Lights in Troup County: Celebrating Hanukkah and the Legacy of a Jewish Immigrant
Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, is observed this year from December 25th through January 2nd. The celebration commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt, in 164 B.C. Simon Maccabeus aka Simon Thassi, d. 135 BC, prince of the Hebrew Hasmonean Dynasty and high priest. After the [...]
Sacred Space
Stained glass windows located in West Point First Methodist Church. Sacred space is a conceptually simple but highly relative term used to describe the physical area where connection to the divine is stronger and more easily accessible. It is likely that after reading this definition, you would immediately have a specific type [...]
The Origins of Valentine’s Day
Do you have a date tonight? Did you receive flowers or chocolates from your Valentine? Heart-shaped treats haven’t always been used to celebrate this day in mid-February. The early pagan festival of Lupercalia, celebrated on the Ides of February, is a likely origin of our modern Valentine’s Day. The Roman festivities began with the [...]
R.T.B. Parham and the Mardi Gras Tradition
Rutledge Thomas Blasengame Parham resided only briefly in Troup County, but he is a key figure in one of our most enduring legends. We think he arrived here in late summer of 1864, as a patient in one of the Confederate hospitals located in LaGrange. The twenty-year-old captain grew up in Mobile, where his [...]
Oh, Christmas Tree
Students at the old Unity School meet with Santa around a Christmas Tree, 1949. Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert celebrate around a Christmas tree in 1848. Images like this prompted a craze for Christmas trees among the British public. A Christmas party with the Callaway Educational Association [...]
Joe Young’s Pineland
My earliest recollection of anything to do with West Point Lake was sometime in the early 1960s. I don’t remember the exact date, but it was a Sunday afternoon and my grandmother’s neighbors were gathered around her dining room table looking at a big topographical map. My cousin worked for the City of LaGrange [...]
Hill Street & Three Points
Around the time that downtown LaGrange was cut from the wilderness in 1827, a road was blazed between LaGrange and Greenville. Once a road to Newnan was created, this road intersected the Greenville Road a short distance from the square creating a Y-shaped intersection. Prior to the Civil War, the Newnan Road was considered [...]
A Brief History of West Point, Georgia
West Point, Georgia was originally known as Franklin starting on December 26, 1831. Franklin started as a trading post on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River. It is believed that the town got its name from Dr. G.W. Hill who went to the state capital to work more on incorporating the town, and [...]
