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About ‘Through This Window’ Columns and the Author

Columns by Ethelene Dyer Jones under the general title “Through This Window” with each column having its own title according to the subject she writes about in a particular week, have been published in The News Observer, Blue Ridge, Georgia, since April 5, 1990 through the present.

The author chose ‘Through This Window’ as a symbolic title for the series. She wished to convey that she was looking backward into history and remembrance, presently at current events, and forward into the future with implication of how history affects both the present and the future. She writes narratively to record and introspectively to analyze. Eventually the editors at the newspaper chose to drop the general title, “Through This Window”—but each column the author sends for publication weekly still bears that designation. For the purposes of this blog, therefore, “Through This Window” will accompany each title.

Although published by The News Observer, the columns are copyrighted by the author. Therefore, please contact the author for permission to quote any part of these columns.

She sincerely hopes readers will enjoy her view “Through This Window” and learn much of history and life as it was lived out in past generations. Thank you for your interest.

Ethelene Dyer Jones is a retired educator and free-lance writer. She was born in Union County, Blairsville, Ga. She received college degrees from Truett McConnel, Cleveland, GA (AA); Mercer University, Macon, GA (BA); Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC (MA in Ed.); and The University of Georgia (SEd). She was married 61 years to the Rev. Grover D. Jones who died in 2011. The couple had two children, Keith and Cynthia, and have seven grandchildren and currently fourteen great grandchildren, with three more expected shortly. Mrs. Jones lived in various towns in Georgia, with Epworth, Georgia being the longest residence from 1960-2003. She currently resides in Milledgeville, GA where she keeps active still as a creative writing and reading instructor, a writer, and an editor, helping other writers with their publications. She has two books of poetry published, The Singing in the Wood (1984); and Mother and Child Reunion (1995, jointly with her son). She assisted in writing, compiling and editing books: Faith Through Flood and Fire: A History of First Baptist Church, McCaysville, GA (1983); Facets of Fannin: A History of Fannin County, Georgia (1989); One Hundred Years of Heritage and Hope: A History of Morganton Baptist Association (1993); Cemeteries of Fannin County, Georgia (2003); Facing Forward: A History of Fannin County Schools (2013).

She is now working on a book of her memoirs and more chapbooks of poetry which she hopes to publish soon. She has often been asked to publish in book form columns from papers for which she has written, “Through This Window” series in The News Observer. Blue Ridge, GA; “Through Mountain Mists” series in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA; “An Appalachian Voice” series in The Pickens County Progress, Jasper, GA, and others.

(-Ethelene Dyer Jones, 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061; edj0541@windstream.net. 478-453-8751)

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Who Was James Walker Fannin, Jr?

Fannin County was created by an act of the Georgia Legislature at its 1853-1854 session and approved by the official signature of Governor Herschel V. Johnson on January 21, 1854.
     Fannin County was formed from land in both Gilmer and Union Counties, each of which had been created in 1832 from portions of what formerly was a large area of land from which the Cherokee Indians had been removed prior to and during the Trail of Tears.
     Fannin County was named for Colonel James Walker Fannin, Jr. Who was this man for whom Fannin County was named?
     For those among us with a bent toward history, we sometimes go out of our way to chase down historical clues. Such was the case when my husband, the Rev. Grover D. Jones, and I made a trip to Texas. We went there on a search for Fannin County history. We were picking up facts about Fannin County’s namesake, Colonel James Walker Fannin, Jr. Our trek yielded interesting tidbits of history and was a pleasurable pursuit.
     We knew in advance of the trip the basic facts about James Walker Fannin, Jr. He was known as “The Hero of Goliad” because of his contribution militarily to the Texas War for Independence against Mexico. His record stood him in good favor with Georgia legislators in January, 1854 when they considered a name for the new county established in North Georgia from Gilmer and Union.
     Born on January 1, 1804 in Georgia, son of Dr. Isham Fannin, he was adopted by his maternal grandfather, James W. Walker. That explains the “Walker” as his middle name, and why he sometimes went by the last name, “Walker.”
     At the early age of 15, July 1, 1819, he entered West Point Military Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He studied there two years, withdrawing in November, 1821.
     He married Minerva Fort on April 24, 1828. They had two daughters, Missouri (b. July 17, 1830) and Minerva (b. in 1832). He lived in Troup and Twiggs Counties in Georgia, tending plantations. He owned slaves.
     In 1827 he established one of the first ten stores begun in the new trading town of Columbus on the Chattahoochee River in Muscogee County. He served in various city and county government offices there, and was the brigade inspector of the Georgia Militia at Columbus.
     Fannin had a close friend in Columbus, M. B. LaMarr, publisher of “The Columbus Enquirer” newspaper. Fannin and LaMarr left for Texas in the fall of 1834. Their joint enterprise was a slave-trading business, fed by the large plantations established on land grants received by settlers to the Brazos River section of Texas.
     Evidence in letters from Fannin indicate that he was successful in his business. In 1834 he wrote: “My last voyage from the Island of Cuba with one hundred and fifty three succeeded admirably.”
     He jointly owned a large plantation on the Brazos River near Valesco with Joseph Mims, another Texas settler from Georgia. Fannin had thirty six slaves there. The rich black soil grew pecan trees, peach trees and cotton. Longhorn cattle grazed the grasslands. All seemed in readiness for a peaceful and prosperous life along the Brazos River.
     But forces were at work to interrupt the serenity of Texas settlers from Georgia and other southeastern states. Fannin’s military training and his love for freedom combined to make him an apt candidate to enter the Texas War for Independence. That he did, with gusto.

(Next: Colonel James Walker Fannin and the Brazos Volunteers).

[©2015. Ethelene Dyer Jones. First published in The News Observer, Blue Ridge, Georgia, Wednesday, July 15, 1992, Section A, Page 23.]

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