Thomas Ruger served as the military provisional governor of Georgia for six months in 1868. In that role he oversaw the removal of the capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta and instituted the convict lease system. A Union veteran of the Civil War (1861-65), Ruger later served as the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Education and Early Career Thomas Howard Ruger was born on April 2, 1833, to Maria Hutchins and Thomas Jefferson Ruger in Lima, New York.

Every other year a board of judges awards the Townsend Prize for Fiction to an outstanding novel or short-story collection published by a Georgia writer during the past two years. The award is named for Jim Townsend, the founding editor of Atlanta magazine, the associate editor of Atlanta Weekly Magazine (of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and an early mentor to such Atlanta writers as Pat Conroy, Terry Kay, William Diehl, and Anne Rivers Siddons.

Members of the Margaret Jones Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy are pictured in Waynesboro, circa 1900. Lillian W. Neely (center of top row in white dress) was president of the chapter at this time. The Georgia Division of the UDC was formed in 1895. 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.

Vogel State Park was established in 1931 as one of the first two state parks in Georgia. Located at the base of Blood Mountain in Union County, Vogel offers scenic mountain trails and close proximity to Brasstown Bald, the highest point in the state. 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.

The Workers’ Compensation Act in Georgia provides immediate medical and income benefits for injured workers, while fixing the amount of benefits paid by employers. It was adopted in 1920 and is now codified as title 34, chapter 9, of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. History Georgia’s adoption of workers’ compensation was part of a national and international movement. Germany created the first workers’ compensation system in 1884, and England followed in 1897.