Some of Georgia's "Firsts" ~ The Savannah was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, leaving Savannah on 20 May 1819, en route to Liverpool, England. ~ The University of Georgia at Athens, chartered in 1785, was the first state-chartered university in America. ~ Wesleyan College at Macon, Bibb County was the first college in the world chartered to grant a degree to women. Founded in 1836, it awarded the first degree in 1840 to Catherine Brewer of Macon, mother of Admiral William S. Benson, USN (1855-1932) -- First Chief of Naval Operations. ~ A Georgia Native American, Sequoyah, of the Cherokee tribe, was the first to create an Indian alphabet in 1821. ~ The first Native American newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, was published in Georgia in 1828. ~ Georgia was the first state to establish a school for African American nurses, and the first to grant a certificate to an African American nurse at Spelman College in Atlanta, 1881. ~ The first two sororities in the world were organized at Wesleyan College, Macon, 15 May 1851 - Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu. ~ The first school of forestry in the South was established at the University of Georgia in 1906. ~ Georgia was the first state to declare that married women should have full property rights with The Married Women's Act of 1866. ~ The first American orphanage, Bethesda, was established in Savannah by George Whitefield in 1741. ~ On 2 March 1912, the Girl Scouts of America was formed in Savannah by Juliette Low. ~ The first Moravian Church was established in Georgia in 1735. ~ The first African American Baptist Church was established at Silver Bluff, Georgia in 1733. ~ The first general African American hospital in the United States was built in Georgia in 1832. ~ A Georgian, Dr. Crawford W. Long, first discovered and demonstrated the use of ether as an anesthetic in surgical operations in 1842. ~ The Ladies' Garden Club of Athens, organized in 1891, was the first such organization to name permanent officers, adopt a constitution and bylaws and be conducted according to parliamentary procedure. ~ The first silk exportation from the colonies was sent from Savannah and made into a dress for the Queen of England. ~ The first sea-going vessel of iron, the John Randolph, was built in Savannah in 1834. Genealogy Links for Georgia Researchers Uncover Your Peachy Past! Anchored Yesterdays: the Log Book of Savannah's Voyage Across a Georgia Century Annals of Athens, Georgia, 1801-1901 Also includes some genealogies of Athens people and some marriages of Athens people. Georgia History in Outline  A History of Savannah and South Georgia Savannah, 1733 to 2000  Savannah, Georgia Directories, 1888-91 Directories listing more than 72,200 names for Savannah, Georgia from 1888-91. Copyright © 2004 - 2006, 2007 S. Lincecum This page may be freely linked to, but never reproduced! |
