4/28/2019

Weekly Update 4/28/2019

This week wasn’t as boring as the past few weeks. I did quite a bit, including going to the pool – twice! The water is still brisk, but I did get in to swim a few laps.

I also attended a few lectures, and all different, all interesting. I went to a TLC book club review of The Echo Killings by Christi Daugherty, a mystery set in Savannah. It was not the best thriller I’ve ever read, but the whole group agreed that it was interesting, and we liked the setting. At the library across the street from me, there was a talk by Weihua Zhang, a professor at SCAD, who spoke about the Chinese railroad workers who constructed the first Transcontinental Railroad. It was less about the history than it was about her recent travels out west and photos she had taken of some of the railroad and monuments along the way. Back at TLC again the next day, I learned about the Savannah Theater with highlights of the history by the official historian of the theater, as well as insights by one of the current performers about the production efforts of some of the live shows that are currently being performed there. And, finally, on Friday, Jane and I went to Temple Mickve Israel to hear the granddaughter of a Nazi war criminal who was hung following World War II for crimes against humanity, and how his actions, and the execution, have affected her family to this day.

I also had a chance to see Charles Snyder act in a play with the Wilmington Island Players. The play was Twigs, a play by George Furth, which originally was performed on Broadway in 1971. It was an amusing comedy, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Charles was very good, and I was surprised a that another friend of mine, Vic, from both book clubs that I go to, was also an actor.

Friday, between DH, The 90 and the lecture at the Temple, The Georgia Historical Society unveiled a historic marker in one of the squares downtown. So I went to that. This was for Mary Musgrove, who is kinda Savannah’s Mary Jemison, although she was never a captive.

The plaque reads:

Mary Musgrove was the daughter of an English trader and a Creek

Indian mother. In 1717 she and her husband, John, established

Cowpens trading post near the Savannah River which became a

center of 18^th century English-Indian trade for deer hides. After the

colony’s founding in 1733, Musgrove became principal interpreter

between Yamacraw Chieftain Tomochichi and Gen. Oglethorpe.

Serving as Oglethorpe's interpreter for ten years, she helped foster

peace between the British and the Creeks. For her assistance she

received financial compensation, political prestige, and lands from

the Creeks making her the wealthiest Georgia landowner in the 1700s.

The Georgia colony refused to grant Musgrove’s property rights to the

Creek lands of St. Catherines, Sapelo, and Ossabaw Islands. After

much dispute, Musgrove received the English title to St. Catherines

Island in 1760, where she died c. 1765.

Saturday, the BHS conducted a “walkabout” to identify and prioritize plots in the cemetery that could use some attention.  We did not get information on EVERY plot, but only on those that were noticed to have a problem, e.g., broken or dirty stones, overgrown big plantings that negatively impact the plot, etc. Twelve volunteers were able to look at over 500 plots and 64 of those were identified as “problems”. Most issues involved headstones that needed cleaning, plots that had intrusive plants that covered markers, headstones that had broken or had fallen, and few plots that were missing parts of the cast iron fences that originally surrounded them. Whether or not the BHS can do anything about these issues remains to be seen, as these are FAMILY plots and are still owned by the families, who should be responsible for the upkeep. But some families have died out or moved away, and if we can identify those, we may be able to help with the beautification and/or fund the restoration. It will be a long process, and this is the first step. It was a perfect day, and a fun project.

Because I didn’t get to meet Kay on Friday at The 90, being too busy going from DH to an unveiling and then a lecture, we met Sunday. We tried a new restaurant near Ellis Square, the Duck Diner. It was wonderfully tasty. Kay had the duck tacos and I had the grilled cheese and duck sandwich. As we were leaving, we ordered the champagne with duckie popsicles to go, and sat in City Market to enjoy that nice treat.