Friends & Neighbors: Meet Erik Gallman

By Lara Hayes

Erik Gallman may be relatively young, but he has an old soul.

Gallman, who was recently named executive secretary of the Whitfield-Murray Historical Society, feels right at home among items and places from the area’s distant past. His interest in history was sparked as a child growing up in Crandall where he was surrounded by Indian lore.

“I liked being able to walk out the door and pick up arrowheads and pottery shards,” said Gallman, 29. “You’d wait until the farmers plowed the fields and then for a good rain. The plows would turn them up.”

And boy, did they. Gallman found approximately 200 arrowheads over the years, of which 75 to 80 are in good condition. He also enjoys collecting antique books.

But perhaps Gallman’s biggest love is gardening, so much so that he opened Cohutta Springs Greenhouse in Crandall seven years ago. Gallman has a particular fondness for herbs and “unusual plants” but the business mainly stocks bedding plants, flowers, hanging baskets and vegetable plants.

“It’s almost therapeutic to work in the dirt and watch flowers grow,” he said. “Plus I like meeting different people.”

Gardening is a far cry from Gallman’s early career aspiration — archeology. However, that desire was soon eclipsed by a yearning to own a greenhouse. But even that didn’t mean guaranteed success, so Gallman obtained a bachelor’s of science education degree ... just in case.

Gallman began teaching at the new Bagley Middle School in 2003 but quickly realized the field probably wasn’t right for him.

“You don’t get a lot of cooperation from parents,” he said. “Plus there was a lack of discipline. The kids were a lot worse than when I was in school. But there were some good kids out there, though.”

Gallman was also doing all he could to get his greenhouse business off the ground, and the combined stresses of working at a new school and dealing with unruly kids meant saying goodbye to the classroom in 2005.

From then on he poured his energies into the greenhouse, finally turning it into a profitable business after three years. In his spare time, Gallman painted wall murals, a hobby which led him to the historical society.

“I painted one for a member of my church (Fairy Valley Baptist),” he said. “One part was the church in present day and the other was the church in the 1940s. The project grew, and then I wanted to paint Hall’s Chapel, a school and church that was in existence from the 1850s to 1954.”

There was one problem. No one knew what Hall’s Chapel looked like.

“I did a lot of research and then painted how I thought it probably looked,” said Gallman. “I brought it with me to the Hall’s Chapel reunion last April that I organized. About 100 people came.”

Historical society officials lent a hand with the research and Gallman in turn got to know a few of the board members. One of the members notified him of the executive secretary position opening in late January (long-time executive secretary Marcelle White had stepped down). He began with the historical society on Feb. 17.

Gallman has wasted no time making his mark. So far he has cleaned out a bunch of items in storage and held a rummage sale, torn out the rotting floor of the Lesche Room in the Crown Gardens and Archives building to be replaced for use as a central location for books, trimmed bushes and raked leaves, and chipped off plaster in preparation for repainting the walls.

He also wants to improve the flow of information about the historical society’s properties — Crown Gardens and Archives, Hamilton House, Blunt House, Spring Place Methodist, the Chatsworth Depot and the Wright Hotel.

Gallman hopes to have a steady stream of volunteers to help, too, especially young people.

“I can only chip off so much plaster,” he said.

Gallman says the people of Whitfield and Murray counties have much to be thankful for.

“I’m most proud of our ingenuity and perseverance, our ability to do what it takes to get things done,” he said. “This area in the past wasn’t all that affluent. Some people think there isn’t much here but carpet, but a lot of smart people have lived here. And they’ve done stuff most people don’t know about.”

To volunteer, call Gallman at (706) 278-0217.