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 39
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"I came to Cartersville just after the surrender of Lee in a wagon driven by Harrison Watters and owned by Z. B. Hargrove. They were running a passenger line between Atlanta and Cartersville. At Cartersville we took the railroad to Rome. It was then op- erated by Federal troops, and they were cursing and swearing and drink- ing on the train in the presence of my wife. Just before I left Macon on this occasion a company of lawyers were gathered at the corner of Zeiland & Hunt's drug store. There was but one dollar of green back in the crowd. Not a single one of us had a cent of money. I said, 'I am going to leave this country and go to a country where there are no negroes.' At this Clif- ford Anderson, who was afterwards attorney general, laughed heartily. He said it reminded him of a man who was sitting on a cart tongue and the steers were running away with him. Some man cried out, 'Why don't you jump off?' 'Hell,' he says, 'it's all I can do to hold on.'"
PAYING THE FIDDLER HIS MITE .- The following letter to E. F. Shropshire, clerk of the City Council, from Cave Spring, dated Feb. 24, 1871, will illustrate the penchant many peo- ple have of piping "economy notes" unto worthy "scops and gleemen :"
"Dear Sir: Yours of 19h inst., en- closing check for $4, balance due Cave Spring Band for services rendered the citizens of Rome at the Waterworks Celebration, has been received. As that amount does not pay our leader (outside of the other performers), we very respectfully return it.
"The hotel charges are wrong. Only six members of the band stopped at Mr. Graves', which number had two meals each with the exception of my- self, who had three meals. He also makes a bar bill which I am author- ized by each and every member of the band to say is false.
"Hoping that when the city of Rome again needs the services of a band that
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it will procure those of one that will give it better satisfaction, I am, dear sir, as representative of the band,
"Very respectfully yours, "P. E. ALEXANDER, "Secretary Star Cornet Band."
"P. S .- Our understanding was that we were to receive $25 and all ex- penses. P. E. A."
Mr. Shropshire eased the municipal conscience by appending on the outside of the sheet the trite notation, "Cave Spring Band Busted." *
A RELATIONSHIP EXPLAINED. -Since many people are confused as to the relationship between Woodrow Wilson and the Bones family, once residents of Rome, a lady close to them offers the following explanation :
"The Bones family are related to the Wilson family through Mrs. Bones, who before her marriage to Mr. James W. Bones was Miss Marion Woodrow, the sister of Miss Jennie Woodrow, who married Mr. Joseph Wilson, the father of President Woodrow Wilson. Hence Mrs. Bones was Woodrow Wilson's aunt, whom his mother, he and his brother Joseph used to visit when Mrs. Bones lived on upper Broad Street,
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ELLEN LOU AXSON, as she looked in 1882 during the courtship of Woodrow Wilson at Rome, which included a Silver Creek picnic.
in the house at 709 known as the Featherston place. When Wood- row Wilson later became a young man he visited Mrs. Bones, then living in East Rome, and his cousin, Mrs. A. Thew H. (Jessie Bones) Brower. It was at Mrs. Brower's home that he met Miss Ellen Louise Axson, who later became his wife in Savannah. At this time the home of Mr. and Mrs. Brower was on the hill just west of the Southern depot, and then was the only house on the hill, and the grounds extended down to the Terhune place (and may have included it) and em- braced the ground on which the Ted- castle home was built, now known as 'Hillcrest,' the residence of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Graham. Mr. Brower was interested in the East Rome Land Co., which owned most of East Rome.
"The Brower house was afterwards bought by Judge John W. Maddox, and when the Ragan home was erected next to it, Judge Maddox moved it some distance to the site it now occupies. The present occupants are Mr. and Mrs. Arthur D. Hull, and the location is 6 Coral Avenue. The Browers re- moved to Chicago in April, 1884." * **
WOODROW WILSON'S COURT- SHIP .- The chance circumstance of a slack legal practice for a young law- yer quite possibly explains how Rome was put more prominently in the pub- lic eye than in any other chain of circumstances since the city's estab- lishment. Woodrow Wilson was born Dec. 28, 1856, at Staunton, Va., hence was 26 years old in 1882, when Judge George Hillyer, of Atlanta, and others signed his license to practise his pro- fession in that city, shortly before he paid a visit to Rome. Judge Hillyer is authority for the statement that Mr. Wilson first practised a short time in the Central building, southwest cor- ner of E. Alabama and S. Pryor Streets, and then on Marietta Street near the southeast corner of N. For- syth, where the Ivan Allen-Marshall Co. office supply store is now located, and in the second story. At this lat- ter place he was in partnership with Edward J. Renick, later assistant sec- retary of state in President Cleve- land's second administration, and still later special legal representative of the banking concern of Coudert Broth- ers. He had graduated at Princeton University in 1879 and in law at the University of Virginia in 1880, and after the usual preliminaries of pri- vate study a committee examined him two hours in the Fulton County Su-
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perior Court and decided he was well qualified. Attorney Gadsden, of South Carolina, was chairman of the bar committee, and Judge Hillyer was a member of it.
The shingle of Wilson & Renick failed to produce business in spite of their earnest application, and in the summer of 1882 Mr. Wilson found it convenient to take a two-months' va- cation in Rome as the guest of his cousin, Mrs. A. Thew H. Brower, and his aunt, Mrs. Jas. W. Bones, whose husband was maintaining the Rome branch of the well-known Au- gusta hardware concern of J. & S. Bones & Co. The Bones home was built by Mr. Bones, and is identified today as the residence of S. L. Han- cock, in Oak Park, East Rome, south- west of the Yancey place. Some years previously the family had lived on Broad. Half a mile away lived a first cousin, Jessie Bones, who had become the second wife of A. Thew H. Brower. Col. Brower's first wife, Mary Mar- garet (Minnie) Lester, had died Feb. 6, 1878.
The Bones family were staunch Presbyterians. Mrs. Bones' father was Dr. James Woodrow, a teacher in the old Oglethorpe University at Mil- ledgeville, and whose championship of the Darwinish theory and other ad- vanced ideas after the war caused his suspension by the Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina from the faculty of the Columbia Theological Seminary at Columbia .*
Mr. Bones was a high official in the Rome church, and Woodrow Wilson's father, Dr. Jos. R. Wilson, was a Presbyterian minister
at Augusta ; hence when Sunday rolled around there was no conflict as to whether the young barrister should attend services, and where. With Mr. and Mrs. Bones and his first cousin, Miss Helen Bones (who became Mrs. Wilson's White House secretary), Mr. Wilson went to the brick church at Third Avenue and E. First Street.
The sermon was not so engrossing that the visitor failed to notice the piquant beauty of a girl with brown eyes and hair that fell in graceful curls upon her forehead, sitting hard
*The synod later exonerated him by electing him moderator, the highest office in its power ; and still later he became president of the University of South Carolina. Thus his own evolutions and theirs were of a pronounced character. Dr. Woodrow taught Sidney Lanier, Southern poet, at Oglethorpe, and Mr. Lanier proclaimed his old teacher the greatest moral influence in his life. Authority: Dr. Thorn- wall Jacobs, president of Oglethorpe University, Atlanta.
by. He looked not once, but several times before the sermon was concluded, and stole a glance or so as the congre- gation were leaving for their homes. He was so fascinated by this young lady's beauty that he inquired as to who she might be and if by some chance he might not be privileged to meet her. He was told that it was Ellen Louise Axson, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Edward Axson, the pas- tor, who was living in a cottage on the Third Avenue lot where Jno. C. Glover now resides.
Mrs. Brower found that she could do her Atlanta cousin a good turn, so proposed that they invite Miss Axson and several others to go on a picnic east of Lindale, to a spring which forms part of the headwaters of Silver Creek. The meeting place was at the Brower home, and when young Wood- row asked if he hadn't better take some lunch, Miss Ellen Lou readily suggested that she had plenty for two, and this offer left no room for argument. Others who were invited and went were Edith Lester, 6 years old, now Mrs. Wm. P. Harbin; her nephew, Jno. Lefoy Brower, 4, de- ceased; Ella, Mary Florence, Harry and Frank Young, of East Rome; and
(THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, about the time he first saw Ellen Lou Axson in the First Presbyterian Church, Rome.
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Helen and Marion M. Bones (died Mar. 6, 1888). The distance was eight or nine miles, and two rigs were used; the more attractive of the two for the young folks was Col. Brower's wagon with side seats, in the body of which plenty of wheat straw had been piled; and then there was the buggy, which carried Col. and Mrs. Brower and their baby, and Mrs. B. S. Lester, mother of Edith Lester and of Mr. Brower's first wife.
'Tis said Woodrow and Ellen Lou chose the back of the wagon that they might dangle their feet behind, and away went the future president of the United States and the future First Lady of the Land, caring little wheth- er school kept or law business were remunerative or not.
After bumping along country roads for an hour and a half they arrived at the picnic ground. The lisping of the gentle waters and the droning of the bees in a nearby field of wild flow- ers furnished the systematic tremolo for the young lawyer's love sonata, and soon they strayed off from the crowd. Lunch time came and all were sum- moned to the well-filled baskets. All save two were ravenously hungry after a session of romping and wading. These two were industriously search- ing for four-leaf closers on the pasture greensward; playing "Love-me; love me not" with flower petals; blowing the downy tops off dandelion stems.
"I wonder where Ellie Lou and
A. THEW H. BROWER.
Woodrow can be?" asked Mrs. Brower, as if aware of nothing.
"I know," piped one of the chil- dren; "he's over there cutting a heart on a beech tree!"
The preliminaries were all disposed of that day and fervent resolutions made if not promises exacted. The fates which had been cruel to Rome smiled upon the dilemma of the young Atlanta lawyer. A freshet in 1881 and swept away the first East Rome bridge (over the Etowah at Second Avenue). The river separated Woodrow and El- len Lou, so the former borrowed a bat- teau built personally by Col. Brower, and they not only crossed, but paddled up and down." We hear much of President Wilson's famous typewriter, and of how he would put on his old gray sweater of his Princeton days and peck away at it on the George Wash- ington; League of Nations "dope" ground out on the high seas, as well as Gay Paree and Washington. But again we must go back to Rome. He brought his typewriter with him in 1882 and did some copying for Col. Brower in the Cothran-Brower suit over the East Rome land.
However, all was not so smooth for the youthful lovers as the surface of the crooning Etowah; they would be obliged to wait until the wherewithal was forthcoming. Woodrow came back now and then. A year or two passed and Ellen Lou (who removed to Sa- vannah) went to New York with Anna Lester (older sister of Edith) and Florence Young. The girls were bound for the Art Students' League, to study art and kindergarten work. Mr. Wil- son may have been teaching at Bryn Mawr then, and again he mayn't, but he got on the train at Philadelphia and soon joined the young ladies and escorted them to the big city of the East. The three boarded at an es- tablishment similar to the Y. W. C. A. of the present time. Alas! as long as they were here they were supposed to be hard at work and not to receive their gentlemen friends. This rule did not comport with the desires of Miss Axson or Mr. Wilson, so she found more con- genial surroundings. She vas
un- usually talented with the brush, and their homes wherever they lived in later years contained numerous evi- dences of her handiwork. On June 24, 1885, they were married at Sa- vannah, at the home of the bride's grandparents, with whom she was then residing. On visits of Mrs. Wilson to Gainesville two of her daughters were
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RECALLING WOODROW WILSON'S COURTSHIP.
At top, left, Mrs. J. W. Bones, Mr. Wilson's aunt; Miss Marion M. Bones, his cousin; Mrs. S. E. Axson, mother of Ellen Lou Axson; Minnie Lester, the first wife of A. Thew H. Brower, at whose home Mr. Wilson met Miss Axson. Next, the West and McDonald homes, built by the Axsons; the Brower and Bones homes; in oval, Axson home in 1882, and Silver Creek, on which a picnic brought the young couple together.
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born; there she was the guest of her aunt, Mrs. Louisa C. Hoyt-Brown, mother of Col. Edward T. Brown, of Atlanta and Washington, D. C. Most of the time they lived in the North. From 1890 to 1910 they were residents of Princeton, N. J., the last eight years of which Mr. Wilson was president of Princeton University. Then he was chosen governor of New Jersey, and in 1912 became twenty-eighth Presi- dent of the United States.
From the executive mansion at Tren- ton Mrs. Wilson engaged in welfare work throughout New Jersey, and she continued her efforts two years in the White House, where she died Aug. 6, 1914. The grief-stricken husband ac- companied her to the Old Home Town and to Myrtle Hill cemetery, there to lay her beside her loving parents. On the hill above the depot stood the two- story frame dwelling where he had first met her, and beyond the hill Silver Creek murmured its old-time love-song as it went tumbling on down toward the sea.
HOME GUARDS (THE ROME TRUE BLUES) .- This military com- pany, with tents pitched July 6, 1884, at Camp DeForrest, Forrestville (North Rome), and Gov. Henry D. McDaniel looking on, received a hand- some flag from Mr. and Mrs. M. A. Nevin, containing on one side the Stars and Stripes, and on the other the Georgia coat of arms.
The "ossifers" were Richard V. Mitchell, Jr., captain; Jas. B. Nevin, first lieutenant; Chas. J. Warner, Jr., first sergeant; Louis S. Rosenberg, second; Paul P. Fenner, third; Wm. Coleman, fourth; Jno. W. Bale, first corporal; Herbert T. Amos, second; Wyly Snider, third; Frank Omberg, fourth; Dr. J. M. Gregory, surgeon; Julius S. Mitchell, color bearer.
The "privates," outnumbering the "ossifers" by two, were Dickson C. Stroud, George Snider, Baker and Wal- ter Weems, Gregory Omberg, Henry Adkins, Sam and Max Kuttner, Hugo Spitz, Ed Lamkin, Frank S. Bale, Ben Cooper, Wm. Harbour and Frank D. Edge.
The company's captain tells the fol- lowing "tales out of school:"
"Most of the boys were very young, and they were quartered in three large tents next to the state troops, who were in annual encampment in For- restville. During the night a terrific wind storm broke on the camp, making the tents behave like balloons, and caus- ing the True Blues to think of home.
A faithful sentry was ordered to round up the scattered members, but could not find them until next morning, and then all were at church in Rome. The captain was found there, too, and after a while the bunch disbanded.
"In the winter of 1884, several months prior to this incident, the ladies gave a bazaar in Noble Hall (the old City Hall) for the benefit of the Rome Light Guards or the Hill City Cadets. A prize drill at night was on the pro- gram for Broad Street, with the Guards, the Cadets, the True Blues and Cave Spring company com- manded by Col. H. D. Capers as con- testants.
"The True Blues were sure their drill was the best, and when they failed to receive even 'honorable mention,' they left for their armory in consider- able disorder. On passing an alley back of the Choice House, they were confronted by a Ku Klux 'ghost' in spooky white. The captain was seized by the 'ghost,' and the company left him for the light of a gas burner down on Broad. If the 'ghost' had taken full advantage of the situation, he could have had more guns and ac- coutrements than he could have car- ried. The captain got away by scratch- ing and biting the 'ghost.'"
AN OBSTREPEROUS MAYOR .- A good many years ago,-it may have been before the Civil War and again it may have been after-Rome had a mayor who often wrestled with "John Barleycorn" and nearly always got "thrown." On this occasion he ate a little lunch and drank a lot of beer and licker at the bar at Fifth Avenue and Broad, and was trying to make it to the next "station" when a policeman accosted him. His "Irish" was now up and he pulled away from the officer, saying, "Don't you know the mayor of this (hic) town?" Then he went back into the saloon and loaded up good; proceeded home with outraged feelings and armed himself to the teeth.
Some said his gun was 30 inches long and weighed nine pounds; others that it was 18 and weighed seven. Anyway, he went back to town looking for po- licemen, and when he saw two, backed behind a telephone pole and shouted defiance. The officers took him in tow and chucked him into the "jug," where he became so noisy that they confined him in a sort of cage in the rear of the station. He obtained a hose and turned it on himself; Etowah water
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sobered him and he called for the turn- key to bring the "Black Maria" so he could go home again in style.
It was said that on one of his sprees he "kissed the candy man's wife," no doubt thinking she was his own; and that he was "put in" on another occa- sion. When "at himself," said the old timers, he made one of the best mayors Rome ever had.
A PEACE PRAYER IN 1898-Sup- plications for international amity did not start after the German Armistice Nov. 11, 1918. In the Rome Georgian of May 28, 1898 (Beulah S. Moseley, editor), we find the following from Capt. Christopher Rowell, a veteran of the Civil War:
"There is much in the pomp of war to attract the multitude; the noise of contending legions, the shouts of vic- tory, of strains of martial music. The outward panoply of war always com- mands close attention, more of those who are not familiar with the details than of those who in retrospect contem- plate the progress of such a state of things. A war waged for humanity's sake would look like a contradiction, but it is through the ordeal of shed- ding blood that many of the changes in the progress of civilization have been brought about. A war of defense is always justifiable, but a war for ac- quisition of territory or political ag- grandizement, in fact, for any pur- pose except for defense of humanity's sake, must be of questionable pro- priety in this so-called civilized age. May we not hope that there will always be a redeeming spirit of law and hu- manity in war? It may be many days yet before 'grim visaged war shall smooth its wrinkled front,' but we hope it will not be long before our bugles will again sing truce, when the storm cloud of war has fled. It may be that the writer's views of war may not accord with the notions of this utili- tarian age; but the time is surely com- ing when the first streaks of morning shall broaden into the full fruition of the coming day-on some occasion, too, when the great Arch Angel standing with one foot upon the land and one foot upon the sea shall proclaim that time shall be no more."
BESSIE MOORE'S THRILLING FLIGHTS .- Miss Bessie A. Moore, former society editor of The Rome News, made the first flight taken by a Roman from Towers Aviation Field at the North Georgia Fair grounds, in
West Rome, and was perhaps the first woman to fly over the Hill City. This was a day following the dedication of the field, Tuesday, October 11, 1919, by Commander John H. Towers, of the navy. The flight was made at 11 a. m. with Lieut. Kenneth B. Wolfe, U. S. A., in his Hispania Suiss plane, and lasted 30 minutes.
In 1920 Miss Moore participated in a more interesting and sensational flight. Major Lawrence S. Churchill, U. S. A., came up to Rome from Souther Field, Americus, to claim her for his bride. He flew to Rome in his airship and flew away after the cere- mony with the blushing Miss Bessie. Let her tell in her own words of what she saw in Rome on the first-mentioned flight:
"Strapped in and ready to go! The feeling is indescribable. While the propeller raises a cloud of dust and sends a stiff wind into your face, your emotions are mixed. You are curious, pleased, anxious, filled with wonder as to how it will feel, if you will be fright- ened, if you will be sick, and every minute seems like five before you get away.
"We took off facing town. The plane, once started, ran along over the ground, then got smoother. Pleased
infinitely, I was anxious to rise, and eager for the sensation that comes when you ascend in your first flight. I had waved my handkerchief to all the spectators and was sitting still waiting for the big thrill to come when we would actually go up, and looking from the side I caught a glimpse of telegraph wires and I knew we were already flying over the Land Company bridge. Then we crossed the river. To the right was Myrtle Hill cemetery. Then I saw Broad Street, and we went higher and higher, sailing toward East Rome at 100 miles per hour. What a sheer exquisite pleasure! I was actual- ly flying. It was delightful. I sat back, surprised that I wasn't fright- ened, my hands which at first held tensely to the sides of the car, were relaxed. I was flying higher and higher. A thing I had wanted for years had happened to me, and I was supremely glad. Thus I sat, musing and think- ing. I was up in an aeroplane. I had no knowledge of fear. The thing I had dreaded, getting sick, had not hap- pened. I never felt better. Then re- membering that I wanted to see more of Rome, I came out of my delirium of pleasure, and took a look over.
"I saw a beautiful space of woodland,
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a wonderful panoramic view of the country beneath me, a stretch of moun- tain, blue and purple, whose top melt- ed into the low clouds of a damp Octo- ber morning. Yes, it was Rome, and how tiny everything was! I couldn't find out where we were, nor did I rec- ognize a single land mark. I knew by instinct it must be far out of the city, and later learned it was quite a distance east of the town. Then we circled around coming in the direction of Rome, but swinging far out toward West Rome.
"It was nothing less than a beautiful canvas painting in tones of green and dull brown. Houses looked like minia- ture toys, straight, precise little rows of growing things on farm lands took on the aspect of a piece of striped silk, roof-tops of white, red and brown skirting the farm lands, nestled close to the trees, which were tiny green bushes. As I looked in wonder upon the town I knew so well, I laughed to think of a plane as strong and defiant as ours ever being caught or hung up on a tree-top like the little ones I saw. Then we crossed a river, and there was a great stretch of green velvet, much like a carpet. Presently I saw the George Stiles race track in West Rome, and growing directly in the center was a tree which looked larger than any I had seen. Around and around we flew, then back toward town over Shorter College, which looked like a set of child's playing bricks. Circling high- er, climbing up, up, up, the car be- came filled with steam. A fine spray of rain pelted my face and hands and the wind roared by my ears like thunder. I attributed the steam to some exhaust or defect of the engine, but looking down saw a fine white veil between plane and earth and knew we were in the clouds. The indicator reg- istered 2,000 feet. The clouds were damp, cold and refreshing, with flecks of yellow and brown rolling here and there in the white.
"Presently I felt myself hanging en- tirely to the plane by the support of my belt. I learned later it had been a loop. Looking to the right I saw the great wings of the plane turn high- er and higher, and was told afterward we had done some king overs, which is a popular form of stunt. Above the city clock, which resembled a spool of brown thread, we came down in a spiral. I didn't know what particular feat we were performing, but felt the sensation one has when shot down to earth suddenly in a swift elevator. I did not look down as we did these
stunts but kept my eye directly on the instruments in front of me. I had previously been told this would pre- vent the possibility of any sickness.
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