When I did a search on the internet for the word Onega, the only thing I can find is a lake in Russia and a few other instances.

The word Onega is a part of the name of a town in Georgia, that goes back to the Cherokee Indian Nation some two hundred years ago. Onega is a part of the word, Dahl-Onega. The Cherokee meaning of the word is white gold.

When the great Cherokee Chief Sequoyah was working to improve and create an alphabet that would be easy to use and readily adapted to the improvement of speaking in syllables and using accents.

Dahl in the Cherokee language before Sequoyah’s time in the 1820's, stood for gold, since gold had been discovered by the Cherokee in this area of Georgia. The gold provided a good source for funds for these people.

The Cherokee had mined $6,000,000 in currency value from these mines in Georgia before the United States Congress passed legislation that created the Indian Removal Act.

The gold mines in Dahl-Onega, Georgia provided work and money for the Cherokees in this area.

Federal troops located in the area of the gold mine in Dahl-Onega, Georgia and another town named, Nuckollsville, Georgia, where $20,000,000 in gold was mined from 1829 to 1832. The federal troops changed the name of the town to Auraria, and it soon grew by 1000%. Northern gold mining seekers moved into the area, just as the roundup and removal of all Cherokees was taking place.

Today, only a few houses remain, but gold is still mined in the area on a very limited basis.

A station of forts was installed and used by the US Government in this Cherokee country in 1838. My grandmother Williams was involved in this removal.

General Winfield Scott was commander of the troops assembled to organize and protect the Indians as they were forced to leave their homes. He established his headquarters in the area of the gold mines and his orders were to protect the gold from intruders and Indians until ownership of the territory was established.

The name of our town Onega was used for a few short years in handwritten deed records of the area. The area later became a part of Denton County which was named after the Rev. John B. Denton, a Methodist circuit rider and Indian killer who made his way to the area which was later named Denton County.

Denton however, met his death by Indians in 1841. These Indians had already settled in the old Fannin County.

I am going to interrupt my thoughts at this time.

As I was trying to find another photo for this week, I determined that by using one photo each week, means that I have to use at least 50 photos per year. Since I have been trying to supply a different photo each week for the past several years, for The Town Charter means that I am slowly using up my inventory.

So this week, I decided to go to Google on the internet. I typed in "bouncer goin" and clicked on search. I was really amazed at the number of times the word "bouncer" came up. I went down the list to "The Texas Portal of History."

I was amazed at the number of old photos that are on these portals, and they only have about 10% of the photos for use right now.

Cathy Hartman of the UNT library deserves my commendation for the fine job that she and her professional helpers have done in making this part of history available to so many people.

I even went to the portals to find my photo for this week. If you have time, go to the internet, and search for "bouncer goin." I don’t know what you will find, but I found the Portal of Texas.

I have mentioned that my great-great-grandmother taught photography in the Cherokee Nation prison system back in the early 1800's. And then when the need for photography here in Onega back in the middle 1800's on into the 2000's, in Aubrey, the photo laboratory was located in the attic of Grannie Rachel Harmon’s home.

The photo for this week was from the Aubrey High School 1918 annual. The Aubrey Boy’s Basketball Team is shown some 86 years ago. I remember two of the people on the boy’s team – Marvin Stewart and Len Henderson. The boy on the top row far left is Marvin Stewart and next to the coach is Len Henderson.

Marvin Stewart was from a very nice family that was very involved in the Methodist church for many years. Len Henderson is also from a pioneer family in Aubrey. They were originally active in the Belew Settlement and school district.

Len was a teacher in Aubrey and in this later years, he was involved with early day banking.

My assignment for you is to do as I have done and go to the internet, search out bouncer goin and let me know what you find and if it is good.