Atlanta And Its Builders, Vol. 1 - A Comprehensive History Of The Gate City Of The South. Thomas H. Martin
of the city bearing seven per cent, interest, the bonds being issued in the following manner: One-third so as to fall due on January 1, 1873; one-third on January 1, 1878, and one-third on January 1, 1883. The subscription has been made accordingly, and the prospect is that the road will be built at no very distant day."
The attainment of metropolitan proportions by Atlanta made necessary the establishment of fire-limits, and on the 7th of December, 1857, the city council passed an ordinance of that kind. It provided that after its passage no person should erect or cause to be erected any house for any purpose whatsoever, the walls of which should be constructed of wood, on any street within the following limits: On Whitehall street, between the intersections of that street and Mitchell and Marietta streets; on Mitchell street, between Hunter and Alabama streets; at any point between Loyd and Forsyth streets; on Pryor street, between Alabama and Mitchell streets; on Decatur street west of Collins street; on Marietta street east of Market street; on Market street south of Walton street; on Peachtree street from Marietta street to the junction of Market and Peachtree streets.
On the 8th of June, 1857, the Gate City Guards, Atlanta's first military company, was organized with the following officers: George H. Thompson, captain; William L. Ezzard, first lieutenant; S. W. Jones, second lieutenant; John H. Lovejoy, third lieutenant; James L. Lewis, first sergeant; Wilson Ballard, second sergeant; Willis P. Chisholm, third sergeant; James H. Purtell, fourth sergeant; Thomas M. Clarke, first corporal; James E. Butler, second corporal; E. Holland, third corporal; Joseph Thompson, Jr., fourth corporal; James F. Alexander, surgeon; Daniel Pittman, secretary and treasurer. The company soon became one of the crack military organizations of the state, and in a few short years it was destined to take its place in the ranks of the army fighting for Southern independence.
The Young Men's Christian Association was organized in Atlanta the latter part of 1857, with B. H. Overby, president, and N. J. Hammond, secretary and treasurer. Lewis Lawshe, John Clarke, J. Hill Davis and M. C. Cole were the vice-presidents, and a membership of between 150 and 200 was soon enrolled. The association had its first hall in a building on Whitehall street, just below Alabama street. It flourished until the outbreak of the war when it disbanded.
In the city election of January, 1858, the following candidates were successful: Mayor, L. J. Glenn; aldermen, first ward, F. H. Coleman and John Collier; second ward, William Rushton and Thomas J. Lowe; third ward, James E. Williams and J. M. Blackwell; fourth ward, John H. Mecaslin and George S. Alexander; fifth ward, Hayden Cole and J. A. Hay den; clerk, Clement C. Howell; treasurer, Philip E. McDaniel; marshal, E. T. Hunnicutt; deputy marshal, Willis Carlisle; lieutenant of police, George W. Anderson; clerk of market, E. B. Reynolds; street overseer, Thomas G. W. Crussell; city surveyor, H. W. Fulton; sexton, G. A. Pilgrim.
A communication presented to council on March 5th, 1858, in the form of a memorial signed by some two hundred mechanics and workingmen of Atlanta, throws a good deal of light on an early and unique phase of the labor troubles, in which negro slavery figured. The memorial was as follows:
"We, the undersigned, would respectfully represent to your honorable body that there exists in the city of Atlanta a number of men who, in the opinion of your memorialists, are of no benefit to the city. We refer to negro mechanics whose masters reside in other places, and who pay nothing toward the support of the city government, and whose negro mechanics can afford to underbid the regular resident citizen mechanics of your city, to their great injury, and without benefit to the city in any way. We most respectfully request your honorable body to take the matter in hand, and by your action in the premises afford such protection to the resident citizen mechanics of your city as your honorable body may deem meet in the premises, and in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray."
Early in April the Georgia Air Line Railroad applied to the city council for the first installment of the city's subscription of $100,000 to its capital stock. By the provisions of the subscription, when the railroad company had received bona fide subscriptions to the amount of $650,000, exclusive of the stock subscribed for by the city of Atlanta, ten per cent, of the amount subscribed, or $10,000 was to be paid to the railroad. To this demand of the Air Line Railroad the council demurred, contending that the railroad had not produced proof of having the necessary amount subscribed. The railroad persisting in its claim, council appointed a special committee to carefully investigate the matter and report the result of its labors at the earliest possible date. The committee brought in a report to the effect that the railroad had not raised the necessary amount, and submitting the following list as representing the sum total of bona fide subscriptions:
Fulton county $ 84,700
Hall county 156,900
Franklin county 146,200
Hart county 74,600
Gwinnett county 18,300
Total stock subscribed $480,700
This confirmation of its suspicions caused the council to lay the petition of the Air Line road upon the table without more ado; but the railroad people were not so easily put off. They insisted that the necessary $650,000 had been subscribed, and at the next meeting of council, on May 6th, they again petitioned that body to issue ten per cent, of the bonds agreed upon. The petitioners accompanied their petition with the following" interrogations:
1. Assuming that the stock already subscribed amounts to $650,000, and that the subscriptions are bona fide, is there, in the opinion of the council, any legal impediment to the city's payment of its regular installment of ten per cent, on $100,000, when the same shall be demanded by the company?
2. If any legal impediment exist, has the council the power to remove it?
3. Will the council exercise the power if requested so to do by a majority of the legal voters of the city?
4. Will the council provide for the holding of an election by the citizens, that their wishes on this subject may be expressed?
On the 13th of May council again took the railroad bond matter up and replied to the questions of the corporation. The reply was courteous, but firm in its adherence to its previous decision. In substance it said that "while it was never the intention of the city to build the Georgia Air Line railroad alone, it was nevertheless its settled policy to assist in the work of construction to the full amount of its subscription, reserving to itself the right to withhold further aid when the conditions on which the subscription was made had not been complied with, viz.: the subscription of $650,000 outside of the city's subscription. This amount, as the council thought, had not been secured, yet, nevertheless, the council declared its earnest friendship for the road, and its warm desire for its success. To the stockholders along the line of the road it said once for all: 'We are with you in this work, ready to comply when others have fulfilled.' '
The Georgia Air Line Railroad did not prove to be of the paper variety, and Atlanta did her part in aiding in its construction, as promised. But for the breaking out of the war between the states, then so imminent, the work of construction would have been begun several years sooner.
The population of the city at this time exceeded 10,000, and its rapid growth continued. In 1858 nineteen substantial brick stores, some of them pretentious structures, were erected. The city hall and county courthouse building was, for the time, a handsome structure of the colonial style of architecture, with white entrance porticos on all sides and a double-story cupola with half-globe roof, surmounted by the inevitable weather-vane. The Atlanta Medical College was among the best of the large buildings, being also of the colonial type of architecture. The church organizations heretofore mentioned had creditable brick houses of worship. The original "car-shed" was very similar in appearance and dimensions to the present beautiful (?) structure, and the early Atlantans, unlike the present fastidious generation, were exceedingly proud of it, a wood cut of the depot adorning every descriptive print of Atlanta. In addition to the large hotels already mentioned, at this time the city boasted of the Fulton Hotel, at the corner of Alabama and Pryor streets, later the site of the Block factory, and the Trout House, at the corner of Decatur and Pryor streets. Both of these hotels were prominent ante-bellum landmarks and helped to make history during that momentous period. It was from the gallery of the latter that General Longstreet, en route