Students and friends alike have often asked me how I became interested in history. Was it a special teacher? A family friend?  Perhaps a grandparent was a history buff and ignited this flame that basically rules my life these days. Actually, it’s a combination of many things including family members sharing stories, old buildings on a family farm, books on the Civil War given to me as a child and hearing this man on local television discuss Atlanta’s rich history: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL1a5UqlYD0&feature=player_embedded The man to the left is Franklin Garrett, the only official …

Mr. Geer and the Granite I know it’s easy to fuss about the downtown business district in Douglasville. Some of the buildings are crumbling away and many remain empty, but the buildings are protected. The buildings aren’t going to disappear from one day to the next unless some act of nature occurs or without many people knowing about it first. It’s a different story regarding our late 19th century to turn-of-the-century homes. With the exception of the Cultural Arts Center our older homes are all privately owned and have no historic designation. It’s a personal choice regarding National …

One of the hardest things I have ever done was walking away from the hospital room where my mother lay dying. I’d been at her bedside alone with her all day. I had been grateful for the time I could spend with her just she and I, but once my sister arrived I felt she needed her time alone with mom, so I made ready to leave. Still, when I told Mother I would see her later our eyes met and she smiled in that little knowing way she had. We knew we would not see each other for a long, long time, but we didn’t acknowledge it in our attempt to be strong for each other. What I really wanted to do …

I’ve been looking through several old newspaper clippings this week concerning Douglasville and one thing is clear – interesting political seasons are nothing new – no matter the office involved. The newspaper article I’m presenting below for you is titled “Gartrell” at Douglasville and has the sub-heading “The doughty general refuses to divide time with a political opponent”.  It appeared in The Atlanta Constitution on September 21, 1882. This article or one similar to it would have appeared in Douglasville’s local paper at the time – The Weekly Star, and would then be submitted to the …

One of the commitments I made to myself when I began researching and writing about the history of Douglas County and the City of Douglasville was I wouldn’t publish anything until I was certain that I had done everything I could to verify my resources and not just publish what could possibly be family folklore as historical fact. If I did use family folklore I would identify it as such when I could. Of course, I’m human, and I make mistakes. I’ve tried to go back and correct things when I can. I would suspect part of that train of thought on my behalf has to do with the fact that early on in …

Last year about this time I kept hearing discussion and kept reading about how the Douglasville City Council had decided to demolish the Smith Dabbs building – one of the many downtown locations the city seems to own. The building had sustained significant damage due to heavy rains. The plan was to make the building a walk-through connecting Broad Street with the Plaza East project. The project is finished now. You can’t even tell the Smith Dabbs building was ever part of the landscape. It still bothers me a bit that part of our historic downtown area was gathered up and thrown into a …

Last year around this time we had been to family gathering all day and were on our way home. Our way home was lit by huge full moon. Big, bright and beautiful! I swear we could have turned off the headlights and still could have made our way home. We headed back into Douglas County along State Route 92, and as we approached the four way crossing at Charlie’s Market I couldn’t help but notice how bright the remaining features of the town of Campbellton were…the Methodist Church on my left with its old graves, the old Baptist Church cemetery up on the hill on my right along with Campbellton …

I’m posting three maps with this article labeled Map 1, Map 2, and Map 3. Take a look at Map1. It dates from 1883. Focus in on the words “Campbell County” and then let your eyes move to the left a bit. Within the words “Douglas County” you clearly see the word “Wilsonville”. Wilsonville? Why is it on the 1883 map, but isn’t so widely known today? Places just don’t disappear, right? One of the first settlers in the southern part of what would one day be Douglas County was a man by the name of Moses Wilson. Like so many others he packed up his wagon and along with his wife and young boys he …

Television has the Emmys and the world of cinema has the Academy Awards, but one of my favorite awards is the Stellas. Not familiar? The Stellas are given to people who file frivolous lawsuits. They are named after Stella Liebeck – the woman behind the words “Caution- Hot!” on each and every cup of McDonald’s coffee. While I realize Ms. Liebeck – an elderly woman – was burned terribly, and McDonalds had been warned for years via customer complaints their coffee was too hot, there are other Stella award winners that are beyond reasonable and reach the bizarre and brazen category. One Stella …

I grew up about three miles from the runways of Hartsfield, so it’s rather an understatement for me to say that the airplanes flew low over my childhood home. We lived under a major landing pattern. The planes flew so low that the engine noise would drown out my favorite cartoons. The planes were so lowmy mother would joke the pilots could get a glimpse of her through the window in her “gown-tail” washing the breakfast dishes at the sink. Yes, the planes flew close – and they were loud – and from time to time I played the “what if” game. What if a plane got into some trouble and crashed into …

When I was a teacher at Villa Rica Elementary I always wanted to begin the school year by showing my fourth and fifth graders that history is everywhere around them if they would take the time to examine, to wonder, and to question what they see. A pile of rocks could be just that, but if you know a little history you might guess the pile of rocks might be a burial spot, if you just happen to know Native Americans in my area were doing that hundreds of years ago. If I knew a little history I might realize a pile of rocks could be part of a much larger design that could be seen from the air …

A little blurb in an issue of The Sentinel dated 1913 states, “The ladies of Lithia Springs are eternally grateful to the Douglasville Boosters [a group of Douglasville businessmen] for the nice donation of $25 to build a chimney to their beloved Log Cabin Library which was in danger of being left in the cold, as Lithia Springs is building a new school house and now feeling mighty poor.  Some of these days they will return the favor when Douglasville and her boosters turn their attention to such institutions in their town.” Unfortunately, the ladies of Lithia Springs had to wait a long time …

When I was growing up the stifling heat of July mean one thing…..it was almost time for the Land Family reunion where the offspring of several generations from two people would gather at Sharp Mountain Baptist Church in Ball Ground, Georgia for dinner on the ground. In those days we met under a shelter outside the church where the longest table constructed of slabs of marble and concrete blocks I had ever seen extended through a stand of pine trees. The table would be a checkerboard of various cotton tablecloths brought by the women for them to place their lunch.   All the designs formed a …

I have a Word document where I store bits and pieces of the Douglas County story as i find them...bits and pieces where I feel I need more details or I need to verify facts. I currently have a 68 page document full of bits and pieces. Yes....68 pages!  I need to whittle it down a bit, so.... I decided I would hold my nose and go ahead and dive in with the story of the five little boys. Many, many months ago a few lines I read in Fannie Mae Davis' book concerning Douglas County history caught my eye. She said.... Five little boys born in Douglas County played ball, hunted, fished, swam in the …

The website WikiAnswers advises that we spend approximately six months of our entire lifetime waiting at traffic lights. Sitting – waiting – bored – even though there are several things you can do to pass the time.  You can return a phone call, check your e-mail, send a text, check your list of things to do, or my personal favorite…..I just sit and think. More often than not I sit and think about my surroundings and contemplate how those places have changed over time.  It seems natural that you would try to visualize certain areas regarding how they looked fifty to one hundred years ago, and …

Editor's note: Lisa Cooper's newest work can be found at douglascountyhistory.blogspot.com. I have been in love with small town courthouses since I was a little girl. I love the similarities and differences in architecture, I love the stories regarding the folks who worked in the building, the records the building holds and the life and death decisions made in them, and I love the attention the building garners just because it’s in the middle of town. Simply put,,.. in my opinion …courthouses make a town. Wilbur W. Caldwell states it best in his book The Courthouse and the Depot:  The …

During my years as a fourth and fifth grade teacher I managed to have my fair share of parent conferences. One thing remained the same no matter the needs of the child – every parent wants their children to achieve and experience certain goals and dreams. Some parents want their child to maintain As and Bs while others have a particular college in mind and begin planning early. Some parents have smaller goals such as getting through the week without receiving a bad behavior note from the teacher. Other parents seem to be very comfortable planning out the lives of their children including …

Editor's note: Lisa Cooper's newest work can be found at douglascountyhistory.blogspot.com. I've written concerning how the library in Douglasville came to be here, but the efforts at Lithia Springs were entirely separate....in the beginning, and predated the folks in Douglasville by thirty-seven years. The Lithia Springs project was spearheaded by the women in the community. The library would be housed in a log cabin that sat north of the railroad tracks. They decided to fund the library by holding a box supper and invited the general public. A Sentinel article from the time reported the …

Editor's note: Lisa Cooper's newest work can be found at douglascountyhistory.blogspot.com. Before you travel outside of Douglas County to soak in a little history try stopping by Douglasville’s own museum housed in the Old Courthouse located at 6754 West Broad Street in downtown Douglasville. The Old Courthouse building is only fifty-five years old which in the whole scheme of history makes it a fairly young building, but once the Douglas County Courthouse moved to Hospital Drive some notation in the location name had to made so people wouldn’t arrive at the wrong place to file a deed, pay a…

Editor's note: Lisa Cooper's newest work can be found at douglascountyhistory.blogspot.com. If you have read any of my meager offerings regarding Douglas County history you know I’m not originally from here. I grew up during the 1960s and 1970s in the South Fulton area, so I didn’t exactly know the daily news in Douglasville, but one person I did know about was Sheriff Earl D. Lee. Most people from this part of the state know who he was. Some people take on a persona – they become a larger than life character – a person who ends up with so many stories swirling around regarding their …