Joel Chandler Harris

Joel Chandler Harris

Joel Chandler Harris (December 9, 1845 – July 3, 1908) was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years. He spent the majority of his adult life in Atlanta working as an associate editor at the Atlanta Constitution.

Harris led two significant professional lives. As editor and journalist Joe Harris, he ushered in the New South alongside Henry W. Grady, stressing regional and racial reconciliation during and after the Reconstruction era. As Joel Chandler Harris, fiction writer and folklorist, he recorded many Brer Rabbit stories from the African-American oral tradition and revolutionized children's literature in the process.

Life

Eatonton: 1845 - 1862

Joel Chandler Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia in 1845 to Mary Ann Harris. His father, whose identity remains unknown, abandoned his family shortly after Harris was born. The parents had never married, so Harris took the name Joel from his attending physician, Dr. Joel Branham. Chandler was the name of his mother's uncle. Harris remained self-conscious of his illegitimate birth throughout his life.

A prominent physician, Dr. Andrew Reid, gave the Harris family a small cottage behind his mansion. Mary Harris worked as a seamstress and helped neighbors with their gardening to support herself and her son. She was an avid reader and instilled her son with a love of language: "My desire to write—to give expression to my thoughts—grew out of hearing my mother read The Vicar of Wakefield."

Dr. Reid also paid for Harris' school tuition for several years. In 1856, Joe Harris briefly attended Kate Davidson's School for Boys and Girls, but transferred to Eatonton School for Boys later that year following an undistinguished academic record and a habit of truancy. Harris excelled in reading and writing, but was mostly known for his pranks, mischief, and sense of humor. Practical jokes helped Harris cloak his innate shyness and insecurities about his red hair, Irish ancestry, and illegitimacy, leading to both trouble and a reputation as a leader among the older boys.

Turnwold Plantation: 1862 - 1866

Harris quit school early to help alleviate the financial burden on his mother. In March 1862, Joseph Addison Turner, owner of Turnwold Plantation nine miles east of Eatonton, hired Harris to work as a printer's devil for his newspaper The Countryman. Harris worked for clothing, room, and board. The newspaper reached subscribers throughout the Confederacy during the American Civil War and became one of the larger newspapers in the South with a circulation of about 2,000. Harris learned to set type for the paper, and Turner allowed him to publish his own poems, book reviews, and humorous paragraphs.

Turner's instruction and technical expertise exerted a profound influence on Harris. During his four year tenure at Turnwold Plantation, Joe Harris consumed the literature in Turner's library. He had access to the works of Chaucer, Dickens, and Sir Thomas Browne, as well as to Arabian Nights, Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, Thackeray, and Edgar Allan Poe. Turner, a fiercely independent Southern loyalist and eccentric intellectual, emphasized the work of southern writers, yet stressed that Harris read widely. In The Countryman Turner insisted that Harris not shy away from including humor in his journalism.

While at Turnwold Plantation, Harris spent hundreds of hours in the slave quarters during time off. Much of his self-consciousness disappeared in the slave quarters, and his humble background as an illegitimate, red-headed son of an Irish immigrant helped foster an intimate connection with the slaves. He absorbed the stories, language, and inflections of people like Uncle George Terrell, Old Harbert, and Aunt Crissy. The African-American animal tales they shared later became the foundation and inspiration for Harris's Uncle Remus tales. George Terrell and Old Harbert in particular became models for Uncle Remus as well as role models for Harris.

Savannah and the South: 1866 - 1876

Joseph Addison Turner shut down The Countryman in May 1866. Joe Harris left the plantation with useless Confederate money and very few possessions.

The Macon Telegraph hired Harris as a typesetter later that year. Harris found the work unsatisfactory and himself the butt of jokes around the office, in no small part due to his red hair. Within five months, he accepted a job working for the New Orleans Crescent Monthly, a literary journal. Just six months after that, homesick, he returned to Georgia, but with another opportunity at the Monroe Advertiser, a weekly paper published in Forsyth, Georgia.

At the Advertiser Harris found a regional audience with his column "Affairs of Georgia." Newspapers across the state reprinted his humorous paragraphs and political barbs. Harris' reputation earned him the position of associate editor at the Savannah Morning News, the largest circulation newspaper in Georgia. Though he relished in his position in Forsyth, Joe Harris accepted the $40-a-week job, a significant pay increase, and quickly established himself as Georgia's leading humor columnist while at the Morning News.

In 1872 Harris met Mary Esther LaRose, a seventeen year-old French-Canadian from Quebec. After a year of courtship, Harris and LaRose married in April 1873. LaRose was 18 and Harris, 27 (though publicly admitting to 24). Over the next three years, the couple had two children. Their life in Savannah came to an abrupt halt, however, when they fled to Atlanta to avoid a yellow fever epidemic.

Atlanta: 1876 - 1908

 
Harris in 1873

In 1876 Harris accepted a position from Henry W. Grady at the Atlanta Constitution, where he would remain for the next 24 years, most of that time in association with other writers including Frank Lebby Stanton who was in turn an associate of James Whitcomb Riley. Not long after taking the job, Harris began the Uncle Remus stories as a serial to "preserve in permanent shape those curious mementoes of a period that will no doubt be sadly misrepresented by historians of the future." The tales were reprinted across the United States, and Harris was approached by publisher D. Appleton and Company to compile them for a book.

Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings debuted near the end of 1880. Hundreds of newspapers reviewed the best-seller, and Harris found himself in the national spotlight, albeit reluctantly. Of the press and attention Walter Hines Page noted, "Joe Harris does not appreciate Joel Chandler Harris."


Joel Chandler Harris's Home

The Wren's Nest



Royalties from the book were modest, but allowed Harris to rent a six-room house in West End, an unincorporated village on the outskirts of Atlanta, to accommodate his growing family. Two years later Harris bought the house and hired architect George Humphries to transform the farmhouse into a Queen Anne Victorian in the Eastlake style. The home, soon thereafter called The Wren's Nest, would be where Harris spent most of his time.

Harris preferred to write at the Wren's Nest, and would often take the mule-drawn trolley to work, pick up his assignments, and bring them back home. Not only was Harris writing for the Constitution and compiling more stories for Nights with Uncle Remus (1883), but he also contributed local-color stories to magazines like Scribner's, Harper's, and The Century.

Harris published prodigiously throughout the 1880's and 1890's, trying his hand at novels, children's literature, and even a translation of French folklore. Yet he rarely strayed from home and work during this time, choosing to remain close to his family and his gardening. Harris and his wife Essie had six more children in Atlanta, with a total of six (out of nine) surviving past childhood. The oldest, Julian LaRose Harris, won a Pulitzer Prize with his wife Julia Collier Harris in 1926, in part for their "energetic fight" against the Ku Klux Klan.

By the late 1890's, Harris tired of the newspaper grind and suffered from health problems most likely stemming from alcoholism. At the same time, he grew more comfortable with his creative persona. Harris retired from the Constitution in 1900, yet continued experimenting with novels and writing articles for outlets like The Saturday Evening Post. Still, he remained close to home, refusing to accept honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Emory College. In 1905 Harris was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Harris did travel to accept an invitation to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. Two years earlier, Roosevelt had said, "Presidents may come and presidents may go, but Uncle Remus stays put. Georgia has done a great many things for the Union, but she has never done more than when she gave Mr. Joel Chandler Harris to American literature."

On July 3, 1908, Joel Chandler Harris died of acute nephritis and complications from cirrhosis of the liver. In his obituary, the New York Times Book Review echoed Roosevelt's sentiment, stating: “Uncle Remus cannot die. Joel Chandler Harris has departed this life at the age of 60 [...] but his best creation, [Uncle Remus] with his fund of folk-lore, will live in literature."

Writing

Folklore

Harris created the first iteration of the Uncle Remus character for the Atlanta Constitution in 1876 after inheriting a column written by Samuel W. Small, a colleague who had taken leave from the paper. In these character sketches Remus would visit the newspaper office to discuss the social and racial issues of the day. By 1877 Small had returned to the Constitution and resumed his column.



Harris had no intention to continue the Remus character. But when Small once again left the paper, Harris reprised Remus and this time realized the literary value of the stories of his youth from the slaves of Turnwold Plantation. Harris set out to record the stories and insisted that they be verified by two independent sources before he would set them into print. The pursuit proved more and more difficult given his professional duties, urban location, race and, eventually, fame.

On July 20, 1879, Harris published "The Story of Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Fox as Told by Uncle Remus" in the Atlanta Constitution. It was the first of 34 plantation fables that would comprise Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings in 1880. The stories, mostly collected directly from the African-American oral storytelling tradition, were revolutionary in their use of dialect, animal personage, and serialized landscape.

Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby

Remus' stories featured a trickster hero called Br'er Rabbit ("Brother" Rabbit), who used his wits against adversity, though his efforts did not always succeed. Br'er Rabbit is a direct interpretation of Yoruba tales of Hare, though some others posit Native American influences as well. Scholar Stella Brewer Brookes asserts, "Never has the trickster been better exemplified than in the Br'er Rabbit of Harris." Br'er Rabbit was accompanied by friends and enemies alike, such as Br'er Fox, Br'er Bear, Br'er Terrapin, and Br'er Wolf. The stories represented a significant break from the romantic fairy tales of the Western tradition: instead of a singular event in a singular story, the critters on the plantation existed in an ongoing community saga, time immemorial.

The Uncle Remus stories garnered critical acclaim and achieved popular success well into the 20th century. Harris published at least twenty-nine books, of which nine books were compiled of Uncle Remus stories, including Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1880), Nights with Uncle Remus (1883), Uncle Remus and His Friends (1892), The Tar Baby and Other Rhymes of Uncle Remus (1904), Told by Uncle Remus: New Stories of the Old Plantation (1905), Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit (1907). The last three books written by Joel Chandler Harris were published after his death which included Uncle Remus and the Little Boy (1910), Uncle Remus Returns (1918), and Seven Tales of Uncle Remus (1948). The tales, 185 in sum, became immensely popular among both black and white readers in the North and South. Few outside of the South had ever heard accents like those spoken in the tales, and no one had ever seen the dialect legitimately and faithfully recorded in print. To the North and those abroad, the stories were a "revelation of the unknown." Mark Twain noted in 1883, "in the matter of writing [the African-American dialect], he is the only master the country has produced."
The stories introduced international readers to the American South. Rudyard Kipling wrote in a letter to Harris that the tales "ran like wild fire through an English Public school.... [We] found ourselves quoting whole pages of Uncle Remus that had got mixed in with the fabric of the old school life." The Uncle Remus tales have since been translated into more than forty languages.

James Weldon Johnson called the collection "the greatest body of folklore America has produced."

Journalism

Early in his career at the Atlanta Constitution, Joe Harris laid out his editorial ideology and set the tone for an agenda that aimed to help reconcile issues of race, class, and region: "An editor must have a purpose. [...] What a legacy for one's conscience to know that one has been instrumental in mowing down the old prejudices that rattle in the wind like weeds."

Harris served as assistant editor and lead editorial writer at the Atlanta Constitution primarily between 1876 and 1900, and published articles intermittently until his death in 1908. While at the Constitution, Harris, "in thousands of signed and unsigned editorials over a twenty-four-year period, [...] set a national tone for reconciliation between North and South after the Civil War."

Throughout his career, Joe Harris actively promoted racial reconciliation as well as African-American education, suffrage, and equality. He regularly denounced racism among southern whites, condemned lynching as barbaric, and highlighted the importance of higher education for African Americans, frequently citing the work of W.E.B. DuBois in his editorials. In 1883, for example, editorials from the Atlanta Constitution challenged those of the New York Sun that alleged "educating the negro will merely increase his capacity for evil." The Atlanta Constitution editorial countered, stating if "education of the negro is not the chief solution of the problem that confronts the white people of the South then there is no other conceivable solution and there is nothing ahead but political chaos and demoralization." Harris's editorials were often progressive in content and paternalistic in tone. Harris was unwavering in his commitment to the "dissipation of sectional jealousy and misunderstanding, as well as religious and racial intolerance", yet "never entirely freed himself of the idea that the [southern whites] would have to patronize the [southern blacks]."

Paradoxically, Harris also oversaw some of the Atlanta Constitution's most sensationalized coverage of racial issues, most notably regarding the 1899 torture and lynching of Sam Hose, an African-American farm worker. Harris resigned from the paper the following year, having lost patience for publishing both "his iconoclastic views on race" and "what was expected of him" at a major southern newspaper during a particularly vitriolic period.

In 1904 Harris wrote four important articles for the Saturday Evening Post discussing the problem of race relations in the South that highlight his progressive yet paternalistic views. Of these, Booker T. Washington noted: "It has been a long time since I have read anything from the pen of any man which has given me such encouragement as your article has. [...] In a speech on Lincoln's Birthday which I am to deliver in New York, I am going to take the liberty to quote liberally from what you have said."

Two years later, Harris and his son Julian founded what would become Uncle Remus's Home Magazine. Harris wrote to Andrew Carnegie that its purpose would be to further "the obliteration of prejudice against the blacks, the demand for a square deal, and the uplifting of both races so that they can look justice in the face without blushing.” Circulation reached 240,000 within one year, making it one of the largest magazines in the country.

Other Works

Harris wrote novels, narrative histories, translations of French folklore, children's literature, and collections of stories depicting rural life in Georgia. The short stories "Free Joe and the Rest of the World", "Mingo", and "At Teague Poteets" are the most influential of his non-Uncle Remus creative work. Many of his short stories delved into the changing social and economic values in the South during Reconstruction. Harris's turn as a local colorist gave voice to poor white characters and demonstrated his fluency with different African-American dialects and characters.

Legacy

Harris's legacy has largely been ignored by academia, in no small part due to the Uncle Remus character, use of dialect, plantation setting, and Disney's adaptation of the stories. Harris's books exerted a profound influence on storytellers at home and abroad, yet the Uncle Remus tales effectively have no critical standing. His legacy is, at the same time, not without considerable controversy: Harris's critical reputation in the 20th and 21st centuries has been wildly mixed.

Criticism

Critic H. L. Mencken held a less than favorable view of Harris: "Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an amanuensis for the local blacks--that his works were really the products, not of white Georgia, but of black Georgia. Writing afterward as a white man, he swiftly subsided into the fifth rank." Keith Cartwright, however, asserts, "Harris might arguably be called the greatest single authorial force behind the literary development of African American folk matter and manner."

Alice Walker accused Harris of "stealing a good part of my heritage" in a searing essay called "Uncle Remus, No Friend of Mine". Toni Morrison wrote a novel called Tar Baby based on the folktale recorded by Harris. In interviews, she said she learned the story from her family and owed no debt to Harris.

Some scholars are skeptical of the validity of the stories collected by a white man, citing the difficulty that many white folklorists had in persuading African-Americans to divulge their folklore. Other critical scholars cite Uncle Remus as a problematic and contradictory figure: sometimes a mouthpiece for white paternalism, sometimes a stereotype of the black entertainer, and sometimes poetically subversive.

Black folklorist and university professor Julius Lester sees the Uncle Remus stories as important records of black folklore. He has rewritten many of the Harris stories in an effort to elevate the subversive elements over the purportedly racist ones. Regarding the nature of the Uncle Remus character, Lester said, "There are no inaccuracies in Harris's characterization of Uncle Remus. Even the most cursory reading of the slave narratives collected by the Federal Writer's Project of the 1930s reveals that there were many slaves who fit the Uncle Remus mold."

Author Ralph Ellison also responded to Harris' work positively: "Aesop and Uncle Remus had taught us that comedy is a disguised form of philosophical instruction; and especially when it allows us to glimpse the animal instincts lying beneath the surface of our civilized affectations."

Some 21st century scholars have argued that the Uncle Remus tales satirized the very "plantation school" that readers believed his work supported. Critic Robert Cochran noted: "Harris went to the world as the trickster Brer Rabbit, and in the trickster Uncle Remus he projected both his sharpest critique of things as they were and the deepest image of his heart’s desire." Harris omitted the Southern plantation house, disparaged the white Southern gentleman, and presented miscegenation in positive terms. He violated social codes and presented an ethos that would have otherwise shocked his reading audience. These recent acknowledgements echo early observations from Walter Hines Page who wrote in 1884 that Harris "hardly conceals his scorn for the old aristocracy" and makes a "a sly thrust at the pompous life of the Old South."

Links:

Eatonton, Ga

Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Joel Chandler Harris

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Harris, Joel Chandler

Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings

Brother Rabbit's Cradle Story

Click Here to read the story.

The Moonlit Road

Strange Tales Of the American South

Audios of American Short Stories

Uncle Remus Stories On Youtube

Song Of The South Webring

Tar Baby Story

Source: Wikipedia

You Might Be A Redneck If..,

You might be a redneck if: It never occurred to you to
be offended by the phrase, 'One nation, under God.'

You might be a redneck if: You've never protested about
seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places.

You might be a redneck if: You still say 'Christmas'
instead of 'Winter Festival.'

You might be a redneck if:
You bow your head when someone prays.

You might be a redneck if: You stand and place your hand
over your heart when they play the National Anthem.

You might be a redneck if: You treat our armed forces
veterans with great respect, and always have.

You might be a redneck if:
You've never burned an American flag, nor intend to.

You might be a redneck if: You know what you believe
and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening

You might be a redneck if: You respect your elders
and raised your kids to do the same.

You might be a redneck if:
You'd give your last dollar to a friend.

Source: Internet

A Greener And Healthier Home

1. Start by replacing a bunch of your cleaners (your general spray cleaner, glass cleaner, counter top cleaner, floor and bathroom cleaners) with a natural, nontoxic all-purpose cleaner. You will only need one to do that. Really!

2. Replace your laundry detergent with a natural nontoxic one so the clothes you wear and the sheets you sleep on have no fumes for you to breathe.

3. Go to your bathroom and read the shampoo, makeup and moisturizer labels. Ask yourself, “Do I really need scent in these products?” Take stock of all of your other products and try to replace one a week with a safer, greener choice.

4. Use BPA-free plastic baby bottles and fill them with breast milk or organic formula. Choose powdered formula over canned formula to avoid BPA leaching from the can-lining.

5. Pay attention (without freaking out) to the toys you buy for your kids. Avoid lead paint and soft plastics that contain phthalates.

6. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid processed food. Even better, choose organic and locally grown meats, dairy, fruits, and vegetables.

7. Try to get the plastic containers out of your kitchen and replace them with glass containers.

8. Make a vow to stop buying bottled water—NOW. Instead, buy a water filter pitcher and keep two in your fridge at all times.

9. For cleaner and healthier air, open your windows once a day when the outside temperature is comfortable.

10. When buying new stuff for your home, focus on green products especially mattresses and carpets.

Source: Internet

Things I Learned Living In Texas..,

A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.

There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in Texas.

There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in Texas, plus a couple no one's seen before.

If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.

Onced and Twiced are words.

It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy!

Jawl-P? means, Did you all go to the bathroom?

People actually grow, eat and like okra.

'Fixinto' is one word. It means I'm going to do that.

There is no such thing as lunch. There is only dinner and then there's supper.

Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar. It is referred to as the Wine of Texas.

Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you.

The word 'jeet' is actually a question meaning, 'Did you eat?'

You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it is, you work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH em.

Ya'll is singular. All ya'll is plural.

All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect, or animal.

You carry jumper cables in your car - for your OWN car.

You only own five spices: salt, pepper, mustard, Tabasco and ketchup.

The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local high school sports, the motor sports, and gossip.

You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

You know what a hissy fit is and you don’t have em, you pitch em

Fried catfish is the other white meat.

We don't need no dang Driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive!!!

You understand these jokes and forward them to your Texas friends and those who just wish they were from TEXAS.

Source: Internet

Davison's

1970-1986 Logo

Davison's of Atlanta was the major competition to Rich's, once itself an Atlanta shopping institution. The chain took the Macy's name in 1986.

Founding

Davison's was founded around the time Rich's was founded as Davison-Paxon and later Davison-Paxon-Stokes, rising from the same Civil War ashes from which Rich's rose. While what was then known as M. Rich Brothers Dry Goods Company remained a family owned store, Davison-Paxon-Stokes sold out to R.H. Macy & Co. in 1925.


Davison's Flagship store. 180 Peachtree St.

By 1927, R.H. Macy built the huge Peachtree Street store that still stands today. The location no longer as a department store though. Owned by Taconic Investment Partners, it is now known as 180 Peachtree and is partly vacant, although it does contain offices for Level3 and others on upper floors. There are about 185,000 square feet of potential retail or museum space on the three lower levels: roughly 75,000 square feet on the first floor, 50,000 square feet on the mezzanine, and 60,000 square feet on the lower level.

The downtown Davison's store was a classic example of a downtown shopping experience. The main entrance on Peachtree features a very stately marble-floored cosmetics and jewelry area, modelled after Macy's flagship store on Herald Square in New York. There is a mezzanine overlooking the level with escalators leading to that floor. A bank of elevators in the rear serves floors from the basement through the sixth floor. The mezzanine and the third floor connected with the parking garage across Carnegie Way. When the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel opened next door in 1976, an entrance connected the two buildings, although the difference in floor heights required several steps up from Macy's into the hotel.

Davison's was owned by R.H. Macy & Co for sixty years before the name change. The chain made no effort to disguise its affiliation with Macy's. Advertisements clearly stated "Davison's - a division of R.H. Macy & Co." and charge cards from Davison's were usable at Macy's and Bamberger's (and vice versa).

Growth

Over time, the Davison-Paxon Company name was shortened to simply Davison's. Not long after, the company embarked on an aggressive expansion plan across Georgia and South Carolina. Locations opened in the downtowns of Athens, Augusta, Macon and Columbus, as well as a store in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. During this time, Rich's remained exclusively in Atlanta. In Augusta, Davison's competed with the J.B. White chain and in Columbus, Kirven's was its main rival. In 1959, Davison's opened its first suburban location at Lenox Square Mall along with Rich's.

Throughout the 1960's, Rich's began to very aggressively expand in the suburbs while Davison's remained a downtown player for the most part. However, Davison's did open one mall location at the now-demolished Columbia Mall (later known as Avondale Mall) near Avondale Estates. Davison's expanded once again in the 1970's and 1980's with locations at Cumberland, Southlake, Gwinnett Place, Shannon, Northlake and Perimeter Malls. New locations also replaced the downtown stores in all the other cities mentioned except Columbus, which faced stronger competition from regional chains, and Columbia, where the downtown Macy's store closed and was left vacant. The new Davison's stores were typically white brick with small glass atriums at the entrance. An example of this style is still visible at Northlake Mall and the Bloomingdales at Perimeter Mall.

Mergers

In the mid-1980's, Macy's began to consolidate its regional divisions to streamline its corporate structure. In January 1985, Davison's and Macy's Midwest were combined into one division, Macy's Atlanta.

Macy's slowly began to retire the Davison's name. In 1984, the logo was changed to the same font of its more famous counterpart in the ITC Avant Garde font.


Davison's/Macy's Banner from 1985.

By early 1986, all Davison's stores were formally renamed Macy's. In late 1986, the first Atlanta store to begin under the Macy's name opened at Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw.

Final Act

By spring 2003, most all former Davison's stores were closed when Rich's and Macy's were consolidated under the "Rich's-Macy's" nameplate. That same year, the historic downtown Davison's/Macy's store on Peachtree Street was also closed. This ended the era of department-store shopping in downtown Atlanta. All of the old Davison's mall stores in Atlanta were left vacant except for three locations. The Perimeter Mall and Lenox Square locations were closed, renovated, and reopened several months later as Bloomingdale's in late 2003. The Northlake location was re-branded as Rich's-Macy's before changing back to simply Macy's two years later. One floor of the Town Center location, which had originally opened as Macy's, became a Rich's-Macy's Furniture Gallery location. It is now a Macy's Furniture Gallery location and a Macy's Furniture Clearance Center on the upper level, and now has a Macy's Men's Store on the lower level.

The remainder of Davison's former locations remain vacant except for the locations at Cumberland Mall, Avondale/Columbia Mall, and Augusta Mall. The Cumberland Mall location was torn down in late 2005 for a major overhaul at the 32-year-old center, a detached Costco now sits just to the west of the Davison's footprint. The Avondale/Columbia Mall location was completely demolished with the rest of the mall for a Wal-Mart SuperCenter. The Augusta Mall location was open till 2006 as a Macy's Furniture Showroom. It has closed to make way for a lifestyle center similar to Cumberland Mall, another General Growth Properties mall.

Source: Internet

Lullwater

This brief history of Lullwater provides an overview of the forces that have helped to shape and reshape the unique assets and identity of the land; it was written as part of the Lullwater Comprehensive Management Plan for the preserve developed by the Joint Committee of the University Senate's Committee on the Environment and the President's Lullwater Task Force in meetings from May 2001 until October 2002.]

Broadly speaking, the earlier history of Lullwater mirrors its recent history––the ongoing superimposition of human constructions on the natural topography and vegetation.

The place called Lullwater passed through four stages in its history: Piedmont forest; hunting grounds for the Cherokee and Creek nations; site of farms, mills, and residences for European American settlers; and finally as a resource for Emory University, which has used it alternately to house the president, to sell for profit, to build on, and to preserve for recreation and education.


Traces of most of the earlier stages remain. Although most of the old-growth trees were cut, there are still vestiges of the Piedmont mixed pine and hardwood forest described in the 1986 Murdy-Carter Report. No traces of the Native American presence have been reported although signs of campsites have been found further downstream. The only trace of early European settlers within the original Lullwater property is the cemetery at the top of the hill on the Clairmont Campus. The cemetery belonged to land donated by Naman Hardman for a meeting house in the 1820s. Traces of Washington Jackson Houston’s grist mill (replacing a saw mill set up by Hardman) can be found just downstream of Lullwater. Walter Candler, who purchased the land in 1925, contributed the name Lullwater itself, the residence and its landscaped grounds, the dam and the artificial lake, and the development of the 44-acre University Apartments site that is now the location of Emory’s Clairmont Campus.

The main thrust of Emory’s stewardship since it acquired the land in 1958 has been sale or development of the land and maintenance of the residence and its grounds. Preservation of the remaining forest has been mostly a passive result of non-development. In the early 1960s, the northern section of Lullwater was given over to the new Yerkes National Primate Research Center and, later, 20 acres of the eastern section were sold to the U.S. government for construction of the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Two acts stimulated the production of the Murdy-Carter report in 1985 which called for the protection of the remaining land. These were the dredging of Candler Lake and the sale of five acres of land to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1999 Emory built a shuttle road along the southern edge of the property. In response to the outcry from the Emory community, President William M. Chace pledged that he would protect the land from further encroachment, and he created the Lullwater Management Task Force to fulfill that purpose.

Chronology

1820s After taking the land from the Cherokee nation, settlers divided it into landlots that were distributed by lot. Peter Roadlander and William Pace were "winners" of the Lullwater area. Almost immediately they sold their lots to others. Naman Hardman bought two of the four lots that overlap current Lullwater boundaries and, in 1826, he deeded two acres for a meeting house which is marked by the site of a cemetery on the Clairmont campus. Hardman’s Church was destroyed by General Sherman in the Civil War (Sherman headquartered just a couple of blocks away on Clairmont Road while overseeing the Battle of Atlanta). (Sams 1998, p. 2; Rinard 1983, p.1. Sternberg 2003.)

1840 Dr. Chapman Powell (1798-1870) bought portions of the Lullwater land lots, but Hardman retained ownership of his sawmill located at the site of Houston’s grist mill. It was said that Powell offered his medical services to the Cherokees as well as to the settlers. (Sams 1998, p. 2-7)

1857 Powell purchased another 180 acres of land from Ezekiel Mason, which included the eastern edge of what became the Lullwater preserve. (Sams 1998, p. 10)

1863 James Oliver Powell (1826-1873), son of Chapman, bought the 180 acres from his father. (Sams 1998, p. 10)

1863 Washington Jackson Houston (1831-1911) bought 600 acres from Chapman Powell, his father-in-law. Houston farmed the land, ran the mill, and worked for Western & Atlantic railway as a transportation and freight agent. (Historical Marker Application 1995)

1922-25 Harry J. Carr leased then bought Houston property around the old Houston Mill (on both sides of Houston Mill Road). He renovated the mill house and built a home across the street [now the Houston Mill house]. ("Houston Mill." Box 71. DeKalb Historical Society Archives.)

1925-26 Walter T. Candler, son of Asa Candler (founder of Coca-Cola and donor in 1914 of the original 75 acres in Druid Hills to Emory), bought the remainder of Houston’s property (250 acres) and built "Lullwater Farms."

Candler’s main business was raising and racing horses. A "practice" track was located on the present site of the VA Medical Center. In 1951-2 Candler’s horse "Duke of Lullwater" was a winning harness racer. Candler also owned 41 head of Hereford cattle, hogs, and chickens. A cattle pasture surrounded the artificial lake (created in 1952). The stone gate dismantled in 2002 at the entrance to Williams Lane was the original estate entrance. Candler hunted possums in the woods of what is now the Clairmont Campus. (Suburban Gazette. November 12, 1958. Woodruff Library "Lullwater.")

Lullwater House was designed by architect Lewis E. Crook and constructed by his business partner Ernest D. Ivey in the style of 16th century English country estates. (Funderburk 1994) The house was built from stone quarried on the site; the hole was filled up to make a swimming pool. The dam and powerhouse on South Fork Peachtree Creek furnished electricity to the house in early years. Private waterworks pumped water from springs located next to the biology research pond. (Emory Alumnus, Nov. 1958, pp. 4 ff.; Platt 1970.)

According to a 1985 Emory Magazine article, "Ivey and Crook’s success with Lullwater led to their being named unofficial architects for Emory. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Crook designed some forty buildings" on the Emory campus, including the Candler Library, the Alumni Memorial University Center (now part of the Dobbs University Center), and the Administration Building. Crook also built the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Druid Hills High School, and the Alumni Hall of Emory University. (Thomas 1996)

In the 1920s Metropolitan Opera stars were frequent guests to the house. Barbecues were served in the clubhouse on the lake (site of VA Hospital), and there were sometimes boat races on the lake. At other times, guests would gather in the boxes surrounding the race track to watch horse races. On the Fourth of July fireworks were exploded over the lake. Each spring, the Candlers opened Lullwater Farms for an annual Easter egg hunt for the children of the Atlanta Child’s Home. (Gwin 1972, p. 2G. Woodruff Library, Candler Collection Folder 4.)

1926-62 Ernest Richardson served as the first Lullwater caretaker. ("He made Lullwater Bloom.")

1950 Candler sold 43.5 acres for the development of University Apartments (acquired by Emory in 1986; now site of Clairmont Campus). (Hauk 1999, p. 87.) L. H. Fitzpatrick, C.E., mapped Candler property. Candler in March 1958 told Emory that this survey was still accurate, and a copy was given to Emory. (Letter 1958.)

1952 The lake in its present form was created by diverting the creek upstream of the dam into its present channel and by dredging the original creek basin. (Platt 1970)

1958 Emory purchased the remaining 183 acres of the Candler estate. The Emory’s Board of Trustees Chairman said that the property gave Emory "stretching room" for university growth. It was speculated that the house might be used as the president’s house or it might be "razed," and/or that a large part might be left undeveloped for athletic fields and other activities. (Wheel. Oct. 16, 1958.) More than half the property was described as "virgin woods," chiefly white oaks and poplars. (Emory Alumnus, Nov. 1958, pp. 4 ff.) Emory sold a 100-acre tract north of Peachtree Creek on Houston Mill Road to help pay for the Candler estate. 127 acres of the estate lay south of Peachtree Creek. It was speculated that the remaining 58 acres north of Peachtree Creek might be sold for business purposes. ("A Report …" 1960.)

In the same year Dr. Robert Platt created a Radiation Research Field Station on the southeastern side. Radioactive materials were placed in a shaft to study their effects on native plants and animals. (See Platt 1964 and Emory Alumnus, Feb. 1959, p. 17. For an example, see Franklin McCormick's 1962 thesis Effects of ionizing radiation on a natural plant community. There is a photo on Plate III.)

Emory President S. Walter Martin "preferred not to live in the new official residence of the Emory president, believing it to be too isolated." For part of the time it served as a dormitory for researchers from the School of Business. (Hauk 1999. p. 117.)

By 1960, Lullwater’s future development and use had not been decided and members of the Emory community asked for recreational access. (Wheel. April 28, 1960)

1961 Official names were given to the house and lake––Lullwater House and Lullwater Lake (the latter’s name eventually was changed to Candler Lake. Woodruff Library, Candler Collection Folder 4)

1962 The Biology department established a 20-acre Biological Field Station on the property––one section in the area between the lake and creek now dominated by privet and one section around the Biology Research Pond. (Emory Magazine, 1962.) An old cabin was refurbished to serve as a laboratory on a knoll above the pond and a micrometeorological tower was erected at each site to study bugs and air at different heights. (Platt 1970) The towers fell into disuse and were pulled down (but not removed) in the early 1990s after high school students were discovered in the towers. (Prof. Don Shure, Committee on the Environment field trip to Lullwater, 2002)

Plans were made to locate the Yerkes National Primate Research Center on 26 acres, partly on Lullwater property and the rest on what used to be the Harry J. Carr property on the area now known as Harwood forest. (Myers 1963)

1963 Newly appointed 16th University President Sanford Saverhill Atwood became the first president to occupy Lullwater House. (Thomas 1996)

25.98 acres were sold to the U.S. government for the Veterans Administration Hospital (later medical center); the building was dedicated in 1967. (Woodruff Library, Topographical Map 1963.)

The first set of ground rules for use of Lullwater by Emory faculty, staff, and students was published. (Woodruff Library, "Lullwater")

Yerkes moved into its new facilities. (Groundbreaking 1964)

1966 Three monkeys of the Macaca Mulatta species lived on the island in Candler Lake for a few months. Bryan W. Robinson, M.D. put them there because the island was said to approximate closely their natural habitat in India. "The experiment was not a 100% success because the monkeys did not stay on the island," he said. (Monkey 1966)

1970 Robert Platt and students in his ecology class published the first comprehensive report on Emory’s natural environment; there were frequent references to Lullwater. (Platt 1970)

1971 Motivated by the report, an Environmental Awareness Committee of the Student Government Association was created and students cleaned up South Fork Peachtree Creek at the dam. (Cleaning 1971)

1974 Chemistry Department buried chemicals in Lullwater when it moved from the humanities building to the chemistry building. (Burbanck 1995, Cropper 1974)

1977 James T. Laney became the second Emory president to occupy Lullwater House.

Alistair Cooke in a BBC broadcast "Letter from America" called Emory the "most beautiful campus in America" with "plunging hills and gardens and little lakes, all set off with towering trees"… "Visiting Emory was like walking into the Garden of Eden." (Woodruff Library, "Lullwater")

1986 Emory purchased the 44-acre University Apartments property that was originally part of Lullwater Farms (Hauk 1999, p. 203.) and sold five acres of Lullwater property on the other side of Peachtree Creek to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (Prof. Eloise Carter 2002).

Silt from a dredging of Candler Lake was dumped behind an artificial dam on the hill above. The dam eventually breached and large quantities of silt flowed back into the lake and the biology research pond. The sale of land to Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the dredging of Candler Lake led Professors William Murdy and Eloise Carter to produce their report that year on the "Status of Forested Land of Emory University," and others proposed formation of a University Senate Committee on the Environment. (Prof. Don Shure, Committee on the Environment field trip, 2002. Prof. Eloise Carter, 2002. Prof. William Murdy, email 11/2/02.)

1987 Publishers Clearinghouse used a photo of the Lullwater House in an advertisement without permission. Caption read "Enter Today––Win it All." (Atlanta Journal. Dec. 30, 1987. pp. 1A, 7A. and Dec. 31, 1987. See Woodruff Library "Lullwater")

1990 Prof. William Burbanck, retired, reported to a faculty environmental meeting that hazardous chemicals had been buried in Lullwater. (Burbanck 1995)

1994 William M. Chace became Emory’s president, the third to occupy Lullwater House. Renovation of Lullwater House begins. (Thomas 1996)

1994-97 Clean up of hazardous materials was undertaken at Lullwater. (Emory Wheel. Sept. 9, 1994, p. 5. "Clean up of Lullwater hazardous waste site planned" Emory Report Vol. 48. no. 13. November 27, 1995; Emory Report. Vol. 48, no. 21. Feb. 12, 1996. "Lullwater Soil Tested" Emory Report. Vol. 48, no. 21. Feb. 12, 1996. "Final phase of Lullwater clean-up begins." Emory Report. Vol. 48, no. 29. April 15, 1996. "Lullwater clean-up in progress." Emory Report. Vol. 48. No. 29. May 6, 1996. "Department of Natural Resources gives green light to unrestricted use of Lullwater toxic site" Emory Report. Vol. 49. No. 33. June 9, 1997.)

1990s Campus publications reported that Lullwater was the site of many recreational and fundraising events, especially foot races.

1996 A national tour of leading nature writers and poets included a nature walk in Lullwater. ("Forgotten Language Tour to feature readings, nature walk." (Emory Report. Apr. 8, 1996.)

1997 A jury indicted a suspect in sex crimes committed in Lullwater. (Emory Wheel. Feb. 17, 1997.) The university inaugurated a new master plan. Students cite Lullwater as one of their favorite "hang-out spots." (Emory Wheel. Feb. 18, 1997.)

Six court summonses were issued to individuals walking unleashed dogs in Lullwater. (Emory Wheel. Feb.21, 1997.)

1998-99 Campus planners propose a shuttle road in Lullwater. A public forum to discuss the road was held, and the issue was vigorously debated during meetings of the Students Government Association, Employee Council and University Senate committees. The road was approved and completed in fall 1999—it was built along the edge of Lullwater and its use restricted to alternative fueled vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. (See several articles and letters in Emory Wheel and Emory Report in 1998 and 1999. See also "Chace is determined to keep his promise not to build any more parking decks on campus." Atlanta Journal Constitution. Dekalb Extra; Pg. 01JA. Mar. 18, 1999)

2000 As an outgrowth of the debate over the construction of the shuttle road, now named Starvine Way, President Chace appointed the Lullwater Management Task Force Committee, charging the task force to: ensure Lullwater’s boundaries and prohibit further encroachment; review all proposals for recreational, educational and/or ecological use of the land; monitor access points; and explore opportunities to maintain and enhance Lullwater’s ecological balance through reforestation and landscaping projects. (Emory Report. Feb. 7, 2000; Apr. 3, 2000.)

2001 In response to a request by the VA Medical Center for Emory to build a bridge across Peachtree Creek, the Lullwater Management Task Force and the University Senate Committee on the Environment set up a joint committee to create a Comprehensive Management Plan for Lullwater that, among other benefits, would provide a framework for evaluating such proposals.

2002 "Rabid cat bites two in Lullwater Park."

Source: Internet

The Candler Family

Callanwolde was the home of the family of Charles Howard Candler (1878-1957) from 1920 until 1959.



Howard Candler was the oldest son of Asa Griggs Candler (1851-1929), the Atlanta pharmacist who, in 1891 purchased the rights to the formula for Coca-Cola, which had been developed by another Atlanta pharmacist, John S. Pemberton, in 1886 as a tonic for most common ailments.


Asa Chandler

Howard Candler attended public elementary schools in Atlanta and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory College (a Methodist Episcopal institution that was at that time located in Oxford, Georgia). While in Oxford in 1895, Howard Candler received a keg of Coca-Cola syrup from his father that he shared with his classmates -- the first Coca-Cola ever seen there.

After graduating from Emory in 1898, Howard Candler attended Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons for two years and the University of Bellvue Hospital Medical College for one year. Much later in life, in 1942, he received the Doctor of Laws degree from Emory University, which was by then located in Atlanta.

In 1903, Howard Candler married Flora Harper Glenn. The couple had three children, Charles Howard, Jr. (born 1904), Catherine Harper (Mrs. William Warren) (born 1906), and Mary Louisa (Mrs. Alfred Eldridge) (born 1912).

The Candlers, Coca-Cola and Emory University

Emory University has been, and still is today, frequently called "Coca-Cola U" because of the long and generous history of patronage by both the Candler family and the Coca-Cola Company that they founded.

In 1914, the decision was made to move Emory College from Oxford, Georgia. Howard's uncle, Bishop Warren Akin Candler, was President of Emory College and the Chairman of the Methodist Episcopal Education Commission. Atlanta's Chamber of Commerce pledged $500,000 if the new Emory University would locate in the city, and in 1915 Asa Griggs Candler donated a $1,000,000 endowment to the institution.

In 1915, Henry Hornbostel was engaged to design the new Emory campus in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta. The following year, Howard Candler, who had been a vice president of Coca-Cola since 1906, became the company's president, a position he held until his retirement from the company in 1923 (following its acquisition by the Woodruffs). His new position as head of the company meant that Howard Candler would now be the principal benefactor of Emory University. Work on his new home, Callanwolde, was begun the following year near the Emory campus and designed by Hornbostel.


The Candlers clan has lived by a motto, codified in Coca-Cola founder Asa Candler's will and well-known to his five children long before he died almost a century ago. Here is the Candler family in 1895: (counterclockwise, from bottom left) William, Asa, Walter, daughter Lucy, mother Lucy, Charles Howard, and Asa Jr.

In 1929, Howard Candler became chairman of the board of trustees of Emory University, a position he held until his death in 1957. He continued the family's history of generous financial support of the institution as well. In 1947, for example, he gave the University assets valued in excess of $15,000,000.

And, two years following Howard Candler's death, his widow donated the Callanwolde estate, along with many of the original furnishings, to Emory University. Emory subsequently sold the property to the First Christian Church, which retained ownership until the citizens of DeKalb County rallied to acquire Callanwolde in 1971

Candler Ancestry and the Callanwolde Name

Candler family lore holds that William Candler of Newcastle-upon-Tyne served as an officer in Cromwell's Army during the Irish Rebellion of the mid-17th century. Candler served in Sir Hardress Waller's Regiment and after the end of the campaign was elevated to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel for "meritorious conduct in the field" by a grateful Cromwell and Parliament and granted lands in the Barony of Callan, County Kilkenny. He brought his wife, Anne Villiers, widow of Capt. John Villiers, and family over to Ireland and made their Irish home at Callan Castle. The name "Callanwolde" is based on this family connection to the Irish town of Callan and the Old English word for "woods" ("wolde").

Recent genealogical research suggests that parts of this legend are, in fact, true, although as happens with all things, some details have been lost, changed, and exaggerated over the years.


Links:

Callenwolde in Pictures

Chandler Family Heirs To Coca Cola

The House Of Chandler

Chandler Family Crest And Name History

Atlanta's Candler family story told in new book by Emory

Family Tree for Asa Griggs Candler

The Candler Family History

Family Tree for Asa Griggs Candler

Source: Internet