GwinnettForum | Number 21. 34 | April 30, 2021
THIS STATUE of Southern Railway founder Samuel Spencer has been in the news recently, as the Norfolk Southern Corporation voted to take down the statue in Midtown Atlanta and put it in storage. For more on this current controversy, see Elliott Brack’s perspective below.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Rowen partners with UGA College for cultural study of its land
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Norfolk Southern makes grievous mistake concerning Spencer statue
ANOTHER VIEW: Looks for results of study about adjusting of Supreme Court
SPOTLIGHT: Gwinnett County Public Library
FEEDBACK: Recent letter about Royals gave her a case of the giggles
UPCOMING: County plans for growth with $125 million water-sewer expansion
NOTABLE: Records Council offers grants for documenting state’s heritage
RECOMMENDED: The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Judith Ortiz Cofer was Latina author who rose to fame
MYSTERY PHOTO: Lonely red building is this issue’s Mystery Photo
CALENDAR: Drug take-back coming Saturday at Suwanee Police Department
Rowen partners with UGA college for cultural study of land
By Sarah Gardiner
DACULA, Ga. | The Rowen Foundation has announced a partnership with the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design to evaluate the physical and cultural assets of the land that will eventually be occupied by Rowen, a knowledge community that will bring together entrepreneurs, researchers and innovators in eastern Gwinnett County. This collaboration will ensure the preservation and optimization of the landscape’s historical features during Rowen’s planning phase.
According to Rowen’s leaders, the partnership with the College of Environment and Design is a vital step in caring for the site by achieving a deeper understanding of its natural and cultural history in line with two of the community’s values: stewardship and sustainability.
Mason Ailstock, president of the Rowen Foundation, says: “As we plan for Rowen, we are committed to evaluating and preserving as many of the land’s historical features as possible. Generations have stewarded this site for agriculture and other uses, and as future caretakers we take our responsibility seriously to deeply understand the history and heritage of the property.”
The Rowen Foundation is coordinating with a team of professors and students from the College of Environment and Design to analyze the site’s vegetation, topography, spatial organization, land use and archaeological sites. The research provided will supply recommendations for the careful management of the historical features on the 2,000-acre community.
Mark Reinberger, a professor in the College of Environment and Design with more than 30 years of experience in architecture and historic preservation, will assist with the research. He says: “Understanding and respecting the historic landscape is relevant to each of Rowen’s three programmatic drivers – environment, medicine and agriculture – and activating these areas in the most effective ways. Our work will help stories of the past inspire the advancements of the future.”
Reinberger will be working alongside Dan Nadenicek, the Constance Knowles Draper Chair of Landscape Architecture, and three graduate students from CED’s Master of Historic Preservation and Master of Landscape Architecture programs. The Gwinnett County Historical Society and several long-term local landowners will also contribute to the research.
This effort will align with the planning phase of Rowen. Its leaders anticipate that partnerships between the University of Georgia and other educational institutions in the state will be constant as Rowen is planned and developed in the decades ahead.
At the conclusion of the engagement with the College – anticipated this June – the college will compile general land and family history, graphic and verbal documentation of significant standing structures and a comprehensive analysis of the location’s features. These narratives will be publicly available online at www.rowenlife.com upon completion of the research.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Norfolk Southern makes grievous mistake on Spencer statue
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 23, 2021 | Norfolk Southern, the railroad, headquartered in Atlanta, has unjustifiably made a decision that smacks of bad management and yielding to pressure. It has determined to remove a statue of the railroad’s founder from public view.
The statue of the founder, Samuel Spencer, was located in front of the company headquarters in Midtown Atlanta. Mr. Spencer was killed at age 59 in 1906 when the private rail car he was riding in was rammed in a rear-end collision by another train in Lawyers, Va., killing him and several compatriots and passengers.
Now Norfolk Southern plans to remove Spencer’s statue into a warehouse, saying there is no space for it in its headquarters. The statue is owned by the city of Atlanta, and its Council this week gave approval to support the railroad’s plan.
The railroad caved in to pressure since Spencer, while a 17 year old, joined the Confederate Army in 1864. His short participation in this war was a natural outgrowth for young men of the South. And obviously, only 17 years old, he never owned slaves. The railroad’s excuse to store away the statue seems a shoddy and unnecessary maneuver to disgrace the memory of their company’s founder.
An only child born in 1847 in Columbus, Spencer dropped out of the Georgia Military Institute in Marietta to join the army of the Southern states. He was in the cavalry, and served about a year before the Appomattox surrender. Afterward, he graduated from the University of Georgia in 1867, then graduated at the top of his class in engineering at the University of Virginia in 1869.
Spencer
He joined the Savannah and Memphis Railroad as a surveying “rod man” and soon became its principal assistant engineer. He took advancing positions at several railroads including New Jersey Southern and the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) and in 1878 became the superintendent of the Long Island Railroad when in his early 30s. He later spent 10 years with B&O, becoming president in 1887.
His next venture was with what would become J.P. Morgan and Company, as their railroad expert, as the firm began consolidating the rail industry in the South, which then had 150 different rail lines. In 1894, the Morgan firm brought several lines together as the Southern Railway, with Spencer its first president. This newly-combined railroad had tripled earnings from $17 million to $53 million when Spencer died in 1906. The Spencer Yards of the railroad in Salisbury, N.C. is named for him.
After his death, 30,000 employees of the railroad collected funds, and hired the sculptor Daniel Chester French to strike a statue of Spencer, which stood for many years at the Atlanta Terminal Station. French later used the model of the sitting Spencer as the idea for the Abraham Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
Now the statue of Spencer, a key person in the rail industry and Georgia native, will no longer be on public view.
If Norfolk Southern doesn’t have any other plans for displaying its founder’s statue, perhaps we can suggest a venue. Alongside the tracks of the Norfolk Southern is the Southeastern Railway Museum, located in Duluth. No doubt its officers would welcome providing a home for this pioneering railroad leader, and one of Georgia’s most distinguished natives.
- To read the fascinating story of the tragic accident which took Samuel Spencer’s life, go to this next-day 1906 archived story from The New York Times.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Looks for results of study about adjusting of Supreme Court
By George Wilson, contributing columnist
STONE MOUNTAIN, GA. | With his actions, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the former majority leader, has essentially “packed” the courts with judges favored by conservatives and the Federalist Society. The most egregious example was his refusal to allow the nomination of now Attorney General Merrick Garland to be considered during the Obama administration until after the voters decided on a new president. Then, in a hypocritical and cynical move on October 27, he allowed for the nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a few days before the 2020 general election.
President Biden has put together a blue-ribbon, bipartisan commission to examine the question of adjusting the Supreme Court to the modern era. One question is whether the number of justices on the Supreme Court should be increased. It has held at nine since 1869, even as three more circuits have been added. The commission is also looking at the length of service and turnover of justices on the Court.
It is only very recently that justices grimly held onto a Supreme Court appointment until death. The positions used to turn over with some frequency. The commission is an astonishingly distinguished group of scholars, lawyers, and judges.
Nonetheless, Republican Senate Minority Leader McConnell claimed the establishment of the commission displayed, “open disdain for judicial independence.” The Supreme Court itself undermined his position favoring a recent nonpartisan judicial decision. It issued an unsigned opinion in which the court decided, by a vote of 5-4, that people’s First Amendment rights to the free exercise of religion.
Finally, in 1869, the population of the United States was about 30 million as opposed to 330 million today. Also, the number of laws and regulations has increased as society has grown more complex. These facts alone would justify an expansion of the court because of the greater workload than in 1869 when the last change was made to the court size.
Maybe opinions should be held after this bipartisan commission renders its judgment. My view is that one measure to restore faith and fairness to the justice system is to add at least two justices to the Supreme Court.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Gwinnett County Public Library
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. The award-winning Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL) system was formed in 1996 after the dissolution of the Gwinnett-Forsyth Regional Library. For more than 20 years, GCPL has provided resources and services that enrich and inspire our community. The Library has 15 branches that offer free access to computers and Wi-Fi, classes, materials, and programming for people of all ages. In 2018, more than five million items were checked out at GCPL. GCPL was recognized as a Top Workplace by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution in 2017 and 2018.
- For more information about Gwinnett County Public Library programs and services, visit www.gwinnettpl.org.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Recent letter about Royals gave her a case of the giggles
Editor, the Forum:
I got the biggest giggle after reading Byron Gilbert’s letter about the Royal Families being connected to one another as cousins. After tracing my family’s history, I discovered my parents are cousins many times removed. They both have a common ancestor and it’s too bad they didn’t get to know that bit of history I dug up. I would have rubbed it in that they are not only cousins but kissing cousins.
— Sara Rawlins, Lawrenceville
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words, and include your hometown. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
County plans with $125 million water-sewer expansion
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners have approved water and sewer improvements that will serve 13,000 acres in eastern Gwinnett County, including the future Rowen knowledge community. Rowen will be a 2,000-acre knowledge community with offices, research facilities, public parks and residences along State Route 316 near Dacula and Auburn.
The Eastern Regional Infrastructure Project includes five miles of new and upsized water mains, six miles of new gravity sewer along the Apalachee River, seven miles of parallel wastewater force mains along Harbins Road and Brooks Road, a new 14 million-gallon-per-day regional sewer pump station on Harbins Road, and five miles of new trails.
Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson says that the undertaking will set the county on the right path for future growth. She says: “The project provides sewer service to currently unserved areas in the county, and the water mains will accommodate future commercial and industrial development. Gwinnett is expected to add another 500,000 people in the next 20 years, and this project will allow us to plan and grow in a smart and balanced way.”
The $125 million contract went to John D. Stephens, Inc., one of two design-build teams to submit proposals. The project will be funded by the departments of Water Resources and Community Services, including revenue from the 2017 SPLOST. Construction will start in late 2021 and should be complete in early 2024.
Duluth planning Derby Day on May 1 in downtown area
Pull out those wide-brimmed hats and bow ties and be in Duluth for a Kentucky Derby viewing party. Duluth Derby Day will be held May 1 from 2:30-7:30 p.m. in Downtown Duluth. Lounge seating will be set up on Town Green for guests to relax during the pre-race festivities. Guests can also enjoy themed food and drink from local businesses.
Local restaurants will have creative specialties, such as derby pie, mint juleps and Kentucky Hot Browns.
The preshow and big race will be on a large television screen located at the top of Town Green. There will be a Best Dressed contest at 5 p.m.. The winner in the 18 and up category will win a $100 cash prize, and the winner in the children’s category will win a $50 Hello Rainbow gift card. Additional entertainment will include live music in Parsons Alley, a pony petting zoo and themed photo booths.
- For more information on upcoming events, visit www.duluthga.net/events.
Council offers grants for documenting state’s heritage
The Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC) seeks to enrich the culture and protect the rights of Georgians by fostering activities that identify, preserve, and provide access to the State’s documentary heritage. Using funds awarded to the University of Georgia Libraries and the Georgia Archives by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission the Council is offering grants of $2,500 to $5,000 to local historical repositories in Georgia to develop and/or implement projects to identify, preserve, and provide access to historical records. There is a total of $35,000 available for these grants.
Grant applications must be received by the Georgia Archives by June 30, 2021. Applicants will be notified of the Council’s decision by August 31, 2021. The 2021 Records Grants Application guidelines can be found at https://www.georgiaarchives.org/ghrac or by clicking the “Partners” tab on the Georgia Archives’ website navigation bar, then the “Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council” link; the application is under “Programs and Services.”
A historical repository is defined as a non-profit or government organization/institution that houses, preserves, and provides access to historical documents on a regularly scheduled basis. This may be a local government, historical society, library, museum, or similar organization. The archival collections of the applying institution must be available, without charge, to the public on a regularly scheduled basis.
Eligible projects must identify, organize, and/or improve access to historical records. Eligible expenditures include shelving; archival file folders and/or boxes; dehumidifiers; humidifiers; analog monitors; photo sleeves; HEPA vacuum cleaners; hiring consultants to identify needs and priorities for improving the organization, description, preservation and access to collections; contracting services such as reproduction services; etc.
Podcast coming out with early history of Skillet Lickers
A patriarch and third generation Skillet Licker originally from Dacula, Phil Tanner, has released a limited-edition podcast, “Fiddles and Friends!” The podcast will consist of seven or eight episodes, to be released every other Wednesday through July. They will tell the story of the Skillet Lickers in chronological order, from the 1920’s to the modern day.
The original Skillet Lickers were formed in 1926 and created some of the earliest
“Hillbilly” recordings, featuring old-time string band music. The Skillet Lickers, together with fellow North Georgians Fiddlin’ John Carson and the Georgia Yellow Hammers, made Atlanta and North Georgia an early center of old-time string band music, especially the hard-driving fiddle-based style employed by each of these performers.
Episode one is now out. It covers Gid Tanner’s early days (before the band) and his partnership with Riley Puckett. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant
From Raleigh Perry, Buford: This is an 11-volume set of books on world history. They begin with a volume Our Oriental Heritage and end with The Age of Napoleon. Some were written by Will Durant and others by both of them. They started the set in 1935 and the last volume was finished in 1975. In all, there are four million words and at least 10,000 pages. If you need a quick reference on something that interests you in world history, you can find it in these books. Used sets abound and they are generally in very good condition. It is a perfect set for either a high school student or college student. You can find them in almost every used book store. If you are thinking of buying them used, shop them, since the prices vary considerably. When you buy, get the entire set. I read these books start to finish.”
- An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Judith Ortiz Cofer was Latina author who rose to fame
Judith Ortiz Cofer, a longtime resident of Georgia, was one of a number of Latina writers who rose to prominence during the 1980s and 1990s. Her stories about coming-of-age experiences in Puerto Rican communities outside of New York City and her poems and essays about cultural conflicts of immigrants to the U.S. mainland made Ortiz Cofer a leading literary interpreter of the U.S.–Puerto Rican experience. In 2010 she was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.
Ortiz Cofer
Ortiz Cofer was born in 1952 in the small town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. Her parents, Fanny Morot Ortiz and J. M. Ortiz Lugo, came to the United States in 1956 and settled in Paterson, N.J. As the daughter of a frequently absent military father stationed at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard and an uprooted mother nostalgic for her beloved island, Ortiz Cofer spent portions of her childhood commuting between Hormigueros and Paterson.
When she was 15 years old, Ortiz Cofer moved with her family to Augusta, Ga. She attended college and received an undergraduate degree in English from Augusta College. A few years later she moved to Florida and received an M.A. from Florida Atlantic University. In 1984 she joined the faculty of the University of Georgia in Athens. By her retirement in 2013 Cofer was Regents’ and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing.
The author’s first literary expressions were in poetry. One of her early chapbooks, Peregrina (1986), won the Riverstone International Chapbook Competition. Two years later her poetry collection Terms of Survival (1987) was published, but it was not until the publication of her first major work of prose fiction, The Line of the Sun (1989), a novel nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, that the author began to receive more critical attention. After this successful debut as a fiction writer, she continued to demonstrate her abilities in storytelling through short stories and personal essays. However, she also kept writing poetry, which she declared “contains the essence of language,” and published two more collections, Reaching for the Mainland (1995) and A Love Story Beginning in Spanish (2005).
Many of Ortiz Cofer’s stories, poems, and personal essays describe the lives of Puerto Rican youths straddling the Puerto Rican culture of their parents and a mainland culture consumed by its own prejudices, while asserting their own dignity and creative potential.
Because of a growing interest in her work in Puerto Rico and in other Spanish-speaking countries, the University of Puerto Rico published La linea del sol (1996), a Spanish translation of her acclaimed novel The Line of the Sun. The Fondo del Cultura Económica in Mexico published Una isla como tú (1997), a translation of An Island Like You. The same year Arte Público Press released Bailando en silencio: Escenas de una niñez puertorriqueña (1997), a translation of Silent Dancing. Several of the author’s stories are also available in other languages.
Ortiz Cofer died on the family farm outside Louisville, Ga. from cancer on December 30, 2016.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Lonely red building is this issue’s Mystery Photo
For today’s Mystery Photo, we’ll provide you with one hint: this photograph was made in Georgia. Now your job is to tell us what this is, and where it is located. Send your answer to elliott@brack.net to include your hometown.
One of our key experts at spotting Mystery Photos, Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. was not allowed to identify the last edition’s photo, since he sent it in. The photo shows the amphitheater which is only recently known as Piedmont University, previously Piedmont College, in Demorest, Ga. First to recognize the mystery was Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill. Another superb spotter, George Graf of Palmyra, Va. made the identification. He wrote: “A performance venue for Piedmont and northeast Georgia opened in October, 2009 with the completion of the Arrendale Amphitheater. This 350-seat outdoor performance area features a sculpted metal roof that covers the stage and part of the seating area. Named for the Arrendale family, including Fieldale Farms Corporation board chairman Thomas A. “Gus” Arrendale III, the amphitheater hosts a variety of events, including an all-day bluegrass festival, student performances, and public concerts. The amphitheater also won a design award from Metal Architecture magazine for its designers, Armentrout Roebuck Matheny Consulting Group of Athens.
“Piedmont College was founded in 1897. When strapped financially in 1901, the American Missionary Board of the Congregational Church took it under its wing. In 2021, the college changed its name to Piedmont University, and now has four colleges: Harry W. Walker College of Business, R.H. Daniel College of Nursing and Health Sciences, College of Education, and the School of Arts and Sciences ”
The springtime means we’re seeing the colorful flowers return. This stately Iris stands mighty perky in its blooming, adding a distinctive color to this otherwise green scene. The various strands of Iris can be seen throughout Gwinnett County these days.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Drug Take Back: Gwinnett County citizens can dispose of unwanted medications at the Suwanee Police Department (located at 373 Buford Highway) on Saturday, April 24 from 10 am until 2 p.m. The Suwanee Police Department is registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to collect unneeded medicines and safely dispose of pharmaceuticals containing controlled substances and other medicines. Both prescription and over-the-counter medicines can be discarded, as well as vitamins, pet medicines, and vaping devices; no needles or liquids can be accepted. Please remember to remove all personal information before disposing of medicines.
Ribbon-cutting to mark renovations at Station Park in Suwanee will be Tuesday, April 27, at 4 p.m. Renovations include artificial turf ripe for cornhole, new seating, and a refurbished playground. The city will also officially unveil the three-story mural, Transformation by Lauren Stumberg, on the municipal courthouse exterior wall. The park is located at 323 Buford Highway in Suwanee.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
GwinnettForum is provided to you at no charge every Tuesday and Friday.
Meet our team
- Editor and publisher: Elliott Brack, 770-840-1003
- Managing editor: Betsy Brack
- Roving photographer: Frank Sharp
- Contributing columnist: Jack Bernard
- Contributing columnist: Debra Houston
- Contributing columnist: George Wilson
More
- Location: We are located in Suite 225, 40 Technology Park, Peachtree Corners, Ga. 30092.
- Work with us: If you would like to serve as an underwriter, click here to learn more.
Subscriptions to GwinnettForum are free.
- Click to subscribe.
- Unsubscribe. We hope you’ll keep receiving the great news and information from GwinnettForum, but if you need to unsubscribe, go to this page and unsubscribe in the appropriate box.
© 2021, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA.
Follow Us