Statesboro's mayor and council met two descendants of Lt. Col. Nicholas Anciaux, the French-born officer of the American Revolution who spent his final years in Bulloch County, during the recent meeting where the council voted to name a little downtown street Nicholas Anciaux Lane.

Regina Burroughs Vaughn, "fourth-great" (in other words great-great-great-great-) granddaughter of Anciaux, and her son Daniel Vaughn, "fifth-great" grandson of the Franco-American colonel, along with Daniel's wife Kelly, attended the Sept. 1 City Council meeting. They were accompanied by Olga Amarie, Ph.D., professor of French in Georgia Southern University's world languages and cultures department, who had filed the petition, dated July 4, to have a street named for Anciaux.

"It is inspiring to remember that Nicolas Anciaux gave up his life in Europe and made the brave decision to come to America, fighting for our freedom," Amarie wrote in the petition letter. "His courage and dedication truly highlight the deep commitment to the values that our nation was built on."

A unique name

As previously reported, city Planning and Development Director Justin Williams first summarized the proposal for the mayor and council during a Aug. 18 work session, where Amarie also spoke briefly. By the Sept. 1 regular meeting, much of the process, including communicating the city's intentions to the Bulloch County 911 addressing office, had been completed.

"The county has given their preliminary approval of the name, since there are no names (of streets or roads) like this in the county," Williams reported.

In fact, Amarie in her petition letter had written: "In terms of uniqueness, Statesboro would be the first and only place in the U.S. to have such a street name. Currently, no U.S. road, street, avenue, drive, lane, court, boulevard, highway, trail, or similar transportation feature named 'Anciaux' appears in searchable mapping indexes associated with OpenStreetMap searches."

By Sept. 1, the street-naming resolution was in the council's agenda packet, along with Amarie's letter.

Some potentially more time-consuming steps in the usual street renaming process were not required, Williams had explained. Even though this street is in the middle of town and almost directly behind City Hall, it had no current name.

"WHEREAS, Section 58-9(c)(9) of the City Code governs public hearing notice before the renaming of an existing road and refers to mailed notice to all addresses on the existing road, and where the subject street or public way is unnamed and has no assigned addresses, the notice provision is not literally applicable," stated one clause of the resolution.

Now awaiting street-name signs and a future ceremony, Nicholas Anciaux Lane is the short, paved street that extends from East Vine Street southward to East Cherry Street. The property to the west of the street belongs to AgSouth Farm Credit, but the developed part of the AgSouth campus stops short of the city right of way. A current or former railroad right of way runs down the east side of the previously unnamed street, and on the other side of that is a historic cotton warehouse, now owned by Cotton Vine Development LLC, with the address 28 East Vine St. But no front doors or mailboxes face the street with the pending new name.

"So, hopefully, someday there will be something that will be considered 1 Nicholas Anciaux Lane in the city of Statesboro," Williams said.

Kept troops supplied

Lt. Col. Nicholas Anciaux, 1744-1810, became quartermaster and paymaster for the Regiments Deux-Pont of the French Army. During the American Revolutionary War, he served under the Comte de Rochambeau, commander of the French ground forces that fought alongside Gen. George Washington's Continental Army at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia. Fought in September and October 1781 and ending with the surrender of a British army under Gen. Charles Cornwallis, Yorktown was one of the last major battles of the Revolutionary War, which formally ended in 1783.

After the war, Anciaux chose to live in the new state of Georgia, establishing himself as an importer in Savannah. Bulloch County was founded in 1796, and a decade later Anciaux received a 1,200-acre land grant in the Mill Creek area as a reward for his service in the Revolution.

According to Amarie, Anciaux moved to his Bulloch County property in 1807. That was four years after "Statesborough," a tiny village, was named as the county seat.

Anciaux is credited with naming the Bulloch County community of Arcola. As a name shared by several communities and towns in the United States, "Arcola" was apparently derived from the 1796 Battle of Arcola, a victory of the French Army under Napolean Bonaparte against Austrian forces in Italy.

Statesboro city staff had confirmed Anciaux's historical significance by contacting the Bulloch County Historical Society. One existing monument in Bulloch County memorializes Anciaux directly, and another mentions him.

A gravestone-type marker in the Mill Creek area inscribed, "Lt. Col. Nicholas Anciaux; French Army; Rev. War," was placed there in 1933 — in what at the time was a 65-acre watermelon field off Jones Mill Road — by the Brier Creek Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The site isn't his grave, but Anciaux is known to have been buried somewhere on his former landholdings in or near Statesboro, Amarie told the council.

Some miles away, a gilt-lettered, verdigris-finished metal historical marker designating Union Meeting House, a Methodist church, as the oldest church in Bulloch County (organized 1790) mentions both Anciaux and his wife. This marker was dedicated by the Georgia Historical Commission in 1953.

"Out of this church and community have come many devout men and women," the marker's text states in part. "Among the earlier members was the famed Lydia Anciaux, widow of Col. Nicholas Anciaux, a Frenchman and Revolutionary War hero, whose daughter became the wife of Senator John McPherson Berrien, Attorney General in President Andrew Jackson's cabinet."

Colonel Anciaux died in 1810, just three years after becoming a Bulloch County resident, but his wife, Lydia Anciaux, lived on until 1838.

A descendant speaks

Daniel Vaughn, who lives in Smyrna, told Statesboro's mayor and council he was bringing greetings not only from Anciaux's descendants but from the Society of the Cincinnati, founded in 1783 for American and allied officers of the Revolution and continued by their descendants.

"Today I represent Mr. Anciaux in the Georgia arm of the Society of the Cincinnati, which is in Georgia, based in Savannah, and is a patriotic historical society formed by the American and French officers after the war to preserve the memory of those who fought and the fraternal bonds that were formed during the war," Vaughn said.

"In that vein," he continued, "I believe that Mr. Anciaux's unique representation of that bond that was formed 250 years ago, give or take now, between the United States and France, our oldest ally, along with his role in the early history of the city of Statesboro, merits granting the honor of naming this street in the heart of your city Nicholas Anciaux Lane."

Council approved the resolution 4-0.

Regina Burroughs Vaughn said family members have always been aware that they have deep connections in the history of Georgia from its colonial settlement through the Revolution and on to the Civil War. Their genealogical relations include the Berriens — among them John M. Berrien for whom Berrien County is named — as well as the Richardsons, Burroughses and McIntoshes.

Statesboro officials have not set a date yet for a street dedication ceremony, but these Anciaux descendants said they intend to return when one is planned.