e​The story of the women of Savannah especially black women has only begun to be explored. Whether it be Mathilda Beasley, Susie King Taylor, Rebecca StilesTaylor, Leah Sears, and many others their contribution to Savannah and the larger world has been immense. They represent the best of Savannah and America. Mamie Williams was one of these brave and creative women.

Mamie was born in Savannah in April in 1872 to Reverend James and Sarah Miller. She was educated at Beach Institute and at Atlanta University. She would be married twice and widowed twice. And along the way she would make her mark in the politics of Savannah and America. It was during World War I that she first began to exhibit her commitment to be of service to the world. She would volunteer with the Toussaint L’Ouverture branch of the American Red Cross here in Savannah. She would accumulate 2,400 hours of volunteer time which in turn earn her recognition to commemorate her service. Her time in volunteering would give her the knowledge of how to organize as it did for so many of the women involved in the Toussain L’Overture branch.

She also became very involved in registering women to vote especially black women. Her registration drive so startled the Governor of Georgia that he stopped all women registration so the state legislators could pass ancillary laws to make the men more comfortable with the women vote. Mamie was credited with bringing 40,000 Georgia women to vote in the 1920 presidential election the first election that women could vote. She did this by flooding 160 counties of Georgia with literature, making speeches and picketing polling places. She was a Stacy Abrams before Abrams was even born or maybe Abrams is a Mamie Williams. Because of her hard and successful work in 1924 she made national history. She was the first woman from Georgian and first African American woman in the nation to serve on the National Republican Committee. She also became the first woman in US history to be allowed to have the floor at the Republican National Committee. She defended the seating of Black Republicans because of the white faction’s effort to unseat black Republicans of their power. The Atlanta World would say of her “As a modern Esther pleading for her people, she knew no compromise, accepted no quarter...Mrs. Williams will go down in history as the champion saint of her people, with her hands unstained and her conscious clear and with the consolation that at no time did temptation in its glaring disguise move her to deliver her people and her party for thirty pieces of silver.”

​When the political climate no longer allowed black participation in the political realm. She regeared her efforts. She was a charter member of the Federation of Southeast Federation of Colored Women’s Club, established in 1924. Her leadership qualities in organizing led Williams to be elected President of the Georgia Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and was awarded the Founder’s Gold Medal. She even was elected Vice-President of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, serving with such venerable women as Hallie Q. Brown, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, and Mary McLeod Bethune.

Meanwhile, back here in Savannah Williams was a member of the Interracial Commission of Georgia and the President of the Chatham County Colored Citizen Council. She fought for the black youth of Savannah she was the matron-in-charge of the Chatham County Protective Home for Colored Girls. She continued to work with Girl Scouts in Savannah and was recognized with a troop named in her honor. In the 1940s she led a movement to establish the Colored Recreation and Swimming Pool in Savannah and was instrumental in securing a grant to establish a state home for colored girls in Macon.

She was also a successful businesswoman who served as a Director of the historically black run Carver Bank and as Board Member of Central (City) State College in Macon. She was a leader not only a political and civic leader but also a leader in the business world.
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 In 1935 Williams was awarded the Waldorf Club silver loving cup for outstanding service. In recognition of her efforts on behalf of African-American women in Savannah, Williams was elected an honorary member of the Iota Phi Lambda Sorority. The Iota Phi Lambda Society was the first African American Greek-lettered business sorority established by African American business women In 2018 she was posthumously named a Georgia Woman of Achievement. She was an unstoppable dynamo that loved and lived in Savannah.
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Mamie Williams died in the Savannah Charity Hospital in 1951. In eulogizing Williams, Sol Johnson, editor of the Savannah Tribune, wrote:
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“In the passing of Mrs. (Mamie) George S. Williams, Savannah has lost another citizen...loyal to it to the core and a tireless champion of her people...Perhaps none of her activities gave her more satisfaction than her work with the Chatham Protective Home for Negro Girls and the Girl Scouts. Many children whom she mothered bear eloquent testimony of the devotion to a cause to which she gave the latter years of her life.”5
Mamie Williams was indeed a tireless fighter. She was a leader in state, regional, and national women’s clubs, fought for a Republican delegation representative of both black and white citizens of Georgia, and scored “firsts” for women in national politics. Although battle-tested, victorious, and at times standing as a “lone reed” speaking out on behalf of her people, Williams never flinched; she never gave in. Mamie George Williams was a beacon of light and hope for women across Georgia and the nation. She was truly an “Esther of her people.”
 
Mamie Williams is not necessarily a known name today in America because she was prophet calling out in a time of injustice. But her voice led the way for racial equality and justice who made things more equitable for her people and challenged the unjust systems of her day.

Savannah’s colonial history of course is the shortest of the original colonies in lieu of the fact we were the last of the original thirteen colonies. This of course leads to us not having as much about the origins and information on some of our Georgian Revolutionary heroes. It also is the reason that Georgia was often the last to join with the other colonies in participation in the Revolution. Afterall the first settlers of the colonies had only been on these shores forty- three years before the Declaration of Independence was signed. But be sure that we were on board. The British tired of the standstill in the Northern sphere of the Revolutionary developed a Southern strategy to change the pace of the war. They thought the newness of the colonies would mean the more colonists in the South would be Loyalists. They were proven wrong. They quickly found a hornet’s nest and themselves in retreat once the South organized their resistance.

One of Savannah’s patriots and founding fathers was Edward Langworthy (1738-1802). His story would start at Bethesda Orphan House of Savannah started by George Whitefield as an orphan. It is the oldest orphanage in the United States. He was educated in the school there. He would also stay to teach in the school. Some propose that his parents were some of the residents of the poorhouses in England that Oglethorpe would recruit for the original colonists of Georgia. As the Revolution progressed cities formed Committees of Safety to monitor the boycotts and other resistance to England. Langworthy became the secretary of this committee. He made such an impression that they sent him to the Continental Congress in 1778. He missed signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776 but was there to sign the Articles of Confederation in 1777 the precursor to the Constitution. He would serve the Congress meeting in Independence Hall of Philadelphia for two years. In 1785, looking to broaden his horizons he moved to Baltimore. He became involved by writing for a local paper for his first two years. 1787 became a big year in his life. He bought a part interest in a newspaper called The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser. He would also become the editor of the paper. That same year he began to teach the classics at the Baltimore Academy. He would do this for the next for the next four years. Along the way he would marry a lady named Wright and the two would have four children.
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At the end of his time at the Academy he moved to Elkton, Maryland in 1791. It was here he began to write his history of Georgia his home state. He would return to Baltimore to become the clerk of customs until his death by Yellow Fever in 1802. He would publish before his death one of the earliest memoirs of a founding Father. He wrote the biography/memoir on General Charles Lee from Virginia a controversial figure to some. This biography/memoir would make him one of the early historians of the Revolutionary History. Because he was buried at the Old Episcopal Church that was later demolished, we no longer know where he is buried.
 
The boy who was raised and taught in an orphanage would rise from nowhere to become a leader of the new country. His life resembled a true character of a novel from a Horatio Algier’s story. He would become a man of letters and prominence in both Savannah and Baltimore leading the country forward from its beginnings. The founder is now also an orphan in death as no one knows his burial place.  He may have been forgotten except for a signature on The Articles of Cofederation. But we do know he lived a life that helped create our new nation and opened the doors for others to have a chance as he once had.  

Savannah has a grand history of remarkable women. Whether it be Juliette Gordon Low, Flannery O’Connor, Leah Ward Sears, or many others the herstory of Savannah is remarkable. One of the seldom explored aspects of herstory in Savannah is the host of women journalists that have either worked or lived in Savannah. In my next few blogs, I will make my contribution to exploring the journalistic women of Savannah.

The world of Chicago journalism would be very different without the influence of Savannahians. In fact, the Chicago Defender would have never become the leading Black newspaper in the United States without Savannahians. The founder Robert S. Abbot (Robert Abbott: The Defender - Freeman's Rag)was born and raised in Savannah. His father was a minister and ran a local black journal here. Abbott groomed his nephew, to take his place (my next blog will talk about him) and one of their best reporters and columnist was Rebecca Stiles Taylor Savannahian (read my blog Rebecca Stiles Taylor: Leading the Way - Freeman's Rag. But the influence of Savannah does not stop at the Chicago Defender but one of the most beloved columnists of the Chicago Tribune (Chicago’s premier paper) was Mary Schmich born and raised in Savannah. 

Mary Schmich was born is Savannah and spent her childhood here. After graduating from Pomona College, she attended journalism at Stanford University. She would work for papers at the Peninsula Times Tribune, Orlando Sentinel but eventually in 1985 settled at the Chicago Tribune. Her column started in 1992 and would continue to 2021.  Along the way she earned money possibly showing her Savannah background as a ragtime piano player. Savannah Tom Turpin was credited with the first published rag by an African-American ("Harlem Rag" of 1897) In 1985 she also became the writer for the Brenda Starr, Reporter comic strip until it ended in 2011. The following year (2012) she earned a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her column in the Chicago Tribune. The Pulitzer committee wrote she received the award because of "her wide range of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city."  She won other awards in her career.  In 2017, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Headline Club and has been on every list of The Most Powerful Women in Chicago Journalism ever posted.

Various of her columns have made their contribution into the nomenclature of our society. “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young', the often quoted "Do one thing every day that scares you’. One column she wrote was a Commencement speech she would deliver if ever asked to. It is her Wear Sunscreen column in which she offers advice from her future self to her younger self ‘If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now. Wear Sunscreen would also become the name of her book of collections of her columns. The column would so resonant Baz Luhrmann would release a song ‘"Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" in which this column is read word for word. A quote on the column was even a Jeopardy question on January 21, 2019. It was even credited online to Kurt Vonnegut who when asked about his accreditation replied,” What I said to Mary Schmich on the telephone was that what she wrote was funny and wise and charming, so I would have been proud had the words been mine,” Vonnegut told the New York Times. He even had to break the news to his wife, who had the “graduation speech” sent to her and was proud of her husband. She asked him why he didn’t tell her he gave the commencement speech at MIT.

Her time at the Chicago Tribune ended when a corporation took over the paper. She had pleaded in her column for a billionaire Chicagoan to buy the paper to keep it under local ownership, but her pleas went unanswered. She resigned in 2021.
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So, you may say how do we know if her time in Savannah influenced her life, we need only look at her advice of wear sunscreen to know Savannah had an impact on her.’ Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth. But trust me on the sunscreen.’

Susie Chisholm is a native of Savannah. She also has developed a nationwide reputation as a sought-after sculptor of monuments, usually to individuals. She calls herself a portrait sculptor. She states,’ I do a great deal of research for all the historical projects I have been involved in. I investigate the subject’s history and personality, physical attributes, and the appropriate period clothing they would have worn. Historical accuracy is paramount and is the trademark of my sculptures.’ Her favorite quote that is placed in her studio reads, “It is not how life-like you make a sculpture, but how much life you give it.”,

 Her sculpture of Savannahian Johnny Mercer has become one of the more photographed pictures from Savannah. She implements a picture of the songwriter Mercer from the New York Times sitting on a fire hydrant reading the paper and makes it come to life on Ellis Square. A Savannahian sculpting a Savannahian to such acclaimed success is a testimony to the art town, Savannah. Chisholm was not always a sculptor. In fact, she became a sculptor late in life. She took a class in sculpture and fell in love with the art form. She says she was always an artistic person even from childhood.  With her father as an architect, and her mother with a degree in Interior Design, Susie's natural artistic talent was encouraged and developed with private art instruction during her childhood.   She spent her childhood summers at the popular Brookgreen Gardens in Myrtle Beach, SC. The garden was founded by Anna Hyatt Huntington one of our nation’s greatest sculptures. This fact may have opened the door in her heart and mind that she too could become a sculptor in what was and is a world dominated by men. Early on she would study graphic design at Georgia Tech. ‘She used her design skills in various jobs, including designing paper bags, creating billboard designs, and designing and building exhibits for the Savannah Science Museum’. Although she was able to make a career in graphic design and marketing it did not fulfill her artistic yearnings. This was not done until her class in sculpture.

It is amazing how prolific she has become when she was such a late bloomer when it came to sculpting. Any sculptor would have been proud of the previously mentioned Mercer sculpture but that is only the beginning of her oeuvre. She was commissioned for a monument to the resort island founder of Hilton Head Island Charles Fraser. Notably she captures Fraser on a walk with his trademark umbrella and pet alligator. She has recently sculpted short term Savannah resident buried here in Johnson Square (our first Historic Square) Nathaniel Greene. This sculpture stands in Valley Forge National Park.

But her monuments are not confined to the Savannah area or people. She has a sculpture of environmentalist Rachel Carson on Purdue University, Founding Father Sam Adams at the Boston Tea Party Museum, The Garden a sculpture of a woman relaxing in a garden in Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland, Colorado, and others. Her sculpture Quiet Time and Quiet Time in the Park can be found in several libraries.

Chisholm also has sponsored sculpture schools in Savannah and has taken on apprentices. She has been a promoter of sculpting in Savannah. As her work expands nationally and locally, she bears witness to Savannah as an arts city. She reminds us that not every artist is a transplant, but many are coming through our own schools and neighborhoods. We are reminded that as Savannah supports the arts and artists from anywhere, we grow a more thoughtful and creative class. Maybe one day we will not be noted as an arts city but as the art city.

Savannah has always been an art city. It has one of the oldest theaters in the South and the oldest Art Museum in the South along with other things will always make Savannah in the conversation of one of the great historical art centers of the South and the Nation. Savannah even has one of the more renown art schools in the Nation (Savannah College of Art and Design). Savannah is definitely making its mark in the art world. We also currently have two of the most sought-after sculptors in the Nation: Jerome Meadows and Susie Chisholm.  

What is interesting is neither were educated from SCAD our prominent local art school. They also have many other differences to mark how they came to be leaders in Savannah’s art community. Meadows was professionally trained at the acclaimed RISD, Chisholm took a local class on sculpting and was hooked. Meadows started as a young man and Chisholm started a sculpting career as a second career. Their styles are very different Chisholm is a hyper realist sculptor and Jerome is more stylish sculptor and offers an interpretation of some place or event. Chisholm’s studio can be found in the prominent City Market, home of many artist studios. Meadows’s studio is in old ice plant in a poor primarily black neighborhood. These two sculptors have work in Savannah and contributed to the culture of art that is Savannah.  So, in my next two blogs I will look at each respectively. Because of the fact both are still alive and sculpting and inventing I risk being challenged in my interpretations of their work. It is always much easier to write about the dead who cannot critique your work than to write about the living who can defend themselves against -you por writing. But it is with that caveat I would like to introduce you to the Sculptor and Artist Jerome Meadows.
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Jerome Meadows is originally from New Yok City. He moved to Savannah in 1997 where he resides and works in an old icehouse in the East side of Savannah. He has a BFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and a MFA from the University of Maryland. He has held teaching positions at the University of Maryland, College Park, Howard University, the College of Charleston, Maryland Institute College of Art. He was also the recipient of a Fulbright-Hayes study tour of Pakistan, traveling throughout the country with other educators and artists while studying traditional crafts and processes.

 His public work involves the design of large-scale public art projects. This would include the site layout, landscaping, along with including sculptural elements to complement the whole design. One of his most accomplished works is the Portsmouth, NH African Burying Ground in 2013. It was awarded NEA Art Works Grant for “The creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence”. His most recent work is found in Chattanooga. It is called the Ed Johnson Project. Johnson was lynched from the Walnut Street Bridge in 1906 after falsely being accused of rape. Despite multiple witnesses testifying to his innocence and a stay of execution delivered from the U.S. Supreme Court, an angry mob broke into the Hamilton County Jail and hanged Johnson from the bridge. 115 years after an angry mob lynched Ed Johnson from the Walnut Street Bridge Meadow’s work was unveiled on September 19, 2021.
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Of course, a project of this sort requires education and an awareness of the events. During the construction. Meadows led poetry workshops with Chattanooga public school students to write poems of their feelings about the event. He also did many interviews and lectures about the work. The work has been acclaimed across the nation.
He of course has other public works in places such as Silver Springs Armory in Maryland, Washington D. C, (as seen above)

​Below are a few of the projects he has worked on across the nation. Here in Savannah, he has worked on two public art projects. The Yamacraw Project seen below. This project I featured in my book Savannah’s Monuments: The Untold Stories. But much to the shame of the city it was vandalized and the City of Savannah has not repaired or offered a security plan to prevent future vandalism.

Meadows besides his many public projects is creating art of assemblages, large and small sculptures all the time. But at his heart he seems to enjoy his projects that involve the public. He said,” The beauty of public art, is that it’s not just one person calling the shots, you’re sitting at a table with a committee of people; it’s a whole other ball game. Fewer ass holes, good money to be made, and scale. I could now work in materials and sizes I could never afford before and after it’s done it has a permanent place. These projects were related to the social fabric. At the time the civil rights movement was in full swing, and the notion was that if you weren’t part of the solution, you were part of the problem. So, the question was presented to me, “Was I going to continue making work for the elite (commercial galleries) or for the community (public art)?”  A project he did with the Telfair Museums involved where he curated the Telfair collection juxtaposed with pieces of art he created for the occasion to engage the audience with new views of how to see the art.
 
As he states in his artist statement,” Art transports us from the comparatively limited domain of our mundane obligations into an ever-expanding realm of engaging possibilities - informing, inspiring and elevating us all.” Meadow’s work has challenged the nation and Savannah Community to remember and rethink the events of our collective history elevating us all. We are fortunate to have his influence and offerings here in Savannah. 

​One of the tragic stories of Savannah involved the Native American Toonahowie. Toonahowie was the nephew of Senauki the wife of the legendary mico Tomochichi of the Yamacraw tribe. It was Tomochichi who greeted General James Oglethorpe when he came to Savannah. Mary Musgrove and Tomochichi were the ones who paved the way for Oglethorpe and his colony to peacefully coexist with the Creeks. Tomochichi had seen the writing on the wall before and after the Yemassee War the last effort of the Creeks to demand justice from the South Carolinians by war. He had not fought in the war (one of the reasons he was on bad terms with the Creek leadership) and was now promoting with this new tribe an attempt to live in harmony with the English. In the Disputed lands he hoped that their disputes could be solved with mutual respect and justice. In the Creek Confederacy they traced their lineage through the woman. For some reason not clear Tomochichi and Senauki never had children. So Toonahowie was chosen by the two of them to be groomed as the mico of the tribe. The grooming of Toonahowie became more important with the advent of Oglethorpe and his colony. The colonists would make the job of mico more complicated. Now not only would he have to learn how to function as mico in the Creek Confederacy but also how to politic with the newly arrived colonists. To make his training more important and expedient Tomochichi was of advanced age when Oglethorpe and the colonists arrived.

The colonists were now in what was once referred to as the Disputable lands. This land they once had the freedom to roam was now changing to the more settled lands. This would mean the need to navigate the lands with the colonists tendencies to expand and accumulate as much land as possible for private use. Private use was a concept the Native Americans did not have. Land was communal among the tribes private land was small if any.

His training now involved learning English from Mary Musgrove and observing Tomochichi and his relations with the English. He was no longer on a similar track as the other young male tribe members and leaders. He would even attend church services to understand the English better. Tomochichi would even take him on his trip to England. He needed to have familiarity with the Trustees and their manners and ways of beings. It was there he would meet the young heir of the Earl of Cumberland. This would later lead him to suggest naming Cumberland Island after him. The English after all loved having things named after them. He also learned the art of diplomacy. While Senauki dressed as the English on the trip not to offend their sensibilities.  Tomochichi and he maintained their native attire. As leaders of the tribe they would not dress as the English but as the representatives of a proud Creek nation. It was the soft and hard approach to diplomacy.

He even exhibited his own growing diplomatic expertise. When he asked the Trustees for guns for his young tribal members so they could hunt and defend themselves and the colonists form other more hostile tribes the Trustees seem reluctant and on the verge of saying no. Thus, later in the meeting he picked up an available Bible read from it and then quoted the Lord’s Prayer to the astonished Trustees. They marveled that the ‘savages’ could be civilized and later would approve the guns that Toonahowie requested. Toonahowie was fast developing diplomatic ties and knowledge. He was the hope for the Creeks and Yamacraw tribes. Of course, becoming a leader of the Yamacraws required more than quoting Scripture. He also had to show the qualities of being a leader and among the different criteria for leadership in a Creek tribe was the need to prove yourself as a warrior. The same
thing has helped various presidents in our own society be recognized for their leadership qualities.

Toonahowie could be found in the forefront with his tribe members in the skirmishes with the Spanish. At the battle of the Bloody Marsh he led a heroic charge to make the Spanish retreat. He was shot in his right arm in the charge not flinching he changed his weapon to his other arm and continued in the charge. This was the battle that would become the last foray into Georgia territory by the Spanish. He continued to recruit soldiers from the Creeks for the colonist’s defense and lead them on scouting missions. It was on one of these missions that he was captured by another tribe. His tribe members tracked down Toonahowie and his captors to rescue him.  Unfortunately, Toonahowie was killed in the skirmish in this rescue attempt.

He was in his early twenties when this occurred. The hopes of his tribe and to a lesser extent the Creek nation that rested on him were lost. Although the Trail of Tears would not be denied. He may have negotiated a better world for the Creeks. So that is why I term the story of his life ‘Forever Young’.

 May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

The dreams of a united English and Yamacraw existence died that day. That dream would never grow old it would always be the hope of a young tribe left unfulfilled. After Toonahowie’s death the Yamacraws would slowly disperse into other tribes further west. Even his aunt, the great Senauki daughter of the ‘royal family Brims’ of the Creek nation and wife of the mico Tomochichi buried in the center of Savannah, would be treated ill by the English. They impeded on her promised land with settlers who showed no regards for the Creeks. When she took her grievance to Savannah’s court they denied her appeal because she as a Native American had no standing in Georgia. There was no Toonahowie to stand with her. The dream of Tomochichi would forever be deferred.
What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--
And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?
Langston Hughes

​The Forever Young Toonahowie and the dreams of the Creeks would now only lead to a trail of tears.

Mary Musgrove has been portrayed as a social climber, greedy, drunkard, voluptuous exotic, and uncaring. All of this comes from persons that were not her fans. Written accounts of white Europeans who were challenged by her. The negative accounts were usually because she pushed for what she thought was rightfully hers. One must remember that in European societies at the time women were to live their lives in private and not in public and politics and finances were left to the males. In Creek society women had a voice in the political world and the were a matrilineal society. European men were not accustomed to women such as Mary and she was not use to men such as them. She also had power when it came to the Europeans dealing with the Creeks. She was most of the time the only one in the room who could speak both languages. She would also become one of the wealthiest people in the Georgia Colony. Add to this the fact that she was born into the prominent Chief Brim family who was one of the most revered leaders in the Creek history and you have a failure to communicate well. Her ties with the military leaders at Fort Frederica were always an important aspect to southern Georgia and by default Savannah. She held strong footholds in both Creek and colonist societies for decades. No one else had this connection for as long. So, it is no stretch of the imagination that the early male leaders of the Georgia colony would feel uncomfortable with the power she controlled as a female not to mention their prejudices against Native Americans.
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The picture of Mary Musgrove that we have are presented by white males to the white Trustees of Georgia. The Europeans wrote the Native Americans spoke their histories.  The governors who reported back to the Trustees would present their case without a mutual presentation of Mary’s case. These are the records that have for the most part been used to interpret who Mary was. One of the other accounts frequently used was a middle-class English man who Mary basically fired for numerous reasons. To say the least they were biased accounts of who she was.

What can we say about Mary beyond what they write? She was apparently intelligent. She could speak with clarity in two languages. In fact her mastery of English and Muskogean were probably greater than most if not all her contemporaries. This is evidenced by her, and Moravian missionaries attempt to create the only written Creek language. Not only was she able to master two languages she taught herself accounting and how to run a rather big business venture. She maintained two trading posts and over five hundred farm acres. Anyone of these would have been a ‘career’ for most. But she also acted as interpreter, recruiter for Indian scouts and soldiers, and reported on Spanish and Native American activities of interest to the colonists. It is also believed that the property that she left in South Carolina at the bequest of South Carolinian Governor William Johnson was maintained by her and John for many years. She converted to Christianity although never leaving her Native American heritage and beliefs behind. We know this because she had theological discussions with John Wesley for hours according to his journals. All of this is to demonstrate that she had a significant intellect. We know that she was an articulate leader in the Creek community once diffusing a situation where Creeks and Cherokees were in a blood feud convincing the Creeks it was not to their advantage to seek revenge at a Creek council meeting of tribes.

She was a compassionate woman. When her first husband died Wesley writes in his journal after visiting his concern over her grief and needed to visit her again soon. She also acted as the conscience of the colony when the city of Savannah exiled two women who were pregnant without husbands from the city. This would have left them at the mercies of nature or the Native Americans. Mary stepped in to take both women in and offered them shelter, work, and nurture throughout their lives. She also grieved the lost of kin and friends because of a tactical error made by General Oglethorpe leaving them to defend a fort to close to the Spanish. The fort was lost and most of the soldiers in the fort lost their lives. She was deeply grieved and would return to her Native American tribal city (Coweta) to recuperate emotionally and spiritually. She apparently, even though many pointed out Oglethorpe’s gross military error, never severed her relationship with him.  She rescued the previously mentioned middle class man who caused her legal and reputational problems from angry male Native Americans who thought he was a bit too flirty with their wives.  She also showed passion if not compassion when the same man threatened her with a gun by disarming him and locking him up until he sobered up.

She was also loyal. Throughout her mistreatment by various leaders of the colonies and their refusal to grant her lands and funds for the vast and varied services she performed for the colony she never wavered in offering the young colony her assistance. Even through Oglethorpe’s tactical military mistake costing her friends and family, being jailed for her persistence, the loss of one of her trading posts because she was considered friendly to the English, being near financial disaster because of the colonists not paying her for her services, having her Christianity questioned by leaders of the colonists, and many other slights she always responded as she could when asked by the colonists for assistance.

​This is not to say that she was perfect. But she was more complex and developed than the English written records may have recorded. She was probably never the romantic historical fiction person depicted on several novels. She was one of the many remarkable women of Georgia who never quite attain their position in the story of Georgia as they should have.
 
 

​The historical founding of Georgia probably needs to go well before Oglethorpe traveled up the Savannah River on his boat with the colonists. Several years before Governor Johnson of South Carolina had asked Mary and John Musgrove to move to what we now know as Georgia and set up a trading post. That would help keep him and the South Carolinians aware of what was happening in the Native American world and as buffer from the Spanish in Florida. This land was called the ‘Disputed Lands’ and Spain, Native Americans, French and English made some claim on the land. Yet only the Native Americans can be said to have ‘settled’ any land in these parts.

Mary and John were an up-and-coming power couple in South Carolina. They had over five hundred acres of farmland and cattle (a rarity in that part of the colony). John also served in the South Carolina Militia. The governor looked to Mary and John to move from their successful farm in South Carolina to Georgia to anticipate and inform him of what was going on in the area.

At the same time in June 1732 during an Upper and Lower Creek peace negotiation with Charleston, Tomochichi, a mico chief, was visiting with the Governor. Tomochichi started in 1728 to organize a new tribe called the Yamacraws. Sometime after this they settled on the Savannah bluff. He was visiting the governor to receive assurances that his Yamacraw tribe now located across the boundary of the colony of South Carolina would not be seen as a threat and to enhance the trade between the tribe and South Carolinians. The eventual peace treaty negotiated between the colonists and the Creeks included the confluence of the Governor’s request to Mary and John and Tomochichi’s request. Both would settle on the Yamacraw Bluff. This agreement led to Mary and John establishing a trading post at the bluff on the Savannah River next to the Yamacraws. The agreement had benefits for both sides. The Creeks now had a tribe close to Charleston and the colonists had a buffer between them and Spain in the South and a foothold in the Disputed Lands. It also gave each side a neutral and safe place to trade with each other.

On January 11th, 1733 Gen. Oglethorpe’s ship with the Georgia colonists landed in Charleston. It must have been alarming to Tomochichi when Gen. Oglethorpe’s first negotiation was for the land on which they lived. Of course, Mary and Tomochichi would see economic advantages with trade with the colonists. and Tomochichi (who had strained relationships with the Creeks) would increase his power and influence by being the conduit of trade and information between the colonists and Creeks. This made the moves easier.

We know many years later that the economic and political friendship between Tomochichi and Mary with Oglethorpe would enable the success of the forming British colony. To not include these events and their settlements as the origins of Georgia is like excluding the story of John the Baptist as the preparer of the way in the Gospel stories. The British through Governor Johnson of the colony of South Carolina had already placed a footprint of the founding of the Georgia colony before Oglethorpe ever set sail from England.
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I remember first reading of the treaty between the Creeks and the South Carolina colonists and was amazed that this history is not talked about in the telling of the founding of the Georgia colony. It may sound conspiratorial, but one must believe this story is neglected by the colonists to give prominence to Oglethorpe in our founding. The Europeans would eventually push the Creeks off the land. The story of Tomochichi, Mary, and John’s early settling of Georgia would have unsettled the narrative of the Europeans as they advanced West. Whatever may have been the case in previous tellings of the history; we should not be neglecting this history of the early settlement of Savannah now.

There is a monument in the middle of Wright Square which is dedicated to one of Savannah’s Mayor and founder of the Railroad Company here in Savannah. Regretfully, it is sits on the grave of the Mico chief who greeted and made General Oglethorpe’s life easier by accepting his plans for a new colony. His name was Tomochichi. Tomochichi was unusual in that he intentionally wanted to build a bridge with the colonists and the Creeks. Oglethorpe asked and received Tomochichi’s tribe, the Yamacraws, land to build the city of Savannah. Tomochichi the good host gave Oglethorpe land and moved his tribe a little further inland to be closer to the ancestral mounds of his forefathers and mothers. He helped Oglethorpe set the boundaries of Georgia, showed him where old Indian paths could be made into the first roads of Georgia (This is celebrated by two cannons in Madison Square). He also along with his wife Senauki and Mary Musgrove provided assistance in creating a treaty for land and peace with the Creeks. He even had his nephew and protege’ Toonahowie  trained in everything British so that Tomochichi an older man would have a replacement who could speak in English and know the English ways upon his death.

The training for Toonhowie would include a trip to England. Oglethorpe was in trouble with the Trustees of Georgia back in England because he was not communicating his activities and under fire for unsuccessful military adventures. He asked Tomochichi  ‘to travel with him to England to show the good relations he had developed with the Creeks’. Tomochichi agreed to go in part to help his friend and in part to cut out the middleman and meet the Trustees himself. He brought Toonahowie and other Creek chiefs with him.

When Tomochichi died he asked not to be buried with his elders at the ancient burial mounds of his Creek ancestors but in Wright Square. His intention one would have to believe was for his burial site in the center of the city of Savannah to be a symbol of the unity of the colonists and the Creeks. Oglethorpe was more than glad to do this. He added to the ceremony a full military parade and honor to the funeral rites. He later directed rocks to be added in a small pyramid style to the grave site. What a powerful union Tomochichi had developed between the Creeks and the colonists.

But as time moved on Oglethorpe left the colony to never return, Toonahowie died young in a fight with a tribe that supported the Spanish, and the second generation of colonists would covet more and more of the land of the Creeks. They even took the land of Tomochichi’s wife Senauki. Tomochichi’s tribe the Yamacraws would eventually have to leave the land under constant pressure and join other Creek tribes further West to survive. The colonists no longer needed the Native Americans for survival for food, protection, and other ways to live in the colony so the Creeks became expendable.

Fast Forward one hundred four years later the Railroad company was at the peak of their prominence, and they wanted the city of Savannah to know this. Aldin Lee a friend suggests they wanted to pave a path way of good will with Savannah stockholders in the coming Richmond railroad company takeover of the company (1895). Whatever the reasons they determined the best place for a monument to honor their founder and themselves was to place a monument on the square by the newly built Chatham County Courthouse (1892). A prestigious building designed by renown architect William Preston. They wanted and did place the monument in the middle of the square (Wright Square 1893). The designers of the monument were Henry Van Brunt and Frank Howe prominent Boston architects. A public amnesia seems to have occurred in Savannah. This amnesia was probably created by the enthusiasm and the power of the railroad company. This amnesia in Savannah made the fact this was the site of Tomochichi’s grave disappeared. The new monument was built on top of Tomochichi’s grave.
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There was almost instant remorse once the fog of the enthusiasm of a major monument to a major Savannah figure and prominent Savannah family scion was gone. The family of William Washington Gordon Sr. was part of those who expressed regret for the site of the monument. William Washington Gordon Jr. stated his family was not contacted about the site of the monument and would have preferred it be somewhere else besides what he knew the be the site of Tomochichi’s grave. His wife, Nellie Kenzie, would work with others to offer some semblance of penance for this major transgression by leading the way to place a boulder monument to Tomochichi in the corner of Wright Square. The Gordon Sr. monument is grand and still stands in the middle of Wright Square. A historical marker stands beside the monument telling of the deeds of William Washington Gordon and the sad fact that it stands upon the grave of the first host of the Hostess City (Aldin Lee).


*To learn more about the history of the Wright and Tomochichi read my book Savannah’s Monuments: The Untold Stories.

To learn more about Tomochichi and other Native Americans of Savannah read my book The Native American History of Savannah.​

​This is the last blog article exploring some of the intellectual capital that Savannah State University has offered Savannah. Ja Arthur Jahannes was born August 25, 1942. He was raised in Baltimore and earned a bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University, two masters degrees from Hampton University, and a doctorate from the University of Delaware. In 1981 he became the dean of the School of Humanities at Savannah State University.

He became a force in the intellectual community of Savannah and the world. He wrote plays, poems, essays, composed music (wrote two oratorios, two symphony librettos, two opera librettos, a song cycle and lyrics for more than 100 song), acted as a theater director, and lectured internationally. In his spare time he was an accomplished academic.  As a psychologist he was one of the early pioneers of black psychology, a scientific field that focuses on how people of African descent know and experience the world. His work can be found in the Journal of Ethnic Studies, Vital Speeches, the Journal of the National Medical Association, Upscale, and Ebony. He taught and led the departments of Haile Selassie University, (now The University of Ethiopia) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Chair of the Departments of Professional Studies and Chair of the Department of Liberal Studies, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda; Dean of the School of Education at Hampton University.

As if this did not already keep him too busy he was also the pastor of the Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church in Savannah.

He was still creating unto his death. His last work ‘I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly’ premiered at the Jewish Education Alliance. The tickets were sold at his Celebration of Life Ceremony.
A phrase that explained his philosophy was ‘Unless we learn to know ourselves, we run the danger of destroying ourselves.” I close with a poem he wrote to show the brilliance of the man.

My children have never known peace
(Dedicated to Keorapetse Kgositsile)

my children have never known peace
my children have never been to sleep without fear
my children have no vision of kingdoms of joy
steeped too early in the harsh brine of truth
my children are given no time for dreams
steeled too early in forced hard emotions
- they cough too many bitter soliloquies

if I could give them one gift
it would be a news report that peace had broken out and claimed them
-so I could watch them hug each other as they yearn to do
it would be an answer to their anger
-something to make sweet poetry fall from their tongues
it would be an equation to end the self-doubt that disturbs their youth
-a storehouse to feast from in the glorious freshness of their age
it would be pages in a treasure book to write their hopes
to dedicate the lyrics which will season their songs
my gift would be a village surrounded by even chances
to nourish their unrealized genius
it would be the luxury to play games without penalties

my children have never known peace
my children have never been to sleep without fear
my children have no vision of kingdoms of joy

it saddens my soul that they are captives
quartered between justice denied and wanton greed
where they stand weaponless
I would make them a pledge
not to sleep until peace comes
not to smile until peace comes
not to sit down until peace comes
not to bargain with anybody who stands in the way of their peace
not to give refuge to my own brother and sister if they are enemies of the peace
not to regret any action I must take as long as peace is ducking and dodging
not to let any man rest who steals the peace

My children have never known peace
and I will die trying to help them find it in their own backyards
– July 5, 2015