Page 15 - DeKalb Bicentennial Flipbook

Oglethorpe University was chartered by the State of Georgia
in 1835 and is named for Georgia’s founder, James Edward
Oglethorpe. One of its distinguished alumni is the poet, critic,
and musician Sidney Lanier, who graduated in 1860.

Photos do not exist of the first log cabin courthouse, or paved for the North to stop secession by war’s end
the one that replaced it and burned down. A third was built in 1865.
but ultimately torn down to make a grander building. DeKalb The Swanton House, circa 1825, is the oldest building
began work in 1898 on its fourth courthouse with modern in Decatur. Union Brigadier General Thomas W. Sweeny
amenities that included a toilet room for women. Walls were operated his headquarters here during the Civil War. Bullets
constructed of two layers of bricks made in Decatur and are embedded in the wall. Next door is the Mary Gay House,
covered with granite from Lithonia. This courthouse opened where Mary Ann Harris Gay lived from 1850 to 1914.
its doors through 1967 when the county built a newer one. Her memoir, Life in Dixie During the War, was a source of
The original pioneers would hardly recognize the pace inspiration for Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone With The
of innovation in 50 years. Education was its own emerging Wind. Much of the area was forested, and fortunately a large
industry. Oglethorpe University was established just 13 years old growth section is conserved at Fernbank Forest.
after the founding of the County. The DeKalb County School Memorial Drive began as East Fair Street, one of the
District was established in 1873 after residents raised $4,200 first streets in Atlanta. It was named for the 19th century
to build the headquarters. Today it is Georgia’s third largest fairgrounds in Grant Park, which appeared on maps as early
school district. as the 1860s. East Fair Street led east from the downtown
Politics were simmering at the beginning of the 1860s. commercial area to residential neighborhoods.
Secessionist states were ready to go to war over what was DeKalb County was a land that in 50 years saw the
then termed State’s Rights, but as history would reveal, was a resilient indigenous people leave, its first homegrown
war over holding black humans in bondage for forced labor. industries and schools, and one of the Civil War’s
Most of DeKalb’s citizens voted not to secede, but more votes defining battles.
statewide made Georgia one of the 11 states that seceded from
the Union.
The Civil War began in 1861 and in July of 1864, as
Union General Sherman directed troops to the coast of
Georgia, some of the Battle of Atlanta occurred around the
DeKalb County Courthouse along what is now DeKalb
Avenue. Sherman’s strategy was to destroy the railroads and
bridges that kept the towns supplied. Victorious and with DeKalb County continued to be largely
rural and agrarian until the 1960s.
many structures and mills burned to the ground, the way was

Sp i rit o f D eK alb – B i centen n ial 1822-2022 13