Article 77297 of talk.politics.guns: Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns,seattle.general Path: teetot.acusd.edu!network.ucsd.edu!library.ucla.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!att-in!cbnews!lvc From: [l v c] at [cbnews.cb.att.com] (Larry Cipriani) Subject: Re: Town that rebelled name, please? Organization: Ideology Busters, Inc. Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 21:04:21 GMT Message-ID: <[CJ 4 IJC 1 nn] at [cbnews.cb.att.com]> References: <[CJ 2 HIK B x q] at [eskimo.com]> Lines: 143 In article <[CJ 2 HIK B x q] at [eskimo.com]> [r--oh--n] at [eskimo.com] (Rebecca Rohan) writes: >Can someone help me out with the name of the town, please? From: Scott Subject: Athens Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92 17:55:45 EDT PAGE 1 PAGE 2 International 1985 September 21, 1985, Saturday, AM cycle SECTION: Regional News DISTRIBUTION: Tennessee LENGTH: 660 words HEADLINE: Reagan visit ranks with ' Battle of Athens' DATELINE: ATHENS, Tenn. KEYWORD: Reagan-Tenn BODY: President Reagan's visit Tuesday will go down as a landmark event in the history of Athens alongside the 1946 '' Battle of Athens, '' in which returning veterans seized power from a crooked political machine after an all-night gun battle. Folks in McMinn County remember Aug. 1, 1946, as the night the people took matters into their own hands and restored ''Good Government'' to the county. A group of recently returned World War II veterans, organized as the Good Government Party, ran a slate of candidates in the local election and was determined to see that the ballots were counted accurately. The local Democratic Party machine, headed by Sheriff Paul Cantrell, tried to count the ballots secretly inside the county jail - two blocks from the courthouse where Reagan will speak. The veterans knew a secret count would be a crooked count, and a full-scale shootout erupted. Jim Burn, former president of the McMinn County Historical Society, said Cantrell and about 30 of his deputies were trapped inside the jail, while veterans armed with 100,000 rounds of ammunition encircled the jail and opened fire. They also dynamited the jail building's porch. Bullets flew back and forth throughout the night, but surprisingly no one was killed. One bystander was wounded, Burn said. When the smoke cleared about sunrise the next day, Cantrell's deputies surrendered. Cantrell slipped out of the jail undetected and fled the county. The ballots were counted and the Good Government ticket won. Bill Akins, a member of the county historical society, said the veterans simply wanted to make Athens safe for democracy. ''They had been in battle and faced death fighting for democracy overseas and decided they would institute democracy in McMinn County, you might say,'' Akins said. PAGE 3 ''It was just simply a matter of people were fed up with the type of politics and treatment people generally received under the (Cantrell) regime, and they did something about it,'' Akins said. The North White Street jail where the battle was fought has been torn down, replaced by a health spa. Aside from the Battle of Athens, the town's claim to fame is that it was the first place in Tennessee where railroad tracks were laid. The Hiwassee Rail Road Co. started construction in Athens in 1837 on a line connecting Loudon, Tenn., with Dalton, Ga. The Athens native who played the most important role in American history may have been Harry T. Burn, a Republican state representative who cast the deciding vote in Nashville when the Tennessee legislature approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, giving women the right to vote. The proposed amendment needed ratification by 37 state legislatures and Tennessee was the 37th to approve it. After the Tennessee Senate had approved the amendment, the House took up the matter. Burn opposed the amendment in a vote to table the measure, but changed his mind minutes later and voted in favor of it. The House approved the amendment on a vote of 49-47 and women across the United States won the franchise. Burns later said he had followed his mother's advice. ''I know that a mother's advice is always the safest for her boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification,'' he said. Athens, population 12,152, is located about 60 miles south of Knoxville off Interstate 75. The rolling hills of McMinn County were once home to the Cherokee Indians. The U.S. government pressured the Cherokees into selling the land in 1819. Today Athens bills itself as ''The Friendly City.'' ''That's our slogan,'' said former Mayor Burkett Witt, owner of Burkett's Barbecue restaurant. ''We have real genial people around here. ''I believe they'd take in a total stranger for six months. A stranger could come in here and not do a lick of work for six months and people would take care of him,'' said Witt, who was the state's only black mayor when he held office from 1983 through July 1985. -- Larry Cipriani -- [l v cipriani] at [att.com] or attmail!lcipriani The United States of America, 1776 to 1992, Rest In Peace