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 47
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
Georgia's coach was Chas. Hallan McCarthy, old Brown fullback and now a college professor residing at Brookland, D. C. Glenn Warner, later Carlisle Indian school coach, had coached Georgia and Von Gammon the year before.
Hugh Jenning's,
of Brooklyn's ball club, later of Detroit, was coach of the baseball team. Frank R. Mitchell was manager. Mr. Izard was referee for the Virginia- Georgia game, and Wm. Martin Wil-
liams, "Tick's" Auburn roommate and Commissioner of Internal Revenue un- der appointment by Woodrow Wilson, was umpire. Hatton Lovejoy, of Geor- gia, and a Mr. Smith were lines- men, and Fred Morton, of Athens, timekeeper. Dr. Bizzell, of Atlanta, and Dr. Samuel C. Benedict, of Ath- ens, attended Von on the field, and Dr. William Perrin Nicolson attended him at the Grady Hospital.
Georgia's sponsors, driven in a car- riage behind four beautiful black horses, were Misses Dee Murphy (Mrs. Boykin Robinson, of New York, N. Y.) and Leontine Chisholm (Mrs. Walter P. Andrews, of Atlanta), and Vir- ginia's sponsors were Misses Callie Jackson and Catherine Gay (Mrs. In- man Sanders, of Atlanta).
The Rome boys in college when Von Gammon met his death were: From the freshman class (1901), Wm. D. Hoyt, Jr., C. P. Morton and Robt. Yancey; from the junior class (1899), Laurence A. Cothran and J. Bolling Sullivan; from the senior class (1898), Benj. C. Yancey; and from the law class, R. P. White. Von had entered the class of 1900 the year before, but on account of some conditoins and late entry in the fall of 1897 was repeat- ing some of his work and was class- ed with 1901.
The Rome Daily Argus of Sunday, Nov. 14, printed this from Savannah:
"Captain Morrison, of the Virginia football team, writes a letter to the Savannah Press in reply to statements of its correspondent that the Virginia men deliberately tried to injure the Georgia players.
"Capt. Morrison denies this charge and sends extracts from a letter writ- ten to him by Capt. Kent, of Georgia, thanking him for considerations shown the memory of Von Gammon, and wishing the Virginia team much suc- cess.
"Morrison says the injuries sustain- ed by Tichenor and Gammon, of the Georgia team, were entirely acciden- tal and deeply regretted by the Vir- ginia team."
Martin V. Bergen, Jr., old Prince- ton player and then coach of Virginia, wrote to a friend in Atlanta under date of Nov. 1, 1897, from Charlottes- ville, Va .:
"The game was clean, hard played, but yet not a rough, foul game. Our men had been instructed to play fair- ly and did so, and you have my word on the fact that I saw no hitting at
348
A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY.
THE HOME OF VON GAMMON, 420 THIRD AVENUE.
The Gammon place was the mecca for the young men of Rome, who gathered to test their physical prowess in numerous ways. Tennis, weight exercises, wrestling and boxing were enjoyed here, while at the foot of the avenue was the wash-hole which drew more boys than any in town.
all, and no kneeing or such work.
"Gammon was hurt while we had the ball, attempting to make a tackle, which preeludes any probability that we were to blame. The play was a straight formation play.
"We have done all we could to ex- press our regret-sent flowers and messages, and our men are all broken up personally, as I am.
"I write you this partly because I thought you would like to have my assurances of the character of the game and the absolute absence of either premeditated or actual rough play or intentional injury to men."
The Georgia team and others dis- banded for the season. In the last session of the Georgia Legislature a bill had been introduced outlawing football, but it had failed of passage. Now a new attempt was made. A legislator said : "The boys at Athens will have to cut their 'wool' and sell the 5-cent cotton out of their pants." The bill would no doubt have been successful but for the intervention of Von Gammon's mother, who stated publicly that a mishap to an individ- ual should not be allowed to cut off the pleasure and profit of thousand ; of youths, and she declared to friends that she would sacrifice her other boys, if need be, to the cause of such body- developing and character-building con-
tests .* The Georgia Legislature had railroaded through an anti-football bill by a vote of 91 to 3, the Senate passed it Nov. 18 by 31 to 4, and it was up for Gov. Wm. Y. Atkinson's signature when Mrs. Gammon wrote the executive a letter which stayed his pen. An Atlanta dispatch to the Rome Tribune of Dee. 9, 1897, said:
"The bill was passed soon after the killing of young Von Gammon, and the legislators felt that they were avenging his death by so promptl making future accidents of a similar nature impossible. But it turns out that Von Gammon came from a Spar- tan family and that neither his rela- tives nor friends are seeking that sort of vengeance.
"It is the dead man's own mother who has induced the governor to veto the bill. Mrs. Gammon in her peti-
*Mrs. Gammon's tenacity of purpose is il- lustrated by the following incident of nearly 20 years ago: One of the largest and most beau- tiful trees in Rome is an elm which grows out of the far sidewalk in front of the Gammon home, and also in front of Judge Jno. W. Maddox's abode. A telephone lineman came one day to cut off some limbs to make way for wires. Mrs. Gammon requested him to "spare the tree,"-it was dear to her boys and everybody in the neighborhood. He said it was necessary to cut the limbs, and went away. When he returned with his saw, he found Mrs. Gammon sitting under the tree in a chair, with a double-barrel shotgun across her lap. The man went away again, and stayed away.
349
ANECDOTES AND REMINISCENCES
tion says that football was her son's favorite game, and that if he could be consulted he would join in the re- quest of his fellow students for the veto of the bill.
"In her letter this heroic mother calls the governor's attention to the fact that two of her sons's school- mates. Will
Reynolds and Arnie Goetchius* have recently met acciden- tal deaths, one by falling over a preci- pice and one by falling down stairs. She asks if it is not equally sensible for the legislature to abolish preci- pices and stairways on account of those deaths as it is to abolish foot- ball because of the death of her son.
"Letters from all parts of the coun- try have poured in upon the governor, and the state has also been thorough- ly aroused. It has been argued that if football is prohibited at the Georgia University and the other colleges of the state, these institutions will be un- able to compete with the big schools of the north, where football is played.
"One of the most forcible argu- ments for the veto is contained in the following paragraph from Mr. Gam- mon's letter to the governor:
" 'You are confronted with the prop- osition whether the game is of such a character as should be prohibited by
*Arnie Goetchius was on roller skates when he fell to his death. He was a good student and well liked by his classmates and the boys of Rome. Will Reynolds had gone with his family to White Cliff Springs, Tenn., near Athens, for the summer vacation, and one Sunday afternoon while out walking with Miss Mattie Rowell and others of Rome he ventured too near a precipice and plunged to a ledge perhaps 100 feet below, taking with him Miss Rowell's parasol. Two mountaineers climbed down the steep mountainside, tied Will's life- less body to a pole and carried it between them to the top. In order to catch an early morning train for Rome, the funeral party were obliged to go down to the valley in hacks at night, by the light of pine torches and lanterns. Will was one of the most popular young men in Rome, and hundreds of sorrow- ing friends attended his funeral from the First Presbyterian Church. A sad circumstance con- nected with the tragedy was that his mother had intended leaving with her children on the day after the accident for a visit to her old home at Jacksonville, Ala.
** The reference is to Dr. Chas. H. Herty, for whom old Herty Athletic Field at Athens was named, and who wrote as follows: "It stands as a fact which cannot be contradicted that active physical exercise is an absolute neces- sity. Even in cases of sickness, one of the best treatments a physician can give is to take exercise. Over three hundred young men confined to their books, with no well directed exercise, would in a year or two present a pitiable figure. It is in consequence of this that college faculties are forced into all kinds of schemes to give regulated and active exer- cise to their students. Some colleges, in order to avoid the rough forms of field sports, have large grounds for physical exercise, as well as thoroughly equipped gymnasiums. Even then certain forms of field sports are necessary."
law in the interests of society. In an- swer, unquestionably it is not. In the first place, the conditions necessary to its highest development are total abstinence from intoxicating and stim- ulating drinks-alcoholic other- wise-as well as from cigarettes and tobacco in any form; strict regard for proper and healthiest diet and for all the laws of health; persistent regular- ity in the hours of going to bed and absolute purity of life."
Jas. B. Nevin, Jno. H. Reece and Wmn. H. Ennis were Floyd County's representatives in the legislature that year. They made strenuous efforts to defeat the legislation after Mrs. Gam- mon had written Mr. Nevin as fol- lows from Rome under date of Nov. 2, 1897 :
"Dear Mr. Nevin: It would be the greatest favor to the family of Von Gammon if your influence could pre- vent his death from being used as an argument detrimental to the athletic cause and its advancement at the Uni- versity. His love for his college and his interest in all manly sports, with- out which he deemed the highest type of manhood impossible, is well known by his classmates and friends, and it would be inexpressibly sad to have the cause he held so dear injured by his sacrifice. Grant me the right to re- quest that my boy's death should not be used to defeat the most cherished object of his life. Dr. Herty's article in the Constitution of Nov. 2d is time- ly, and the authorities of the Univers- ity can be trusted to make all needed changes for all possible consideration pertaining to the welfare of its stu- dents, if they are given the means and the confidence their loyalty and high sense of duty should deserve .**
"Yours most respectfully, "VON GAMMON'S MOTHER."
For several weeks the enemies of football trained the guns on the game through the newspapers, and its de- fenders replied. The Athens Banner, the ancient paper published at the seat of the University of Georgia, de- clared, "We do not favor a game where brutality steps in and usurps the place of athletic development; it was a dis- play of savagery which tarnishes the fair names of both of the great uni- versities represented in the contest."
The Charleston News and Courier declared :
"Football is worse than 'hazing' and 'prize fighting,' both of which are pro- hibited in all well regulated colleges.
350
A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
ALL'S FAIR AT THE NORTH GEORGIA "EXPOSITION."
Claude H. Porter addressing "tremendous audience" on "Peace"; part of the Home-coming crowd in the grandstand; Gov. Thos. W. Hardwick and Lee J. Langley after barbecue and "Bevo"; George G. Stiles, noted horseman; a group containing Gov. Hardwick and a party of hospitable Romans; Lee J. Langley, Mrs. A. B. S. Moseley and Telamon Cruger Smith-Cuylers elsewhere, the young carnival performers.
351
ANECDOTES AND REMINISCENCES
Young men go to college to make use- ful citizens of themselves, not crip- ples. There are numerous 'manly' sports and athletic exercises which do not involve risk of lifelong injury or death as the price of indulging in them. If we must have football riots for the popular entertainment- pugilistie mills and bull fights and
bear baitings being forbidden-let them be committed to professions. They are not adapted to the proper character and ends of college train- ing. They should be prohibited to their students by every college faculty without waiting for an untimely fu- neral to make the necessity of such action more obvious than it is al- ready."
Other press comments, as repro- duced by Editor W. A. Knowles in the Rome Tribune of Nov. 9, 1897, follow :
"The Georgia legislature should by all means at its present session pass a bill to prohibit football in this state." -Jackson Times.
"Mrs. Gammon bears no ill-will to- ward the game because of her son's death, and requests that his death be not used to defeat the most cherished object of his life. She would have the game go on. But the lives of other worthy sons are to be consider- ed. It seems impossible to prevent brutality in the game by revision of the rules, hence the only thing to be done is to prohibit the game."-Savan- nah News.
"Editor Stovall's opinion of football would be more expert and valuable if he had been bunged up in a game. He says :
" 'No, I never played a game of foot_ ball in my life and have no special interest in the matter. But if I had a son and he were afraid to go into a game because of the dangers of in- jury, I should be ashamed of him. I am sure young Americans are made of sterner stuff. Are we ready to or- dain tiddle-de-winks and lawn tennis as national games?'
"If the son happened to be brought home mutilated or dead, we suspect that our friend would look at the mat- ter differently. There are plenty of ways other than brutal sport for a young man to exhibit his courage, en- durance and pluck."-Augusta Chron- iele.
Gov. Atkinson vetoed the football bill on Dec. 7, 1897; no attempt to
revive the measure was made and it expired with the ending of the session of the Legislature soon afterward. The governor was moved by Mrs. Gam- mon's letter and his own belief that the progress of the world necessarily brings suffering to a few.
In his veto, Gov. Atkinson said:
"Football causes less deaths than hunting, boating, fishing, horseback riding, bathing or bicycling. If we are to engage in legislation of this character now under discussion, the state should assume the position of parent, forbid all these sports to boys, make it a penal offense for a boy to engage in any of them, and for any parent to permit his child to engage in them. The government should not usurp all the authority of the parent. Yet this legislation is a long stride in that direction.
"It would be unfortunate to entirely suppress in our schools and colleges a game of so great value in the physi- cal, moral and intellectual develop- ment of boys and young men.
"The president of the university of one of our sister states said to me: 'If these young men were not per- mitted to expend their exuberant spirits and excess of youthful energies in this way, they would find vent in carousals, debaucheries and ยท dissipa- tions.'
"Chancellor Day, of the University of Syracuse, a Methodist institution, says : 'I do not feel like joining the universal outcry against the game. Football is encouraged by the faculty of Syracuse University. During my three years of office there has not been a serious accident on our field or to our team. I believe that some such game as football which contains elements of roughness and danger is necessary to the development of many young men in university, college and seminary. Its future, I am told by lovers of the game, is tending toward more open playing.'
"Football would fail of one of its chief ends, in my estimation, if it did not teach the young men self-control. A man who goes through a season of being trodden upon and knocked down deserves fairly a diploma in the art of self-control. It is valuable disci- pline. Football in the university has been a source of gratification to the faculty and trustees. We rejoice at the high standard of scholarship kept up by the men in active play. One man who played the game during his entire course was able to keep up his
352
A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY.
work to the extent that the adminis- tration selected him as instructor in our institution after graduation."
On Wednesday, Dec. 12, 1895, a group of friends of Von Gammon de- cided to play a free admission game of football on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, at the North Rome Athletic Park. Cliff Seay was referee, Laurie Coth- ran umpire and Barry Cothran time- keeper.
The line-ups:
Harper, c Word, c
Spiegelberg, q. b. Saunders, q. b.
McGhee, r. g. Jones, r. g.
Wynn, 1. g. Jones, l. g.
Mitchell, r. t. Quinn, r. t.
Huffaker, l. t. Morris, l. t.
Maddox, r. e. Smith, r. e.
Maddox, l. e. Parrish, I. e.
Ledbetter, r. h. b. Rounsaville, r. h. b.
Fahy, l. h. b. Cline, l. h. b.
Vandiver, f. b. Williamson, f. b.
Substitutes-Turner and Maddox.
Although the fond parents were bowed down with grief, there were many consolations in the loss of their devoted son. Mrs. Gammon caused the news of Von's death to be print- ed in the native language in every civ- ilized country of the world. Into her scrapbook went the many written ex- pressions of sympathy. The faculty and students of the University met at the chapel, under the leadership of Chancellor Boggs, and resolutions passed there were signed by Harry Dodd (now of Atlanta), president of the Athletic Council; Paul H. Doyal, (of Rome), president of the Demos- thenian Literary Society; Macon Dud- ley, vice president of the Bicycle As- sociation, and Harmon Cox (of At- lanta and Chicago), for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Von was then a member of the freshman class (1901), and its committee-Robt. Yancey, of Rome; C. H. Story and J. A. Scruggs-also passed resolutions.
A student correspondent wrote The Tribune from Athens Dec. 15 that Von was one of the most popular men in college, and that he had just been elected president of the Bicycle Asso- ciation, and was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon college fraternity. And he added :
"Rome is as usual well represented. Rome boys have always stood well at the university and the ones there now are endeavoring to keep up their good
reputation. They will be home for the holidays Dec. 23.
"There are at present eight boys from Rome attending the college. These are: Ben C. Yancey, '98, Chi Phi fraternity and member of Phi Kappa Literary Society; Hugh White, '98, Sigma Nu fraternity and Phi Kappa; J. B. Sullivan, '99, Sigma Al- pha Epsilon and Phi Kappa; Paul H. Doyal, '99, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Phi Kappa; Robert C. Yancey, '01, Chi Phi and Phi Kappa; Will Hoyt, '01, Chi Psi and Phi Kappa, and C. P. Morton, '01.
"Among the offices held by these boys may be mentioned: Editor in chief of 'The Georgian,' business man- ager 'Red and Black,' manager ten- nis team, manager track team, pres- ident Phi Kappa Society, 1st lieuten- ant and sergeant major in the bat- talion, two members of athletic coun- cil, editor in chief of 'Pandora,' vice president bicycle club and other small- er offices.
"Two Romans belong to the literary club and two are on the track team; they took one first, one second and three third prizes in the field day a week ago."
An exceedingly graceful act was performed by the authorities of the University of Virginia, the surviving members of the 1897 football team and others in subscribing $500 for a bronze plaque to Von Gammon and his moth- er. This memorial was presented in the University of Georgia chapel at Athens Saturday morning, Nov. 5, 1921, 24 years after the game in which Von played. It was given into the hands of Chancellor David C. Bar- row and Prof. S. V. Sanford by an official of the University of Virginia, and Prof. Sanford has since acted as its custodian, pending selection of a particular spot to place it for all time. The plaque is circular in shape, about three feet in diameter, and shows the son gazing with love and ad- miration into the face of his mother. Among the Romans present at the ex- ercises were Walter S. Cothran, J. Ed Maddox, Wilson M. Hardy, Barry Wright, Paul H. Doyal, Jas. P. Jones, Thos. D. Caldwell, Sam S. King and Thos. E. Clemmons.
Incidentally, Virginia and Georgia played another football game that same afternoon on Sanford Mead, be- fore a big crowd, and the Red and Black of Georgia triumphed over the Old Gold and Blue of Virginia by the record score of 21 to 0 .*
*Georgia had held Harvard two weeks before at Cambridge to a 10-7 score.
353
ANECDOTES AND REMINISCENCES
WRIGHT WILLINGHAM'S CIR- CUS .- Romans all-or 500 of them- gathered at the Municipal Building Saturday, Jan. 1, 1921, on call of John M. Vandiver, president of the Cham- ber of Commerce, who thought a mass meeting and some oratorical prescrip- tions might make the farmers and ev- erybody else feel better over bad times.
"There is too much pessimism!" as- serted B. I. Hughes.
"There is not enough plain grit!" declared R. C. Sharp.
"All pull together," suggested Hen- derson Lanham.
"You don't know any hard times," said Judge John W. Maddox. "At the end of the Civil War we had nothing in Chattooga County but a broken- down steer that was not worth the Yankees' trouble to take away."
The Rev. Elam F. Dempsey, pastor of the First Methodist Church, and the Rev. A. J. Moncrief, pastor of the First Baptist Church, were listening attentively from comfortable seats on the platform. Somebody shouted that it was time to give the bean-spillers a chance to be heard. No names were mentioned.
Mr. Vandiver diplomatically ignored the suggestion by conferring in an un- dertone with a stage "confederate," after which he announced that Wright Willingham would speak. Col. Willing- ham's first shot woke the ministers up.
"My friends, I ain't much of a pro- hibitionist, myself. I can fight bet- ter and talk better with a little en- couragement in me. Gaze at my friend Dr. Dempsey here on my right; he has been getting fat drinking tea. And as for old Dr. Moncrief there, he looks like he never had a drink in his life! Ha-ha!"
When the rude guffaws of the audi- ence and the embarrassment of the ministers had subsided, Col. Willing- ham continued :
"Judge Maddox may think just be- cause it didn't hurt to lose a leg in the war that a man's swollen jaw in the present contains no pain. My jaw hurts and there's no use to deny it. I'm just about as careful tackling this situation as I was going after a bull dog out at George Stallings' house during our own war here recently, when I was weak from influenza. I went to George's place in the sticks one night; had quite a time climbing fences, crossing race tracks in getting
near the house, and when I thought I was there a great big dog came bow- wowing down the front walk in my di- rection. I could tell by his voice he was a bull dog. I was too weak to fight or run. There was only one way in the world, my friends, to stop that bull dog, and that was by diplomacy. With a prayer on my lips I stooped down and with all the graciousness at my command, I said, 'Here, doggie, here doggie, nice old doggie!'
"I got away with it, and in 1921 I'm going to be as diplomatic as I know how until I feel lots stronger than I feel now."
Col. Willingham caused considerable merriment several weeks later by diag- nosing religious creeds in a speech.
"My picture of religion up toward old Shorter hill is the picture of the shouting Methodists. I ain't ready to embrace that. And coming on down toward Broad Street we find the or- thordox Presbyterians. Why, my friends, the Presbyterians are so or- thodox that you couldn't pierce their orthodoxy with a Beg Bertha shell!" *
ROME'S WAR MAYOR .- The Tri- Weekly Courier of Jan. 3, 1861, pre- sented the following official count for the election of Dec. 31, 1860:
For Mayor-Dr. Thos. Jefferson Word, 156; Zachariah Branscome Har- grove, Jr., 138.
For Council-The Winners-A. R. Harper, 192; W. F. Ayer, 186; Chas. H. Smith, 172; Oswell B. Eve, 153; Jno. M. Quinn, 152; Nicholas J. Om- berg, 148.
For Council-The Losers-Jno. W. Noble, 147; J. G. Yeiser, 144; A. Cald- well, 141; J. H. McClung, 134; Robt. T. Fouche, 122; J. W. Wofford, 104.
Dr. Word was re-elected mayor in 1861 for 1862, and his record was such that his friends championed his cause a third time; but he declined, saying that since no man had ever been mayor of Rome three times in succession, he would not care to break the precedent. Dr. J. M. Gregory was accordingly elected without opposition Dec. 29, 1862. His aldermen from the First Ward were J. C. Pemberton and Jos. E. Veal; from the Second, Albert G. Pitner and Wm. T. Newman, and from the Third, J. H. Cooper and Chas. H. Smith. Others who were put for- ward for Council and Aldermen were Reuben S. Norton, Robt. T. Hargrove, Jno. W. Noble, Dr. Joshua King, Gen. Geo. S. Black and Wm. Ramey.
354
A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY.
-
LINDALE, A THRIVING FLOYD COUNTY TOWN.
From the top, the Lindale Inn; the Auditorium, erected by the Massachusetts Mills of Georgia in honor of Lindale's sacrifices in the World War; the old Hoss mill, now deserted; beautiful Silver Creek, which divides Lindale in half and flows through the mill property, as shown in the next; homes of mill employes, who are encouraged in every way to develop better citizenship.
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.