Statesboro’s city government is taking steps to name a previously unnamed street for Lt. Col. Nicholas Anciaux, a French officer of the American Revolution who served at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia, but spent his final years in Bulloch County.

Justin Williams, city planning and development director, summarized the proposal for the mayor and council during their Aug. 18 multi-topic work session. Professor Olga Amarie, Ph.D., from Georgia Southern University’s world languages and cultures department, had filed a petition, dated July 4, to have a street named for Anciaux and also attended the work session.

City policy on road naming or renaming, spelled out in the Statesboro Code of Ordinances, gives priority to historical names.

“In terms of the historical and local significance, the lieutenant colonel was a French officer who … was present at the Battle of Yorktown – which if you’re a history buff, you know was the last big battle of the war – and he settled in Bulloch County after he was actually given a land grant of 1,200 acres,” Williams said.

For context, the Battle of Yorktown, where Anciaux reportedly served under the Comte de Rochambeau, commander of the French ground forces that fought alongside Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army, occurred in 1781. The Revolutionary War formally ended in 1783. Bulloch County was founded in 1796. According to Amarie, Anciaux arrived in Bulloch County in 1807.

Anciaux is credited with naming the Bulloch County community of Arcola, as Williams mentioned. “Arcola,” a name shared by several communities and towns in the United States, may have been derived from the 1796 Battle of Arcola between a French army under Napolean Bonaparte and 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, Williams noted, with photos of both markers included in a slideshow.

A gravestone-type marker in the Mill Creek area inscribed, “Lt. Col. Nicholas Anciaux; French Army; Rev. War,” was reportedly placed decades ago by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The site reportedly isn’t a grave, but Anciaux is known to have been buried somewhere in or near Statesboro, Amarie told the council.

Some distance away, the gilt-lettered, verdigris-finished metal historical marker designating Union Meeting House, a Methodist church, as the oldest church in Bulloch County (organized 1790) and first placed by the Georgia Historical Commission more than 70 years ago, mentions both Anciaux and his wife.

“Out of this church and community have come many devout men and women,” that marker 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.”

It’s near City Hall

The downtown Statesboro street now proposed to be named Nicholas Anciaux Lane is the short one that extends from East Vine Street to East Cherry Street, almost directly behind City Hall. It is paved, with a double no-passing stripe down the middle, a stop sign on each end and several small signs that tell drivers not to park on the pavement. No homes or businesses face the street, which could be an advantage for the simplicity of naming it, as is the lack of a previous name, according to Williams.

“The naming of an unnamed street is a little bit different,” he told the elected officials. “Normally we go through a process where multiple petitioners have to sign and a number of other things. In the ordinance that would be brought forward to council, you would have to waive that requirement because there are no addresses on this street at this time.”

As the next step, the process still requires that the staff communicate the city’s intentions to the Bulloch County 911 addressing office. So the city’s naming resolution was not presented to the council that evening but will be during an upcoming meeting, Williams said.

“So, hopefully, someday there will be something that will be considered 1 Nicholas Anciaux Lanie in the city of Statesboro,” he said.

‘Happy 250th year’

Professor Amarie also spoke to the council.

“I just want to say, ‘Happy 250th year anniversary of the United States, everybody!’” she began. “And if you were celebrating July Fourth at Mill Creek Park, Nicholas Anciaux was the first owner of Mill Creek, and he is buried here in Statesboro; he’s not going anywhere.”

Some people in the room chuckled at that, and she added, “We just need to find his grave.”

After becoming a Bulloch County resident in 1807, Colonel Anciaux died just three years later, in 1810, but his wife, Lydia Anciaux, lived on until 1838, Amarie said.

This history “is very important to us,” said Amarie. “It shows this deep historical connection between two nations, France and the United States, and it also shows future generations that international cooperation is important.”

The street naming will also show gratitude to his descendants, she said, and added that she has been corresponding by phone and email with some of them, although she had not met them yet.

“They are very excited, and they will be here,” she said.