Article 77297 of talk.politics.guns:
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From: [l v c] at [cbnews.cb.att.com] (Larry Cipriani)
Subject: Re: Town that rebelled name, please?
Organization: Ideology Busters, Inc.
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 21:04:21 GMT
Message-ID: <[CJ 4 IJC 1 nn] at [cbnews.cb.att.com]>
References: <[CJ 2 HIK B x q] at [eskimo.com]>
Lines: 143
In article <[CJ 2 HIK B x q] at [eskimo.com]> [r--oh--n] at [eskimo.com] (Rebecca Rohan) writes:
>Can someone help me out with the name of the town, please?
From: Scott <lawjh5n%[buacca BITNET] at [BITNET.CC.CMU.EDU]>
Subject: Athens
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92 17:55:45 EDT
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International 1985
September 21, 1985, Saturday, AM
cycle
SECTION: Regional News
DISTRIBUTION: Tennessee
LENGTH: 660 words
HEADLINE: Reagan visit ranks with ' Battle of Athens'
DATELINE: ATHENS, Tenn.
KEYWORD: Reagan-Tenn
BODY:
President Reagan's visit Tuesday will go down as a
landmark event in the history of Athens alongside the
1946 '' Battle of Athens, '' in which returning veterans
seized power from a crooked political machine after an
all-night gun battle.
Folks in McMinn County remember Aug. 1, 1946, as the
night the people took matters into their own hands and
restored ''Good Government'' to the county.
A group of recently returned World War II veterans,
organized as the Good Government Party, ran a slate of
candidates in the local election and was determined to
see that the ballots were counted accurately.
The local Democratic Party machine, headed by Sheriff
Paul Cantrell, tried to count the ballots secretly
inside the county jail - two blocks from the courthouse
where Reagan will speak.
The veterans knew a secret count would be a crooked
count, and a full-scale shootout erupted.
Jim Burn, former president of the McMinn County
Historical Society, said Cantrell and about 30 of his
deputies were trapped inside the jail, while veterans
armed with 100,000 rounds of ammunition encircled the
jail and opened fire. They also dynamited the jail
building's porch.
Bullets flew back and forth throughout the night, but
surprisingly no one was killed. One bystander was
wounded, Burn said.
When the smoke cleared about sunrise the next day,
Cantrell's deputies surrendered. Cantrell slipped out of
the jail undetected and fled the county. The ballots
were counted and the Good Government ticket won.
Bill Akins, a member of the county historical
society, said the veterans simply wanted to make Athens
safe for democracy.
''They had been in battle and faced death fighting
for democracy overseas and decided they would institute
democracy in McMinn County, you might say,'' Akins said.
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''It was just simply a matter of people were fed up
with the type of politics and treatment people generally
received under the (Cantrell) regime, and they did
something about it,'' Akins said.
The North White Street jail where the battle was
fought has been torn down, replaced by a health spa.
Aside from the Battle of Athens, the town's claim
to fame is that it was the first place in Tennessee
where railroad tracks were laid.
The Hiwassee Rail Road Co. started construction in
Athens in 1837 on a line connecting Loudon, Tenn., with
Dalton, Ga.
The Athens native who played the most important role
in American history may have been Harry T. Burn, a
Republican state representative who cast the deciding
vote in Nashville when the Tennessee legislature
approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in
1920, giving women the right to vote.
The proposed amendment needed ratification by 37
state legislatures and Tennessee was the 37th to approve
it.
After the Tennessee Senate had approved the
amendment, the House took up the matter. Burn opposed
the amendment in a vote to table the measure, but
changed his mind minutes later and voted in favor of it.
The House approved the amendment on a vote of 49-47
and women across the United States won the franchise.
Burns later said he had followed his mother's advice.
''I know that a mother's advice is always the safest
for her boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote
for ratification,'' he said.
Athens, population 12,152, is located about 60 miles
south of Knoxville off Interstate 75. The rolling hills
of McMinn County were once home to the Cherokee Indians.
The U.S. government pressured the Cherokees into selling
the land in 1819.
Today Athens bills itself as ''The Friendly City.''
''That's our slogan,'' said former Mayor Burkett
Witt, owner of Burkett's Barbecue restaurant. ''We have
real genial people around here.
''I believe they'd take in a total stranger for six
months. A stranger could come in here and not do a lick
of work for six months and people would take care of
him,'' said Witt, who was the state's only black mayor
when he held office from 1983 through July 1985.
--
Larry Cipriani -- [l v cipriani] at [att.com] or attmail!lcipriani
The United States of America, 1776 to 1992, Rest In Peace