News        from ABAC

Michael D. Chason Director of Public Relations ABAC 30 -- 2802 Moore Highway Tifton, GA 31793-2601 Phone 229-391-5055 Fax 229-391-5056 mchason@abac.edu

IMMEDIATE NOVEMBER 10, 2006

TIFTON CELEBRATED ‘HALLELUJAH DAY’ FOR ABAC 100 YEARS AGO

TIFTON- It was 100 years ago this month when 30 Tift County residents charted a course for Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College which endures to this day. On Nov. 23, 1906, the Tift Countians engaged themselves in a fierce bidding war with Pelham, Ashburn, Albany, and Camilla for the right to serve as the home for the Second District Agricultural and Mechanical School.

The A&M schools in Georgia were created by the General Assembly on Aug. 18, 1906 when it passed Public Law 448. This bill established state-run A&M schools in each of the 12 congressional districts. The schools were actually college preparatory boarding institutions for students 14-21 years old. Boys studied agriculture, and girls focused on home economics.

Each town in the Second District that wanted the school sent a delegation to Albany on Nov. 23, 1906. Editor J.L. Herring of The Tifton Gazette described a titanic struggle, “It was a battle of giants! And when the bulldogs grappled, the small fry cleared the ring!”

H.H. Tift chaired Tifton’s special committee which began the day with a bid of 315 acres of land and $30,000 in cash. Dale McGriff from South Georgia Banking Company said the Federal Reserve Bank estimates that amount of cash to be equivalent to about $700,000 in today’s currency.

Albany, Pelham, Camilla, and Ashburn also submitted bids which included cash, free lights and water, land, buildings, and timber. But thanks to Mr. Tift, the Tift County delegation wasn’t finished.

Herring described how Mr. Tift amended the bid to include $55,000 in cash, free lights, water, and telephone service for 10 years, a sewerage system and 315 acres of land worth $50 an acre. He even threw in the timber rights, which were valued at $4,500. Herring said committee members estimated Tifton’s offer at that time to be $95,700.

The bidding finally came down to Tifton and Pelham. On the eighth ballot, Tifton received 11 votes, one more than necessary for the victory. Mr. Tift had offered to bump up the Tift County offer out of his own pocket, but the committee “did not think it just for him to do so.”

The Tifton Gazette declared in its next issue that “The Hallelujah Day Has Come” as the entire community celebrated its great victory. .The Second District A&M School opened on Feb. 20, 1908. In 1924, the name was changed to the South Georgia A&M College, and in 1929, it became the Georgia State College For Men. The college assumed its present title in 1933.

Mr. Tift and the other members of the delegation realized the school would be an economic boost to Tifton. Today ABAC’s annual economic impact on Tift and surrounding counties is estimated at $110 million.

ABAC plans a year-long 100^th birthday celebration beginning with Homecoming 2007 on March 31 and continuing through Homecoming 2008. The college is winding up its fall term with an all time record enrollment of 3,574 students. Spring semester classes begin on Jan. 8, 2007.

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