USA > Georgia > Floyd County > Rome > A history of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, United States of America; including numerous incidents of more than local interest, 1540-1922, Volume I > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
A tragic sequel followed the re- moval and the stirring events pre- ceding it. The anti-treaty or Ross party of Indians did not bury in the red hills of Georgia with the hallowed dust of their ancestors the resentment they felt toward the men who had signed away their lands. A band of several hundred Indians took a secret oath to kill Major Ridge and his clan brother (nephew by blood) Elias Boudinot, *** and John Ridge, his son. They bided their time, and June 22, 1839, killed all three.
Major Ridge was waylaid on the road 40 or 50 miles from home, and shot. His son was taken from his bed early in the morning and near- ly cut to pieces with knives. Mr. Boudinot was decoyed away from a house he had been erecting a short distance from his residence,
*The father of Gen. John Floyd, for whom Floyd county was named.
** Numerous complaints are of record today. The route has been called "The Trail of Tears." *** A native of Floyd county.
**** Stand Watie lived at Coosawattie Town, and later near Rome.
***** Assuming that Ridge was born in 1771,
as usually stated, he would have been 68.
and then set upon with knives and hatchets. One version has it that Boudinot was a sort of doctor, and that several Indians came to him in a friendly way and asked him to get some medicine for a sick com- rade. Thrown off his guard, he was an easy prey.
Mrs. Mabel Washbourne Ander- son, of Pryor, Okla., daughter of John Rollin Ridge, grand-daughter of John Ridge and great-grand- daughter of Major Ridge, tells on ps. 11-12 of her Life of General Stand Watie **** of this shocking tragedy :
A demon spell now enveloped the Cherokee country, as is ever the case when feuds and factions arise within a nation. The members of the former Treaty party, headed by Ridge and Boudinot, were called traitors by the Ross party, and this continued accu- sation became the platform of strife and bloodshed, turbulence and suffer- ing for a newly-divided people in a new land. Had bitterness and disa- greement been forgotten and a united effort made toward rebuilding the broken fortunes of a broken people, the cruel history from 1838 to 1846 might never have been written.
If history had preserved for us a record of the "Secret Council" of the anti-Treaty party, said to have been held at Double Springs, near Tahlequah, in the spring of 1839, much that will forever be a question to the searcher for truth would be re- vealed.
Passing hastily over this black page of Cherokee history, so closely allied with the life of Gen. Watie, it must be mentioned that secret police forces of 100 men each soon after this coun- cil were organized by the Ross party, with a commander for each company, whose purpose was to extinguish the leading men of the Ridge party. And the pages of Cherokee history will for- ever be shadowed by the atrocious tragedy that took place in the assassi- nation in one night of Major Ridge, an aged man of 75; his son, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot, three of the most powerful and influential men of the Treaty party. The murders of these three men, which took place within a few hours of each other, were most systematically carried out, though they were widely separated at the time. John Ridge was slain on
90
A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
Honey Creek, Cherokee Nation, near the Missouri line; Major Ridge was slain in the Cherokee Nation near Cin- cinnati, Ark .; and Elias Boudinot near Park Hill, Cherokee Nation.
This opened an international wound of sorrow and bloodshed for the Cher- okee people, extending over a terrible, dark period of eight or ten years, and whose influence lasted for decades upon this nation. Stand Watie, Jack Bell and Walter Adair were slated to die at this same time, but were absent from home the night these foul mur- ders were committed. Thereafter they were constantly on scout and guard against some hidden plot to take their lives. A short time after this horrible event, Stand Watie organized a mili- tary force, stationed at Beattie's Prairie, to oppose the Ross police force.
Despite opposition and oppression, Watie became after the assassination of his kinsmen the most influential man and the conceded leader of the Ridge party. Among the incidents current among his people today of the bravery of Stand Watie is one con- nected with this terrible tragedy. When his brother, Elias Boudinot, lay dead in the midst of his foes, Watie silently rode up unarmed. The crowd of his enemies suddenly drew back, making way for this grim horseman. Removing the sheet that covered the face of his murdered brother, he looked down long and earnestly upon the still features. Then turning to the crowd, he said in a voice that each could hear, "I will give $10,000 to know the name of the man who struck that blow !"
All who knew Stand Watie were aware of his ability to pay this re- ward, but not one in that guilty crowd answered him, and he rode away as fearlessly as he had come, though there were fully 100 men in that same company who had sworn to take his life the night before.
Thos. Watie and James Starr were killed by the Ross party in 1845, but the old tradition among the full-blood- ed Indians that "No weapon was ever made to kill Stand Watie," seemed verily to fulfil itself, and he success- fully passed through the dangerous and trying years from 1838 to 1846.
A PAYNE MEMORIAL .- A patri- otic service was performed Saturday morning, Oct. 7, 1922, by the Old Guard of Atlanta in the unveiling of a hand- some marble tablet at Spring Place
to John Howard Payne. The exercises had been planned for Friday, Oct. 6, but bad roads delayed the party, trav- eling in automobiles, and it was neces- sary to postpone the affair a day. The speaker of the occasion was Col. Geo. M. Napier, attorney general of Geor- gia and a member of the Guard. He was introduced by Jos. A. McCord, commandant of the Guard and Gov- ernor of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. Prof. Ernest Neal, school superintendent at Chatsworth, Murray County, recited his poem, "The Rivers of Cherokee Georgia;" the poem will be found in the poetry section herein.
The Payne tablet stands within 200 vards of the Vann house, at a con- spicuous road crossing where it will be beheld by thousands of tourists yearly. It is of rough gray Elbert County granite, mined at a place near which Payne journeyed in 1835 on horseback from Augusta to inspect the natural wonders of Northeast Georgia. It is sunk deep in concrete, and a concrete platform six feet in radius surrounds it. The inscrption follows :
"John Howard Payne, author of 'Home, Sweet Home,' suspected as a spy of the Cherokee Indians, was im- prisoned here in 1835, but released. Erected by Old Guard of Atlanta, Oct. 6, 1922; Jos. A. McCord, command- ant."
The Old Guardsmen were the guests of Mr. McCord at his apple orchard twelve miles to the north. Prominent in their entertainment was the Gov. ernor John Milledge Chapter of the D. A. R., of Dalton, and Dr. T. W. Colvard, at whose estate they enjoyed a barbecue. Prior to the exercises they inspected the home of Jos. Vann, the Indian chief, near which, in a log hut, Payne was incarcerated. It is said this hut now stands in the park at Chatsworth, near the L. & N. railroad station, having been removed from Spring Place.
Other Old Guard members who at- tended were Robt. A. Broyles, Ossian D. Gorman, Jr., Sam Meyer, Jr., H. M. Lokey, G. A. Wight, W. E. Han- cock, Dr. L. P. Baker, Henry C. Beer- man, Fred J. Cooledge, E. H. Good- hart, W. M. Camp, Peter F. Clarke, W. S. Coleman, W. B. Cummings, Dr. Thos. H. Hancock, W. T. Kuhns, Ed- mund W. Martin, M. L. Thrower, Jas. T. Wright, A. McD. Wilson, G. G. Yancey, Jr., and Walter Bennett. Others included Jos. A. McCord, Jr., Walter Sparks, and J. A. Hall, of De- catur, formerly of Calhoun, an author- ity on Indian lore.
CHAPTER V. Growth From Village to Town
NCE the Indians were out of the way and their lands thrown open to the white settlers, Rome and Floyd County began to grow with a vim. As early as 1837, according to a report from Capt. J. P. Simonton, disbursing agent of the Cherokee Removal, sent from New Echota to the Commissioner of Indian Af- fairs, and dated Sept. 27, 1837, Col. Wm. C. Hardin was president of the Western Bank of Georgia, of Rome .* Col. Hardin and Andrew Miller, agent of the Bank of Geor- gia, of Augusta, loaned the Govern- ment $25,000, transmitted through the Rome bank, toward the re- moval of the Cherokees.
The Western was undoubtedly the first bank in Rome, and Col. Hardin its first president. It was located at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and East First Street. An old $10 bank note shows that William Smith was president on July 13, 1840, with R. A. Greene as cashier. Zachariah B. Hargrove had been connected with it prior to his death in 1839. The Bank of the Empire State, which also got into financial difficulties and was forced to suspend, was organized inuch later. In 1851 the Rome Weekly Courier expressed the hope that a bank would soon be formed at Rome.
The first inn was kept by Wil- liam Quinn at "Cross Keys," as the local neighborhood at the pres- ent "Five Points," North Broad Street, was then known. A Mrs. Washington, descended from
George, kept the Washington Ho- tel. The McEntee House was in operation in 1845 when Rev. and Mrs. J. M. M. Caldwell stopped over in Rome on their way to Sel- ma, Ala., where Dr. Caldwell had been offered the pastorate of the First Presbyterian church. James McEntee, the proprietor, and oth- ers persuaded the newly-married couple to remain in Rome, and they taught one of the first schools of any pretensions in a part of their dwelling, the old John Ross House, ** in which they had been temporarily settled by the owner, Col. Alfred Shorter. After as- suming charge of the Rome Fe- male College on Eighth Avenue in 1856, they taught on East Second Street.
Another early hotel was the Choice House, built by John Choice, probably prior to 1850. This was conducted from 1855 to 1857 by Wm. Melton Roberts, father of Frank Stovall Roberts, of Wash- ington, D. C. It was located where the Hotel Forrest now stands. For several years around 1857 it had six colonial columns of white in front.
The Buena Vista, at the south- east corner of Broad Street and Sixth Avenue, was built in 1843 by an Irishman named Thos. Burke, who soon got into a serious diffi- culty and turned the property over to Daniel R. Mitchell as a fee for representing him.
About 1850 Wm. Ketcham was proprietor of the Etowah House, southeast corner of Broad Street and Second Avenue, and in 1863 the proprietor was Gen. Geo. S. Black.
The Tennessee House was start- ed at the end of the Civil War by
*Report of Secretary of War on Cherokee Treaty (1835), p. 995.
** Destroyed in 1864 by soldiers of the Union Army, according to the late Mrs. Robt. Battey. No reason can be assigned for the destruction of this property except that Ross was in bad odor with the United States Government at the time.
92
A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
Jas. A. Stansbury. It stood at the northeast corner of Broad Street and First Avenue, and later be- came the Rome Hotel.
The first newspaper, according to The Weekly Bulletin of Thurs- day, Jan. 8, 1876, was the Western Georgian, published by Gen. Jas. Hemphill and Samuel S. Jack .* It was started in 1837, and Mr. Jack was the first editor. The location was at 602 East First Street, where a hand press was installed. This was on the spot where Mrs. Naomi P. Bale now lives.
Pisgah Baptist church at Coosa is the oldest religious institution of its kind in the county. It was organized in the spring of 1833 by Rev. Hugh Quin and associates.
The First Presbyterian of Rome was founded at Livingston Oct. 29, 1833, and removed to Rome Apr. 17, 1845, by Rev. J. M. M. Caldwell.
The First Baptist is the oldest
REV. J. M. M. CALDWELL, Presbyterian minister and for about 40 years teacher of young women at Rome.
church in Rome, having been founded May 16, 1835 .**
The First Methodist was organ- ized at Rome in 1840 by Mrs. Sam- 11el S. Jack, Mrs. James Hammet, Mrs. Daniel R. Mitchell, Mrs. Jesse Lamberth, Mrs. Samuel Stewart and Miss Emily McDow. The location was the southwest corner of Sixth Avenue and E. Sec- ond Street. The circuit of which Rome was an appointment in 1836 extended from Knoxville, Tenn., to the Chattahoochee River, and Rev. J. B. McFerrin, of Tennessee, stood every four months on a stump at Fifth Avenue and West First Street (now the courthouse property ) and preached to mixed crowds of ln- dians, negroes and whites .*** On one of these occasions Dr. McFer- rin converted John Ross, who thereafter spread the doctrines of Methodism among his tribes- men .* It is considered worthy of note in . this connection that Sam P. Jones, the Methodist evan- gelist, went to preaching 40 years later four blocks from this spot and two blocks from the Fourth Ward home of Ross.
St. Peter's Episcopal church was first located at Fifth Avenue and E. First Street, and was establish- ed Mar. 31, 1854, by Rev. Thos. Fielding Scott, of Marietta, and associates.
The First Christian church was organized Feb. 13, 1896.
Sardis Presbyterian church at Livingston and churches in Ridge Valley and Vann's Valley (such as the Baptist, the Methodist and the Episcopal at Cave Spring) and at
*Mrs. Naomi P. Bale states that Mr. Jack's daughter, Amanda (the first white child born in Rome), said it was the Rome Enterprise. J. O. Winfrey calls it the Northwest Georgian, and says Miles Corbin was associated, with Mr. Jack. Mr. Jack's father was a soldier in the American Revolution.
** According to Acts, 1837, p. 48. the trustees of the corporation on Dec. 25, 1837, were Wes- ley Shropshire, Elijah Lumpkin, Jobe Rogers, Thos. W. Burton and Alford B. Reece.
*** Directory, First Methodist Church, His- torical sketch by Mrs. Naomi P. Bale, 1918. **** Authority : Belle K. Abbott in The At- lanta Constitution, 1889.
93
GROWTH FROM VILLAGE TO TOWN
Armuchee, Chulio, Everett Springs and the other pioneer districts of the county are also very old. Some folks say Sardis Presbyterian is older than Pisgah Baptist; others say it ain't.
The Episcopal church at Cave Spring, by the way, was built through the generosity of Francis S. Bartow and his parents, Dr. and Mrs .. Theodosius Bartow. of Sa- vannah, who maintained a summer home there a number of years be- fore 1860. The land for this church was given by Maj. Armistead Rich- ardson.
The Baptist church of Cave Spring stands on the Hearn Acad- emy campus. The brick it contains, still in a fine state of preservation, were made of Floyd County clay by the slaves of Maj. Armistead Richardson, Alexander Thornton Harper and Carter W. Sparks.
The Prospect Baptist church, near Coosa, was founded in 1856.
Undoubtedly the oldest religious agency in the county (now only a memory ) was the mission at Coo- sa (then known as Missionary Station). This was established in 1821 by Rev. Elijah Butler and his wife, Esther Butler, of the North, who were succeeded in the work by Rev. Hugh Quin, about 1827.
Such business establishments as might be expected in a growing town sprang up between 1834 and 1861. Col. Alfred Shorter began to trade in cotton, merchandise and real estate, and was recognized as Rome's leading financier and busi- ness man. Col. Cunningham M. Pennington, a civil engineer, ap- peared on the scene as Col. Shor- ter's agent, and also gave consid- erable attention to railroad enter- prises. Chas. M. Harper, a nephew, likewise was early associated with Col. Shorter.
A postoffice was set up at a con- venient spot in the center of town
and all the folks came for their mail. The streets were bad for many years, and pigs and cattle roamed over them at will, and many a Roman of the period kept a pig-sty in his yard. The thor- oughfares were lighted at night with oil lamps and the homes with lamps or candles, and early re- tiring was the rule, and early ris- ing, too.
Stage coach lines were estab- lished, with thrice a week service, leading to Cassville through North Rome, to New Echota via Oosta- naula River road, to Jacksonville, Ala., and Cave Spring via the Cave Spring road, to the towns of Chat- tooga County via the Summerville road, and to Livingston and points beyond through the Black's Bluff road.
Practically all these roads of the present were originally Indian trails, notably the Alabama road, which was the old Creek path from
MRS. J. M. M. CALDWELL, of the old Rome Female College, who taught Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and many others.
94
A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
Alabama through northwest Geor- gia. These stages were joggling, rickety affairs, pulled by four horses. As we view it now, it was worth a man's life to undertake a long journey, but somehow they always reached their destination and the trouble of getting there was forgotten in a delightfully long stay. Mail was carried in pouches and the stage driver was responsible for its safe delivery. To facilitate this object, the driver usually went armed, and was sel- dom molested. Among the early drivers and proprietors might be mentioned John H. Wisdom, who in 1863 warned Romans of the approach of Col. Streight's raid- ers, and Esom Graves Logan, J. R. Powell, Jos. H. Sergeant and other old timers.
Connections were made by stage with more remote points, such as Athens, Covington, Milledgeville, Macon and Augusta. Atlanta did not appear until Dec. 23, 1843, when it was incorporated as Terminus .* Her name was changed to Marthas- ville, and then by an act approved Dec. 29, 1847, it became Atlanta .** Nine years before a village sprang up on the site of Atlanta, Romans had had a vision of a "terminus" on their own particular spot. Rome was the frontier outpost of Chero- kee Georgia, as far as the rest of the state was concerned. It was the connecting link between "Old Georgia" and "Old Tennessee," the clearing house for the cotton, corn. wheat and produce of the rich Coo- sa Valley and the northeastern Alabama towns.
Rome's strategic position was perhaps best realized by William Smith, who in 1836 was elected to the State Senate with the idea that he might have a bill passed at Mil- ledgeville which would cause the proposed State Railroad to stop at Rome instead of at some point in Tennessee, which later became
Chattanooga. The people were not ready for such a radical step, how- ever. The Steamboat Coosa had come all the way up from Greens- port, Ala., had given the natives a good fright, and this was enough of transportation improvements for a long time. When Col. Smith of- fered for re-election, he was de- feated by James Wells. Col. Smith bided his time, unloosed a new sup- ply of political thunder and defeat- ed Mr. Wells in 1838. Success still did not come, and in 1839 he was defeated by Jos. Watters, who served two years and then was defeated by Col. Smith in 1841. For three years, through 1843, Col. Smith pushed this project and oth- ers. He was given strong assur- ance that Rome would be made the terminus of the road, which would certainly have caused the place to boom like a mining town of the far West. Such a strong fight was made by Col. Smith dur- ing these years that an association of citizens at Chattanooga invited him to come there to live in a hand- some home that would cost him nothing. He was too strongly com- mitted to the place of his adoption, and continued the fight for Rome.
When success seemed certain, Col. Smith and another founder of the town, Maj. Philip W. Hemp- hill, built .a steamboat in anticipa- tion of the tremendous trade that would be created. The hull of the boat was made by William Adkins, father of Wm. H. Adkins, of At- lanta, formerly of Rome. It was eased into the Oostanaula with ap- propriate ceremonies and her flag raised, bearing the name of her projector, William Smith. The ma- chinery was not installed for a time, possibly due to a delay in delivery, or the desire of the own-
*Acts, 1843, p. 83.
** Acts, 1847, p. 50. It was by this act that Rome advanced from the status of town to that of city, and the city limits were extended to include all territory in a radius of half a mile from the courthouse.
95
GROWTH FROM VILLAGE TO TOWN
ers to see the bill pass before they should increase their investment.
Something went wrong at Mil- ledgeville. The Whiteside interests at Chattanooga, augmented by a faction in Georgia who thought better of the Chattanooga termi- nus, proved too strong for the Cherokee Georgia contingent. The bill as passed included Chattanoo- ga. Rome was to be isolated to some extent ; the road was to pass 16 miles away, through Cass Coun- ty, from Marthasville northwest- ward.
Col. Smith smiled his acquies- cense, but there was no estimating his disappointment. One night the William Smith sank, at the point where the Central of Georgia tres- tle crosses the Oostanaula. Prat- tling tongues said Col. Smith bored holes in her bottom. He would never talk about it much, be- yond saying that the action of the Legislature had greatly crippled Rome. He did not try to raise the boat, and up to 25 years ago her muddy hull could still be seen at "low tide."
In these days of slave labor, lim- ited transportation facilities, heavy crops and lack of industrialism, the thoughts of the upper classes naturally turned to politics. The newspapers printed four pages of six columns each once or twice a week. The advertisements were usually small and the other space must be filled up. When people married, they remained married, and a divorce was a rarity and con- sidered a disgrace. There were a good many fights with knives in grog shops, and an occasional duel, but news-gathering facilities had not been developed, and the papers were consequently filled with "views." Every editor was a savior of the country, and spread-eagle literary efforts readily found their way into the newspapers from poli- ticians or statesmen. Presidential and Gubernatorial messages were
DR. ELIJAH L. CONNALLY, Atlantan, Floyd County native, who as a baby was nursed by Indian Chiefs Tahchansee and Turkey.
printed in full and were considered choice morsels for the head of the house. Greer's Almanac furnished weather predictions for everybody. Politics often consumed a page or two, and communications on topics that today are of much less consequence often ran into two or three columns. As for the women, they religiously read "Godey's La- dies' Book," an eastern publica- tion which met needs like the La- dies' Home Journal of today.
It is not necessarily a reflection on Rome that in the first 26 years of her existence, from 1834 to 1860, she elected more men to Congress than has the Rome of the 57 years from 1865 to 1922. A new country always develops rugged leadership and the fearless expression of opin- ion that goes with a daily fight for existence. In this early period Rome sent four men to Congress. They were, in order, Judge John H. Lumpkin, who had previously served his uncle, Governor Wilson
96
A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
Lumpkin, as secretary, and had gone to the legislature in 1835; Thos. C. Hackett, Judge Lump- kin's law partner, who succeeded him : Judge Augustus R. Wright, who had removed to Rome in 1855 ; and Judge Jno. W. H. Underwood who was a member of the Georgia delegation which walked out of Congress early in 1861 without taking the pains to resign. Only two men living in Rome at the time of their election have since been sent to Congress-Judson C. Clem- ents and Judge Jno. W. Maddox.
Judge Lumpkin came near put- ting Rome on the map as the resi- dence of the Governor of Georgia ; that is, assuming he could have been elected over the eloquent and polished Benjamin H. Ilill. Also, it is likely he would have been the War Governor. On June 24, 1857, the Democrats met at Milledge- ville to nominate a candidate to oppose the new American or Know- Nothing party. Lumpkin led the balloting for some time, but he could not get the necessary two- thirds, and in a stampede, the nom- ination went to Jos. E. Brown. Alfred H. Colquitt, later Governor, also missed it narrowly. In the election held later, Brown defeated Hill, the American party nominee, by about 10,000 popular votes.
This convention attracted the leading men of the state, and Rome's representatives were Judge Augustus R. Wright, who on one ballot received five votes ; Judge Jno. W. H. Underwood and Daniel S. Printup. At all such gatherings Rome was prominently put for- ward. Her leading men went to the national conventions on an equal footing with the large cities of the state ; and on numerous occasions Governors, Senators and Congress- men came to Rome to seek the ad- vice of these noble Romans. Among the Governors were Chas. J. Mc- Donald, Herschel V. Johnson and Jos. E. Brown. When Judge Lump-
kin died in the summer of 1860 at the Choice House, he was in com- pany with a group of statesmen.
Quite often the Romans suited the convenience of their political friends ; quite often also they wrote a note saying, "Come up and let us talk it over." The Choice House veranda was a capital place for these gatherings, but occasionally a dignitary accepted an invitation to a private fireside and was treated to social courtesies which had nothing to do with politics.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.