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 13
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A contemporary writer said of Rome's "quartette" and Dr. H. V. M. Miller, United States Senator elected in 1868 while residing in Atlanta :
John H. Lumpkin was the candidate of North Georgia, which section vig- orously claimed the right to have the Governor. Lumpkin had been a con- gressman and a judge of the Superior Court and was a gentleman of excel- lent ability.
Dr. Miller, though a physician, won the soubriquet of "The Demosthe- nes of the Mountains" in his innumera- ble political encounters, for which he had the same passion that the Irish- man is popularly believed to have for a "free fight." Deeply versed in con- stitutional law and political lore, a reasoner of rare power and as fine an orator as we have ever had in Geor- gia, capable of burning declamation and closely-knit argument, he was the peer on the stump of any of the great political speakers of the last half- century in Georgia.
Unfortunately for him, he had two perilous peculiarities-a biting sar- casm that delighted in exhibition of its crushing power, and that spared neither friend nor foe, and a contempt- uous and incurable disregard of party affiliations. He never in his life worked in harmony with any party or swallowed whole any single party . platform. And no man ever had more stubborn independence and self-asser- tion .*
Judge Wright, of Rome, was one of the brightest thinkers and most spark- ling orators we had, but an embodied independent .**
. Judge Underwood was a racy talker,
*History of Georgia, 1850-1881, by I. W. Avery, p. 40. ** Ibid, p. 33.
LITTLE TEXAS VALLEY-by Lillian Page Coulter
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a fluent, effective speaker and a good lawyer, with a portly, fine presence and manner; he would have made a far more commanding figure in Geor- gia politics, even, than he has with the possession of a greater quota of stability .*
An evidence of the manner in which Romans kept pace with the political trend is furnished in the following letter, dated at Rome, Jan. 18, 1854, from Judge Lump- kin to Howell Cobb :**
Dear Cobb :- I was with McDon- ald *** a good deal while he was here, and he was in fine health and most excellent spirits. In fact, I have never seen him when he was on bet- ter terms with himself and the most of the world. He has not much fancy for our friend, Col. Underwood, and I think he has not a great deal of re- spect for Dr. Singleton. I had no con- versation with him in regard to the position of United States Senator, nor did he give me any intimation that he expected to go into Mr. Pierce's cabinet. But William Fort, of this place, a nephew of Dr. Fort, and who is the intimate friend and supporter of Gov. McDonald, informs me that Jefferson Davis is in correspondence with Mc- Donald, and that McDonald informed him confidentially that he would go to Milledgeville immediately this week, and if he could control some three or four of his friends and induce them to go into your support for United States Senator, that he would then tender back to the party the nomina- tion and go in publicly for your elec- tion; and if this was successful, he had no doubt of your election to the United States Senate, **** and that he would be appointed Secretary of War in the place of Jefferson Davis, would would also go into the Senate from the State of Mississippi. He further informed me that Brown was an applicant for the Senate from Mis- sissippi, and that this difficulty would have to be accommodated by provid- ing for Brown in some other way. I feel confident that this arrangement will be carried out, and if so, the party
* Avery's History of Georgia, p. 52.
** Georgia Historical Quarterly, June, 1922, ps. 148-9. *** Chas. J. McDonald, Governor from 1839 to 1843.
**** The election was held Jan. 23, 1854. Wm. C. Dawson, Whig incumbent, McDonald and Cobb were beaten by a Southern Rights Democrat, Alfred Iverson, of Columbus.
***** Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, Vol. II, p. 15.
in Georgia will be once more thor- oughly united and cemented.
Locally, politics was active, but . it was not confined to local offices or questions. The newspaper ed- itors saw to it that their readers were well posted on national mat- ters and characters. To inspire Georgians and Romans there stood the examples of Wm. H. Craw- ford, United States Senator and minister to France, who might have occupied the Presidential chair except for an unfortunate stroke of paralysis ;***** Howell Cobb, Georgia Governor, speaker of the National House, and Sec- retary of the Treasury ; John For- svth, Governor of Georgia, United States Senator and Secretary of State; Wm. H. Stiles, minister to Austria ; Benj. C. Yancey, minister to Argentine : John E. Ward, min- ister to China ; Herschel V. John- son, United States Senator and candidate for vice-president on the ticket of Stephen A. Douglas against Abraham Lincoln in 1860; and a number of others who bore Georgia's banner in the front of the procession. Georgia did not play "second fiddle" to any state or the village of Rome to any city.
Few of Rome's early records were kept, and apparently no news- paper files before 1850 are in ex- istence. Several copies of the Rome Weekly Courier of 1850-51-52 were made available through the cour- tesy of H. H. Wimpee, of South Rome, and from these we get the best view of the political condi- tions up to that time, and looking ahead into the dark days of 1861-5.
By 1850 we find the old Whig party beginning to disintegrate, but its adherents fighting grimly. In that year its last President, Mil- lard Fillmore, was inaugurated. Democrats were holding their own ; after Fillmore they elected Frank- lin Pierce and James Buchanan. The Republican party was rising in power. The American Party
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
JOSEPH WATTERS, a member of the State Legislature in the forties, for whom the Watters District was named.
ยท sprang up at the expense of the Whigs ; they were the "middle of the road" host, or "Know Noth- ings." The States Rights Demo- crats, often called "Fire-Eaters," were a wing of the Democratic party, in the main. The Constitu- tional Unionists were formidable, North and South. Sinaller factions likewise existed.
An idea of the intense heat issu- ing from the political pot may be gained from the statement that meetings at this time were at- tended by 10,000 to 20,000 people. The slavery and states' rights is- sues were fast coming to a head. Elections held in Georgia showed a large majority of people favora- ble to maintaining the Union. On Oct. 24, 1850, Jos. Watters and Edward Ware received 882 and 809 votes, respectively, and Dr. Alvin Dean 121 votes, in a Floyd County election for two delegates to the state convention Dec. 10, 1850, at Milledgeville. Dr. Dean represent- ed the disunionist element, or "fire-eaters." The vote of the del- egates on secession measures was heavily in favor of preserving the status quo. The eyes of the nation were focused on Georgia, and a different result, it is believed, would have hastened the Civil War by a decade.
The following political letters were published in A. M. Eddle- man's Rome Weekly Courier on Thursday morning, Oct. 24, 1850:
Hermitage, Floyd County, Ga. Oct. 15, 1850.
To Messrs. H. V. M. Miller, Jno. H. Lumpkin and W. T. Price, Union Party Committee:
Gentlemen: Your letter of the 10th inst., notifying me that at a very large meeting of the citizens of Floyd County, held in Rome on the 10th, I was unanimously nominated as one of the candidates to represent the coun- ty in the convention which is to as- semble in Milledgeville, Dec. 10, has been received. You enclose a copy of the resolutions adopted by the meet-
MOUNT ALTO-From A Watercolor Sketch by Lillian Page Coulter
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ing, expressing its opinion on the pend- ing issues, and calling my attention to them.
I have carefully examined the reso- lutions and do approve of them as adopted by the meeting. As such, I accept the nomination received, and should I be elected by the voters of the county, I will oppose any measure leading to a dissolution of the Union.
Should Congress at any time exhibit its purpose to war upon our property or withhold our just constitutional rights, 1 as a Southern man stand ready to vindicate those rights in the Union as long as possible and out of the Union when we are left no other alternative.
Respectfully yours,
JOSEPH WATTERS.
*Courtesy, Floyd Co., Ga., Oct. 16, 1850.
To Messrs. H. V. M. Miller, Jno. H. Lumpkin and W. T. Price, Union Party Committee :
Gentlemen: I received your polite note of the 10th inst. yesterday eve- ning, informing me of my unanimous nomination by a large and respectable meeting of the citizens of Floyd Coun- ty as one of the two candidates to represent them at Milledgeville Dec. 10. I consent to represent them if I should be elected.
I am requested by your honorable committee to give a pledge to support the resolutions submitted to me for my consideration. I pledge myself to sub- port no measure leading to a violation of the Constitution of the United States or dissolution of the Union.
Gentlemen, I have the honor to be your most obedient servant,
EDWARD WARE.
Editor Eddleman was a staunch Union man himself, and his views were shared by many, as the fol- lowing editorial item from the same issue of his paper will show :
Kingston Mass Meeting .- Let no one forget the gathering of the friends of the Union at Kingston on Nov. 8. Am- ple accommodation will be provided for 20,000 persons, and we hope to see at least that number in attendance. The noblest fabric of government ever purchased by the blood of patriotism or formed by the wisdom of man is threatened with destruction. Is there public virtue enough in the hearts of
the people to save it? If the assault were made by a foreign foe, 100,000 bayonets in Georgia would bristle in its defense. Shall the enthusiasm be less warm, the determination less firm, to hazard all in its protection, because the enemy is in our midst?
Come out, then, to the meeting at Kingston, and let us mingle our voices in loud and long huzzas for the glo- rious old government of our ancestors, endeared to us as it is by the remi- niscences of the past, the incalculable blessings of the present and the bright anticipations of the future-spreading before the imagination a career of prosperity, of greatness and grandeur, to which all history affords no parallel. Let us meet and firmly resolve at any cost to maintain it pure and inviolate, as we received it. Come, people of Cherokee Georgia, and partake of the hospitality of your fellow citizens of Cass and Floyd. Come and listen to the eloquence of Stephens, and Cobb, and Toombs, and Andrews, and Petti- grew, and a host of others who are to be there to address you. Come and enjoy a "feast of reason and a flow of soul." Let the wisdom of age be there to moderate and control the fire and impetuosity of youth. Let the pres- ence and the smile of woman, as in every contest of patriotism the world over, be ready to cheer and encourage the hardier sex in the performance of its duty.
Let no one stay away because of the supposed weakness of our adver- saries. They are more numerous than many suppose. They have talents, courage, cunning and money, and evince a determination to spend them freely in the desperate cause in which they have embarked. Come and show by your spirit and numbers your res- olution to permit no sacrilegious hand to render asunder the Glorious Flag of your Country. It has formed the winding sheet of many of your patriot ancestors. It has been to Americans in every land and on every sca, as far as human foot has trod, the Aegis of Safety. Proudly has it waved over a thousand bloody but victorious battle- fields, and it is for you to say whether it shall be transmitted unsullied to your posterity. Let there be for cen- turies no stain upon it, no erasure; but on its bright field let every STAR and every STRIPE forever shine re- splendently in glorious equality !
Thus were the war clouds as- suming shape. The next ten years was to be a period of preparation
*Supposed to have been located at Six Mile Station, Vann's Valley.
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in thought and to a considerable extent at its close preparation in arms and munitions of war. Some years before this, statesmen and military leaders saw the prospect clearly. In 1844 Lieut. Wm. T. Sherman, just out of West Point, was ordered to go by horseback from Charleston to Marietta to assist in hearing claims of Georgia volunteers in the Seminole War for lest horses and equipment. After finishing at Marietta, he passed through Cass (now Bartow) County, and examined the Tumlin Indian mound near Cartersville with Col. Lewis Tumlin ; then pro- ceeded to Bellefonte, Jackson Co., Ala., to continue his duties. He made a thorough study of the country from the military stand- point, especially Kennesaw Moun- tain, Allatoona Pass and the Eto- wah river .* After spending two months at Bellefonte, he returned to Ft. Moultrie, Charleston Har- bor, on horseback via Rome, Alla-
COL. ALFRED SHORTER, whom William Smith induced to come to Rome from Ala- bama, and who gave Dixie Shorter College.
toona, Marietta (and Kennesaw), Atlanta, Macon and Augusta, fol- lowing closely parts of the route he took 20 years later on his "March to the Sea.'
Another distinguished guest of Rome who came on a different mission was Jefferson Davis ;*** and still another, on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1850, was Col. Albert J. Pick- ett, of Alabama, concerning whose mission the Rome Weekly Courier of Thursday, Oct. 31, 1850, printed the following notice :
Col. Pickett On DeSoto's Route .- Col. Albert J. Pickett, of Montgomery, Ala., author of the History of Ala- bama and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, entertained a large num- ber of our citizens for two hours Tues- day evening at the courthouse, giving an interesting account of the invasion of Georgia by DeSoto, more than three centuries ago. Col. Pickett is in pos- session of a more minute account of this remarkable adventure than any man we have ever seen. Upon the site of our city, he asserted, DeSoto en- camped with 1,000 men for 30 days. during which time a battle was fought between the Spaniards under his com- mand and the Indian tribes then in- habiting this country. Evidences of this battle still exist in the shape of human bones dug out of a mound near the junction of the Etowah and the Ocstanaula.
From 1840 to 1861 Rome grew fast. In this period Wm. R. Smith (called "Long Bill" because he wore his hair in a queue down his back), Col. Wade S. Cothran and Col. Daniel S. Printup appeared. All engaged in railroad enterprises, and in addition, Col. Printup at- tended to a large law business, and Col. Cothran acquired an interest in the steamboat lines, for which Capt. F. M. Coulter had built a number of handsome and service- able boats.
*Sherman's Memoirs, 1875, Vol. II.
** U. S. Senate Documents, Vol. 40, "Sher- man-a Memorial Sketch."
*** According to Mrs. Hiram D. Hill, Mr. Davis visited her parents, Col. and Mrs. Danl. R. Mitchell. Mrs. Mitchell was a member of the Mann family, to whose members Mr. Davis was also related. Mr. Davis and Mrs. Mitchell were second cousins, according to Mrs. Hill.
LAVENDER MOUNTAIN-From a Watercolor Sketch by Lillian Page Coulter
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The Rome Railroad (originally the Memphis Branch Railroad and Steamboat Company of Georgia) was chartered Dec. 21, 1839, and the whole town turned out several years later when the first train puffed in from Kingston, 16 miles and a good hour away .* In 1855 the Nobles came from Reading, Pa., to give Rome a decided boost in iron manufactures. The LeHardys ar- rived from Belgium to found their Belgian colony, an which added much to the agricul- experiment tural interest and the social, edu- cational and cultural importance of Rome. Major Chas. H. Smith ("Bill Arp") moved over from Lawrenceville in 1851, and thus Rome acquired a literary expound- er who could proclaim her glories abroad, a sweet-voiced singer who could put her wonders into type and an artist who could paint her rude characters in the colors of their native abode.
Rome soon acquired a case of "growing pains." The editors began to call for better things than what Rome had had. The flickering street lamps and the house lamps and candles were an abomination. An enterprising firm advertised "camphine" as better than any light except the sun ; ten years later, in 1860, a local firm started selling machines to make gas out of pine logs.
In 1850 a volunteer fire company was formed, with a reel that would carry buckets of water. Robt. Bat- tey was president and David G. Love secretary. "Water, water" was everywhere, but there were no pipes to carry it in, and there was 10 pump to send it into a gravity tank. Luckily, the early fires were usually small, except one in 1858, which took most of the block on the west side of Broad Street be- tween Fourth and Fifth Avenues.
*Judge John W. H. Underwood used to say it was the only railroad in the country that a man could ride all day for a dollar.
The volunteers called for extra ap- paratus, but none was forthcoming for a while. Rome was not to be built in a day.
Soda water and ice cream ap- peared in 1850, and created a sen- sation. There was no great de- mand for them; the people needed such money as they had for more urgent necessities ; most of all, per- haps, they were new and untried. In 1860 the druggists attempted to make soda water go again, and gave away quantities to introduce it. The name of it at that time was soda pop. The two drug stores were conducted by Dr. J. D. Dick- erson and Battey & Brother. The senior member of the latter was Dr. Geo. M. Battey, and the junior member Robt. Battey. Dr. Dick- erson not only ran his drug store, but found time to act as the first mayor, which position he filled two terms, until December, 1850, when he retired in favor of Jas. P. Per- kins. Mr. Perkins was followed by Nathan Yarbrough in 1852. Other early mayors, of uncertain date, were Wm. Cook Gautier Johnstone and Jas. M. Sumter. In 1857 Judge
MRS. ALFRED SHORTER, long prominent in the work of the 1st Baptist Church, and an able assistant to her remarkable husband.
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Robt. D. Harvey was mayor, and in 1859-60 H. A. Gartrell, lawyer and uncle of Henry W. Grady .* Old newspapers state that Dr. Thos. Jefferson Word was elected mayor in 1861 and succeeded himself in 1862.
The proprietor of The Courier, an occasional traveler, informed his readers as follows, Jan. 30, 1851 :
Mail Change .- We are informed by Thos. J. Perry, Esq., postmaster at this city, that he has received a com- munication from the Department at Washington giving assurance of a speedy and salutary change in the transportation of the mail and pas- sengers between this place and Gun- tersville, Ala. A four-horse stage coach will soon take the place of the spring wagon. Very well.
And he piped this summarizing panegyric to the young city under date of Feb. 5, 1851 :
Rome, Its Prospects .- It is grati- fying to watch the gradual but certain growth of our young and vigorous city. Buildings of various kinds are rap- idly going up and valuable accessions are being made to our population. Since the completion of the "Rome Railroad," business has steadily in- creased, and under a wise and liberal policy will be largely augmented dur- ing the next few years. If we are not greatly deceived, Rome will double its population of more than 3,000 in the next four years, provided its resources are properly directed and its inter- ests prudently fostered. Its popula- tion with the exception of some 20 or 30 very clever doctors and lawyers, (who, we are happy to say, have but little to do), is made up mostly of sub- stantial business men who are per- manently identified with the place and deeply interested in its prosperity and reputation.
Surrounded by a country of unsur- passed beauty and fertility, occupied by an unusually dense and valuable agricultural population-at the ter- minus of railroad and steamboat transportation-Rome is and must ever continue to be a place of considerable commercial importance.
We hope before the commencement of another business season we shall be able to record the establishment of a bank in our City .** Such an institu- tion under proper regulations will greatly promote the convenience and
prosperity of every class of our citi- zens. Our business men should take this matter under immediate consider- ation, or a large and profitable interior trade may be forever diverted from their control.
"Ye call us a small town ?" quoth Editor Melville Dwinell Mar. 3, 1860. "Harken ye!":
A person living in Middle or Lower Georgia, who has never visited the "Metropolis of Cherokee," has an idea that it is like all other up-country towns, composed of a courthouse in the center of a square, surrounded by two taverns, a variety store, a ten pin al- ley, a blacksmith shop and three gro- ceries. He therefore expresses great surprise on coming to our City for the first time, to discover what an egregi- ous mistake he has made. One eye is opened slightly when he arrives at the depot and beholds those city institu- tions, church steeples, and an omnibus, and by the time his baggage is seized and violently tugged at by zealous drummers, from our two large rival hotels, that eye is wide open. The lids of the other begin to part company, in order to give a better view of the long line of fine brick stores, stretching away up Broad Street, at the head of which, upon an eminence overlooking the city, is the handsome residence of our Ex-M. C., *** and the imposing building of "Rome Female College."
At night, when our stores and street are illuminated with gas, the rays of enlightenment begin to shine in upon his benighted mind.
If he be here on the Sabbath, and is not a "heathen or a publican," he at- tends one of our four churches, and finds it filled with an intelligent and attentive congregation, and hears a sermon that would be listened to with interest and profit by any similar as- sembly in the State. On Monday morning, his curiosity being aroused, he strolls down one side of Broad Street, and up the other to observe the style and extent of our business. While he stands wondering at the number of cotton and produce wagons "coming to town," and our energetic business men hurrying to and fro, if it be a pleasant day, and he an unmarried man, his heart leaps as he hears tiny
*This list of before-the-war mayors is the completest and most accurate that it has been possible to obtain.
** Several small banks of a fly-by-night char- acter had been established and had gone out of business prior to 1851.
*** Judge John H. Lumpkin.
BARNSLEY GARDENS (Bartow County)-by Lillian Page Coulter
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heels, (bless their little soles), patter- ing on the pavement behind him. He turns, and his gaze is fixed upon a sweet and intelligent face, just as far in advance of "a dear love of a bon- net" as the most enthusiastic admirer of "beauty when unadorned" could wish.
If not transfixed, he, like one of Dame Nature's loyal subjects, obeys her "supreme law," and immediately steps off the sidewalk, to make room for the widest circles of fashion that are "trundling" his way. Drawn ir- resistibly, he follows, and entering one of our many large dry goods houses, he sees several industrious and smil- ing clerks, energetically employed in pulling down and unrolling, and then rolling and putting up again, an ex- tensive assortment of calicoes, bereges, silks, satins, muslins, delaines, etc., etc., to accommodate the fair custom- ers, who throng the counters "only to see the latest spring styles." All doubts that may have been excited by the in- formation that Rome has furnished the last three Congressmen from the Fifth District* are dispelled, and he is "convinced against his will" that we have reached the highest point of civ- ilization.
But he has yet to learn the impor- tance of Rome, in a business point of view; for although he has observed that we have a number of fashionable dry goods establishments, various clothing stores, large grocery houses, three livery stables, two extensive hardware and four drug stores, also one of jewelry, another of crockery and a third of "books and stationery," he is surprised to learn that besides the "college," we have a "Cherokee In- stitute" for boys and girls together, a high school for the former by them- selves, and two or three others, where the younger ideas are just taking aim; that we have two "carriage reposito- ries," where fine buggies and other ve- hicles are made, and that two cabinet shops, with steam motive power, giv- ing employment to about 50 hands, are daily manufacturing on an exten- sive scale neat and durable furniture of the latest and best styles .**
Upon enquiring the cause of so much blowing and whistling of steam engines, some one of our obliging citi- zens takes his arm and conducts him down to the foundry* and shows
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