Atlanta And Its Builders, Vol. 1 - A Comprehensive History Of The Gate City Of The South. Thomas H. Martin
General Bragg at Chickamauga, delivered an inspiring speech to his troops and the citizens in the streets below. Among the larger brick stores erected at this time was that of Jonathan Norcross, on the site of his pioneer store. Of this period Mr. Reed says: "Among the largest business firms were Beach & Root, dry goods merchants, located where J. M. High's store now is in Whitehall street; McDaniel, Mitchell & Hulsey, dealers in groceries and provisions, located where John Keeley's store now is; McNaught, Ormond & Scrutchins, who had a hardware store on Whitehall street, where now is the hardware store of a son of Mr. Scrutchins; Thomas M. Clarke & Co., dealers in hardware, located where they are at the present time, No. 27 Peachtree street; Thomas Kile, a prominent merchant, located at the corner of Marietta and Peachtree streets. Among the manufacturing establishments were the repair shops of the three railroads which then terminated in Atlanta — the Georgia Railroad, the Western and Atlantic, and the Macon and Western. These shops employed a large number of men, and thus contributed largely to the prosperity of the city. Joseph Winship & Co. manufactured cotton gins, threshing machines, machine gearing, and carried on quite an extensive business where the Winship Machine Company's works now are. Richard Peters had a flouring mill located just below the present site of the Georgia Railroad shops. J. C. Peck & Co. had a planing mill and manufactured quite extensively sash, doors and blinds, and Pitts & Cook also had a planing mill and carried on the same kind of business as J. C. Peck & Co."
CHAPTER XIV. ATLANTA IN 1859
In the election of 1859 Luther J. Glenn was chosen for mayor, with the following council: First ward, Thomas G. Healey and Thomas Haney; second ward, James L. Dunning" and William Watkins; third ward, J. M. Blackwell and Coleman F. Wood; fourth ward, Bartly M. Smith and Cyrus H. Wallace. The other city officials were: C. C. Howell, clerk; P. E. McDaniel, treasurer; G. A. Pilgrim, sexton; Willis Carlisle, marshal; E. T. Hunnicutt, deputy marshal; G. W. Anderson, first lieutenant of police; G. M. Lester, second lieutenant of police; John Haslett, street overseer; E. B. Reynolds, clerk of the market; H. L. Currier, city surveyor.
In his inaugural address the newly elected mayor expressed much satisfaction with the financial condition of the municipality. The floating debt of $3,000 had been paid off by the preceding council, and Mayor Glenn declared that his administration began with a clean slate in that regard, not a single check being outstanding against the city. He enumerated the bonded debt as follows:
Bonds issued for fair grounds $ 3,000
Bonds issued for city hall 16,000
Bonds issued for stock in gas company 20,000
Bonds issued to Georgia Air Line Railroad Company 5,000
Bonds issued for stock in the Chattahoochee bridge 3,000
Total bonded indebtedness of city $47,000
With reference to the erection of the city hall and county courthouse, Mayor Glenn said that the bonds voted for that purpose were to be redeemed by a special tax of one fourth of one per cent, on real estate and stock in trade, to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of interest and the ultimate extinction of the principal. The special tax collected up to that time had not been applied to the redemption of the bonds, the interest alone having been applied as directed by the special tax ordinance. This tax for the preceding year amounted to $5,560, from which sum, after deducting the $1,120 interest due, there remained $4,440 to be applied toward liquidating the bonded debt. This was regarded as a most gratifying showing. As yet the Chattahoochee bridge had not paid a dividend, but the success of the enterprise was unquestioned. The gas company, whose stock the city held to the extent of $19,000, had paid the very substantial dividend of ten per cent, for the first year. The city had been lighted during that time by eighty lamps.
A new arrangement as to the official printing of the city was made by this council in February. The former arrangement had proven very unremunerative to the Republican — indeed, the compensation allowed did not more than cover the actual cost of typesetting. The Daily Intelligencer, and the new paper with the suggestive name of the Southern Confederacy, jointly made a proposition to council, agreeing to insert in their respective journals the proceedings and ordinances of the city council, and any other desired advertising matter, at one-half their regular advertising rates of one dollar a square. To this council agreed.
On May 20th, 1859, Theodore Harris, G. C. Rogers and O. H. Jones petitioned council to protect the licensed hack-drivers of Atlanta from the competition of farmers and other outsiders who owned horses and vehicles. The petitioners alleged that upon every occasion that drew large crowds to the city, many unlicensed people from not only Fulton, but adjacent counties as well, turned many a dollar by doing a transient hack business without taxation, to their great detriment and financial loss. This action was taken in view of the approaching Southern Central Agricultural fair. Council agreed to see that the tax officers were more vigilant in putting down the abuse complained of.
The tax question, as it concerned labor, was extended so as to regulate slave or free negro labor where it entered into competition with tax-paying white employment. There was much complaint among the mechanics of Atlanta about this phase of the slavery question, and their petitions to council resulted in several ordinances intended to remedy the alleged injustice. One of these petitions read:
"We feel aggrieved, as Southern citizens, that your honorable body tolerates a negro dentist (Roderick Badger) in our midst, and in justice to ourselves and the community, it ought to be abated. We, the residents of Atlanta, appeal to you for justice."
One of the negro ordinances passed was as follows: "All free persons of color coming within the limits of Atlanta to live shall, within ten days after their arrival, pay to the clerk of the council $200, and in case of failure to do so, shall be arrested by the marshal, or other police officer, who shall put him or her in the guard house for the term of five days, during which time the marshal shall advertise in at least one public city gazette that such person or persons of color will be hired out at public outcry at the city hall, to the person who will take such free person of color for the shortest time for said sum, etc."
On the 3rd of June, a petition was received asking that an ordinance be passed regulating the purchase and sale of slaves in the city of Atlanta, in order to compel outside slave traders to pay a license, which they had hitherto evaded. Atlanta had become quite a slave-trading center, several of her citizens being engaged in the business, and they, like the hack-drivers, desired to shut out unlicensed competition. A man named Crawford had quite an extensive slave mart on Whitehall street, next to Hank Muhlinbrinck's saloon, and Bob Clark had the same kind of place on the same street, about where Froshin's stand now is. Before council regulated the matter, hundreds of negroes were sold in Atlanta by their private masters and regular traders without the payment of a license.
In 1859 the first city directory of Atlanta was published — a crude affair in comparison with present day directories. It was a mere pamphlet, compiled by Mr. Williams and published by M. Lynch, who was later a member of the well-known firm of Lynch & Thornton. This little work contains much interesting information concerning ante-bellum Atlanta, one of its most attractive features being a descriptive sketch of the city written by Green B. Haygood, one of the prominent lawyers of the day. After giving a glowing introduction, the sketch speaks thus of Atlanta's geographical advantages:
"The geographical position of Atlanta being nearly in the center of the southern section of the American union, at the point of the great railroad crossings in a right line from New York to New Orleans, and nearly equi-distant from each; four prominent lines of railroads all centering here, and pouring into the depots and warehouses of the city an amount of trade, and transporting through it a vast tide of travel; situated, too, just upon the dividing line between the cotton and grain sections of the state, altogether, give to Atlanta facilities for receiving and distributing the productions and commerce of the country from one section to another, greater than can be claimed for any other inland city in the South. Atlanta is now connected by rail with Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis, and thence with the Upper Mississippi, also, with Loudon and Knoxville, Tenn.; Lynchburg, Va.; and thence with the great lines north and east;