sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library with a grant from Georgia Humanities
a Semiquincentennial celebration event

Sunday, November 1, 2026
3:00-4:00 p.m.
Smyrna Library, Meeting Room
Light refreshments will be served.
Please reserve a seat. Free admission.

Program Description: In the founding of Georgia colony, interest and attention goes to James Oglethorpe for the pioneering work of building a colony from scratch.  Attention also focuses on the social experiment that was Georgia colony--building a functioning colony from working class people recruited from urban London and giving them a pre-planned economy to follow.  Little interest seems left for the Anglo-Creek woman, Mary Musgrove who contributed greatly to the development of the colony. She was a skilled linguist whom Oglethorpe hired as a translator but she also functioned as a diplomat.  Mary sold the Georgia colonists their first livestock from her expansive cattle herd and sold them dried beef for their food.  She sent Oglethorpe into battle with her own Creek warriors, often more numerous than men from his old militia.  This talk seeks to shine a light on Mary and her rise and fall as Georgia's Creek patron.

Speaker: Michael Morris holds the doctorate in History from Auburn University in Early American and Native American culture with a focus on the Southeastern tribes.  He has lived and worked for over 20 years in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina at small colleges and one large regional university.  He has worked to inject Indian History into the basic US History courses that all students must take.