Atlanta And Its Builders, Vol. 1 - A Comprehensive History Of The Gate City Of The South. Thomas H. Martin
the judge had spoken, they stood me on the book board and I made my debut before the great assemblage when I was ten years old. The Hon. George Hillyer did the same thing at the same place, some two years later. During the summer, another great convention met. If I am not mistaken, it was on this occasion that Judge Cone so severely wounded Alexander H. Stevens with his pocket-knife. Mr. Stephens was taken at once to the home of John F. Minis, on Alabama street, and was attended, I think, by Dr. Alexander. At the great Taylor and Fillmore rally he had recovered sufficiently to ride, and the ardent Whigs took the horses from the carriage and drew the vehicle in which he sat to the assembling place at Walton Springs. I remember the pale-faced little man as he rode that day in triumph. They had a great torchlight procession. The torches were brands of fat lightwood. The transparencies were many and loud. A cannon had been brought up from Macon and planted on a tongue of land between the railroad, and, alas! as it was fired, poor D. N. Poore had his arm shot off by a premature discharge. Poore was an odd character, who belonged to an excellent family in New York. He was then the keeper of the station, and, I think, continued such until he died.
"James Collins was one of the early merchants. He was one of the first Methodists of Atlanta and one of the best men of his time. He gave the largest gift to build the First Methodist church. He married Miss Bolton and moved to a fine plantation at Bolton, then on the Cobb county side of the river. Leonard C. Simpson was one of the earliest lawyers. Willis Buell, the old squire, was a northern man and an old bachelor. The Barneses, Mr. Tay and Mr. Spann were railroad engineers. W. R. Venable was clerk for James Collins, and afterward clerk of the superior court. Reuben Haynes was an easy-going, pious Methodist carpenter, and my Sunday school teacher. Haynes street was named for him. Mr. Silvey was a clerk in the store of one of the Jews with Calvin Hunnicutt. Ed Warner, long agent of the Georgia Railroad, was a clerk for A. B. Forsyth and an inmate of his home. William Rushton was the first master mechanic in Atlanta, a red-headed Englishman who had some pretty daughters who went to my mother's school. Old Dad Chapman was a character. He was a professional gambler and made no concealment of it. He was always neatly dressed, well behaved, a thorough gentleman in his manners, but he lived on the profits of his skill at cards. Nat Mangum and his brother Robert were sons of old Uncle Billy, who came from South Carolina. Nat was a lawyer, and a great wag. He went into Fannin county and tried to develop a copper mine. My dear old friend, Logan Bleckley, who, save for his gray hair, looks about as young now as he did fifty years ago, was a clerk in the State road office. Old John Weaver was the patriarch of the engine men. Dr. Hilburn, who was killed by his brother-in-law, Elijah Bird, was our first dentist. Greene B. Pilgrim was our first sexton, a worthy man in every way. Ike, who is still living, was a printer's apprentice. A hypnotist gave a show. He had engaged Ike to be mesmerized, and, sure enough, the vivacious Isaac went properly to sleep, after the passes were made, and then he followed implicitly the mesmerizer's directions. He did as he was bidden, sung, played the fiddle, swam, and at last the hypnotist gave him a short rod and bade him fish; and Ike fished diligently, and caught a fish, as he was directed. Presently he caught a big one, as the mesmerizer said he would. 'That's a cat,' said the sleeping youth. I decided that 'that's a cat' had given Ike away.
"James McPherson, my worthy employer, was the first bookseller in Atlanta. He was a man of unusual intelligence and enterprise. He died suddenly in Savannah while clerk of the United States court. John F. Minis was the first agent of the Georgia railroad and the first bank agent. The Meads were among the first settlers and so were the Downs. Pete Emmell was Dougherty's baker, and was afterwards a famous saloon keeper. Monkey Baker, a German, had a little shop near West End and a garden, and kept guinea pigs and had a monkey. R. W. Williamson was the first agent of the Macon and Western railroad. L. P. Grant was an engineer of the Georgia road. He and John T. Grant were partners in railroad building. He was one of the staunchest men that ever lived. L. P. Grant, Richard Peters and John Collier would have been ornaments to any community where integrity was at a premium. Jonas S. Smith, an impulsive, funny, fearless, warm-hearted merchant, was the successor of George W. Collier as postmaster. He gave way for my father, who succeeded him in 1851."
CHAPTER VII. THE CHRISTENING OF ATLANTA
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