Newspaper Page Text
LIFE
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 15, 2019 7C
JOHNNY VARDEMAN
vardeman1956@att.net
Normal didn’t
last too long
in Civil War
Hall County and some other Northeast
Georgia counties for the most part were
reluctantly pulled into the Civil War.
Many of their delegates to the convention
calling for Georgia’s secession from the
United States voted not to secede, though
most eventually went along with other del
egates voting in favor.
The Airline Eagle was a newspaper
printed in Hall County at the beginning of
the war. It later suspended publication
during the war, but eventually reappeared
under new ownership.
Just a week before the first battle of the
Civil War at Fort Sumter, South Carolina,
the Eagle, predecessor of today’s Times in
Gainesville, published news as if secession
had not happened, and no war was pending.
Its publisher, W.H. Mitchell, announced that
the paper “will have little to do with politics
except as news... independent in all things
and neutrality in nothing.” However, he sup
ported secession, opposed President Abra
ham Lincoln, and died in 1862 fighting for
the Confederacy.
The paper listed post offices set up by
the Confederate government: Argo, Chest
nut Mountain, Gainesville, Gillsville, Hog
Mountain, Polksville, Poplar Springs, Shoal
Creek, Skitts Mountain, Sugar Hill and War
Hill. W.H. Quillian was postmaster at Argo,
J.D. O’Connor at Gainesville and A.B.C.
Dorsey at Gillsville.
An indication that business was pretty
much as usual, Mrs. C.A. Fielding opened
her store on the southwest corner of the
Gainesville square, selling bonnets, rib
bons, flowers and custom-made dresses.
W.G. Fielding simultaneously announced
the opening of a confectionary and fruit
store, selling candies, nuts, pickles, fish and
tobacco. He also operated an ambrotype
gallery, a collection of photographs on glass.
E.N. Gower opened a carriage factory,
and in nearby Pickens County, the marble
industry was getting started, advertising
monuments beginning at $20.
Weddings went on as usual, one of the
most prominent brides, Sue W. Banks, “the
diamond of Hall County,” daughter of the
late noted pioneer physician Dr. Richard
and Martha Banks, for whom Banks County
was named. Sue married Confederate Lt.
Walter S. Brewster of Charleston in the
Methodist-Episcopal Church.
The Hall County grand jury presentments
recommended “a lock on the door of the
dungeon of the jail,” repairs to the court
house, a tax for support of the poor, but “no
percent of tax on the county for school pur
poses.” Grand jurors at that time earned $1
per day.
The Airline Eagle listed elected officials:
Superior Court Judge N.L. Hutchins, state
Sen. A.J. Poole, Rep. W.P. Smith, Ordinary
R.S. Law, Sheriff Richard Walters and
various school commissioners. But when
it came to the Gainesville City Council, the
newspaper wrote, “There seems to be con
siderable doubt about the existence of this
august body.”
While no major battles were fought in
Hall County, there was considerable unrest
among holdouts against the war, those
supporting the war and military desert
ers. In addition, as the war wore on, times
got harder, provisions shorter, and crops
lacked enough labor to work them.
As the Civil War wound down, the Eagle
resumed its flight with W.J. Sloan as owner.
John E. Redwine became publisher by 1867
and wasn’t bashful about politics, declaring
the paper a supporter of the Democratic
Party. Redwine said he had favored the
state’s secession from the Union.
He also was a supporter of a railroad com
ing through Gainesville. Calling Northeast
Georgia “a neglected section,” he pointed
out 20 viable counties in a 10,000-square-
mile area that cried for rail service. He
cited the availability of minerals, fertile
valleys and waterfalls. In September 1869
Redwine was proud to announce a contract
had been awarded to build the first 20 miles
of rail line from Gainesville to “Tugulo,”
then a community near Toccoa, connect
ing it near fruit orchards that would supply
northern markets. Today’s Tugaloo River
and State Park are spelled differently.
The Eagle continued to play an important
part in the area’s history and development,
but under several different owners, publish
ers and editors. It was still publishing as a
weekly newspaper in Gainesville in 1947
when the Gainesville Daily Times acquired
it, eventually evolving in today’s Times.
Family legacies
Descendants of Dr. Richard Banks con
tinued his legacy playing important parts
in the medical, financial and philanthropic
aspects of Hall County history. Two parks
in Hall County are named for the Banks
family. Likewise, the Redwines made their
mark. Redwine United Methodist Church
near Oakwood is named for William E. Red
wine, father of the Eagle’s one-time pub
lisher, John E. Redwine. The Eastern Star
chapter also carries the Redwine name.
Watch for more local history in this col
umn next Sunday.
Johnny Vardeman is retired editor of The
Times. He can be reached at 2183 Pine
Tree Circle NE, Gainesville; 770-532-2326;
johnny.peggy@gmail.com.
Touched by King Midas
NICK BOWMAN I The Times
Akademia Brewing Co.’s Everything He Touches saison.
KELSEY P0D0
kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com
Everything He Touches is gold.
That’s exactly what I was thinking as I
drank a bottle of Akademia Brewing Com
pany’s red wine barrel-aged saison.
Morgan Wireman, Akademia’s brewmas-
ter, created a beer that will go down in the
record books
for me.
I’ve been
writing this
beer column
for almost a
year, and I
can say with
out a doubt
that Every
thing He
Touches is
my favorite
beer of 2019.
It’s like King Midas, the Greek mythologi
cal character, plucked a plum from a tree
and instead of turning it into solid gold, it
transformed into a beautiful beer.
It reminded me of biting into a plum. I
tasted the slight tartness from the skin and
then the sweetness from the inside. The fin
ish was a tad earthy and wheaty.
It’s tart without being too tart, sweet with
out being too sweet and funky without tast
ing like cheese.
So what makes this King Midas-inspired
beer golden?
Wireman owes most of the beer’s funk-
inducing qualities to a yeast called brett-
anomyces, also known as brett in the beer
world.
This type of yeast has been a friend and
enemy of brewmasters for centuries.
Luckily, nowadays the wild yeast is
easier to manage with modern sanitation
practices.
“People used to be absolutely terrified of
it,” Wireman said. “If you didn’t have good
sanitation procedures and get brettano-
myces mixed in with clean beers, it would
change your beer in a way that you didn’t
want it to be. As long as you practice good
sanitation and procedures, you’ll be fine.”
Wireman said brett is common in certain
beer styles like sours, saisons and Lambics.
In Wireman’s case, he chose one of his
favorite styles — the saison.
The most recent batch of Everything
He Touches was aged for 14 months in
wine barrels.
Wireman has been perfecting this beer
since his homebrew days four years ago.
“When I was first designing the beer,
I didn’t want it to be a super in-your-face
sour beer,” Wireman said. “It’s approach
able to craft drinkers and non-craft drink
ers. There’s also some wine notes to it, so it
seems to appeal to wine drinkers as well.”
If you’re looking for a beer that’s deli
cious with a lot of fun complexities to pick
through, this is your brew.
People can only purchase this beer by
the bottle at Akademia or get it on tap in the
brewery.
Akademia is located at 150 Crane Drive
in Athens.
For more information about this brew
ery, visit akademiabc.com.
Kelsey Podo is the education reporter for
The Times. She makes a weekly sacrifice for
the newspaper by drinking tasty beer and
writing about it.
Everything He
Touches
Brewery: Akademia
Brewing Company
Alcohol by volume: 6%
Style: Red wine
barrel-aged saison
Bottom line: Pure gold
Photo courtesy AJ Reynolds
Attendees of the Nov. 8 opening of an art collection featuring
Charles Webster Hawthorne examine his paintings at the Brenau
University Downtown Center.
AROUND TOWN
Turns out there’s a bit of
hidden art downtown
The Brenau University Down
town Center is currently playing
host to an ongoing special exhi
bition of works titled, “Charles
Webster Hawthorne: Paintings
from the Collection of Doug and
Kay Ivester.”
The Theatre on the Square
Lobby’s walls now display 30 oil
paintings and watercolors on
loan from Doug and Kay Ivester
by Hawthorne (1872-1930), an
American artist renowned for his
portraits and genre paintings who
was instrumental in the founding
of the Cape Cod School of Art in
1899.
“Hawthorne was a pupil of and
assistant to American impres
sionist painter William Merritt
Chase,” said Nichole Rawlings,
Brenau Galleries director. “Coin
cidentally, the very first piece
donated to the Brenau Collection
when it began in the 1980s was a
painting by Chase given by Mr.
and Mrs. Fred Bentley, Sr.”
The Downtown Center is no
stranger to works of art, as it
houses the Manhattan Gallery
— one of the university’s four
Gainesville galleries — which
features an ongoing exhibition
of Brenau University permanent
collection artwork by artists who
connected to the New York art
world.
The space is anchored by more
than 100 works from the col
lection of Dorothy and Herbert
Vogel and features a number of
photographs and prints by artist
Andy Warhol (1928-1987), which
were given to Brenau by the
Andy Warhol Foundation.
Rawlings said the new selec
tion of paintings on display high
lights works representative of
Hawthorne’s subject matter and
style featuring famous faces,
serene landscapes and architec
tural beauty.
“Hawthorne was involved in
his era’s most advanced color
theory practice, and these pieces
demonstrate that through their
shapes and layers of applied
color,” she said. “Hawthorne
is quoted saying, ‘Forget what
object is before you—think, here
is an oblong of pink, a little square
of blue, a streak of yellow. Paint
it just as it looks to you, the exact
color and shape, until it gives you
an impression of the scene before
you.’”
The installation in the theatre
lobby makes these works easily
viewable for downtown Gaines
ville visitors during business
hours.
“We encourage visitors from
the wider Gainesville and North
Georgia communities and strive
to provide free and educational
cultural opportunities,” Rawl
ings said. “Our gallery spaces,
including the Brenau University
Downtown Center, are always
open to the public during busi
ness hours and are free to visit.
Galleries staff or trained docents
can provide additional tours and
information upon request to com
munity groups at no cost.”
Compiled from information
submitted by Brenau University.
COMMUNIS NEWS
That’s one good idea
Virginia Hill, a high school senior from
North Hall High School, took second place
in the National Society of High School Schol
ars’ competitive Passion
Projects event at its recent
Scholar’s Day Atlanta 2019.
Virginia competed in the
world betterment category,
which includes nonprofit,
social business, social inno
vation, or social advocacy
efforts. She submitted a
project that helps families
in need have healthy meals.
By competing in the Passion Project event,
Virginia was able to showcase her project —
and an issue that she is passionate about —
before an audience of approximately 1,500
NSHSS members, families, educators and
corporate leaders.
With her project Virginia created, One
Meal, a simple and effective way for families
to receive a bag of ingredients with a recipe
card so they can have a fun, planned meal.
She personally developed and tested the reci
pes and has been collecting private donations
to fund the project with the idea that anyone
can provide a family One Meal. Virginia
hopes the One Meal concept will grow and
develop into a self-sustained non-profit.
NSHSS is the premier international honors
and scholarship program co-founded by Claus
Nobel, the great nephew of Alfred Nobel,
and James Lewis.
Compiled from information submitted by Terese
Kelly Greer.
No objection here, your honor
Wendy Glasbrenner received the Reginald
Heber Smith award from the National Legal
Aid and Defender Associa
tion in Detroit, Michigan on
Nov. 8. The Reginald Heber
Smith award recognizes the
dedicated service and out
standing achievements of
a civil legal aid or indigent
defense attorney.
The award recognized
Glasbrenner’s work in “pro
viding extraordinary and
successful legal advocacy on behalf of clients
who could not otherwise afford counsel, and
advancing the cause of equal justice through
leadership and advocacy. ”
Glasbrenner, a forty-year veteran of
the Georgia Legal Services Program, has
been the managing attorney of the Gaines
ville Regional Office since 1999. In May,
Glasbrenner was awarded the A.R. Kenyon
Award by the Gainesville-Northeastern Bar
Association. She is a graduate of the Univer
sity of Georgia School of Law.
Compiled from information submitted by Wendy
Glasbrenner.
Spout Springs won the bowl
Georgia Mountain Food Bank had 20 dif
ferent sites collecting food this year for its
food drive, which generated over 15,000
pounds of non-perishable food to support the
feeding efforts in its five-county service area
of Hall, Union, Dawson, Lumpkin and For
syth counties.
In 2019, the food bank had more sites and
brought in more donated food than ever
before in the history of the event.
Spout Springs School of Enrichment pro
vided more than a quarter, or 4,177 pounds,
of the total food donated and had more than
double the next closest competing school.
Spout Springs was awarded the Champions
Bowl on Friday, Dec. 13, to commemorate
the school’s achievement.
Compiled from information submitted by the
Georgia Mountain Food Bank.
Photo courtesy Steve Mueller
Spout Springs School of Enrichment
collected the largest amount of food for the
Georgia Mountain Food Bank’s food drive,
and on Friday, Dec. 13, was awarded the
Champions Bowl for its efforts.
'it -
Glasbrenner
