A TOAST TO A PIONEER
Peter Carnes was an Augusta attorney and widely respected man-about-town. He was one of the first to ride out and greet President George Washington during his official visit. He built – and was buried behind – one of the first homes in the quiet hamlet that would become known as Summerville. But before he came to Augusta, he was an itinerant bar keep who, on a summer day in 1784, stoked a smokey fire and set aloft the first hot air balloon in the United States. His airship was called the American Aerostatic Balloon.