Aug. 3 Sunday Lecture Explores Truth Behind City’s Early History

The Friends of the Smyrna Library is hosting a noted local historian to explore Smyrna’s early history and put the Jonquil City’s formative years into a new context.

Dr. William P. Marchione, author of A Brief History of Smyrna, Georgia, will present the Sunday Lecture, “The City That Never Was: Fact and Fallacy in the Early History of Smyrna, Georgia, 1872-1910.” The free event will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 3, in the library’s first-floor meeting room at 100 Village Green Circle in downtown Smyrna. Light refreshments will be served.

The talk will challenge long-held assumptions about Smyrna’s early municipal government.

For years, the absence of records from the 1872-1900 period was attributed to a fire that supposedly destroyed the city’s earliest documents. However, Marchione’s research into hundreds of Smyrna news accounts published in the Marietta Journal during those years tells a different story.

Through a close analysis of these primary sources, Marchione concludes that although Smyrna was officially chartered in 1872, it did not establish a functioning municipal government during that period. His presentation will explore the evidence behind this surprising revelation and offer a fresh perspective on the city’s formative years.

This event is part of the Sunday Lecture Series sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library.

For more information about the Friends of Smyrna Library and future events, please visit FriendsOfSmyrnaLibrary.com.

About Friends of Smyrna Library

The Friends of Smyrna Library (FOSL) is an independent, non-profit volunteer organization that supports the Smyrna Public Library through fundraising events and volunteer activities. FOSL is a member of the Friends of Libraries USA and Friends of Georgia Libraries and is one of the most active Friends chapters in Georgia. For more information, visit FriendsOfSmyrnaLibrary.com.