Orleans Square was laid out in 1815 to commemorate General Andrew Jackson’s victory in the Battle of New Orleans. A nice open square located adjacent to the Savannah Civic Center, its centerpiece is the German Memorial Fountain, installed in 1989, by the German Heritage Society, German Friendly Society, and the Georgia Salzburger Society.
Savannah National Historic Landmark District, National Register of Historic Places
Nettie Crabb was born in Brownstown, Indiana, in 1841, but further details of her early life are elusive. She married Dr. Robert L. Weems, a physician who served as a surgeon during the Civil War. Widowed in 1880, she moved to Bird Island, Minnesota, where she worked as a milliner. In 1882 she homesteaded in Wessington Springs, Dakota Territory (present-day South Dakota), and worked in a pharmacy, which she would eventually own, the only known woman in the territory to do so. In The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (2009), Ann D. Gordon noted that Nettie was “well skilled in her profession (pharmacy).”
Nettie married another Civil War veteran, Cleveland T. Hall, in 1884, but was widowed again in 1886. Ever busy, Nettie was elected as a trustee of the Wessington Springs school in 1887 and 1888, and was also served as an election judge. In 1889, she argued for women’s suffrage at a state constitutional convention. Later that year she served as vice-president of the Jerauld County Equal Suffrage Association. In 1890 she was prominent in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
In 1895, she was one of the first settlers of Fitzgerald. where she established the Fitzgerald Enterprise, the first major newspaper in the community. She also remained active in the WCTU and was known for her support of railroad workers. Her first son, Victor, had died of exposure when his train was caught in a snowstorm in Minnesota. When Nettie C. Hall died at the age of 68 on 14 June 1908, she was a legend of the community and her lifetime of work and advocacy was celebrated. In 1910, railroad workers and the WCTU erected the “Mother Enterprise” drinking fountain in her honor.
Fitzgerald Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
In a place that has long proclaimed itself the Fountain City, the Lenora Myers Starling Fountain stands out as perhaps its most beloved. The Classically-inspired figure of a maiden rising from the waves peers to the skies from a bowl elevated by dolphins. It anchors a small, beautifully maintained triangular park at the intersection of Buena Vista Road and Wynnton Road. Dedicated in December 1929, it was commissioned by Mrs. Starling’s niece, Eleanor Moore King Hatcher. I believe Mrs. Hatcher was the mother of Claud A. Hatcher, the inventor of Chero-RC Cola.
Information on the Carrara marble fountain’s namesake is a bit scarce. According to all local references (with the exception of a National Register of Historic Places nomination) I’ve encountered, her name was Lenora Starling, not Leonora Sarling as carved into the bowl of the fountain.* According to a contemporary account in the Columbus Ledger, Mrs. Starling “moved to Columbus with her husband and became a “leader in civic, social and religious circles here. She was a pioneer in the Christian Science faith in Columbus and was active in numerous charitable endeavors.” She was also known as a leader in the local women’s suffrage movement in the early 1900s and was a founding member of the Columbus Confederated Women’s Club. Her loss in an automobile accident was described as a “tragic death while engaged in an errand of mercy.”
Ornamental fountains of Classical influence were a staple in the Victorian era, and the aesthetic remained popular for decades. Locals have dubbed the unnamed figure adorning the Starling fountain “Mrs. Columbus”. The ageless icon has kept watch over the Wynnton neighborhood for nearly a century and her visage is so connected to the city that she now commands a four-story presence on a mural at Heritage Tower.
A contemporary account described her as “the majestic figure of a woman poised in the attitude of soaring through space. One hand shields her eyes, as she gazes into the future.” This was particularly poignant in 1929, the year the nation entered the Great Depression, but remains timeless in its optimism.
*- If I can confirm that Mrs. Starling was indeed Mrs. Sarling, I will gladly update.
Wynn’s Hill-Overlook-Oak Circle Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
One of the oldest municipal projects in downtown Waycross, the Memorial Fountain in Plant Park was installed circa 1879 and cast by the Robinson Iron Works of Alexander City, Alabama. The bird on the top was apparently replaced at some point.
Waycross Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
