Q: How did the South Georgia town of Ty Ty get its name?
—Ouida Bradford, Columbus
A: Most of Ty Ty has gone bye-bye. There's not much left of the small Tift County town with about 700 people, said Tifton insurance agent Darby Veazey, who grew up in Ty Ty and lives about 1 mile from where she was raised. Ty Ty, just west of I-75, was named for the black and white titi trees (commonly referred to as ironwood and buckwheat trees) that once grew along Ty Ty Creek. "There's still a lot of traffic through the town because of [U.S.] 82, which runs east and west, and residences, but there aren't many stores still there," said Veazey, whose son Chance is a former UGA baseball player who was paralyzed in a scooter accident in 2009. In fact, Ty Ty is just one of several places in Tift County with an interesting name. These also include the town of Omega, part of which is in Colquitt County, and two wide places in the road called Chula and Eldorado. How nearby Enigma, in neighboring Berrien County, was named is another story for another day.
Q: There’s a mystery surrounding the statue of a woman on top of the state capitol. Can you find anything about that?
A: Not much is known how Miss Freedom – that's what the 15-foot tall, 2,000-pound white copper statue is unofficially called – found her resting place on top of the gold dome of Georgia's capitol. Legend has it that she was originally designed for the top of Ohio's capitol, but when that state ran out of money, she was transported to Georgia and given one of the best views of the city when the building was finished in 1889. State librarian Ella Mae Thornton tried to solve the Miss Freedom mystery – sounds like a made-for-TV movie -- in the 1950s by discovering evidence that the Georgia capitol's original plans included a statue and that it was made by an Ohio company. However, there were no records for the order of the statue or for how she found a home in Atlanta. If that's not enough, more mystery surrounds her name. The statue might have originally been called "Goddess of Liberty," according to an Atlanta Constitution article during the capitol's construction, but it's not sure if that was the official name or something the reporter used for the story.
What do you want to know about Georgia?
If you’re new in town or have questions about this special place we call home, ask us! E-mail Andy Johnston at q&a@ajc.com.
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