Houston County (Ga.)

September 29, 2020October 20, 2020

Issues of the Houston Home Journal dating from 1993 to 2008 are now freely available at the Georgia Historic Newspapers website

Through a partnership with the Houston County Public Library System, the Digital Library of Georgia has completed the final phase of digitization of the Houston Home Journal, a project that has lasted nearly five years. Issues of the newspaper are now available online at the Georgia Historic Newspapers website: gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/.

This project was made possible by the generous donations and support of the following: The estate of Alice L. Gilbert (former Perry Librarian), Flint Energies Foundation, The Friends of the Houston County Public Library, and the Houston Home Journal.

Over the past five years, the DLG has digitized 8,166 issues or 129,029 pages of the Houston Home Journal, dating from 1870 to 2008. This represents the largest date span of any title available on the Georgia Historic Newspapers website. It also amounts to the second greatest number of issues of any newspaper title on the website.

John T. Waterman founded the Houston Home Journal in Perry in December 1870. The Hodges family maintained ownership of the publication for over sixty years, before selling it in 1946. The Houston Home Journal remains the legal organ for Houston County and continues publication as the county’s oldest continually operated business.

This phase of the newspaper digitization project includes five Houston County titles from 1993-2008, a total of 1,983 issues, or 61,743 pages. The newly available titles are available at gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/counties/houston/

Georgette Lipford, president of the Central Georgia Genealogical Society and member of the Friends of the Houston County Public Library System notes:

“The recently completed digitization project of the Houston Home Journal and its addition to the Georgia Historic Newspapers website represents an absolute treasure for anyone researching family in Houston County. Sometimes a newspaper notice is the only surviving document of an ancestor’s existence. These issues of the HHJ have obituaries, wedding announcements, legal notices, employment news, hospitalizations, and photographs, all of which tell an ancestor’s or descendant’s story. What previously may have taken hours of searching to locate can now be found with a couple of mouse clicks and it’s freely available to genealogists across the country!“

Selected images

Houston Times Journal, March 22, 1995

“Robins named best AF base in the world”

“The day the president came to town”

gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn94002550/1995-03-22/ed-1/seq-1/

Houston Home Journal, December 24, 2002

Photographs of the Houston Home Journal offices.

gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn99000076/2002-12-24/ed-1/seq-22

About Houston County Public Library System

The Houston County Public Library System is bridging yesterday and tomorrow with information and discovery. The purpose of the Houston County Public Library System is to offer a full program of library services to all citizens of Houston County and the surrounding communities in order to meet their informational, educational, and recreational needs. Visit the library at houpl.org/.

May 18, 2018May 18, 2018

Historical Perry, Georgia, City Council minutes now available online

CONTACT: Deborah Hakes, dhakes@georgialibraries.org, (404) 852-5547; Mandy Mastrovita, mastrovi@uga.edu, 706-583-0209

ATHENS, GA…Georgia HomePLACE and the Digital Library of Georgia are pleased to announce the online availability of the 19th and 20th century Perry, Georgia, City Council Minute Books collection at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/hlp_hcmb. The project was made possible through a partnership between the Digital Library of Georgia, Georgia HomePLACE, and the Houston County Public Library System.

This collection of Perry’s municipal documents includes the charter, ordinances, minutes, and rules of council from 1859-1943. The minutes include details of city council meetings, the names of council committee members, and city business transactions, including some financial records. The city charter, ordinances, and rules of council include information about the town’s incorporation, statutes, and regulations.

These materials document the growth and modernization of Perry, Houston County’s county seat. “Unlike much of the country during the Great Depression, Perry experienced a period of industrial growth and population increase, with electricity to homes instead of gas, as well the first Blue Bird bus being built in Perry in 1927,” notes J. Sara Paulk, Director of the Houston County Public Library System. “Tourism was supported and encouraged with the second in the state tourist court, gas stations, and modern streets. The historic Dixie highway came through Perry and was paved during the 1920s.” The digitized collection gives researchers access to the original records which reflect these changes over time.

About Houston County Public Library System

Houston County Public Library System offers a full program of library services of all citizens of Houston County and the surrounding communities to meet their informational, educational and recreational needs. Learn more at http://houpl.org/.

About Georgia HomePLACE

Georgia HomePLACE encourages public libraries and related institutions across the state to participate in the Digital Library of Georgia. HomePLACE offers a highly collaborative model for digitizing primary source collections related to local history and genealogy. HomePLACE is supported with Federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Learn more about Georgia HomePLACE at http://www.georgialibraries.org/homeplace/abouthomeplace.php.

About the Digital Library of Georgia

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ is a GALILEO initiative that collaborates with Georgia’s libraries, archives, museums and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture and life. This primary mission is accomplished through the ongoing development, maintenance and preservation of digital collections and online digital library resources. DLG also serves as Georgia’s service hub for the Digital Public Library of America and as the home of the Georgia Newspaper Project, the state’s historic newspaper microfilming project.