Chapters in Athens Heritage

Chapters in Athens Heritage. A School and Town Develop. Five legislators on horseback set forth from the state capitol in 1801 to select a site for the nation's first state-supported college. Searching for land away from the temptations of a town, they chose a hilltop at the edge of the frontier., John Milledge purchased 633 acres for the new college from miller and innkeeper Daniel Easley. In September 1801, the University of Georgia became a reality with the construction of a log structure for the first class (10 men) and a house for Josiah Meigs, the school's president and only teacher. To pay for the building construction, 37 acres of the north campus were surveyed into lots and sold. A town emerged on these lots with hotels, stores, shops, and houses. Officially named "Athens" after the center of classical Greek culture and learning, this burgeoning village incorporated in 1806., (captions) , The mill owners funded a rail line from Augusta in 1841, which stopped at Carr's Hill (present day intersection of Oconee and Poplar St). Freight and riders shuttled across the river for 43 years before a trestle provided railway across into downtown Athens., John Milledge, Although charted in 1785, it took 16 years for the University of georgia to become a reality. Since then, over a million students have enrolled in classes., Abraham Baldwin, founder of the University of Georgia, 1785., Athens; city limits were laid out in a 1-mile circle centered on the front steps of the University's Chapel.