Column: How much do you know about local history? Johnny Vardeman
It’s time for another local history trivia quiz.
Some of these questions have appeared in this column previously, so readers should be able to score high marks.
1. Who was the longtime president of Riverside Military Academy credited with growing the school and bringing it into national prominence?
2. Who was the founder of the Industrial School that once operated off Athens Highway in Gainesville?
3. What was the name of the Hall Countian who operated a private mint during North Georgia’s gold mining days?
4. Where was Gainesville’s first golf course located?
Column: Scrapbook tells history of Rotary during war years Johnny Vardeman
Garry Hutchinson was doing some work recently on Ridgewood Avenue in Gainesville when he came across a trash pile at the curb.
Atop was a scrapbook for Gainesville Rotary Club for the years 1941 through 1944.
It’s significant not only because it provides a history of the club during that time, but those were the peak years of World War II. The scrapbook reflects how the club and the community carried on during the war. Local leaders at the time were prominent Rotarians.
Whoever kept the scrapbook entered handwritten accounts of every Rotary meeting, sometimes accompanied by newspaper clippings of the club’s activities.