Taliaferro County, Georgia
Taliaferro County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,717, making it the least populous county east of the Mississippi River. The county seat is Crawfordville. The spelling of the county's name is not phonetic. The pronunciation is in keeping with how many families with the name “Taliaferro” traditionally pronounce it. The pronunciation is "Tolliver" (rhyming with the common male name "Oliver", IPA: /ˈtɒlɪvər/). This is the traditional British pronunciation.
JAMES WINGFIELD GOLUCKE
June 19 1857 - October 26 1907
Taliaferro County Ga Archives Biographies.....
Author: Rhoda Taylor Fone
Architectual Career
James Golucke’s career as an architect began in the mid-1890s and lasted until his untimely death in 1907. He designed at least 27 courthouses in Georgia andfour in , and was considered a genius in his field. It is unknown exactly how many other buildings he designed but a few are The Fitzpatrick Hotel, Washington, Georgia, Terrell Hall at Georgia College in Milledgeville, and the Spalding County Jail.
Unfortunately, James Golucke died in the midst of scandal and disgrace, accused of anlleged connection with the misappropriation of funds in Baker County.He died in jail in Newton, Baker County, Georgia, of natural causes after an unsuccessful suicide attempt (see newspaper article below). He vigorously the charges up to his death in 1907 and our family, as well as many others, believed in his innocence. In a recent article appearing in the September 2004 issue of Georgia County Government, the author, Mr. Alan Pogue, states: “It is commonly believed that someone else, most likely a local resident involved in the project was responsible for the misappropriation of funds.”
There is a story that his restless spirit still haunts the Baker County Courthouse to this day.
James Golucke’s genius is best described in a series of articles by Mr. Wilber W. Caldwell which appeared in the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and on the ACCG website. These articles were first written as chapters in the book The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair by Wilber W. Caldwell (Mercer University Press, 2001). The following excerpt from Mr. Caldwel’s chapter titled The Dekalb County Courthouse at Decatur is particularly interesting and is presented here with permission. (The complete article may be viewed at the ACCG website: http://www.accg.org/detail.asp?ID=909)
-EXCERPT-
“The first DeKalb County Courthouse was a log structure built around 1824. It was replaced in 1829 by a brick building that burned in 1842. In 1847, a quaint
brick courthouse was fashioned vaguely in the Greek mold. This building was demolished in 1898 to make way for James Wingfield Golucke’s massive 1900 DeKalb County Courthouse, [see photo in sidebar] perhaps the most influential public building of its era in Georgia. Except for Atlanta architect, Andrew J. Bryan’s less influential rather Neo-Georgian 1895 Stewart County Courthouse at Lumpkin and Bryan’s 1896 remodeling of the old Muscogee County Courthouse at Columbus, Golucke’s creation in Decatur was the first courthouse in the state to voice the passion of the American Neoclassical Revival. The new Classicism had swept the county after the success of the Florentine Renaissance architecture of Chicago, White City at the 1893 Columbian Exposition.
A careful combination of modern American Neoclassical trends and the familiar Classicism of the Old South, Golucke’s granite centerpiece in DeKalb was Georgia’s most imitated public building of first decade of the new century. Less than a year after its completion, Golucke designed a brick court building in Hart County based on a nearly identical plan, and only a year later he followed that structure with his 1903 Meriwether County Courthouse at Greenville. By this time, county officials were flocking to Decatur to view Golucke’s work, and newspaper reports in Eatonton [Putnam County] and in Newnan [Coweta County] confirm that Golucke’s commissions for courthouses in those towns were awarded on the strength of the architect’s work in DeKalb County. James Golucke would expand on his ideas in Putnam and Coweta Counties, adding more Beaux-Arts ornament and more expressive details. In all, he would design seven court buildings in Georgia modeled after the general form found here at in Decatur. In addition, Columbia’s Frank Milburn, Eastman’s Ed C. Hosford, Macon’s Alexander Blair III, Columbus’s T. F. Lockwood, Augusta’s Lewis Goodrich and Atlanta’s Morgan and Dillon would all create court buildings in Georgia following Golucke’s general Decatur’s plan.
Part of the success of the design turned on four more or less equal portico entrances, one at each of the four points of the compass. Elsewhere in America, the new Classicism reflected a grasping commercialism and the aggressive nation Ãs growing industrial might. To temper these uniquely un-Southern images, Golucke was careful to retain, at the center of each elevation, a bold Greek temple form, a grand portico topped with a Classical pediment supported by imposing columns. Golucke thus balanced powerful duel symbols that spoke to a deeply troubled region teetering on the razor’s edge between the Old South and the New. Here, despite its granite monumentality, was a fundamentally Georgian Classical form, not much different from courthouse designs that appeared in simple builder’s guides of the early years of the nineteenth century.”®
-END EXCERPT-
Family
One of the most interesting members of our family was James Wingfield Golucke, husband of Annulet , Annie’s Darracott (sister of my grandmother, Sallie (Darracott) Taylor). He had a phenomenal rise to fame and although he had no formal training, he became one of the most famous and critically acclaimed architects of his time. James Wingfield Golucke was born 19 June 1857 in Wilkes County., Georgia, died 26 Oct. 1907 in Baker County, Georgia, and is buried in the Crawfordville Baptist Cemetery, Taliaferro County. He was son of Edmund Golucke, a German immigrant, and Cornelia Susan Wingfield, a native of Wilkes County. James Golucke and Annulet Darracott were married on April 21, 1878 in Taliaferro County. There were no children born to James and Annie Golucke.
Annulet Darrcott was born about 1856 in Taliaferro County and died 24 Sept. 1941, Atlanta, daughter of John W. Darracott and Susan Ann Chapman of
Taliaferro County and later of Atlanta. Aunt Annie was named for Annulet Ball, wife of the well-known Judge Garnett Andrews. Her grandmother, Ann Connell, was first married to Marcus Andrews, brother of Judge Garnett Andrews, and after his death she married William H. Chapman, our line.
James Golucke began his career as a carpenter, which was his father’s occupation in Washington, Georgia. In 1880 he and his wife were living in Hancock County, and by 1889 they were living in Atlanta where he was employed as a machinist at the Woodward Lumber Company.
1880 Census, Hancock Co., GA
Sparta
Roll 151, page 304B
3 June 1880
Dwelling 64, Family 99
Golucke, J.W., w, m, age 23, Self, mar., b, GA, father b. Ger., mother b. GA,
occupation: Carpenter
Golucke, Annie, w, f, age 24, Wife, both parents b. GA, occupation: keeping
house.
Atlanta City Directory (from Ancestry.com)
Year: 1889
Name: James W. Golucke
Business Name: Woodward Lumber Co.
Occupation: mch
Location 1: (blank)
Location 2: residence 10 N. Butler, Atlanta
Year: 1890
Name: James W. Golucke
Business Name: Woodward Lumber Co.
Occupation: machinist
Location 1: (blank)
Location2: residence 10 N. Butler, Atlanta
1910 Census, Fulton Co
2-WD, Atlanta City
Roll 190, Bk. 2, Page 22B
June 28, 1910
Golucke, Annie, Head, f, w, age 53, widow
Number of children born: 0
Number of children living: 0
b. GA, both parents b. GA
Occupation: own income
In the 1920 census, Annie Golucke, and her brother, Frank Darracott, were listed as roomers in the household of John A. Yother in Atlanta. By 1930,
Aunt Annie was living in Atlanta with her niece, Anita (Robbins) Beale (daughter of James Marion Robbins and Frances Roberta Willie Darracott), where she continued to live until her death in 1941.
From Ancestry.com Newspaper Database (provided by Margie McDonald)
The Atlanta Constitution October 28, 1907
"DEATH TAKES J. W. GOLUCKE
“Body of Well Known Architect Reached Atlanta Last Night.
The body of J. W. Golucke, formerly a prominent architect in Atlanta, reached the city last night at about 8 o'clock and is being held at the undertaking establishment of Greenberg, Bond & Bloomfield, awaiting the perfection of funeral arrangements.
Some time ago Mr. Golucke was arrested and carried to the Baker county jail at Newton on the charge of alleged connection with the misappropriation of funds in the building of a new courthouse for Baker county.
Several weeks ago he tried to commit suicide while in his cell by cutting the arteries in his wrist with a piece of glass, but his purpose was thwarted by the efforts of physicians. He recovered from these injuries, it is said, his death resulting Saturday night, at Newton, from an attack of gastritis.”®
Some Georgia courthouses
designed by James Wingfield Golucke.
1895-Emanuel County-Swainsboro
1895-Johnson County-Wrightsville
1895-Pike County-Zebulon
1897-Henry County-McDonough
1898-Clayton County-Jonesboro
1898-Habersham County-Clarkesville
1899-DeKalb County-Decatur
1899-Cobb County-Marietta
1899-Union County-Blairsville
1900-Schley County-Ellaville
1900-Baker County-Newton
1901-Fannin County-Blue Ridge
1901-Hart County-Hartwell
1901-Madison County-Danielsville
1902-Tattnall County-Reidsville
1902-03-Bartow County-Cartersville
1902-03-Meriwether County-Greenville
1902-03-Pierce County-Blackshear
1902-03-Twiggs County-Jeffersonville
1904-05-Cowetta County-Newnan
1905-Forsyth County-Cumming
1905-Morgan County-Madison
1905-Putnam County-Eatonton
1905-06-Jones County-Gray
1905-06-Worth County
1906 - Toombs County-Lyons
SOURCES:
1. Article from the ACCG magazine Georgia County Government taken from the
book The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of
Despair by Wilbur W. Caldwell (Mercer University Press, 2001).
2. Cemetery Inscription, Crawfordville Baptist Cemetery, Crawfordville, Georgia.
3. Taliaferro Co., GA Marriage Book B.
4. Wilkes Co., GA Census Records.
5. Taliaferro Co., GA Census Records.
6. Hancock Co., GA Census Records.
7. Atlanta, Fulton Co., GA Census Records.
8. Newspaper Articles from the Atlanta Constitution provided by Margie McDonald.
9. Information provided by Erick Montgomery.
10. Personal Knowledge and Family Records.
File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ga/taliaferro/bios/gbs602golucke.txt
Copyright. All rights reserved.
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Rhoda Taylor Fone http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00012.html#0002953