Standing a lanky six-feet-five, Logan E. Bleckley was not known to frequent barbershops. His hair hung loosely around his shoulders, and his generous beard flowed down his chest. When asked about his appearance, he replied that Moses also wore his hair long, which also had the benefit of protecting his neck. Bleckley was a student
The March 2022 newsletter includes photographs taken during the filming of “The Great Locomotive Chase” in Rabun County in 1955. Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2022 March Vintage Rabun
Mary Ann Rutherford was born in 1848 to an old southern family in Athens, Georgia. Her father was a mathematics professor at the University of Georgia, where she grew up living close to the campus. The future trajectory of her life was shaped by these influences. She graduated with honors from the Lucy Cobb Institute
An editorial in the Clayton Tribune once declared, “Robberies, fights, shootings, knifings, street scuffles. They are all part of the contemporary history of Rabun County and Clayton.” It sounded like this was a pretty rough and lawless place. While some serious crimes were committed, there is a lighter side to some of the criminal activity
The December 2021 newsletter includes photographs from the early twentieth century when Rabun County and many areas of the Southern Appalachians were clear cut by industry-scale logging. Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2021 Dec Vintage Rabun
Singing conventions with large, enthusiastic crowds were Rabun County’s rock concerts back in the day. Think hymnals instead of the Rolling Stones In reporting on the three-day Rabun County Singing Convention in 1931, the Clayton Tribune wrote, “The attendance on Friday was rather small but on Saturday the crowd had grown almost to the capacity
Short, weighing just over 100 pounds, highly intelligent and graced with a choirboy face, he was nicknamed for a small baitfish. He made up for his diminutive stature with guns and his willingness to use them. No jail could prevent him from escaping, but before one jailbreak, he ran a counterfeiting scheme behind bars. And
Located three miles south of Clayton, Tiger is home to about 400 people, give or take. Nestled at the foot of a cone-shaped, 3,000-foot mountain, the village is a tranquil place. But it wasn’t always that way. Tiger has a colorful history that belies the town’s diminutive size. Tiger’s history extends back to the time
By 1959, the Tallulah Falls Railroad was nearing the end of its run that began in 1887. Passenger service had long since been discontinued. Freight traffic was anemic. Debt in the millions of dollars was piling up. While the TF was still running, a writer for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine took what he
When Rabun County was founded in 1819, the local supermarket was the family farm. People ate the vegetables they grew, the animals they raised, the game they hunted and the fish they caught. Surviving in the isolated mountains of northeast Georgia was no easy task. Pork, squirrel and venison were favorite meats. Vegetables were eaten
Geography is a key factor shaping the development of a country or region. As an island nation, England turned to the ocean and became the world’s greatest maritime power by the eighteenth century. American pioneers saw the endless flat expanses of the Great Plains and turned it into the country’s breadbasket. On a still smaller
The September 2021 newsletter includes photographs from the re-opening event as well as the new displays in the museum. Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format. 2021 Sept Vintage Rabun
Clayton, GA—May 20, 2021—The museum of the Rabun County Historical Society in downtown Clayton will reopen to the public on June 11 following its extensive, year-long renovation. The museum’s hours of operation are 11-3, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Society’s newly renovated museum brings to life the rich and colorful history of Rabun County and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt assumed the U.S. presidency in 1933 at the depth of the Great Depression. National unemployment stood at a staggering 25%. FDR’s landslide election was a plea for help from a desperate and demoralized nation. Upon being sworn into office on March 4, 1933, FDR launched what became known as “The Hundred Days,”
Rabun County built four courthouses between 1824 and 1908 even though the county was sparsely populated, poor and isolated from the world. One more went up in the mid-1960s. This total does not include the oak tree that served as the county’s first hall of justice. When Rabun was established in 1819, the population of
The topics in the June 2021 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter are: Clayton’s Vintage Hotels Museum Re-opening Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2021 June Vintage Rabun
Rabun County was remote and isolated, populated by subsistence farmers scratching out a living on hardscrabble mountain land. The Tallulah Falls Railroad opened Rabun and the surrounding region to the outside world. The TF also brought badly needed jobs. Working on the TF involved backbreaking labor for paltry wages, typically about one dollar per day.
Corn has been the main crop of Rabun County farmers since the first white settlers arrived over 200 years ago. Gristmills were built by Rabun farmers to grind the county’s corn harvests into meal for bread, grits and hominy. The output from gristmills also was used for something more potent than Johnnycakes. Virtually every Rabun
The earliest white settlers, Scots-Irish from Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, arrived in northeast Georgia in the late eighteenth century. They farmed the land to survive, but those settlers were not the first to raise crops in the fertile valleys and river bottomlands of what would become Rabun County. Already living in the north Georgia
The topics in the March 2021 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter are: Update on museum renovation Trestles of the Tallulah Falls Railroad Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2021 March Vintage Rabun
© 2020 Rabun County Historical Society.
All Rights Reserved.
The Society publishes a newsletter four times per year. Enter your email address below to get notified when a new edition is available.
81 North Church Street
Clayton, Georgia 30525
(706) 782-5292