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 33
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"So much the more dangerous is he. No man who visits him, without about one-third of his political villainies full in view, is safe. Beware, then, of this mermaid with a siren voice-he will laugh welcome in your face, and then pardon the brute that ravished your sister. He is far more dangerous than Swayze-though the latter is his supe- rior in force-for in the eye of the lat- ter there is a warning that puts us upon guard.
"A child is never hurt by a poison- ous toad; it is the bright serpent, with its spots of purple and gold, that charms and slays him. We do not fear the uncouth ruffian that is with hideous leer distorted, but the soft and supple gentleman scoundrel that 'can smile and smile, and play the villain still.' "
Other public officials on the Press Excursion escaped the darts of young Mr. Grady. They included Mayor Hul- sey, of Atlanta, Comptroller General Madison Bell, R. L. McWhorter, speak- er of the house; and Senators Smith, Candler and Nunnally.
Evidently the following item Grady wrote for The Courier on Friday, Sep-
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tember 10, was prompted by a pang of conscience:
"We hereby announce to our read- ers that we shall not say another word about the Press Excursion. We enjoyed it and 'developed' everything we saw, and now we are done with it. Not another remark shall we make about it. If information about it is wanted by any who may not have seen our notices as yet, we refer them to our back files."
It is significant that on the same day Grady penned the following in re- sponse to a jibe from the Savannah News :
"This excellent but sometimes impru- dent newspaper makes a bold attack upon us concerning an article of ours on the Press Excursion. We would answer the charges contained therein, but we promised our readers in our last issue not to write anything more concerning the excursion. To this promise our contemporary owes its fu- ture salvation. For, were our hands not bound by that promise, we would just tear The News all to pieces! So return thanks, Brother Thompson, for your narrow escape."
As a reporter he showed the same enterprise and aptitude as in his ed- itorial work. On Nov. 12, 1869, he published this :
"Fights, Robberies, Shooting .- A sable son of Africa was tickled by a bullet from the pistol of Col. Sam Stewart, because he struck Col. Stew- art. Another African was perforated in four places, through the arm and shoulder, by a leaden messenger from Col. Stewart-cause, not known.
"A Mr. Neph was robbed of $500 in money and a $1,000 check last night by a thief who entered his room at the Choice House.
"A few episodical but very interest- ing fights took place last night among the 'boys.' No serious damage report- ed. Mr. C. W. Nowlin was robbed of his watch and chain Wednesday night. There were many other fights, rob- beries and drunks which happened around loose that we wot not of, and that deserve no mention in this paper. Verily, Rome is getting to be as nice a city as Atlanta."
Although Mr. Grady was fond of Capt. Dwinell, he chafed at the su- pervision over his copy and destinies in The Courier office; it is also re- lated that he became irritated that he was not allowed to expose a petty local political ring, so we find him
leaving The Courier July 31, 1870, to assume the proprietorship of the Rome Weekly Commercial. So quietly had his plans been laid that his name ap- peared on the masthead of The Cour- ier as associate editor and on the mast- head of The Commercial as editor on the same date.
Capt. Dwinell then wrote:
"To the Patrons of The Courier :- By the following card it will be seen that a change has been made in the associate editorship of this paper. The relations of the paper with Mr. Grady, who now retires from The Courier to take charge of The Commercial, have been entirely pleasant and we regret to lose his valuable services. We wish him abundant success in his new field of labor. Col. B. F. Sawyer, for some time past editor of the Rome Daily, a gentleman of high literary reputa- tion and considerable editorial experi- ence, takes his place. We have no doubt The Courier will be fully sus- tained in its previous position as a readable newspaper."
Col. Sawyer's salutatory reads thus : "I this day assume editorial control of The Courier. It shall be my con- stant aim to sustain The Courier in
HENRY WOODFIN GRADY, orator, who started his journalistic career in Rome and brought his bride there to reside.
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the high position of popular favor it has heretofore enjoyed. Should I suc- ceed in this, I shall be contented, and the patrons of The Courier can ask no more."
Mr. Grady wrote:
"To the Patrons of The Courier: Having been called to another field of labor, my connection with The Cour- ier ceases with this issue. I will say nothing of the sadness I feel in break- ing loose from the old Courier-noth- ing of the honest courtesy and kind- ness of the proprietor, who has been my friend and counsellor through thick and thin; because these things be- long not to the public, nor do they in- terest the public. But I feel that I would be lacking in gratitude did I not express my thanks to those of you who have encouraged me with your kind words and approving patronage during this, the first year of my ed- itorial life. Tendering you my most sincere acknowledgments, I remain,
"Yours very truly, "HENRY W. GRADY."
Henry Grady and his younger broth- er, Will S. Grady, ran The Daily Com- mercial* as editor and business man- ager, respectively. Associated with them for part of this time was Col. J. F. Shanklin, the firm name being Grady Brothers & Shanklin. Some of Mr. Grady's best work appeared dur- ing this period. Col. Sawyer was a peppery old fellow, and he and Grady had many an epistolary interchange which old timers say came near re- sulting in a duel, but Mr. Grady's diplomacy turned trouble into smiles.
A free-hearted fellow was Henry Grady. He gave liberally to old ne- groes to get their anecdotes or stories of their lives, and traversed many an untraveled thoroughfare to obtain a glimpse of types which the average man of his sphere seldom sees in their element. He had been accustomed to everything that money could
buy, hence did not deny his friends any- thing he could possibly bestow upon them. He was fond of candy, and so were the neighborhood children; So was the blushing bride when she finally arrived; a confectioner kept all kinds near the newspaper office, so Henry would now and then run up a bill of $15 or more.
It is noteworthy that, although he started using the nom de plume "King Hans" early in 1869, he did not ob- tain real authority to do so until two years later. This cognomen was a
combination of his first name and the last name of his sweetheart in Ath- ens, to whom we can fancy hearing him say:
"Well, Julia, I will use your name with mine, since you will not let me change it for a while."
Henry worked industriously; he could afford matrimony, or thought he could, in the fall of 1871, and so they were married, and came to the old Wood home, at the northwest corner of Broad Street and Sixth Avenue, to reside. Some say they lived first at the southeast corner of Third Avenue and East First Street, where the of- fice of the Harbin Hospital now stands. At any rate, Henry had been "batching it" here and there, and at one time had boarded with Mrs. W. W. Watters; and his first cousin, Wm. C. Grady, Roman in the iron business, had boarded there at the same time. A Roman who had been his roommate at Athens also acted as a groomsman at his wedding-Col. Hamilton Yan- cey. Another Roman, Rev. George T. Goetchius, pastor of the First Pres- byterian church, had been his class- mate through four pleasant years.
The newspaper business is not al- ways remunerative. The Gradys and Col. Shanklin had been publishing a paper that in that day would be call- ed "jam-up." They had bought it in July, 1870, from Mitchell A. Nevin, who appeared to be glad to sell. Soon it was "jam-up" against the wall, so they poured it back into the jug. Mitchell A. Nevin was willing to try it again.
Just when the Gradys relinquished hold is problematical. The Atlanta Constitution recorded that on May 8, 1872, Mr. Grady represented The Com- mercial and Capt. Dwinell The Cour- ier at the Press Convention in Atlan- ta. Col. Carey W. Styles had gone in June, 1871, to the Albany News from the editorial chair of The Con- stitution, and had been succeeded by Col. I. W. Avery, who later wrote an entertaining history of Georgia. On Nov. 5, 1872, The Constitution noted the sale of The Commercial by Grady Brothers & Shanklin to Nevin & Co., and a coup-d'etat by Capt. Dwinell in announcing the addition of Major Chas. H. Smith (Bill Arp) to The Courier staff. The Nov. 10, 1872, is-
*This was Rome's first daily, and it was es- tablished by M. A. Nevin. A number bearing date of Friday, June 28, 1871, with the mast- head carrying the names of the Gradys as ed- itor and business manager and Col. Shanklin as managing editor, is still in existence.
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sue of the Atlanta Herald was vicious- ly attacked by The Constitution for its "sensational New York journalism." Since Mr. Grady started The Herald soon after his removal from Rome, it is more than likely that he left the Hill City and was presiding over the destinies of the new Atlanta paper at this time.
In leaving Rome, this adventurous young journalist and budding orator managed to elude a battery of bill col- leetors and bailiffs by giving up his trunk. The trunk was finally re- leased and put in storage several months; John Webb, a friend, paid the storage charges and sent Henry his trunk and "wardrobe." The wedding silver escaped, for it had gone tem- porarily with Mrs. Grady to the home of Dr. and Mrs. Robert Battey at the easternmost end of First Avenue. Hard lines for the young couple, just start- ing life's struggle, but they never gave up, and lived to speak in a philosophi- cal and humorous vein of their early experiences.
Henry was persistently hounded by this motley pack, to the point where his friends claim he was literally run away from Rome-to make famous an- other town. These incidents did not embitter him; they came to him as part of the game of life, and when the years had removed from his memory the grim faces of his nemesises, he often commented on his pleasant recol- lections of the sublimated Seven Hills.
From the top of the editorial and oratorical perch, with the plaudits of the thousands ringing in his ears and his own image deeply graven on their hearts, it was truly a retrospective pic- ture in a golden frame. He thought of the time when he used to scribble news notes on his cuffs, which neces- sitated changing shirts every day; when "Unele Remus" came unan- nounced to Rome and found him rid- ing a "flying Jenny;" when he bought a dozen pairs of scissors and set every- body in the office to clipping an ar- ticle out of each copy of the paper in order not to offend a lady.
Rome reciprocated this feeling of love by sending a beautiful wreath May 24, 1921, to Atlanta to adorn his monument as orators extolled him; and Romans reciprocate it every day of their lives.
ROME STORIES OF GRADY .- Mrs. Samuel C. Whitmire, of New York, N. Y., formerly of Everett Springs, tells this one: "Mr. Grady
used to visit a relative, a Mrs. Bal- lenger, at Floyd Springs. A neighbor- hood story has it that on a trip across the Oostanaula after he had failed to catch any fish he had found a net full that belonged to a farmer living near- by. Going to Farmer Corntassel's house, he said, 'My friend, I have taken your fish and I want you to take my dollar. I know better than to go home without any fish.' He had great consideration for older people, and spent much time talking to de- crepit darkies, from whom he received many inspirations for editorials."
A. Rawlins, former mayor of North Rome, and father-in-law of Chas. T. Jervis, relates the following anecdote :
"I came down from North Rome one day to pay my subscription to Mr. Grady's paper when his office was about the middle of the Hotel Forrest block on Broad. I found him standing in a stairway and I announced my in- tention. He looked at me hard and said : 'Mr. Rawlins, you say you came to pay a subscription?'
" 'Yes.'
"'Do you really mean that you vol- untarily want to pay a subscription to this newspaper?'
" 'That's right.'
" 'Then I must say that you are to be commended as the first man I have met in this community who wanted to do that. I have worn out $49 worth of shoe leather calling on the others.'"
Chas. W. Morris, real estate deal- er of 300 W. Fifth Avenue and father of Paul I. Morris, tells this story :
"When I was a youngster, Henry Grady used to buy two cakes of soap every now and then and take me down to the wash-hole at the foot of Fourth Avenue, Etowah River, and go in washing with me. He was chunky and a good swimmer, but not much on diving. This was the shallow place where the downtown boys used to wade across after a session of play at the Gammon home nearby. Mr. Grady also went in at Seventh Avenue on the Oostanaula. Before he married he had a room upstairs near the newspaper plant, on Broad Street in the Hotel Forrest block."
Judge Max Meyerhardt relates this:
"Mr. Grady was editor, reporter and everything that his brother Will (bus- iness manager) wasn't. He wore white shirts that he changed every 24 hours because his cuffs were full of news- paper notes taken during the day. He was liberal, even extravagant, and did
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not develop much business ability in Rome; he and his bride were fond of candy, and he often owed an indulgent confectioner $15 at a time. He was literally run out of town by bailiffs serving attachments on him, and they even seized his trunk when he left for Atlanta."
J. A. Rounsaville remembers hin well because of an unusual incident: "My brother Wes' and I were conduet- ing our warehouse and grocery busi- ness when Mr. Grady came by and asked us to give him an advertisement. We told him good-naturedly that his old paper couldn't sell any more goods than we could, and that on general principles we didn't believe in adver- tising. He went away without say- ing any more about it, and the next day we were treated to a deluge of cats: every small boy in town, it seem- ed, brought from one to six eats, and when we asked them why they came, they said we had advertised in The Commercial. We bought a paper and found a small 'want ad' saying, 'Will pay good cash price for cats .- Rounsa- ville & Bro.' We sent for Mr. Grady and told him it was his duty to stop the applications. He said he could do that only by inserting a half-page ad. We replied, 'All right, but put in the center of it that we don't want any more cats !' "
"Unele Steve" Eberhart, the slavery time darkey character who entertains thousands at the convention of Con- federate Veterans and is a regular member of Floyd County Camp 368, revealed in dramatie fashion Feb. 5, 1921, at the camp meeting in the base- ment of the Carnegie library that he used to be Henry Grady's valet while the great orator and former Roman was a student at the University of Georgia at Athens.
When Mr. Grady's name was men- tioned, "Unele Steve" jumped to his feet, shouted and clapped his hands, hugged himself until he grunted, and then exclaimed as tears rolled down his cheeks:
"Lordy, white folks, I had the extin- guished honor to dust off Mr. Grady's coat and black his shoes. He thought er whole lot of your yumble servant."
"Unele Steve" was "in college" with the younger Ben Hill and a long list of noted men. He lived in Athens un- til the dispensary times, he said, and then sought a better town, so settled in Rome. In Rome he fell in with the veterans, put on a stove-pipe hat, and tucked two frying-sized chickens
under his arms for a parade. He has been dressing up and cutting up ever since.
Comrade Treadaway told a story on the Grady brothers that brought a laugh.
"Henry and Will had some prop- erty in Athens, and Henry sent Will from Rome to sell it. Will sold it and passed through Atlanta. When he re- turned to Rome, Henry said, 'Well, did you sell the land?'
"'Yep.'
"'Where's the money?'
""'In the bank at Atlanta?'
" 'What bank?'
" 'They called it the Faro Bank.'"
Romans played a leading part in Mr. Grady's funeral, Dec. 25, 1889, in Atlanta. Gen. Clement A. Evans and the Rev. J. W. Lee, former pastors of the First Methodist Church of Rome, headed the funeral procession to DeGive's Opera House, where John Temple Graves, then a Rome editor, was one of the speakers. Montgomery M. Folsom and Frank L. Stanton, Rome journalists, wrote poems to Mr. Grady's memory, and the late Rev. G. A. Nunnally, father of Judge W. J. Nunnally, and then president of Mer- eer University, pronounced the bene- dietion at a memorial meeting held in Macon .- Feb. 7, 1921.
GRADY AS "CORRESPONDENT." -The following letter to the Rome weekly shows Henry Grady in a new role :
"Macon, Ga., Nov. 17, 1869.
"Dear Courier: Arrived here safe. I found it storming heavily, but soon after our arrival it cleared off beauti- fully and at the present writing the moon finds her full face reflected from a thousand rapidly evaporating pud- dles that dot the streets. All will be delightful in the morning.
"The city is jammed; every profes- sion or handicraft in the world has many and vigorous representatives here, from the editorial profession down to the profession of pickpocket- ical-especially the latter. The gam- blers, the respectable, genteel class of gamblers, are in full force and atro- ciously energetic.
"In company with certain other edi- tors, we paid a visit to a faneily fur- nished saloon, wherein these old gen- try plied their craft. The fascination that these places are said to possess was speedily dispelled as far as your humble servant is concerned. I fol-
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CHIEF VAN HOUSE, KS
I BUILJ ABOUT -1800
MARKED ## 1915 B
BY
GOVERNOR
. .
JOSEPH VAN JOHN MILLEDGE Chefoite Chief CHAPTER.D.A.R
ANECDOTES AND REMINISCENCES
THE OLD GUARD UNVEILS A TABLET TO JOHN HOWARD PAYNE.
The picture shows the Atlanta organization at Spring Place, Murray County, on Saturday morning, October 7, 1922, immediately after Attorney General Geo. M. Napier had spoken and Miss Thelma Pritchett had withdrawn the veil. The memorial was presented by Jos. A. McCord, Old Guard commandant. WSB, Atlanta Journal radio station, broadcasted the Payne song, "Home, Sweet Home," for the occasion. The famous Vann house nearby is shown in the insert. For an account of the exercises, see Page 90. (The Old Guard picture was taken by Walter Sparks).
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
lowed my companions from table to table; in no case did I see a single man win save those who were evidently connected with the establishment. Teaching Sunday School in the north of Patagonia may be a profitable pecuniary venture, but I feel no hesi- tancy in asserting that gambling is not. Among the devotees of the tables I noticed many faces that I had seen migrating through Rome about the season of our fair.
"As I did not get back here till after dark, I can report nothing interesting save the cardinal facts which have al- ready been given you by the telegrams.
"The Georgia Press is largely repre- sented-almost every paper `in the state. Joe Brown, the fragrant; Bul- lock, the bewitching; Mcwhorter, the accident; Hampton, the chivalric; Cap- ron, the Commissioner; and Gordon, the Governor, are in this house, and figured conspicuously in the parlor to- night.
"Men who have attended fairs for years say they never saw a larger crowd than is gathered here now. Thousands of ladies, plenty of shows. enough to eat, too much to do, and more anon.
"KING HANS." (Henry W. Grady.)
"P. S .- The unanimous opinion is that there is a radical and shameful mismanagement of all things pertain- ing to said institution. The arrange- ments are huge, but unwieldly; im- mense, but muddled. I heard a man exclaim this morning while try- ing to get his goods entered. 'Oh, if we had them Joneses from the Rome Fair we'd get things straightened out!' Sensible. A villainous store- keeper today refused to take Rome money .* What must be done with him?
"One of the prettiest and most hope- ful features of the fair is that the exhibitors all show an anxiety to get their advertisements in The Courier. Success will attend such sensible men! Rome has many representatives here. Messrs. Noble and Cohen are attract- ing considerable attention.
"K. H."
HENRY GRADY TO GENERAL SHERMAN .- On Dec. 22, 1886, at a banquet of the New England Society at New York, at which Gen. Wm. T. Sherman sat at the speakers' table, Henry W. Grady declared :
"'Bill Arp' struck the keynote when
he said, 'Well, I killed as many of them as they did of me, and so I'm going to work!' A Confederate soldier returning home after defeat and roast- ing some corn on the roadside, said to his comrades, 'You may leave the South if you want to, but I'm going to Sandersville, kiss my wife and raise a crop, and if the Yankees fool with me any more, I'll whip 'em again!' I want to say to Gen. Sherman, who is considered an able man in our parts, though some people think he is kind of careless about fire, that from the ashes he left us in 1864 we have built a brave and beautiful city; that some- how or other we have caught the sun- shine in the bricks and mortar of our homes and have builded therein not one ignoble prejudice or memory !" **
AN OLD TIMER .- Virgil A. Stew- art, son of the late Samuel Stewart, Rome's first marshal before the Civil War, and grandfather of our own Capt. Henry J. Stewart, favored us with a call at the office yesterday afternoon that was greatly appreciated. Mr. Stewart was born Jan. 24, 1836, at Rome, consequently is 85 years of age and remembers more than most people around here. He is one of the two surviving members of the Rome Light Guards who went out to fight for the Confederacy in April, 1861, the other being B. James Franks, of Armuchee. Mr. Franks was a recruit, so that leaves "Virge" as the last surviving charter member.
He is a nephew of his uncle name- sake, the late Virgil A. Stewart, of Lawrenceville, who under the guise of an "outlaw" joined the band of John A. Murrell and captured that notorious character at the Mississippi River in Arkansas. Murrell's gang operated through the South, as far as Florida, before the removal of the Indians to the west, and the Indians got the credit for many of their villainies. One of their hang-outs in Georgia was at Jug Tavern, now Winder, county seat of Bartow County. Murrell's capture re- sulted in a trial in Tennessee which put him in the penitentiary for life at Nashville, and he died there. The original Virgil A. Stewart went to Mississippi before the Civil War and warned the people of a contemplated insurrection among the negroes.
When asked how old he was, Rome's
*This must have been some of the printing press money issued by Mayor Zach Hargrove in 1869 to relieve a local stringency.
** Sherman joined in the general tumult pro- voked by these remarks.
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Virgil A. Stewart replied that he was "thirteen." Somebody in the office remarked that he could pass for 60 easily enough, which seemed to please him greatly. He said he did it living out in the open, "catching water moc- casins, eels and fish" from the rivers of Rome.
"I see by the paper," remarked Mr. Stewart, "that Judge George Harris, of the Flat Woods, thinks he can walk anybody down in a day that ain't less than 70. You can just tell him for me that if he talks much like that I'll take him up the river banks and back again in a way he won't forget!"
Mr. Stewart relates how a big crowd gathered about the year 1835 to see two Indians hung on Broad Street near Ninth Avenue. Somebody that wanted to see the spectacle lugged him along, although he was only two years old. The Indians were Barney Swimmer and Terrapin, convicted of killing a pale face named Ezekiel Blatchford (or Braselton). They were strung from a piece of timber laid across two limbs, and for a long time afterward the tree bore notches to show the spot.
Mr. Stewart is authority for the fol- lowing statements :
He was at one time, at 2 years of age, the only boy in Rome; Arthur Hood started the first newspaper, and Howard Jack and a Mr. Walker fol- lowed him; William Smith owned the first ferry, which served DeSoto, the peninsula and Hillsboro (South Rome) at the head of the Coosa, and hired William H. Adkins, Sr., to build him the first steamboat, and Matt and Overton Hitchcock to erect the first bridge, a covered affair, where the Fifth Avenue bridge now stands.
Smith owned the land where the Al- fred Shorter (D. B. Hamilton) home is on the Alabama road, and kept a crib of corn open to the poor. He built on the hill across the Alabama road from the spring nearby. John Smith, a brother, went to California during the gold epidemic and died there. Chas. Smith, another brother, moved to Cass (Bartow) county and died there.
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