Q: What’s the history behind the ruins of the house at the Barnsley Resort in Adairsville?
A: Jump in your time machine and go back about 190 years.
That’s when an Englishman named Godfrey Barnsley traveled across the Atlantic with little money or resources. He landed in Savannah in the 1820s, quickly became an affluent businessman and married a belle named Julia Scarborough.
Barnsley must have been one of those folks who prefer the mountains to the beach, because he snatched up 4,000 acres near Adairsville in the 1840s and started building a massive house for his wife and their six kids.
Julia died in 1845, causing work to stop for a while, but Barnsley restarted construction about a year later and the luxurious manor, which was called Woodlands, and surrounding gardens were finished in 1848.
The Civil War wasn’t kind to Barnsley’s estate. Union troops weren’t considerate occupants as they moved through north Georgia in 1864, and after the war, Barnsley no longer had the money to finance the estate.
He moved to New Orleans, where he died in 1873, and the home continued to fall into disrepair as storms and neglect took their toll throughout most of the 20th century.
The gardens were restored, but the house was never rebuilt after the property was bought in 1988. The resort has since opened.
To learn more, visit the resort’s museum or go to barnsleyresort.com.
Q: Wasn’t there a comic strip many years ago that was set in the Okefenokee Swamp and featured a bunch of animals? What was the name of that strip?
A: Pogo Possum and his backwoods buddies were the stars of "Pogo," a syndicated comic strip by Walt Kelly that was published in newspapers from 1948-75.
Kelly used Pogo, Albert Alligator and Porky Pine, naturally a porcupine, and many other Okefenokee residents to poke fun at national figures and satirically comment on social and political issues. The cartoon sparked books, songs and an animated movie.
