Buchanan Timeline
1960-present
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1960
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Buchanan Housing Authority Created
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1960-1961
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Harold Jeffers shoots Buchanan on Parade - Part II
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1960-1965
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Mayor Noel Cook
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1963
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The Central of Georgia Railway passing through the City becomes part of the Southern Railway.
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1973
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 bird's eye view of the city, viewed from the west
(click on image to view full-sized version) |
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1970-1989
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 Mayor Evelyn Shepard Wade - first female in office
(click on image to view full-sized version) |
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1971
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Southern Railway's Central of Georgia Railway division, passing through the City, is renamed the Central of Georgia Railroad.
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1972
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New Haralson county courthouse erected in town.
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Aug 1973
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The Haralson County Historical Society is founded to save the historic courthouse in Buchanan from the wrecker's ball. It will take three decades to rehabilitate and reopen the building.
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Jun 1974
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The historic county courthouse is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Jan 1975
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Tom Murphy raises $10,000+ from two anonymous donors to rehabilitate the Historic (second) Haralson County courthouse
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Aug 1975
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City police officers cooperate with the Haralson County sheriff in apprehending smugglers importing 3,260 pounds of marijuana and 85 kilos of hashish, together worth an estimated $2 million. The contraband enters the country via a 1940s-era DC-4, a 93-foot-long airplane normally requiring a 5,000-foot runway. The plane has landed in under 400 feet on a clandestine last-minute 1,000 runway completed only an hour before the crash-landing on Treat Mountain near the Polk County border of Haralson County.
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Aug 1983
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The Haralson County Tribune publishes what is likely its last issue. This year sees big changes in newspapers throughout the county.
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1983
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Photographs from this year (clockwise, from top left): Buchanan City Hall, eastern side of city square, Historic Courthouse (before addition of elevator), and Buchanan Junior High School.
(click on an image to view its full-sized version)
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Nov 1984
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The New York Times carries an AP report this month that A Federal jury today convicted three Ku Klux Klan members of civil rights violations in what prosecutors called racially motivated beatings in western Georgia in 1982 and 1983... [including] Mailon Wood, 54 years old, of Buchanan, Ga. Next month Wood received a 40-year prison sentence and $40,000 fine for just one of the convictions.
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Dec 1987
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The New York Times carries an AP story this month that The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission this week honored... 19 people from 11 states and Canada who risked their lives to help others. Five died in their attempts... the commission... awarded... $2,500 to each of [them... Those honored include] Joel C. Clark, 26, of Buchanan, Ga., who pulled a year-old boy from a burning car in Douglasville, Ga., on July 15.
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1990
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Buchanan pop. 1,009. Southern Railway Company, whose Southern Railway's Central of Georgia Railroad division passes through the City, is renamed Norfolk Southern Railway Company. The Central of Georgia Railroad division continues to exist today (2007).
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Jan 1990
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Under the heading New Task for the Computer: Making Clothes, this month The New York Times reported that Engineers and computer scientists at two colleges here say they have harnessed computers to standard industrial sewing machines to produce a larger variety of garments more quickly and cheaply than conventional clothing factories do... Southern Tech and Georgia Tech engineers said that new computerized systems are in use at an Arrow Shirt plant at Buchanan, Ga... The industry, which has long trailed others in integrating computers in its factories, is taking seriously the experiments...
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Early 1990s
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Factory making Arrow shirts closes after many decades.
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1990-1995
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Mayor Donald Rainey
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Mar 1992
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14yo eighth-grader levels loaded shotgun at teacher in Buchanan Middle School.
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Apr 1995
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1996
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Olympic torch visits city
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1996-1999
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Feb 1997
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Georgia Highway 120 section in eastern half of city limits is designated "Evelyn S. Wade Highway".
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July 1999
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The New York Times takes note that Buchanan's Whitlow Wyatt, a key figure in the Brooklyn Dodgers' celebrated 1941 National League pennant victory and a leading pitcher of the early 1940's, dies this month at 91.
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1999
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Buchanan is marked on a new map. The new Georgia 27 Bypass east of the city is shown.
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2000
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Buchanan pop. 941
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2000-2005
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Mayor Jerry Hood
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Jan 2003
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Ribbon-cutting ceremony for new City Hall.
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Mar 2003
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Restored Historic Courthouse reopened, housing the muncipality's first public library, the Buchanan-Haralson branch of the West Georgia Regional Library system.
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2003
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Historic Courthouse recognized by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation with an Excellence in Rehabilitation award.
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May-Aug 2004
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An 11yo boy, a fifth grader at Buchanan Elementary School, is eventually charged with 46 counts of sexual battery. Arrested on a charge of tampering with evidence is the principal at Buchanan Elementary School and on charges of failing to report sexual crimes is the principal at Haralson County Middle School.
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2004
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Photographs from this year include (from top): old railroad depot site, western side of the square, eastern side of the square.
(click on images to view full-sized version)    |
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2006-2007
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Aug 2006
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LDS church consecrates new building at City limits
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Sept 2006
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Decision 1856, historical pageant about the US presidential race of 1856, debuts at the city's Fair on the Square, as part of the Haralson County Sesquicentennial. Playful and informal mock election in Buchanan yields these results:
Millard Fillmore (American): 72 (41.1%) James Buchanan (Democrat): 67 (38.3%) John C. Fremont (Republican): 36 (20.6%) Total votes: 175 (total votes in actual 1856 county-wide election: 338) |
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Apr 2007
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The Haralson County Historical Society, headquartered at the Historic Courthouse in Buchanan, receives the Roger K. Warlick Local History Achievement Award from the Georgia Historical Society for its Media Project, The 1856 Handbook, which features the US presidential race of 1856 including the Buchanan, GA pageant Decision 1856.
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May 2007
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A comprehensive new City charter, sponsored by Rep. Howard Maxwell, comes into force. Provision is made for a city manager.
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Sept 2007
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Decision 1856, an annual historical pageant about the US presidential race of 1856, plays at the City's Fair on The Square. Playful and informal mock election in Buchanan yields these results:
James Buchanan (Democrat): 77 (55.0%) John C. Fremont (Republican): 32 (22.9%) Millard Fillmore (American): 31 (22.1%) Total votes: 140 (Total votes in actual 1856 county-wide election: 338) |
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Dec 2007
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Famous Georgia House Speaker and Buchanan courthouse veteran Tom Murphy dies on the 17th. Buchanan 150th anniversary on the 22nd; a celebration takes place at the Historic Courthouse on the 23rd.
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Jan 2008
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