06 LC 34
0636S
The
House Committee on Transportation offers the following substitute to HR
413:
A
RESOLUTION
To
dedicate certain portions of the state highway system; and for other
purposes.
PART
I
WHEREAS,
the Johnson family of Webster County has owned land and resided in the area of
Kinchafoonee Creek in Webster County for almost a century; and
WHEREAS,
when SR 45 was constructed, the Johnson family gave the state approximately two
miles of right of way so that the state could build the road; and
WHEREAS,
dedicating the bridge on SR 45 that spans the Kinchafoonee Creek in Webster
County in honor of Warren V. Johnson will recognize the contribution made by
this family to the state and the significance of this family in the life of its
community.
PART
II
WHEREAS,
Harry H. Eason was born on August 15, 1915, and he spent his career as a
superintendent for H.G. Smith Construction Company building bridges throughout
south Georgia; and
WHEREAS,
in 1956, he moved his family to Tifton, where his company had been awarded the
contract to construct bridges for Interstate Highway 75 from Tifton to Ashburn,
and Mr. Eason was assigned the task of supervising the construction of those
bridges; and
WHEREAS,
he was known to work as hard as any of his crew in the construction project and
each of the bridges was constructed on time and the work was approved without
correction; and
WHEREAS,
many of the bridges he built were of a complicated design which were even more
difficult to construct in the days before computers; and
WHEREAS,
it is only fitting that a bridge be named for such a renowned bridge builder as
Mr. Harry H. Eason.
PART
III
WHEREAS,
on a day in the 1880s, at least 15 years before the Wright Brothers' famous
flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Micajah Clark Dyer rode his "apparatus for
navigating the air" — the term airplane would not be coined for decades
— down a slip on Rattlesnake Mountain in Union County, Georgia, and flew
low over a meadow on his farm in the Choestoe community near Blairsville;
and
WHEREAS,
Mr. Dyer, who was born in South Carolina on July 23, 1822, and who farmed in
Union County, Georgia, to support his large family, received his only formal
education in a one-room school, but despite this limitation developed a
reputation as a true genius because of his many inventions; and
WHEREAS,
most of Mr. Dyer's inventions have been lost in the veil of time, but it is
known that he equipped his house with running water, built an efficient
water-powered grist mill, and invented a "perpetual motion" machine that could
power devices; but his most famous invention was his flying machine, for which
he was awarded a patent in September, 1874, and which he continued to improve
and refine until his death on January 26, 1891; and
WHEREAS,
stories of his flying machine were kept alive through Dyer family oral tradition
until 2004, when, thanks to the modern invention of the Internet, family members
were able to identify the 1874 patent and obtain a copy, proof that the machine
had, in fact, been built and that sophisticated plans had been filed with the
United States Patent Office, although the flight from Rattlesnake Mountain over
the meadow remains unverified local lore; and
WHEREAS,
although the flying machine invented in the remote North Georgia mountains never
made it into the history books, family history indicates that Mr. Dyer's widow,
Morena Owenby Dyer, sold the machine and plans to the Redwine Brothers in
Atlanta, who, in turn, sold them to the Wright Brothers of Ohio, so it is
probable that Micajah Clark Dyer did, indirectly, contribute to the first human
flight.
PART
IV
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA that the bridge on
SR 45 that spans the Kinchafoonee Creek in Webster County is dedicated as the
Warren V. Johnson Bridge, and the Department of Transportation is authorized and
directed to erect and maintain appropriate signs to identifying the
bridge.
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the bridge on Chula Brookfield Road over Interstate
Highway 75 in Turner County, Georgia, is hereby dedicated as the Harry H. Eason
Bridge in honor of this distinguished Georgian, and the Department of
Transportation is authorized and directed to erect and maintain appropriate
signs so dedicating the bridge.
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the portion of Georgia Highway 180 in Union County from
the intersection with US Highway 129 to the Towns County line be dedicated the
Micajah Clark Dyer Parkway, and the Department of Transportation is authorized
and directed to place and maintain appropriate markers designating the Micajah
Clark Dyer Parkway.
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized
and directed to transmit appropriate copies of this resolution to the Department
of Transportation, Warren V. Johnson, Harry H. Eason, and the family of Micajah
Clark Dyer.