Jones County History and Heritage celebrated a young man whose love of history began as a teenager and has continued throughout his college and professional career.
James Newberry was selected as the Hamilton-Williams Preservationist of the Year by the organization and was presented with the award at a banquet in his honor Feb. 13. The event was held at Trish Ann’s Tearoom in Haddock.
Jones County History and Heritage is a private, non-profit organization formed in 2002 to promote an appreciation of Jones County’s history.
Newberry is currently the Outreach and Special Projects Curator for the Department of Museums, Archives and Rare Books at Kennesaw State University. He graduated from UGA with a bachelor of arts in history and has a master’s degree in public history from Georgia State University. He previously worked for the National Archives and Records Administration and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. Newberry shared the title of Georgia Trust Volunteer of the Year with his partner, Jesse Grainger, in 2021.
History and Heritage President Earl Colvin started the program with an explanation of the award. He noted that this was the 16th year for the award and banquet.
The Hamilton-Williams award was established in 2007 and named for two pioneers in the preservation of Jones County’s history — Carolyn White Williams, the author of the History of Jones County first published in 1957, and Annie Bowen Hamilton, the founder and first president of Old Clinton Historical Society that was formed in 1974.
The first recipients of the award were Colvin and Sherri Rollins in 2008. The award banquet has been held every year except for 2020 due to the pandemic.
Colvin explained that this year’s recipient assisted with the publication of History and Heritage’s newest book, “Historic Homes of Jones County Georgia” that printed its 2024 edition last year. The book contains pictures of historic homes in Gray and 10 communities within Jones County. Many of the pictures in the book were taken by Newberry in 2004 during his sophomore and junior years at Jones County High School.
That project came full circle because it was a request by Colvin for some pictures of a few historic homes that got Newberry interested. James’ parents, attorney Charles Newberry and mother Terree, assisted in the endeavor to catalogue and photograph the historic homes in the county by chauffeuring him since he did not yet have a drivers’ license.
The project took the best part of a year and resulted in more than 200 photographs of historic homes and PowerPoint presentations to organizations and civic groups. A sampling of the photos are also displayed in the law offices of Newberry and Newberry.
Colvin said James’ pictures were the inspiration for the new book, and he did not hesitate to allow his photographs to be used for the book.
When he spoke to the group, James said the project occupied a lot of time and was one of his first exhibit instillations. He said he used a digital camera that belonged to his dad, and they drove from the communities of Round Oak, James and everywhere in between.
“I took photos of any building over 50 years old at the time,” he said. “We met several characters along the way.”
The honoree said he was appreciative of his parents’ support that allowed him to do the project.
“I feel it prepared me for the work I’m doing today,” James added.
He said it taught him how to tell stories about history.
“For me, the most meaningful part of preservation is the stories we tell and the people we include. Not so much the building materials.”
The recipient said some of his recent projects include new brochures for Georgia State Parks and historic sites, exhibits for school systems, new interpretive signs for Grant Park Conservancy in Atlanta, assisting public history students with an exhibit about folk artists and neighborhood historic markers.
He thanked Jones County History and Heritage for the awards and more.
“You helped me discover one of the things I love most in the world. Because of that, I’m forever grateful and never bored,” he said.
