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