John Charles Woodward arose earlier than usual that spring morning in 1900. It was a very cool morning, still dark, and the dampness of the rain from the previous evening hung heavy on the trees, the shrubs, and the yard of his Newnan, Georgia house.

As the superintendent of schools in the small city of Newnan, it was his usual custom to rise early each day, to complete the necessary chores of stoking the fireplaces and preparing for a long day overseeing the Newnan schools, while his wife, Lucile, readied for the day of cleaning house, preparing meals, and tending to the three Woodward children, Douglas, Cruselle D. (C.D.), and the baby, Mildred.

This was a day, however, filled with more anticipation and greater apprehension than he had felt before. This was the day that destiny seemed to have prepared a signal that would direct him for the rest of his life.

Arriving at the train station in Newnan, only a short distance away, and several minutes before the arrival of his train, John Charles stood tall and straight, the perfect example of the Victorian gentleman that he was, outside the depot of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad. A handsome man, a big man, standing more than six feet tall, square-jawed, thick dark hair and eyebrows, he looked very impressive in his stiff white collar and cuffs, his vest, his hat, and his cane which were some of the marks of the gentleman of the day.

Boarding the train, he sat next to the window facing the station which was one of many stations that served the railroad line between the two cities that made up its name - Atlanta and West Point. The rail line was about the only transportation to use at the time unless one traveled by horse and buggy. The railroad, still young as far as rail lines went in those days, served the Southern Confederacy well, playing a major role in the transportation of Confederate troops and supplies right up to 1864 when Federal troops put Atlanta under seige. After Atlanta fell, Federal troops destroyed as many as eighteen miles of track along the Atlanta and West Point Line, along with a number of depots, bridges, water stations, and other railroad property.

As the train pulled slowly into the Palmetto, Georgia Station, with the next stop being College Park, John Charles' thoughts began to dwell on the historical significance of the surround area. He remembered that the area from the station into College Park was very active during the Civil War and that General John B. Hood had brought forty thousand troops to the Palmetto Station in September of 1864 and began preparation for an aggressive campaign to the Federal lines of communication. Also, Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, had visited General Hood there and had reviewed the troops.

As the train made its way through Fairburn and then through Red Oak, John Charles thought of the many times he had come this way by train or by horse and buggy or on horseback along the main public road, the Newnan Road, later to be called Highway 29 (Roosevelt Highway). Newnan Road ran through College Park and East Point into Atlanta about midway through the Camp Jesup and Fort McPherson site. (At the time, however, there was no fort.)

Connecting the Newnan Road on the west to Macon and on the east was Cambridge Avenue (present street separating the main campus from the Lower School Campus) which was a dirt road at the time. For many years, there was a railroad station, a discarded railroad car, located where the old station stood at John Wesley and East Main Streets. Later, in April 1892, a small depot was built, and then in 1897, a larger depot of brick and stone was erected at its present site. That station, however, was destroyed by fire in 1916 and was replaced in 1917.

John Charles stepped from the train at the College Park station and began his short walk up the road (Main Street). On his left was the large, impressive structure of Cox College. The college, the second oldest college for women in the nation, filled a full block and forty acres. The campus was covered with native hickory and oak trees. The grounds were well groomed, and yellow seemed to be the predominant color for the time of year with the yellow bells and tulips and jonquils. The dogwood seemed ready to pop out.

He enjoyed the beauty as he passed the impressive women's college. He recalled how he had marveled from time to time, as he rode the Atlanta and West Point Railroad into Atlanta, at the beauty of the Cox campus with its many varieties of trees and shrubs, the hundreds of varieties of roses that bordered the walks and the rows of violets and beds of rhododendrons, azaleas, and camelias.

The campus, outlined with a low white wooden fence, was bordered on three sides by attractive homes of the faculty.

As he continued his walk along the west side of the railroad, the train which he had departed minutes before made its slow way toward Atlanta. In the distance, he could see the small station for the suburban trains - Chelsea - on the dividing line between East Point and College Park.

A short distance ahead was his destined stop - the home, with its huge barn and other out-buildings, of Mr. W. Woods White. White was a general agent of a life insurance company; he went on to form the Atlanta Loan and Savings Company. This company was later called the Morris Plan and now is known as the Bank of Georgia.

Mr. White's home was the meeting place for the College Park Literature Study Group that developed later into the present College Park Woman's Club on the corner of Rugby Avenue and Main Street. As John Charles closed the small white gate of the picket fence behind him and walked up to the large, rambling porch of the White's home, he was thinking of his many accomplishments at his present Newnan position; but the anticipation of what could be - the reason for his presence at this particular place at this particular time - was almost overwhelming.

He knew that those present in the house for the meeting were some of the leading citizens of the community. There were, among them, some people who, when the small community was named Manchester, had anticipated that Atlanta's residential growth would be in their direction. When the town became the new home for the Southern Female College, formerly located in LaGrange, Georgia and later known as Cox College, the town was renamed College Park.

Because of the reputation of the college, the people of the community had become school-minded enough to envision College Park as an educational hinge in the southern area. By 1900, the college had an enrollment of more than three hundred young ladies and was internationally known as an outstanding female school.

Included in the vision of these College Park residents was a boys' preparatory military school of which they had heard John Charles speak so often, and this meeting, John Charles knew, was to finalize the establishment of such a school. Engraved on a marble stone and located behind some shrubs in front of Brewster Hall today are the names of those Atlanta and College Park citizens who worked with Colonel Woodward in estabishing Georgia Military Academy:

	Colonel P.H. Brewster, lawyer
	Professor Charles Cox, President of Cox College
	Professor W.S. Cox, Manager of Cox College
	Dr. J.J. Foster, physician
	I.C. McCrory, merchant
	Alonzo Richardson, public accountant
	Ira A. Smith, cotton seed oil merchant
	W. Woods White, life insurance agent
	B.L. Willingham, manager of Piedmont Cotton Mills
	W.B. Willingham, attorney
	J.C. Wilson, contractor
	Colonel J.T. Graves, Editor of the Atlanta Georgian
		and later Editor of the New York American.
	Others included H.H. Bussey, Mrs. M.C. Daniel, 
		J.B. Hardin, W.M. Hutchinson, Mrs. Sarah A. Lowe,
		E.F. Lupton, and J.J. Yarbrough.

Excerpt from “The Woodward Story”, by Robert Ballentine, published 1990 by Jostens Printing and Publishing; content used with permission of the copyright holder, Woodward Academy Inc., College Park, Georgia, USA.