First Baptist Church in Savannah, constructed on Chippewa Square in 1833, is the oldest church building in the city. The congregation formed in 1800 under pastor Henry Holcombe. Photograph by Sarah E. McKee, New Georgia Encyclopedia The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print. All requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource must be submitted to the rights holder.

Indian Superintendent Benjamin Hawkins personally selected the location of Fort Benjamin Hawkins, which was built to protect settlers from the Creeks. Despite Hawkins's fear that the Creeks would attack the settlement, no problems arose during the fifteen years that the fort was used as an outpost. Fort Hawkins was later used as a supply hub during the War of 1812. The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.

Frank “Flatfoot” Sinkwich earned the first Heisman Trophy awarded to a southern college player. He brought national recognition to the University of Georgia’s football program and contributed to his alma mater for the remainder of his life. Sinkwich was born October 10, 1920, in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. His parents, Croatian immigrants from Russian Georgia, raised him in Youngstown, Ohio.  There he was a running back for the Chaney High School football team during the Great Depression.

The self-made businessman Fuller E. Callaway displayed an entrepreneurial spirit at a young age. The son of a minister, Callaway grew up to become a successful manufacturer and banker with diverse commercial interests and a reputation for generosity and moral leadership. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.

Fulton County, the heart of the Atlanta metropolitan area, is located in the Georgia Piedmont near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Chattahoochee River forms its diagonal border, from the northeast to the southwest. The history of Fulton County is to a great extent the history of Georgia and its county seat, Atlanta (most of which lies in Fulton County, with the balance in DeKalb County). The earliest inhabitants were the Cherokee Indians, who lived in the area that later became north Fulton County, and the Creek Indians, who ceded their land to Georgia in 1821.