The Early History of Atlanta
These presentation notes are by the late Katherine Allday Stubbs. Her husband, Rick, authorized the publishing of the notes via Atlanta Grade School Friends. The date of the notes is estimated to be ca. 1987.
“You may wonder why someone who has been away from Atlanta for nearly fifty years would have an interest in the early history of this area. It is simply because most wanderers finally seek their roots in their declining years and mine go back 134 years to 1853 when my great great grandfather George Law and his wife Martha led a wagon train of settlers, their slaves and live stock from Georgia to a sand hill a few miles north of the present site of Atlanta and founded Law’s Chapel Methodist Church and Law’s Chapel Cemetery. There was no Atlanta at the time, the nearest town being Linden founded as the County seat of Cass in 1848. The only other communities were at Cussetta Mountain (now abandoned) and Douglassville also established in 1853. Douglassville’s principal reason for being seemed to be the fact that some of its settlers operated a ferry across Sulphur river on the road between Texarkana and Jefferson, the latter being the largest trading center in northeast Texas with transportation facilities across Caddo lake to the Red river by steamboat.
The County of Cass was formed in 1846 out of a part of Bowie County, the latter being named for James Bowie, a hero of the Alamo and a famed frontier fighter for whom the Bowie knife was named. Cass County was named for one General Cass, a native of Ohio, who never came to this area. He at various times was a U. S. Senator, Secretary of Defense under President Andrew Jackson, Ambassador to France and later a General in
the Union Army. During the Civil War the Texas Legislature changed the name of the county to Davis in honor of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. During the Reconstruction period after the war, carpet bag legislature changed the name of the county back to Cass.
Up until well after the Civil War this whole area was truly a frontier land. Although most of the settlers were honest, God fearing people there was no law to protect them from a wild and lawless element which roamed the region led by an outlaw named Cullen Baker. At first Baker was given sympathy and protection by the settlers because of his attacks on the Federal occupation forces. However, he later started terrorizing the whole countryside with his gang of outlaws, robbing and murdering at will often without apparent reason. A relative condition of peace and safety was restored when Baker and the principal members of his gang were tracked down and killed shortly after the end of the Civil War.
Two Atlantas
The city of Atlanta had two beginnings at two separate locations in its early history. Both were associated with the building of the Texas & Pacific Ry. (now the Mo.Pac.) in the early 1870’s. The first Atlanta was started in 1862 when the Rev. Jesse Dodd built a home and started a settlement about three miles east of what is now Queen City on the present road between Queen City and Bloomburg. Rev. Dodd, being a native of Georgia, named the town Atlanta. The old home still stands today and is owned by his descendants, the Brooks family. The mother of Drs. James and Jesse Brooks was the daughter of W. A. Miles who married one of Dr. Dodd’s daughters. You may find it rather curious when you travel the road between Queen City and Bloomburg and find that you enter the city limits of Atlanta and then pass out of the city limits a mile or so farther in open country. Atlanta city limits were extended on request so as to incorporate the old Dodd home, the first site of Atlanta.
In 1872 the T & P Ry. surveyed a route from Texarkana to Jefferson. The first route ran near Rev. Dodd’s farm where the first Atlanta had been laid out. Because of gradient problems the railroad later changed its route to the present one leaving the first Atlanta some distance from the railroad. Also, Captain P. R. Scott who owned a large farm where Atlanta is now located persuaded the railroad to run its survey across his farm. He donated 100 acres for the present town site on condition that the railroad not build another station within 16 miles of Atlanta. The railroad surveyed the townsite and as a courtesy named the main streets of the new town after Captain Scott’s sons – Hiram, Buckner and William and Louise after his daughter Louisa. Atlanta was not formally incorporated until 1876 and had a population at that time of 300.
Early Business Establishments
J. A. Odell established the first store in Atlanta. He bought a lot in a cornfield from Captain Scott, cut the corn, stacked it around trees and stumps and hastily put up the first business house in Atlanta in time for the arrival of the first train in August 1873. (The site was where James Verschoyles’ office is located today) The only way in and out of town was through the cornfield.
The next business establishment in Atlanta was that of (my grandfather) John W. Law who built a store in 1874 on the north side of Hiram St. facing the railroad. He also built a residence on the site of the present Atlanta National Bank. Then followed other early merchants such as the Hughes brothers, W. A. Miles who established the first drugstore, Rufus Allday, O.C. McClung, H. D. Johnson, J. M. Pepper, the Spearmans and many others around the turn of the century.
During its early years Atlanta pretty much reflected the rough and ready atmosphere of the western frontier. The first saloon was opened by R. P.
Spell and a second one in 1875 by Bob Lanier. According to an early historian – “One year after Lanier opened his saloon, he joined the Methodist Church, cut out his whiskey business, and remained ever afterwards a consistent Christian and prohibitionist.”
In a Citizens Journal article written on his 94th birthday, J. R. Griffin said:
“When I first came to Atlanta in 1899, there wasn’t a brick house in town, no paved streets and when it rained they laid planks across the streets. Every other door was a saloon, I don’t know how many men got killed getting drunk and in fights before they voted the saloons out in 1903.”
An earlier election to close down the saloons had been held but it resulted in a dead hat – 28 to 28.
Queen City vs. Atlanta
Queen City was founded in 1875 and according to some sources its early settlers were of English descent and named the city in honor of Queen Victoria. It seemed to grow rapidly as a trading center, threatening to overshadow Atlanta. Queen City’s growth seemed to center largely around two merchants – Heck Green and A. C. Smith. The principal farm crop in the three state areas at the time was cotton and A. C. Smith was the largest cotton buyer for many miles around. Farmers brought their cotton to him from as far away as points in Arkansas and Louisiana and they naturally traded with the merchants in Queen City. There was a definite spirit of rivalry between the two towns and Queen City petitioned the railroad to abolish the station in Atlanta and make Queen City the only station but the railroad refused. The competition from Queen City seriously depressed business in Atlanta and during the years 1887 to 1890 many Atlanta merchants were bankrupt or on the verge thereof. The competition
between the two towns was so intense that rumors would be spread about plagues of illness or merchants shorting on weight to discourage farmers from trading with one or the other towns. There are many stories about what happened but there seems to be a common thread of truth in one of them and that is – things got so bad in Atlanta that a number of its leading merchants got together and approached Heck Green and A. C. Smith in Queen City and offered them monetary considerations and other inducements to move their business from Queen City to Atlanta. In any event they did. Their move to Atlanta together with the railroad’s refusal to close down the Atlanta station sounded the death knell to the aspirations of Queen City to be the leading trading center in the area. Therein would seem to lie the reasons for the early animosity that developed and still faintly lingers between the two towns.
First Newspaper
Atlanta’s first newspaper, the Citizens Journal was founded by my maternal grandfather, John Fletcher, in Linden in 1879 and moved to Atlanta in 1892. Mr. Fletcher continued as owner and publisher until 1914 when the paper was sold to J. P. Harrel. The paper remained in the Harrel family until 1963.
First Bank
The first bank was opened by a man from Jefferson in 1882 in the back of Raddy Law’s grocery store (my father) then located where Walker’s Drug Store is today. It consisted of a commercial safe and a home made wooden counter. It was later taken over by a group of local citizens and named the Citizens Bank of Atlanta, thought to be the first bank opened in Cass County. The First National Bank was established in 1893 followed by the Atlanta National Bank established by the Allday family in 1905.
Churches
There is some disagreement as to whether the Presbyterian or the Methodist was the first church. At any rate the Methodist built the first building, a wooden structure, in 1875 on the site of the present church. In 1887 that building was sold to a colored congregation and moved to another location to clear the site for a new Methodist Church.
Early Schools
The first school in Atlanta was erected in 1874, a rough 20 x 25 foot box structure with four windows and a door on a hill northeast of the present site of the First Baptist Church. The school was moved to a larger building in 1880 to a site where the First Presbyterian Church now stands. The City Council assumed control of the schools in 1887. In 1890 the first negro school was built.
A number of Atlanta women pressed for a separate school for females and in 1882 a five room, two story brick school building on Louise Street was erected and named the Atlanta Female Seminary. The other school was known as the Atlanta Male Institute. The two schools were consolidated in 1896. Rules governing students in 1896 make interesting reading today. Some of there were:
1. Students shall prepare lessons given them for recitation and in order to do so, they must be silent and studious during study hours; go home at noon, and not loiter about the streets at night.
2. Pupils shall not attend any kind of gathering or meeting during the five school days and nights of the week unless accomplished by their parents.
3. Pupils shall not visit saloons and shall go directly home when school is dismissed at noon and in the afternoon.
4. Pupils shall not attend parties while in school more than once in three months, and then they must stay inside the house and conduct themselves with decency.
5. Boys shall not carry pistols, bowie knives, flips, nor any dangerous weapons.
6. Boys and girls must chew their tobacco and gum at recess, if at all.
7. Pupils shall not misbehave at church or at any other meeting.
8. No communication by word or note between the boys and girls.
Gas Lights to Electricity
Up until 1902 the citizens of Atlanta depended upon gas lights or kerosene lamps for illumination. In that year a franchise was granted to John Chamblee to build the first dynamo electric power plant on West St. where the old abandoned ice house is now located. The population was about 1,350 at the time but some diehards still preferred their old fashioned gas lights and refused to accept the new innovation. About 1908 an ice making plant was added to the business, known as the Atlanta Electric & Ice Co. In those early years there was an electric current only at night, except for Tuesdays and Fridays when electricity was turned on at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon so that women could get their ironing done. In the first year or two there were only three electric irons in Atlanta – owned by Mrs. Frank Allday, Mrs. T. R. Richey and Mrs. Paul Dunklin. The plant remained in the hands of local citizens until it was sold to an outside utility company in 1922.
Margin note: “Gas mains – 1900; Tel. Exchange – 1902; 1st water well – 1911; 1st car – 1910 Dr. Long”
The Dummy
In 1897 the Texas, Arkansas & Louisiana Ry. was formed by some of the local businessmen to provide freight service over the eight miles between Atlanta and Bloomburg where a connection could be made with the Kansas City Southern Ry. For the first three months of operation the little engine had no whistle and for that reason it became known as “The Dummy,” a name that stuck throughout its life. The train made two trips a day, leaving Atlanta at 8:00 a.m. and returning from Bloomburg at 11:30 a.m., again at 3:00 p.m. and returning at 5:30 p.m. The little engine pulled six freight cars and one bright red passenger car. As you know there is a pretty good hill as you go north out of Atlanta and on rainy days the little train would sometimes slip on the tracks and have to back up to the depot to get a fresh start. Sometimes several trys were necessary before the little engine made it to the top of the hill and gave a proud blast.
The engine at first burned wood and farmers along the route would cut wood and stack it along the track for 85 cents a cord. The principal crops shipped from Atlanta were potatoes and cotton and sometimes the Dummy transported as many as 18,000 bales of cotton during a season. The Dummy made its last run in 1918. Many a senior Atlanta resident remembers the thrill of riding on the Dummy as a child.
The first recorded population was 300 in 1876 – 1,764 in 1890. Then population declined and did not reach the 1890 figure again until forty years later in 1930. Through a gradual increase, population rose by over 3,000 over the next forty years to 5,000 in 1970. The last census of 1980 stands at 6,272.
Although there was an intense interest in stimulating growth in the very early years by many of the then outstanding business and civic leaders in
those days, you can see from the above figures that stimulating growth has not been a serious goal for a very long time.
Atlanta began as an agricultural community and the challenge of growth was met then. As families moved to farm and to work in sawmills –schools, churches, business establishments and recreational facilities, such as they were, had to be built and maintained. The leaders of this community met every challenge, sometimes with great personal sacrifice of their time and money. There was a driving determination to make this town a good place for people to live and rear their families. These challenges were met. Sometimes we forget that every improvement that comes to a community does not come easily. Although change is inevitable, it is hard to move into the improved future, when it is all too easy to stay in a contented state with no challenge. A town either progresses or declines and the courage or apathy of its citizens makes the difference.
Looking back at our heritage makes us realize that we too much meet the challenge of change. The most important thing to consider is that the spirit of our community remains vital. The present and future leaders of Atlanta can draw inspiration from the leadership of the past and use this knowledge of their heritage as a guiding light for the future.
Atlanta Population
1876 – 300
1900 – 1,301
1910 – 1,604
1920 – 1,469
1925 – 1,680
1930 – 1,685
1940 – 2,453
1950 – 3,782
1960 – 4,076
1970 – 5,007
1980 – 6272”
Transcribed for Atlanta Grade School Friends – adhering as closely as possible to the original typed text – by Carolyn M. Appleton, March 2025.