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 58
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Mrs. Lowe, who lived for many years in England, told of the organization there of the Boy and Girl Scouts, and of the work of Baden Powell, who was so impressed by the splendid work done by the boys in the Boer war that he de- termined to train the youths of England in some of the minor details of war re- gardless of whether they were ever to be soldiers or sailors.
Receiving enthusiasm and inspiration from Mr. Powell, who is a warm person- al friend of hers, Mrs. Lowe started work with a band of seven girls who lived near her home up in the Scotland hills, and with the assistance of some work with a band of seven girls who taught signalling, cooking, sewing, tak-
ing care of the sick and other things es- sential to making them strong and capa- ble women. Now there are 80,000 Girl Scouts in America alone.
Mrs. Lowe went into detail about scouting. She told what was required before a girl could become a citizen scout; the motto being "Be Prepared."
In closing she related a story of the heroism of a Polish girl whom she had known at an international conference in London, and told how the girls' train- ing as scouts had prepared them for the trials and undertakings of life.
Capt. H. P. Meikleham introduced Mrs. Lowe with a few apt remarks, em- phasizing the fact that Mrs. Lowe was going to tell her audience (which con- sisted almost entirely of Girl Scouts) how to be real girls and appreciate natural things.
Mrs. Lowe left on an afternoon train for Atlanta. While in Lindale she was Miss Helen Marshall's guest .- Jan. 24, 1922.
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MISCELLANEOUS-SCOUT SECTION
No. Sheilay W.J. Forbes. R. S. Helterson B. J. WaThing F. M. Jeffries Cloro Mil danas J. J. Wright .
le has Lansdell
RT Mittell & A Stansbury F. W. Quarles A, A, Winkel Sand Stuart A SP Smith
PLJunby gry. Moore Jacob. Kuttner
If I Gibbons & le Foster
William Noble
6. Rowell
JohnWHooper James B Heile
The Lamberth
Cainkloven S. W. Watters Das & real
d. H. Powers A. C. Rols
Virgil A. Start
AUTOGRAPHS OF ROMANS OF THE PERIOD AROUND 1870-'71-II.
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
THE OLD COURT HOUSE, ON COURT (EAST FIRST) STREET, ROME
THE REAL FRANK L. STANTON. -Lucian L. Knight, state historian. once remarked as follows concerning Stanton :
"He is a lyrical genius. He has never used a typewriter, but employs long-hand in pencil exclusively; he seldom scratches out a mistake, and he makes no erasures. His is a brand of genius that is not often found. Writing with him is spontaneous; his thoughts are transferred to paper with- out the usual mental effort, and thus do they appear in print. They go to the printer in 'strings,' sheet after sheet pasted together. Truly, he just pipes his unpremeditated lay.
"When I was handling the religious page of The Constitution, Stanton had not reached financial independence. and would occasionally ask me for a small loan. On one occasion he said, 'Lucian, let me have some money.'
"'I haven't got any money,' I re- plied.
" 'Knight, I want you to let me have some money !'
"'Sorry, but I can't.'
"'Dr. Knight, you are the religious editor of this newspaper; for Christ's sake let me have some money!'
"'You win; there's a pawn shop around the corner; take my grand- father's watch and soak it!' "
AN ODD APPEAL .- In the race for mayor for the term of 1882 were three candidates: Jas. G. Dailey, who was elected; Wm. W. Seay and J. F. Harbour. The two first named beat the bushes in stump speeches, but Mr. Harbour, being short of oratorical thun- der, contented himself with a card in the local newspaper which ended:
"I hope you will Seay your way Dailey through the Harbour of safety."
QUICK WITS IN COURT .- Inter- esting situations are always aris- ing in the present as the members of the Rome bar gather in Judge Moses Court. Wright's Superior Judge Wright's charges to the juries, his fine sense of humor and of fairness fur- nish a considerable part of this inter- est, and then occasionally an attorney is called upon to furnish it.
Several days ago Attorneys Frank Copeland and W. B. Mebane found themselves on opposite sides of a case.
"Hold up your right hand," com- manded Mr. Mebane to a witness.
"The witness has already been sworn," interposed Mr. Copeland.
"Take it down!" snapped Mr. Meb- ane before the witness could realize what was going on .- Jan. 26, 1921.
MISCELLANEOUS-SCOUT SECTION
ROME AND LINDALE SCOUTS CAUGHT IN THEIR ELEMENT.
The picture shows "Floyd County's Best" at the North Georgia Fair Grounds, July 4, 1922. On the left are Scout Executive Geo. E. Bennett and the troop scoutmasters. In the morning baseball game the Rome Scouts worsted the Lindale players by a close score, but in the afternoon field events Lindale proved far superior. Wall scaling, water boiling, drills, fire-building, and the pie-eating contest were features.
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
BILL OF SALE FOR SLAVES
Georgia, Floyd County: Know all men by these presents that I, Philip W. Hemphill, of the county and state aforesaid, for and in consideration of the sum of $4,000 to me in hand paid by James Hemphill, of the same place, receipt of which I do hereby acknowledge, have granted, bargained and sold, and by these presents do grant, bargain and sell unto the said James Hemphill, his heirs and assigns, the following property, to wit: Lucy, a woman 60 years old, Bill, a man, 65, Penny, a woman, 60, Terril, a boy, 13, William, a boy, 11, Margaret, a girl. 8, Myrum, a girl, 9, Berryman, a boy, 7, Penny, a girl, 7, Elvira, a woman, 18, and child at the breast, Catharine, a girl, 8, Emily, a girl, 12, Arena, a girl, 10, Lena, a girl, 8, Evilene, a girl, 12, Tana, a girl, 6, Madison, a boy, 7, Jane, a girl, 13, Tony, a boy, 7, Martha, a girl, 2 years old,
To have and to hold the aforesaid bargained property, to him the said James Hemphill, his heirs and assigns, forever. And I, the said Philip W. Hemphill, for myself, my heirs, executors and administrators, all and singular, the said bar- gained property unto the said James Hemphill, his heirs and assigns, against me and my said executors and administrators and against all and every other person and persons claiming under me, shall and will warrant and defend by their presents.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 12th day of October, one thousand, eight hundred and forty-six (1846).
P. W. HEMPHILL.
Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of
John B. Hemphill, witness, and Chas. Smith, justice of the peace.
STORY OF A FROLICSOME TORNADO (From the Rome News, Sunday, April 17, 1921.) (By GEORGE MAGRUDER BATTEY, Jr.)
A frolicsome tornado supposed to have been an offshoot of a cyclone starting in Kentucky bounded through the downtown business section of Rome yesterday (Sat- urday, April 16, 1921), at approximately 11:45 a. m., and left a trail of destruc- tion 500 feet wide behind. The start of it was traced as far down the Coosa as a point between Mt. Alto and Black's Bluff, where it left the stream and swept across a stretch of green bottom land in a generally northeastern direction.
The tornado fell like a blight upon a quiet negro settlement in the boundaries of Cherokee street, Branham avenue (south) and Pennington avenue, and turned a square block into heaps of brick and loose timbers and snapping trees. Small frame houses that had stood compactly a few minutes before were reduced to piles like jackstraws. Across a ridge studded with stately pine trees the brusque charger raced at 80 miles an hour, breaking pines and poplars in half and bowling over oaks and hickories as their roots snapped under the strain.
Through Myrtle Hill cemetery this first time visitor sped, irreverently upset tombstones and crushed a pavilion into kindling wood; skirted the brow of the hill, swung its tail over the summit of the Confederate monument and swooped like a hungry hawk over the Etowah and down upon peaceful, unsuspecting Rome.
Buildings trembled and struggled in the grip of this unshorn young monster, then gave up parts of themselves, like brick and mortar, tin roofs, chimneys and contents,-anything to be free of his cave-like grip. He hurried on without apolo- gies; knocked down the electrical contraptions raised by man on high poles, smashed windows with the care-free demeanor of a spend-thrift, shoved a cornice off a store to the main street without caring whether it hit anybody on the head or not; blew young ladies' dresses and tresses in a shocking manner; sent dogs, chickens and birds scurrying to places of safety, even as men; and disappeared with a defiant gesture and a mocking laugh.
The tornado paralelled the Oostanaula river northward up West First street, then executed a right-angle zag and dealt a right uppercut again to the things of the land. Past Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth avenues he leaped, with always the same tale,-a roof lifted off here, a sheet of tin sent smashing through a plate glass window there, a tree sent crashing against a house, a house sat upon until its timbers groaned and gave way.
Near the foot of West First street three mules were killed under electric wires and walls of brick, and their owner was injured; at the jail a lad was hurt, in North Rome a house was blown a mile, scattering five children and a woman along the way.
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MISCELLANEOUS-TWO PLAYFUL WINDSTORMS
1
V
3
7
SPOTS WHICH DARED TO RESIST THE TORNADO.
The windstorm of Saturday, April 16, 1921, served as a stern reminder of the insignificance of man and his earthly shrines. Pictures 1, 2 and 6 show Myrtle Hill trees snapped off like broom straws. 5 and 7 West Second Street damage. 3-Tree against a house on Seventh Avenue. 4-A sugarberry at the News office which nearly hit a horse and a man.
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
Then the tornado was lost to view. He had been introduced to Romans most forcibly. Maybe he went where he came from. He was not a very welcome guest. Details of his pranks are to be found elsewhere herein.
A hard rain fell soon after the tornado had passed, and continued for several hours. It held up a while, but let in again before midnight. Woodmen and other workers took their axes and set to work repairing the damage, and said some un- kind things about frolicsome gusts of wind.
Rome's pet tornado had certainly not behaved like Oliver Herford's "Bashful Earthquake."
Tornadoes are exciting phenomena and always commit freakish and weird acts as well as tragic and frightening. In the following running story are told incidents as they were heard and discovered by The News during Saturday afternoon:
The worst damage in Rome was in the area bounded by Eighth avenue, the Oostanaula river, head of Coosa and Broad street. Moving toward North Rome, the tornado in this area first struck the rear of the old Hamilton block, occupied by Stamps & Co., and took it off, a lot of brick falling and helping to demolish a shed in the rear of the place. It swept through West First street between the rears of the second Broad street block of wholesale grocery concerns and the Curry-Arring- ton warehouse. caroming off the rear of the Rome Mercantile Co. and throwing a shower of brick and timbers into the street on a group of a dozen or more mules and wagons parked there by farmers, and carrying down three poles full of heavily- charged electric wires. One of the wires fell across the back of a small gray mule and killed it instantly, while the brick which fell from the rear of the Rome Mer- cantile Co. buried a pair of mules driven to a wagon by Mose Middleton, a Black's Bluff Road farmer. One of the mules was killed instantly and one was hurt and it was thought it would have to be shot. Mr. Middleton was slightly injured. He heard the storm had swept his home neighborhood, and went down to see.
The electric current was immediately cut off by the Rome Railway & Light Co., thus reducing the danger of broken and depending wires. Police and firemen, the Boy Scouts, American Legion and citizen volunteers rendered first aid and went on duty informally where needed. Linemen and other electrical workers went to work with a vim to relieve the city from the predicament of no electric power or lights, all having been cut off in the city except the trolley car current. Candles and lamps were used pretty freely for illuminating purposes. The gas plant on West First street, by the way, escaped any damage from the tornado, but an ad- joining building had the roof taken off.
After a few hours most of the lights were switched on again, but throughout the night the downtown area of devastation was dotted only with red danger lights. The white way lights on the Oostanaula side of Broad street were dark, and the two picture shows and business establishments in that row did not at- tempt to keep open last night.
Part of the roof of the Rome Manufacturing company on Second avenue was lifted and the rain began to pour in, so a lot of goods were moved to a warehouse at the rear of the First National Bank building. Although the wind sliced off a layer of brick from the Arrington-Buick building across the street, it bowed before the tall First National structure and swept over the Rome Manufacturing Com- pany, where it also sent down a shower of brick.
The McWilliams Feed and Grocery Co. sign was doubled up at Third avenue and West First street, and one screen door opening outward was torn from its hinges and another partly unhinged. A hogshead was blown from a platform to the middle of the street. A lot of tin was ripped from warehouses in this neigh- borhood and sent whirling and whistling toward the courthouse. A tin ice can of the Atlantic Ice & Coal Corporation was blown 50 feet to Fourth avenue.
At the Wyatt Book Store a plate glass over the show or display windows was blown out, three show cases were broken and the picture rack was demolished.
A pair of penny weighing scales was torn up in front of the Strand movie theatre and a traffic sign at Broad and Third avenue was blown over.
The following sustained broken plate glass windows: Bartlett Automotive Equipment Co., Gammon's, G. H. Hays, the McDonald Furniture Co., O. Willing- ham and several of the fronts of the wholesale houses on the west side of Broad street between First and Second avenues.
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MISCELLANEOUS-TWO PLAYFUL WINDSTORMS
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BROAD STREET BY NIGHT, CARPETED IN 3 INCHES OF SNOW, JAN. 27, 1921.
Many small windows, awnings and signs were caught and broken down. Trees were blown down in the yards of Wade Hoyt, 603 West First street; 600 Broad street, corner of Sixth avenue; J. W. Bryson, 10 Seventh avenue, the old W. M. Towers place (large tree against center of house) ; the old Underwood cottage, across West First street from the Bryson home (large tree took off corner and rested against house) ; the cottage of Miss Julia Omberg, next door to the Lanham place on West First street; the home between the Wade Hoyt place and the Oostan- aula river. Limbs were strewn over the yard of Ed Maddox at Broad and Seventh avenue, and across Fifth avenue back of the Hotel Forrest.
A large sugar berry tree at the corner of The Rome News office blew toward the building, narrowly missing P. J. Fulcher, a farmer living on the Central Grove road beyond the Berry Schools, and demolishing a Ford automobile owned by F. C. Bennett, of 13 Fourth avenue, and the Fulcher buggy. Mr. Fulcher had just taken his horse out of the vehicle. A falling wire burnt him slightly on the right hand. An American Railway Express Co. delivery wagon was passing at Fourth avenue and West First when the tree crashed down. The wind blew the wagon over on its side and threw out the driver, Geo. W. Turner, and a lot of large empty pasteboard cartons, one of which was blown into the hole left by the tree roots. The horse ran away down Broad street, probably to the express company stable.
Parts of two chimneys were blown off The News building into an alley near the Oostanaula river.
The tornado swept up the Oostanaula, raising the water about 12 feet, accord- ing to two men who were sitting on the end of a platform of the Atlantic Ice & Coal Corporation plant, on Fourth avenue and the river. The tail of the thing swept within 35 feet of them, snapping off several limbs and curving in front of the Rome Laundry Company across the street and carrying a shower of roof tin with it, after which it hit the tree at The News corner. Then it twisted to the left of the courthouse and stripped enough tin off the Davis Foundry & Machine Co. to smash a plate glass window or so of the Dodge Automobile agency at Fifth avenue and West First street.
It tore tin off the city stables on West First, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Lawrence Wilson, Boy Scout, son of Sheriff Robt. E. Wilson, was sitting in his father's apartments at the Floyd county jail at that point and was slamming down a window when tin or timber crashed into the window pane and cut his left arm in several places. He was attended by Dr. J. Turner McCall.
After laying low a lot of trees on West First street, as told above, the tornado swept toward Eighth avenue, to the home of Louis A. Dempsey, at 713, where a tree was uprooted and two rooms of the house damaged. Five large trops in the Robt. W. Graves yard, 110 Eighth avenue, were blown down, and Robt. W. Graves, Jr., amateur weather prognosticator, lost a rain gauge. A corn crib and mule barn of the Graves-Harper Co. at West Second street and Eighth avenue were demol-
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
ished. A large tree blew down between the home of Wm. E. Fuller, 104 West Eighth avenue, and that of A. S. Burney.
Thence the wind blew through North Rome. Will Akridge, who owns a place about two miles north of North Rome, phoned The News that the tornado hit one of his tenant houses, occupied by Alvin Gilliam, and that the five small Gilliam children narrowly escaped death. Some were free, others caught under flying timbers and none hurt beyond a bad shaking up. They were gathered up and Taken to the home of a neighbor nearby. Mrs. Henry Gilliam was hit in the head by a flying timber and painfully hurt. She was attended by Dr. Henry A. Turner, of Rome. A baby three months old was uninjured.
On Jim Stewart's place on the road leading over to the Oostanaula river, con- tinued Mr. Akridge, the one-story frame cottage occupied by W. H. Sims, had only two rooms left after the twister had passed. The front and back porches, kitchen and two chimneys were blown away. It seemed like a thousand trees had been blown down, he said.
While Mr. Akridge was talking, a flash of lightning hit the telephone wire. "Did you see that lightning?" he asked. "Let's get away from here!"
The tornado was traced westward below Rome to a point on the Coosa river between Black's Bluff and Mt. Alto. It skipped across the valley land northwest
A TALL SENTINEL ON A LOFTY HILL Rome's historic clock tower, built in 1871 by John W. Noble. Prior to erection of the plant on Fort Jackson it supplied the city with water.
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MISCELLANEOUS-TWO PLAYFUL WINDSTORMS
of the Ab Dean farm and tore a path through clumps of woods to the neighbor- hood of Cherokee street and Branham avenue (South). At this point the wind lifted off the front of the Hugley grocery store, then got into a block of negro one-story frame dwellings on Pennington avenue. Six houses in a row had their brick chimneys knocked off and one was smashed almost flat. In the house set down upon the ground Mattie Rogers, crippled daughter of Fletcher Rogers, the colored barber, was slightly hurt in the mouth. Two chickens (hens) were killed. Debris was scattered everywhere. Then the twister snorted up a ridge and blew a pine tree across a pig pen, where the pig grunted his eminent satisfaction. On top of this ridge was a one story frame dwelling said to be owned by Mrs. Alla Holmes Nunnally. The wind hugged this cottage and shook it down off its brick foundations to the ground. The paper roofing was banged in.
Slivers of plaster peeled off across the street as the tornado shook a frail wooden house. Then the mischievous fellow visited the home of City Commis- sioner Ben Gann on Klasing Hill, slid his refrigerator across the back porch and stripped the under part of the house of its frail lattice work. Then it romped into Myrtle Hill cemetery, ruthlessly upsetting tombstones. The tornado uprooted seven large trees in Myrtle Hill and broke off two others that fell across graves, in addition to demolishing the pavilion near the Confederate Soldiers' sanctuary. A tree fell across the headstone of A. B. S. Moseley, long a newspaper editor in Rome. One knocked over the headstone of Mrs. T. O. Hand. Others fell across the Denny, Grossman, Burks, Sharp and Thos. G. Watters lots.
City forces were put to work to clear the trees away.
The tail of the tornado swished within half a block of the Frances Berrien hospital on South Broad and yanked off a limb as large as a fat man's leg, and did the same near the old Klasing machine shop (now the establishment of Coffin & Co.) Leaves and dead branches were scattered everywhere.
Jim Hall's house was unroofed about a mile north of Rome.
Half the roof of the Nixon Hardware Co. warehouse was blown off in the rear of the Broad street store and the goods had to be moved to safe quarters.
The aftermath of Rome's romping tornado of Saturday morning at 11:45 o'clock found the citizens setting their houses and yards in order. Some of the houses were beyond hope of redemption. They had been crushed like eggshells and their timbers blown into near woods.
Estimates of the total damage varied with the individual. Insurance men said one person's guess was as good as another's. The estimates ranged between $150,000 and $250,000 for the Rome district. Much of this is salvage. Trees blown down make good wood; they have to be cut up but don't need cutting down.
Alvin Gilliam, farmer tenanting the Will Akridge farm two miles north of the Southern Co-operative Foundry in North Rome, found his razor and his wife's hat a mile toward the Oostanaula river from where the tornado smashed his house. He congratulated his wife on her "close shave."
His mother, Mrs. Henry Gilliam, and his five children were in the house at the time. The wind dumped them from the floor to a side wall, then deposited them on the upside-down ceiling and carried the floor over their heads up the hillside. In the ceiling was a trap door two feet by three. The lid flew off as the ceiling went over, and two of the children, including the two-months-old baby, were thrown into the hole to safety, while a mass of timbers crashed down over them. Rescuers pulled them out shortly afterward.
Mr. Gilliam's 18-year-old boy, formerly in the navy, went searching for his navy discharge papers, fearing they might have been blown to the Bureau of Navi- gation at Washington and he might find himself back in the outfit again.
Houses are few and far between in this neighborhood, and not a great deal of damage was done. On the Akridge place, however, the tornado played some of its queerest tricks. It made a 180-degree curve, pointing back toward Rome, around the brow of a thickly wooded hill, scattering tall trees, then darted off at right angles to the right far enough to miss a barn and several horses. The next thing it hit was the Gilliam cottage of four rooms, where the elder Mrs. Gilliam was making dough in a pan.
City workmen labored all day Sunday with axes and saws, removing overturned trees from dwellings and from across streets. Citizens wielded axes in many cases. Some waited until Monday, and it seemed probable that within a week few signs of the damage would remain, except in the case of houses badly demolished.
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
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- . 1
ROME IN BLANKETS OF "BEAUTIFUL WHITE."
The central photograph, showing two feet of snow on Broad Street, was taken in December, 1887. The horse cars were abandoned and traffic generally was demoralized. This was a year of disasters. In March and April came the record flood, with water 40.3 feet high at Rome, and prior to the flood a slight earthpuake shock was felt. The other pictures were taken January 27, 1921.
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MISCELLANEOUS-TWO PLAYFUL WINDSTORMS
Two or three cases were reported in which men were caught in the tornado and lifted off the ground or blown some distance. They all landed on their feet and used them.
Steps will probably be taken by the city or patriotic organizations to replace the pavilion which was destroyed at the Confederate soldiers' graves in Myrtle Hill cemetery. Workmen started removing nine trees blown down across graves, up- setting several tombstones. The tornado swept across the summit and eastern face of Myrtle Hill and jumped over the Steamer Cherokee, lying moored at the base of the cemetery on the Etowah river. It then hit the lower business district.
The gay destroyer did not spare the abandoned old Seventh avenue cemetery either. It twisted off several large limbs and blew them across graves. One landed on the tomb of George Hamilton, (1833-1854), but did not break the slab.
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