Читать книгу Atlanta And Its Builders, Vol. 1 - A Comprehensive History Of The Gate City Of The South - Thomas H. Martin - Страница 11

In the latter part of 1846, after three railroads had made their terminal points in Marthasville, and, as we have seen, the population of the village had trebled and the place become bustling with progress, another agitation for a change of name was begun by a number of the leading citizens, who evidently felt that no town could ever aspire to cityhood handicapped by such a rustic name as Marthasville. Among some of the most progressive spirits, the unfortunate name was treated as a joke, affording play for sarcasm. The people who were there now would never have called any cross-roads with hopes by such a name, and it was soon manifest that sentiment was a unit for a change. The need of a city charter was also felt, if for no other reason than to better control the troublesome riff-raff of Murrell's Row and "Snake Nation." Accordingly, the legislature of that winter was petitioned for a charter, under the new name of Atlanta. There is some controversy as to who has the honor of having first suggested the name of the future metropolis. It is generally given to J. Edgar Thompson, then chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad, who, in a letter to Richard Peters, of Marthasville, is said to have urged the propriety of a change of name and suggested Atlanta as both euphonious and appropriate. Mr. Peters accepted the suggestion with enthusiasm and being a man of wealth and local influence was instrumental in having many of his fellow townsmen do the same. F. C. Orme, a former postmaster of the place, claimed that he coined the word Atlanta and was the first to offer it as a suitable name for the city in embryo. Be this as it may, the word Atlanta was on every tongue before the charter was applied for, and as evidence that the name had been tacitly adopted, the Sunday school was called the Atlanta Union Sabbath school before the town had the legal right to the name, and the same is true of the new Atlanta Hotel. The meaning of the name was obvious to everybody at that time. The purpose of the founding of Terminus, nearly ten years before, was to afford a commercial highway, or rather, a series of highways, between the great Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic seaboard. The name Atlanta, in the estimation of its early residents, stood for the accomplishment of that momentous project.

There was, however, a very decided hostility by some of the citizens to assuming the increased expenses and responsibilities through municipal incorporation, and when the more progressive faction sent a committee over to Milledgeville to present the petition to the legislature and have a bill in compliance thereto introduced, the opposition was on hand with a strong lobby to smother the measure. The incorporation bill, carrying with it the change of name, went over till the next session. In the meantime the citizens of Marthasville repudiated that name and wrote and spoke of their town as Atlanta. The local newspapers came out under Atlanta date lines, and the railroad companies adopted the new name on their timetables and maps.

On December 29, 1847, tne general assembly passed an act framed by Judge Collier, incorporating the "City of Atlanta," a portion of the act reading as follows:

"An act to amend an act entitled an act to incorporate the town of Marthasville, in the county of DeKalb, passed December 23, 1843, and also to enlarge the boundaries of said town, and to incorporate the same under the name of Atlanta, etc."

"Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., that from and after the passage of this act, the town of Marthasville shall be known as and called the city of Atlanta, and the authority and jurisdiction of the said city shall extend one mile from the State depot in every direction.

"Section 2. Be it enacted that within sixty days after the passage of this act, by giving two days' notice, and on the third Monday in every January thereafter, all free white persons, citizens residing within the incorporate limits of said city, who shall be entitled to vote for members of the legislature of said state, shall be entitled to vote for a mayor and six members of the city council, in lieu and stead of the commissioners, as is provided in the act to which this is amendatory; and that the person or persons legally entitled to vote at said election shall be eligible for mayor or members of the city council, at which election one justice of the inferior court, or of the peace, and two freeholders, neither of whom being a candidate, shall preside, and the person receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected; that the managers of said election shall give certificates to that effect, which shall be the highest evidence of their election and authority to act, and be recorded by the clerk of the city council in a book to be kept for that purpose, which record shall be held and esteemed as the highest evidence of their election."

In section 6 the mayor and city council are required to elect a city marshal, and if they deemed it necessary, a deputy marshal or marshals, a clerk of the council, and a treasurer.

Under section 9 it is provided that the mayor and four members of the council should form a quorum to transact all business, and that the mayor and each member of the council should be, to all intents and purposes, a justice of the peace, so far as to enable them, or any of them, to issue warrants for offenses committed within the corporate limits of the city, which warrants were required to be executed by the city marshal, or a deputy marshal, and to commit to the jail of the county of DeKalb, or to admit to bail, offenders, for appearance before the next term of the superior court thereafter, for the county of DeKalb, etc.

In accordance with the provisions of the organic act. a city election was held in the city of Atlanta for the first time on the 29th of the following January. Below is reproduced the entry of the city clerk on the official records, concerning the result of the election:

"Georgia, DeKalb County:

"We, Edwin G. Collier, a justice of the peace, and Patterson M. Hodge and Francis M. Gray, who are freeholders, and who were managers at the election for mayor and members of the council of the city of Atlanta, and neither of whom being candidates, do certify that said election was held on Saturday, the 29th day of January, 1848, and that Moses W. Formwalt received the highest number of votes for mayor, and was declared duly elected.

"Given under our hands and seals this 31st day of January, 1848.

"E. G. Collier, J. P. (Seal).

"P. M. Hodge, (Seal).

"F. M. Gray, (Seal)."

The entry touching the election of the first city council is as follows:

"Georgia, DeKalb County:

"We, Edwin G. Collier, justice of the peace, Patterson M. Hodge and Francis M. Gray, who are freeholders for and who were managers of the election for members of the council of the city of Atlanta, and neither of us being candidates, do certify that said election was held in the city of Atlanta, on Saturday, the 29th of January, 1848, and that Jonas S. Smith, Benjamin F. Bomar, Robert W. Bullard, James A. Collins, Anderson W. Walton and Leonard C. Simpson received the highest number of votes for members of the council, and were declared duly elected.

"In testimony whereof we have set our hands and seals this 31st day of January, 1848.

"E. G. Collier, J. P. (Seal).

"P. M. Hodge, (Seal).

"F. M. Gray, (Seal)."

The new mayor and councilmen took the oath of office on February 2, 1848, and the municipal government was formally inaugurated by the holding of a council meeting the same day. L. C. Simpson and Benjamin F. Bomar were appointed a committee to draft rules of order for the government of the council. The question of official salaries was next taken up. The city marshal was allowed $200 per annum, and was placed under a $2,000 bond; the deputy marshal $150, with a bond of $1,500. The clerk was allowed no fixed salary, his compensation to be derived from the fees and costs, with a bond of $1,000. The treasurer was allowed two per cent, for receiving and two per cent, for paying out moneys, and he was required to give bond in the sum of $4,000. German M. Lester was chosen as city marshal; Thomas I. Shivers, deputy marshal; L. C. Simpson, clerk, and Oswald Houston, treasurer. A committee on ordinances was elected, consisting of Councilmen Simpson, Walton and Collins. At a meeting of the council held a few days thereafter, Mr. Simpson declined to accept the office of clerk, and the place was given to Robert M. Clarke. H. M. Boyd was elected tax receiver and collector in a close vote that the mayor was required to participate in.

A few chronological extracts from the first year of the city records will not be amiss in this connection. On February 13, 1848, four denizens of the infant city, presumably habitués of the rowdy quarter, were taken before the mayor and fined for disorderly conduct. One of the offenders was fined eight dollars, two of them five dollars, and the fourth two dollars, with the costs added. On the 15th a more serious case was brought before the municipal court. One James Flint stood charged with an assault with intent to kill a Mr. Porter, made the previous evening. The trial attracted a good deal of public interest and terminated in the very lenient decision of a fine of fifteen dollars.

On the 15th, also. Alderman Simpson was authorized to enter into a contract with Stephen Terry, the pioneer real estate agent, to survey and mark the corporate limits of the city of Atlanta. On the 19th of the same month the grist of "disorderlies" in the judicial hopper was so large as to suggest either an incipient riot or the inauguration of a reform raid. The city was a good many dollars the richer by the fines then imposed, and the calaboose had standing room only. The same day council appointed a committee to select a police patrol to aid the marshal and his deputy in preserving the public order.

During the month of March the vigorous prosecution of disorderly conduct cases against the vicious element continued, but the morals of the city were not appreciably improved thereby. Offenders when lined, or upon their release from the calaboose, went straightway and resumed their nefarious occupations — or lack of occupation. On the 4th of that month a permit was granted G. C. Rogers by the council to build a slaughterhouse within the limits of the city, provided he kept the same in a sanitary condition and it annoyed none of the citizens in the vicinity. There were also a good many cases brought for draying without license and selling" intoxicants without license.

On the 5th of June council adopted a resolution exempting its members from municipal taxation, upon condition that the councilman thus exempted relinquish the amount due him under the charter for his official services.

On the 3rd of July the mayor was authorized to appoint a board of health, to consist of nine citizens, one of whom should be a legally practicing physician, whose duty it should be to examine into all causes of ill-health in the city, and to report the same to the marshals, who were required to take immediate action, as provided by ordinance, to remove or remedy the cause. Later the mayor appointed the following gentlemen as members of the health board: N. L. Angier, James Boring, Solomon Goodall, J. F. Minis, R. Cain, William Herring, James Loyd, Dr. Joshua Gilbert, and Dr. S. S. Smith.

On the 20th of July, Joseph B. Clapp was elected clerk of the council, vice Robert M. Clarke, resigned. At the same meeting of council a special election was called for July 31st, 1848, to select a member of the council to take the place of R. W. Bullard, who had removed from the city. Out of the one hundred and seventy-four votes cast at this election, Henry C. Holcombe received eighty-seven; Ambrose B. Forsyth, forty-seven; and J. A. Hayden, forty. The superintendents of this election, W. Buell, J. S. Smith and James A. Collins, declared Mr. Holcombe elected, and he was duly sworn in at the next aldermanic meeting.

On the 5th of September council allowed A. L. Rhodes five dollars for lumber furnished, and for hanging the bell over the council chamber. On the 16th of the following month Councilmen Holcombe and Simpson were appointed a committee to consider the matter of opening Pryor street, and on the 23rd a petition was presented by J. A. Hayden and John Collier asking that a street be opened from the bridge across the Macon & Western railroad, in a southwestern direction, and intersecting with the Whitehall road within the corporate limits of Atlanta.

On the 4th of November, J. B. Clapp was dismissed from office as clerk of the council, John L. Harris being elected to fill his place. On the 6th council granted a petition of certain citizens for a walk from the new house built by L. H. Davies to the post-office. E. T. Hunnicutt was appointed deputy marshal, on the 12th of December, vice Thomas I. Shivers, dismissed.

By this time Atlanta was attracting, if not national, Southern, attention. The daily papers of the larger cities had much to say about the progress and possibilities of the lively little city, and much stress was laid on the significance to the town of other projected railroads. In the Southwestern Convention held in Memphis for the purpose of promoting industrial development and encouraging immigration, John C. Calhoun, then recognized as the greatest Southern statesman, made a strong speech outlining the progressive steps necessary to make the Southwest what it was destined to be — another valley of the Nile. The great South Carolinian made in this speech the following' allusion to Atlanta:

"What, then, is needed to complete a cheap, speedy and safe intercourse between the valley of the Mississippi and the Southern Atlantic coast is a good system of railroads. For this purpose, the nature of the intervening country affords extraordinary advantages. Such is its formation from the course of the Tennessee, Cumberland and Alabama rivers, and the termination of the various chains of mountains, that all the railroads which have been projected or commenced, although each has looked only to its local interest, must necessarily unite at a point in DeKalb county, in the state of Georgia, called Atlanta, not far from the village of Decatur, so as to constitute one entire system of roads, having a mutual interest each in the other, instead of isolated rival roads."

Senator Calhoun had passed through Atlanta and carefully examined the situation on the ground. He strongly urged upon a future governor of Georgia, Joseph E. Brown, then a young man who had stopped in Washington for a few days while en route home from college, the desirability of casting his fortunes in Atlanta. The far-seeing statesman is said to have given other Georgia friends the same advice.

By the end of 1848, Atlanta had between 500 and 600 inhabitants, a very small proportion of whom were women and children. It was a new town, full of newcomers, and the wives and babies were left behind at the old home until the plastic "rudiments of empire" had assumed something like form. The establishment of municipal law had much to do with the establishment of homes in the place.

Capital, heretofore chary of Atlanta, now followed eagerly enough in the footsteps of immigration. Real estates values stiffened and transfers were lively, comparatively speaking. Isaac Scott came up from Macon and founded a banking house in Atlanta in the winter of 1848. U. L. Wright was made agent of the institution, and that well-known pioneer citizen, Washington J. Houston, cashier. The first depositor was James B. Loften, a slave-trader, who deposited a pair of old-fashioned saddlebags with both ends full of silver dollars. Several new real estate offices were opened, generally in conjunction with the practice of law, and there were a number of private money lenders who made big usury out of the railroad employees and the free-and-easy-class, as is common in Atlanta at this day. The Odd Fellows established their pioneer lodge in this year, and two or three private schools were established, in a small way. "Angier's Academy," founded the year before, was in a flourishing condition. This year occurred the exciting presidential campaign in which the hero of the Mexican war, Zachary Taylor, was the Democratic nominee. It was an era of intense bitterness, politically, and the Know-Nothing party had gained quite a following in Georgia. In passing it is noteworthy that Georgia furnished some of the most gallant soldiers of the Mexican war, and a number enlisted from DeKalb county. While the short-lived struggle was in progress, the news and letters from the field afforded a topic of absorbing interest for the conversations of the local statesmen and philosophers of Atlanta, and Taylor had a number of very zealous partisans in the town. Indeed, their zeal was so great, fortified by white corn liquor, that nearly every day during the fall witnessed a fisticuff between citizens of contrary political beliefs. A Taylor and Fillmore mass meeting was held at Walton Spring, which drew a tremendous crowd from fifty miles around. There was a grand barbecue, glee club singing, and one of the distinguished orators of the occasion was Alexander H. Stephens. The enthusiasm of the assembled Democrats was so great that hundreds of Stephens's admirers rushed to the Atlanta Hotel, where he was stopping, and demanded a speech before he was driven to the spring. After he had appeared on the gallery and was about to step into the waiting carriage, hundreds of hands were stretched toward him to shake, and a score of others unhitched the horses from the vehicle, the noisy partisans shouting that they would draw the little statesman themselves. And so they did, a long line of them pulling and escorting the carriage. The first American flag ever given to the breeze in Atlanta was unfurled over the Miscellany printing office by its editor, Colonel Hanleiter, on this occasion.

Atlanta had begun to build on the south side of the railroad, though Alabama street was suburban at the time the city government was organized. The topography of the central portion of the town has changed greatly since that time. There were ravines, knolls, springs, and even brooks familiar to the residents of the latter forties, that have long since been obliterated by the vandal hand of progress. For instance, there used to be a bold spring branch on the east side of Whitehall street, near the railroad crossing. This branch headed on or near the lot later occupied by the old Central block, or James building, and was a very prominent and troublesome landmark of the early days. For years it sadly depreciated good business property in the vicinity, as the expense of filling it up permanently was considered too great to be undertaken with profit, and it undermined the foundations that were first laid along the north side of Alabama street. About one hundred yards from the Western & Atlantic depot was a mineral spring much resorted to and famous before the war. The beaux and belles of early Atlanta invariably included it in their promenades and tender loiterings, and those who felt "poorly" obtained their sole supply of drinking water from its translucent depths. There were a dozen other springs that have long since dried or been filled up. Of the popular medicinal waters we have just spoken of, one of the old-time weeklies had this to say:

"Our Mineral Spring. — This delightful fountain of health is even now a place of great resort for our citizens, male and female, notwithstanding its rough and uninviting appearance; but when it is fitted up, as it will be soon, with a beautiful marble basin to receive the water, and several nice summer houses to receive the visitors, and various other attractive improvements around it, it will doubtless then be thronged all the while with a multitude of ladies and gentlemen, both from home and abroad. We went down a few evenings since and were perfectly astonished at finding so many people there."