Samuel Hugh Hawkins Diary, January - July 1877

About the Digitized Version

Document: shh

Diary, 1877 Jan. - July 3

Author: Hawkins, S. H. (Samuel Hugh), 1835-1905
Date: January 1, 1877 - July 3, 1877
Extent: 1 v. (31 p.)
Repository: Lake Blackshear Public Library System
About the Diary: The Samuel Hugh Hawkins Diary, January - July 1877, part of the collections at the Lake Blackshear Regional Library System, chronicles Americus, Georgia entrepreneur and banker Samuel Hawkins' financial, agricultural, civic, and religious activities in Sumter County during the final months of Reconstruction. Diary entries briefly illustrate Hawkins' work at the Bank of Americus and his real estate interests in the county. Having an interest in agriculture and horticulture, Hawkins describes his participation in the Sumter County Agricultural Society and Horticulture Society, attendance at the 1877 Georgia State Agricultural Society meeting in Milledgeville, entrepreneurial interest in the Bell Cultivator, and role in the founding of the Americus Fair Association. While later known for his role as president of the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railroad Company, Hawkins mentions railroad issues only in passing. An active member of Bethel Baptist Church (later Americus Baptist Church), Hawkins records his religious observances throughout the journal. On a national level, Hawkins comments on the contested presidential election of 1876 and the resulting presidency of Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes. Locally, he chronicles local elections and appointments to the constitutional convention, the efforts of an emigrant agent to lure local African American contract laborers to Louisiana as well as events surrounding the murder of a woman by an African American man.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

• Hawkins, S. H. (Samuel Hugh), 1835-1905
• Americus Fair Association
• Bank of Americus
• Bethel Baptist Church (Americus, Ga.)
• Georgia State Agricultural Society
• United States. Electoral Commission (1877)
• Georgia State Agricultural Society (1877 : Milledgeville, Ga.)
• Agriculture--Societies, etc.
• Bankers--Georgia--Americus
• Contested elections--United States
• Cultivators--Marketing--History--19th century
• Fairs--Georgia
• Lawyers--Georgia
• Presidents--United States--Election--1876
• Race relations--Southern States
• Real property--Georgia--Sumter County
• Reconstruction--Georgia
• Americus (Ga.)--Politics and government--1865-1951
• Americus (Ga.)--Religious life and customs--History--19th century
• Sumter County (Ga.)--Politics and government--1865-1951
• Diaries

Creation of Hawkins Diary Site:The following Lake Blackshear Public Library System, Georgia HomePLACE, and Digital Library of Georgia staff and student assistants contributed to the production of the Samuel Hugh Hawkins Diary, January - July 1877 site:

• Steven Beardsley
• Christy Boyd
• Katie Gentilello
• P. Toby Graham
• Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm
• Jane Hendrix
• Anne Isbell
• Edward A. Johnson
• Jincy Kurian
• Sheila McAlister
• Ben McCormick
• Katy Wooten

SGML file size: 105k

Publisher: The Digital Library of Georgia, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, GA 30602

Date: 2003

Publication status: This work is the property of The University of Georgia Libraries. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching, and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

Editorial notes for SGML version: Quotation marks retained as data except inside q tags; Errors in transcription of the text controlled with Microsoft Word spell-checker; text has also been thoroughly proofread.; Corrections and normalization represented by editorial tags. All unambiguous end-of-line hyphens removed. Daily entries are treated as divisions.

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A project of the Digital Library of Georgia in association with the Lake Blackshear Regional Library System as part of Georgia HomePLACE.