Virus means no birthday bash as Georgia town turns 150

CAIRO, Ga. (AP) - A south Georgia town will turn 150 in the next few days, but the COVID-19 pandemic means there won’t be much of a party.

Cairo was granted its town charter on Oct. 28, 1870.

The Thomasville Times-Enterprise reports that Mayor Howard Thrower is quashing hopes of a celebration because of fear of spreading illness.

“I’ve had a call or two about a few people wanting to have some big celebrations, which we just can’t do,” Thrower said at a recent council meeting.

Instead, the City Council is likely to note the occasion with only a proclamation.

Then-postmaster W.J. Hall was given the choice to name the new town Miller Station or Cairo. He chose the latter.

“There’s no reason given (for why the name Cairo was chosen) in any of the things that I’ve seen,” said Don Nickerson, director of the Grady County Museum and History Center. “There’s speculation that because it was a postmaster that it was easier to go with something like Cairo over Miller Station.”

Within a year of the town’s birth, residents were petitioning the state to set up what became Grady County, with Cairo as its seat.