DAHLONEGA MINT DOOR KNOCKER DONATED

Knock, knock! This brass door knocker once welcomed visitors to the Dahlonega Branch Mint. Now, it has found a new home at the Hargrett Library!

Originally mounted on the Mint's front door in 1837, the knocker was recently donated by Susan King (pictured with Robert Harwell II), a descendant of Dr. Joseph J. Singleton—the Mint's first superintendent and treasurer. A small but mighty piece of Georgia's gold rush history!

To read the library's Facebook post, see:
Richard B. Russell Jr. Special Collections Libraries Building's Post (https://www.facebook.com/UGASpecialCollections/posts/knock-knock-this-brass-door-knocker-once-welcomed-visitors-to-the-dahlonega-bran/1462253031814532/)

From a Coin World article by Paul Gilkes:

To read the complete article, see:
Dahlonega Mint artifact presented to Georgia library (https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/dahlonega-mint-artifact-presented-to-georgia-library)

The Dahlonega Branch Mint was still under construction in January of 1837 when Dr. Joseph J. Singleton, a former state senator from Athens, Georgia, was appointed to be the mint's first superintendent/treasurer. Shortly afterward, Dr. Singleton made the long trip to Philadelphia to take the oath of office and sign his bond. Ironically, the document showing he had taken the oath of office was subsequently mislaid, and he was informed that he would have to take the oath again. He did not have to travel all the way back to Philadelphia, but he did have to make a 600-mile round trip to Savannah to find the nearest federal judge.

When Dr. Singleton arrived in Dahlonega in late March of 1837, he found the "Mint Edifice" nearing completion but still lacking a roof. Nevertheless, he advised the Philadelphia Mint to go ahead and send the machinery. "Our anxiety to commence coining of our metal is fully equal to its value," he wrote to Dr. Robert Patterson, director of the Philadelphia Mint.

Fifteen crates were shipped aboard the brig "New Hanover" and arrived in Savannah on April 22. The boxes were then shipped up river to Augusta, where they were loaded on a convoy of ten wagons bound for the tiny village in the mountains of north Georgia called Dahlonega, a name derived from the Cherokee word meaning "yellow" or "golden."

The shipment was delivered in late May, but it was three months later before skilled workmen arrived from Charlotte to begin installing the equipment. Included in this or in some subsequent shipment from Philadelphia was a door knocker cast in the shape of the Great Seal of the United States of America. The bronze eagle was mounted on the front door of the Mint Edifice to announce the presence of visitors to the establishment.

Sometime after the Dahlonega Mint was closed in 1861, the brass door knocker mounted on the front door was removed and sent to the New Orleans Mint, where it was used until that mint closed in 1909. The superintendent of the New Orleans Mint acquired the knocker at that time. Some years later on a visit to his personal physician, Dr. Herschel W. Bass, of Gadsden, Alabama, the mint official learned that Dr. Bass's wife was the great-granddaughter of Dr. Joseph J. Singleton, the first superintendent of the Dahlonega Mint. On a subsequent visit, he brought the door knocker with him and presented it to Susan Singleton Bass, saying that the artifact belonged in the care of Singleton descendants. The knocker was passed down to Dr. and Mrs. Bass's daughter, Francina Bass Perott, when she and her family moved to Georgia "because it came from the Georgia Mint."

On June 19-20, 1998, numerous descendants of Dr. Singleton traveled to Dahlonega to hold a family reunion and see the places where their ancestor had lived and worked. Among those attending were Francina Bass Perrott and her daughter, Susan Perrott King. They brought with them the historic door knocker from the Dahlonega Mint.

"My mother gave the knocker to me when my family and I moved back to Georgia for the same reason her mother gave it to her years ago," Susan explained. "They both felt that since it came from the Dahlonega Mint, it belonged in Georgia. When I saw the photograph of the old Mint in the Gold Museum, it really gave me a feeling of awe to realize that this same knocker once hung on the front door of that historic building and that my ancestor, Dr. Joseph J. Singleton, must have touched it many times."

To read the complete article, see:
Bronze Door Knocker from the Dahlonega Mint is Treasured by Singleton Descendants (https://www.goldrushgallery.com/news/knock.html)

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