Columbus High School - Cohiscan Yearbook (Columbus, GA)

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for homelife, . K 4

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6 offers seren setting On Christmas Eve of 1828, 131 years ago, the state adopted a bill for the laying out of Columbus near the Coweta Falls on the Chattahoochee River. The settle- ment was surveyed and laid out by Edward Loyd Thomas in January. Surroundings offered the location for a city which has now enveloped 26.4 square miles. Encircled by the Chattahoochee, lazily flowing with grace and calm, a serene setting for homelife is offered by the river. One house representing this period is now the home of the Walter A. Richards on Wynnton Road. Another is the C.F.A. Building atop Wynn's Hill. This land was first inhabited by the Muscogee Indians of the Creek Nation who gave the river its name which means flowering rock. Franciscan monks from Spain and the English explorer, Henry Woodward, were the first white men here. After many wars the Indians left the land to a peace, destroyed by the Civil War. Our city has been the host to many distinguished guests. Amelia Earhart was welcomed graciously on November 28, 1931. Presidents Truman, Taft, Harding and Bryan have been visitors here and President Franklin Roosevelt was often a fan at the Georgia and Auburn football game. Sir Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden have been guests of the city. In 1926 President Eisenhower was stationed at Fort Benning as a Major in the 241th Infantry Regiment. John Wilkes Booth took part in a Shakespearean play at Temperance Hall in Columbus in 1860-a few weeks later Lincoln was shot. In the summer the murky water is transformed by sunlight into a playground of speeding boats, skillful skiers and the echoing laughter of youth. The background scenery is Lake Harding known to all as Bartlett's Ferry, or better still, The River. The 34,500,000 dam made usable a great source of water power in the south and created a large, entertaining lake. The city government of Columbus was formed on January 2, 1836. We now have a commission-manager type of government. The first mayor of Columbus was John Fontaine and in 1960 the mayor is C. Ed Johnson. The advantages of life in Columbus are evident in the congenial and wholesome feeling shown here, a city which retains the cleanliness of a small town and an excellent educational and inspirational atmosphere. The 1,583 pupils of Columbus High School will be the homemakers and businessmen in future years, and we are eager to offer service to our home town.

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8 The clanking, monotonous grating of the whirling machines resounds throughout the city day and night, but the muddy Chattahoochee, softened by moonlight, reflects these industries flourishing as a result of its force. Too often it is forgotten that we are a river city and how vital the Chattahoochee is to us. It is not just a muddy stream, whose only claim to recognition lies in poetry, but an abiding and essential part of our being. Augusta Evans Wilson, considered by many to be the greatest woman literary character ever produced by the South, was born in the city on the river. Nun- nally Johnson, a Columbus-born author and playwright, has achieved fame in Hollywood. Columbusites began the Chamber of Commerce, or Board of Trade, as it was originally known, in 1845. The Columbus Fire Department is older than the city government. Five years before the city government was begun, a fire department was organized. Definite achievements in business were made by many Columbusites. A Columbus man was first credited with having the idea of a sewing machine, but he failed to patent it. Stephen Ingersoll of Columbus was thought reflec s an Y.