TIFTON — Living History Interpreter Tim Zacharias will bring Abraham Baldwin to life on Sept. 16 when the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village spotlights its Celebration of Constitution and Citizenship Day.

Zacharias will present “Observations by a Founder: Abraham Baldwin’s Thoughts on Citizenship” at the Mercantile at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.  Baldwin, the namesake for ABAC, was one of two Georgia signers of the United States Constitution. 

Museum Director Garrett Boone said the entire Museum and Historic Village will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 16, and the Vulcan No. 5 Steam Train will be running.

Baldwin and William Few were the only two Georgia signers for the historic document signed by 39 men on Sept. 17, 1787 in Philadelphia. The Constitution is the oldest and with only 4,543 words, the shortest national constitution in existence.  At Constitution Day on Sept. 17, the entire country will recognize the 230th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.

The son of a blacksmith, Baldwin was born on Nov. 22, 1754 in Guilford, Conn. He enrolled at Yale College at the age of 14 and completed his degree in 1772.  He studied theology and stayed at Yale as a tutor until 1779.  He served on George Washington’s staff as a chaplain during the Revolutionary War. 

When the Revolutionary War was over, Baldwin began a study of law. After being admitted to the bar, he moved to Georgia in 1783 to set up a law practice near Augusta.  Georgia Governor Lyman Hall asked him to develop an educational plan for Georgia on both the secondary and post-secondary level.

One year later, Baldwin was elected to the Georgia House of Assembly and in 1787 he represented Georgia as a member of the Constitutional Convention.  Beginning in 1789, Baldwin served Georgia for five consecutive terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He was then elected for two terms in the U.S. Senate, one of these as president pro-tempore.  Baldwin was also the first president of the University of Georgia from 1785 until 1801. 

Zacharias holds a B.A. in History from Oregon State University, Cum Laude, and an M.A. in History from Washington State University as a James Madison Memorial Foundation Senior Fellow. His master’s thesis, “Lest We Forget,” analyzed the development of constitutionalism in the United States from the Revolutionary movement to Oregon’s admittance into the Union in 1859.

The Oregon focus of his thesis became the Oregon chapter in the encyclopedia of U.S. Constitutions, “The Uniting States,” published by Greenwood Press in 2004.  Zacharias is beginning his 34th year as a social science and language arts educator over five school districts in rural eastern Oregon.

Noted for winning multiple student selected inspirational awards and for a record of developing college readiness curriculum as well as dual credit initiatives, Zacharias also served as adjunct professor of U.S. History and Political Science for Blue Mountain Community College for more than a decade. His historical interpretative writing and performing resulted from a partnership with Stephan Zacharias in 2003, founding and developing first and third person programming for American West Interpretations, specializing in the historical and cultural evolution from exploration to statehood in the Rocky Mountain West as well as certain Founding Fathers in an exploration of United States constitutionalism.

The most recent Founder explored in the American West Interpretation catalogue is Baldwin, the Connecticut-born Georgia delegate to the Articles Congress and Constitutional Convention.  He represents a classic example of many Founders’ vision for the role education would have to play in promoting and preserving republican government.

ABAC was founded as the Second District A&M School in 1908, became South Georgia A&M College in 1924, Georgia State College for Men in 1929, and then assumed its present title in 1933.  A history panel dedicated to the life of Baldwin occupies a wall on the first floor of Tift Hall, the ABAC administration building.  A bust of Baldwin made from Georgia marble sits near the panel.