Atlanta And Its Builders, Vol. 2 - A Comprehensive History Of The Gate City Of The South. Thomas H. Martin
and business capacity, who planned the Republic Block, got up the stock of and organized the Citizens' Bank, and was at a later date made general business manager of the Atlanta Rolling Mill. Among valuable citizens from the North may be mentioned W. C. Morrill, a gentleman of large means and liberality, and who has contributed greatly to the success of our noble Library Association. * * * In 1868 the Third Baptist church was built by liberal contributions of Governor Brown and others. In 1889 E. E. Rawson rebuilt his store on Whitehall street; Moore & Marsh finished a magnificent 36 x 186 store on Decatur street; John H. James built his famous residence, now the Governor's Mansion, on Peachtree street, at a cost of $70,000, and began a block on Whitehall street. In 1870 Louis De Give built the opera house, which Forrest, Booth and other great actors pronounced unsurpassed in acoustic properties; the corner-stone of the Catholic church was laid by Father Ryan; the Fourth Baptist church was built by John H. James; the Kimball House, one of the largest hotels in the United States, was built by H. I. Kimball, at a cost of nearly half a million dollars; Richard H. Clark built a residence on McDonough street, and B. F. Wyly one on Washington street. In 1871 at least four hundred buildings went up, among them the Republic Block, built by ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown, Judge O. A. Lochrane, and others, on Pryor street; the Austell building, on Decatur street; the Union Passenger Depot, then one of the largest and finest iron depots in the United States, jointly constructed by the railroad companies; the beautiful residence of Judge John L. Hopkins, on the corner of Gilmer and Collins streets; that of Z. D. Harrison, clerk of the Supreme Court, on McDonough street; those of A. G. Howard and W. A. Hemphill, on Pryor street. In 1872 another church — the Fifth Baptist — was built by John H. James; a three-story building on Broad street, by ex-Governor Brown; a splendid, 52 x 140 feet, slate bank-vault, agricultural warehouse, by Mark W. Johnson; a building for his hardware business by Thomas M. Clarke; and residences by John N. Fain, on Pryor street, J. T. Eichberg, on Forsyth street; Robert Clarke, on Houston street, and W. B. Cox, on Ivy street.
"Business advanced at an equal pace. The old commercial houses were re-established, banks were reorganized, and the old manufacturing enterprises were resuscitated. Trade rapidly filled up the old channels, and, overflowing their banks, made many new outlets. The monetary needs of the people were, of course, very pressing, and banking facilities were speedily forthcoming. In 1865 John H. James recommenced his banking business; the Georgia National Bank opened, John Rice, president, and E. T. Jones, cashier; followed, in 1866, by the Atlanta National Bank, with a capital since raised to $300,000; in 1868 by the Georgia Trust Company, with a capital of $125,000; in 1872 by the State National, now Merchants' Bank; and in 1873 by the Citizens' and State of Georgia. Among the businesses established and re-established were, in 1866, wholesale groceries by James R. Wylie and P. & G. T. Dodd; wholesale dry goods by Moore & Marsh, partners for nearly a quarter of a century; hardware by Tommey, Stewart & Beck; wholesale crockery by A. J. McBride. In 1868 the Atlanta Daily Constitution newspaper was started by Colonel Carey W. Styles. In 1870 J. Morrison, A. Morrison and D. M. Bain established a new hardware store under the firm name of Morrison, Bain & Co.
"Very naturally, the expansion of trade and great influx of population enhanced the value of real estate, and increased prices brought upon the market a large and increasing amount of property, which was eagerly purchased by speculators in the city and from abroad, as well as by non-residents. This proved one of the most fruitful sources of revenue to an impoverished people, and at the same time built up a comparatively new business, which, in a few years, assumed immense proportions. In 1865 George W. Adair opened a bureau for the sale and exchange of real estate. In the six years following prices ran up to enormous and most unhealthy figures — millions of dollars changed hands.
"In 1873 came a new arm of progress — the Air Line Railroad. As early as 1857 the growing wants of the city suggested to enterprising citizens the propriety of increased railroad facilities and the opening of new lines of transportation into undeveloped sections. The agitation of the Air Line Railroad followed. Ex-Mayor Norcross was the recognized leader in this movement, ably assisted by James M. Calhoun, L. J. Gartrell, and others, and obtained a charter. In 1859 he was made president of the road, and was mainly instrumental in obtaining a subscription of several hundred thousand dollars along its proposed line.
"During these years still another field of business enterprise was extensively opened up, becoming one of the chief contributors to Atlanta's prosperity. In 1859 it was claimed that dry goods were sold for one hundred miles around; but not until since the war did the wholesale business develop into a distinct element of the city's progress. This was also time of the cotton trade, which, in 1867, showed receipts of only 17,000 bales, but at once began an upward career.
"The religious, moral, social and educational progress of this period were equally gratifying. The number of religious organizations largely increased, some of which may be mentioned. June 17, 1867, the Hebrew Synagogue was organized from the old Hebrew Benevolent Association, Mr. Jacob Steinheimer first officiating. In the same year, the Loyd Street Methodist Episcopal Church was organized, and in 1870 and 1872 the Fourth and Fifth Baptist Churches followed. In the year 1870 Payne's and St. Paul's (Methodist) appeared. Educational and society organizations were numerous."
CHAPTER II. THE "CARPET-BAG" ERA
While the people of Atlanta were working out their own salvation, commercially, they were not allowed to do so politically. The hopeful spirit immediately following the war was shortly replaced by a spirit of distrust, gloom and positive alarm. The sentiment to "make treason odious" by treating the South governmentally as a conquered province, undoubtedly prevailed in congress, and the leaders of public thought in Atlanta were not slow to sound the alarm, however loth they may have been to array themselves against Federal public policy. That the best people of Atlanta had shown a disposition to meet their late enemies halfway in the cultivation of fraternity and peace, and had manfully accepted "the inevitable," was evidenced by the resolutions adopted at their public meetings, some of which are quoted in the preceding chapter. Indeed, the spirit of reconciliation and good-will manifested by them was remarkable, under the circumstances. But in accepting the conditions imposed by defeat in a noble spirit, they had not forfeited their self-respect, and did not propose to do so. The action of the National Union Convention held in Philadelphia on the 14th of August, 1866, was received with silent disapproval in Atlanta. The local newspapers refrained from making any comment calculated to excite prejudice on either side, but the convention's resolutions were generally taken as earnest of worse things in store. Then came the session of congress made memorable, and, to the South, infamous, by proscriptive measures against a vanquished and defenseless people. "Rebel"-haters like Thad Stevens were in control at Washington, and President Johnson was hated by a majority of his fellow-citizens in the North, seemingly, because of his desire to see even-hand justice dealt out to the South. The conservatives and advocates of peace with honor were not able to check the storm of radicalism that burst upon the Southern States. The "Sherman Reconstruction Bible" was passed. Atlanta, in common with the South, held her peace no longer. Her papers denounced the oppressive legislation in unmeasured terms, and public speakers inveighed against it as more infamous and tyrannical than any act of England against her American colonies before the revolution. The bill in question afflicted the South with military rule and negro enfranchisement, practically nullifying constitutional guarantees, and in the "black belts" of the former slave states, then more numerous than now, left the superior race utterly at the mercy of the negro, so far as political domination was concerned. In most quarters South the Sherman law was considered a deliberate attempt to degrade the citizens of the late Confederacy — to add to the injury of a terrible war the insult of a revengeful conqueror. The moral sense of the Southern people was shocked. They had expected to take a back seat in the councils of the nation, and to be, for years, a nonentity in the shaping of governmental policies — but they had not thought this thing possible in a Christian republic. While resistance promised nothing, it was the only course consistent with decency and honor, and a very large majority of the people exerted a strong moral opposition to such a species of "reconstruction." They meant that at least history should record their protest.
Avery's "History of Georgia" says of the feeling of the Southern people anent the "Sherman Reconstruction Bill": "It was an amazing piece of statesmanship to disfranchise our intelligence,