Q: Who was the first president to visit Georgia? Travel was tough in the early days of this country. I imagine not many made it this far south.
A: I cannot tell a lie. The first president was the first president to visit Georgia.
George Washington made it a point to see as much of the new country as possible after becoming president in 1789.
His first tour took him through New England later that year, but his southern excursion was delayed until 1791.
Washington worked his way down the east coast of the Carolinas that spring and reached Savannah on May 12, where he spent four days as the guest of honor at “dinners, dances, ceremonies and services at Christ Church,” the Georgia Historical Society wrote at todayingeorgiahistory.org.
He visited the widow of Nathanael Greene, one of his beloved generals who died after the American Revolution in Savannah in 1786.
(Fact: Georgia has counties named for both Washington and Greene.)
The president then headed back up the Savannah River, stopping in Waynesboro in Burke County and then in Augusta, which was the state capital at the time.
He stayed there for three days, meeting with officials, touring fortifications and visiting Richmond Academy.
Washington spent 10 days in Georgia that May as part of his effort to see the United States and learn more about its people while building national unity.
More on Georgia’s Pulitzer winners
Juanita Hughes, who lives in Woodstock, emailed in response to my recent column about Eatonton native Alice Walker, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Color Purple,” to let me know that Walker was the third Georgia woman to be awarded a Pulitzer for a novel.
Caroline Miller, who was born in Waycross, was the first, winning in 1934 for “Lamb in His Bosom,” which centered on the struggles of a family living in south Georgia in the 19th century.
Just three years later, native Atlantan Margaret Mitchell won for “Gone With the Wind.”
If you need to be acquainted with the plot of Mitchell’s classic, ask a friend or, better yet, read it.
Nearly 50 years passed before Walker, the daughter of a sharecropper, won for “The Color Purple” in 1983.
They’re joined by James Alan McPherson, a Savannah native and Morris Brown grad, who won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1978 with “Elbow Room,” a collection of his short stories.
Many other Georgians have won Pulitzers in various categories, including in journalism, non-fiction, poetry and drama.
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