Washington
Wholesale Observations: Washington, Georgia
About 40 miles east of Athens, GA (home to the state’s most prestigious University, UGA – “Go Dawgs!”) on U.S. 78, is the picturesque small town of Washington, in the heart of Wilkes County. I have been through it many times.
On one such trip, many years ago, coming back from a visit with friends in Athens over Thanksgiving, I decided to (finally) stop at the “Washington-Wilkes Historical Museum,” housed in a huge old two-story columned house on the downtown main street. I had been by there many times, but never stopped in before to see what they had. (The Robert Toombs house is two houses away.)
I picked up their brochure and took the self-guided tour, staying maybe about an hour. When I got home, and later read the brochure, I discovered to my surprise that the original portion of the house had been built by a distant relative, Albert Gallatin Semmes!
So the next time I went to Athens, six months or so later, I made a point to stop back by on the way home, again. This time I went to find the curator, a white-haired lady named Doris Martin, held out my hand, introduced myself, then asked for the keys!
When she looked up at me in surprise, I explained about my earlier visit, and discovering upon my return to Savannah and reading their brochure, that the original owner was a relative! Whereupon the kind woman undertook to give me her personal guided tour, and explained what she knew.
The original house, she said, was what was now the ground-level basement, later used as the kitchen, and the two upper floors were added later, along with the east and west wings. She showed me the second story’s western wing, and pointed out the six-inch drop from the floor of the main house to the floor of the wing.
We don’t know if that was due to a lack of proper measuring, or the weight of the addition sinking into soft soil,” she told me. “So you have to watch your step.”
She said that the surrounding ~100 acres or so were part of the original farm, but had been sold off by later owners, and were now residential areas. And that the original owners had apparently gotten spooked by a yellow fever epidemic in 1857, so sold the property, packed up everyone and everything, and moved back to Mississippi!
She directed me to the nearby county (Carnegie) library, and told me to ask for the woman in charge of their special collections section, who could show me the various cemetery records (city, church and family) to see if I could find any relatives buried there. I did go by, looked through all of what was there, but couldn’t find a one! So apparently my ancestors “got out while the getting was good,” and didn’t lose a soul in the process.
The other remarkable thing about that second trip was that the curator had the same name as a long-time Savannah dance and theatre icon, Doris Martin, who ran a dance studio for young girls for many years, and choreographed many Little Theatre summer musicals.
She and her husband Harris also served on the LT Board of Directors. I knew them both well from my LT days.
Another recent discovery I made, at an antiques shop in downtown Savannah, down the street from a BBQ joint I sometimes go for lunch, was a book on this very topic.
One of their window displays was a three-level bookshelf with a variety of old books; and a slender green volume at one end of the second shelf caught my eye: “The History of Wilkes County, Georgia.”
I was unaware of such a volume, so of course had to go inside and look at it.
I told the young man who pulled it off the shelf for me that I only needed to “look at it for a minute, and would give it right back to him.”
“Unless, of course, you want to buy it!” he said with a smile. “Of course,” I replied, cheerfully but doubtfully.
Then I turned to the index, and found to my surprise at least half a dozen entries under the name “Semmes.”
“OK, I’ll take it!” I told him. “That was quick,” he said. I told him I’d found what I was looking for, but hadn’t expected to find.
So, five minutes and $62 later, I walked out with it in my hand.
All I’ve had time to do so far is put post-it flags on all the pages referencing Semmes family members.
I will eventually scan those pages, and the introduction to the volume – which is a story in itself – and send them to family members.
One small note: This apparently was a Protestant branch of the family, unlike mine, which was long Catholic. But then, I don’t think there were many Catholics in Georgia back then, unlike Maryland, where my branch of the family comes from. So that may have been more to do with necessity than conviction.
Life is full of surprises!
Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia.
He and his wife live in eastern Liberty County, and are long-time Rotarians. He writes on a variety of topics, and may be reached at rafe_semmes@yahoo.com.
Washington
Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “on behalf of the Department of Education (ED),” on Monday released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Applications are due by May 29.
Last November, ED announced that it had entered into an interagency agreement with HHS to administer the CCAMPIS program. This is the first CCAMPIS competition conducted under this arrangement.
Approximately $73.5 million will go to institutions of higher education that awarded at least $250,000 in Pell grants to enrolled students in FY 2025. HHS will award about 148 grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.
The terms of the grant competition are not significantly different than prior competitions. As before, there are two absolute grant priorities that every application must address – leveraging non-federal resources and utilizing a sliding-fee scale for low-income parents.
This year’s competition includes only one invitational priority that reflects the Trump administration’s general educational policy. The new priority, entitled “Expanding Education Choice in Early Learning Settings,” encourages applications that “expand access to education choice … including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.” Flexible childcare programs that include drop-in care and care during nontraditional hours are also encouraged.
One other notable difference from prior competitions is an expanded “Terms and Conditions” section that not only requires compliance with applicable civil rights laws, but also refers to Trump administration Executive Orders and guidance on racial discrimination that clarify “the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs.” This includes any “discriminatory equity ideology [as defined in Executive Order 14190] in violation of a federal antidiscrimination law.”
The exact scope of these terms is unclear because courts have not found many of the practices described in these Executive Orders and guidance documents to be violations of federal law.
Washington
A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington
The Newsfeed
This week, the team brings you stories about how communities including Filipino immigrants, Sephardic Jews and Somalis arrived in the Pacific Northwest
Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle’s Filipinotown
By Venice Buhain
The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn’t forgotten.
One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID.
“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.
He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.”
The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum
In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID.
“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said.
Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.
While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.
“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said.
The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals.
Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle.
“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It’s all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it’s more than one thing,” Cabanilla said.

Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.
Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.
Washington
The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple
The state of Washington is getting a seventh temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Marysville Washington Temple was announced Sunday night during a devotional in the Marysville Washington Stake by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy in the church’s United States West Area Presidency.
“We are pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Marysville, Washington,” the First Presidency said in a statement. “The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later. This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and express gratitude for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”
The other temples in Washington are the Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver temples.
The church has 214 temples in operation. Plans for another 170 temples have been announced; many of those temples are in various stages of planning and construction.
Sunday’s temple announcement follows the new practice of the church’s First Presidency, which determines where temples will be built — and when and how they will be announced.
The First Presidency directed a General Authority Seventy to announce the first temple in Maine at a fireside there in December.
In January, church President Dallin H. Oaks said the Maine announcement set the pattern for future temple announcements.
“The best place to announce a temple is in that temple district,” he told the Deseret News.
The First Presidency will continue to decide where future temples will be built. It then will “assign someone else to make the announcement in the place where the temple will be built,” he said.
This pattern came to him as a strong impression after he assumed leadership of the church in October, following the death of his friend, President Russell M. Nelson.
This came as a strong impression to him shortly after he assumed the leadership of the church, President Oaks said.
The church remains in the midst of an aggressive temple-building era. President Nelson announced 200 new temples from 2018 to 2025. All but one were announced at general conference.
Five dozen temples are now under construction.
President Oaks now has overseen the announcement of two temples, neither at a general conference.
At the October conference he said that “with the large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”
Ten new temples are scheduled to be dedicated in the next six months.
- May 3: Davao Philippines Temple.
- May 3: Lindon Utah Temple.
- May 31: Bacolod Philippines Temple.
- June 7: Yorba Linda California Temple.
- June 7: Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
- Aug. 16: Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple.
- Aug. 16: Cleveland Ohio Temple.
- Aug. 30: Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple.
- Oct. 11: Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
- Oct. 18: Managua Nicaragua Temple.
Two-thirds of the 170 temples still to be built are outside the United States.
Temples are distinct from the meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ each Sunday. Temples are closed on Sundays, but they open during the week as sanctuaries where church members go to find peace, make covenants with God and perform proxy ordinances for deceased relatives.
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