jim McGown will be the narrator for the skit.
Then Adams, portraying Meigs, will “teach” a class. His “students” will be seven male students from a history class at Clarke Central High School. Unlike Meigs, he won’t quote from Greek and Latin texts. He will begin with comments that place education in a historical context, then speak about his vision for the University of Georgia and its contributions to the state.
Following these skits, Adams will unveil a plaque on Old College, which stands near the spot where the first log structure was built in a forest clearing.
A concert of period music will be held in the Chapel from 5 to 6 p.m. Performers will include the UGA Woodwind Quintet and the Athens Chamber Singers.
From 2 to 5 p.m., several buildings will be open for public visits. Student guides will lead tours and answer questions. The buildings are Phi Kappa Hall, Terrell Hall, the administration building, Lustrat House, Waddell Hall, Old College, Candler Hall, Meigs Hall, Moore College, New College, the Chapel, Demosthenian Hall and Holmes-Hunter Academic Building.
The dinner, catered by Lee Epting, will be held in a large, heated tent in front of the School of Law. The menu will include such dishes as short ribs, pulled pork, chicken and dumplings, collards, sweet potatoes, green beans, biscuits, fried apples and fruit cobblers. The dinner will begin with a 6 p.m. social hour and will be followed by dancing to the music of an Irish band. Period attire is optional.
Tickets for the dinner are $35 and can be purchased at the Athens Welcome Center and all branches of First American Bank. Reservations can be made by calling 549-2119.
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