Rumors of Coal

What comes to mind when I throw the word “rumor” out?

It seems that your response would have something to do with your own personal experiences concerning rumors. I think if we were all honest we would have to admit we might have had a hand in beginning a rumor, most certainly in sharing a rumor, and more than likely been subjected to a rumor about ourselves no matter if it was the truth or not.

It should be no surprise the impact rumors can have on society is studied quiet heavily by the psychology-types among us. A report titled A Psychology of Rumor was published by Robert Knapp in 1944. His study was based on over one thousand rumors during World War II that were printed in the Boston Herald’s “Rumor Clinic” column.

Knapp determined there were three types of rumors. The pipe dream rumor reflects public desires and wished-for outcomes. A bogie or fear rumor reflects feared outcomes, and a wedge is a driving rumor that is meant to interfere with group loyalty or relationships between individuals.

It seems I’m constantly running across rumors of the pipe dream type regarding the early days of Douglas County. Movers and shakers were constantly putting the word out regarding how wonderful the living conditions were here, and sometimes they stretched the truth a bit.

This past summer one of my Sentinel columns dealt with a publicity piece that Joseph S. James, the first mayor of Douglasville wrote about the county.  Some of James’ claims included his promise that, “There are neither fleas nor mosquitos here, and the flies are less numerous than elsewhere. Snakes are scarce; and then again there is hardly any mud; owing to the character of the soil and the rolling nature of the surface; the hardest and longest rains scarcely leave a disagreeable trace for more than a few hours.”

Hmm, I’ve experienced plenty of those things here, and I live in an era where the county is more settled than when Mr. James was a prominent figure. 

Pipe dream?  Most certainly.

Of course, we forgive Mr. James for his comments because he was attempting to get folks to move here. He wanted the county to thrive for his own personal gain as well as for other folks to be successful, too.

All of this brings me to a major rumor that was bandied about concerning Douglas County in 1887. By that time Douglas County was firmly established being a young adult at 17 years of age.

On February 4, 1887 the Atlanta Constitution published an article titled “Is It a Coal Bed?”

Yes!  Coal had been found in Douglas County. 

To be more exact it had been rumored in Atlanta the day before that anthracite coal had been discovered near Austell.  To be very precise the piece of coal was found when workmen were building a bridge over Sweetwater Creek near Salt Springs (now Lithia Springs).  Someone spotted the lump of coal in the bed of the creek.

The reporter with the Constitution interviewed S.S. Marsh of the firm Moore, Marsh & Company.  S.S. Marsh was the son of E.W. Marsh who along with his partners had first leased and then purchased the springs and would be the owner of the Sweetwater Park Hotel and Piedmont Chautauqua.

Wouldn’t it be a huge find if coal was discovered on or near their proposed resort property?

Wouldn’t that make the property more valuable and more enticing for future investors?

Apparently for a few days in February, 1887 the rumor of coal created quite a sensation here in Douglas County as well as Atlanta. It was determined the coal was of good anthracite quality. There were further rumors that a syndicate might form and the property would be developed to extract the coal.

Of course, Marsh and others that were interviewed tried to give enough information to keep the rumors flying, but constantly stated they “couldn’t say” when asked for specifics.

Rumors grew to include a natural gas find. Petroleum was mentioned.

A few days later on February 17^th more mentions were made in the Atlanta paper.  A blurb stated, “It is claimed that Jacks Hill in Douglas County is full of coal.”

Further down the column the snippet in “daily news briefs” quotes the Douglasville Star stating, “Not having seen the coal ourselves, we are not prepared to say what is there and we wait developments. We trust that it may turn out to be a valuable bed. But since this excitement has begun we have talked to three different men, who say that they can show the outcropping coal in several places along Sweetwater Creek. One of them told us he could go to a spot eight miles from Douglasville and get a wagon load of coal in an hour by digging it out of the ground. We are not at liberty at present to give the names of these gentlemen, but they are responsible men and are considered reliable in all things."

At this point the history of the coal find here in Douglas County goes a little flat. There are no further mentions of coal that year in the papers, and to date I’ve not seen any mention of a coal syndicate being formed.

Was the whole thing just a well-placed rumor that served its purpose and then quietly went away?

What about that piece of coal?  What happened to it?

I have to wonder since it was just found in the creek bed much like a gold-find was it conveniently placed in the creek for the workmen to find?  

The picture with this post is a vintage photo of Sweetwater Creek at Holly Bend.

The Social Network Along Sweetwater Creek

Think back to the street you grew up on.  If you grew up before the 1980s I'm thinking you would be able to tell me the name of each every family that lived along your street and possibly tell me some intricate details regarding what the inside of each house looked like down to the design of the kitchen counters.

Young people who have grown up from the mid 80s to the present have a harder time doing this because most people...even those who live in traditional subdivisions....no longer know their neighbors to the extent people did in the past.

Close-knit neighbors are a rarity...They do occur, but it's not the norm any more.  

It would seem that during the 1800s it would have been difficult for folks to know their neighbors.  

In a world where transportation consisted of your feet or a horse...in a world where receiving a letter was an "event"...in a world with no telephone....in a world where neighbors were several hundred  acres apart or even miles down the road....it just seems impossible a close-knit community could be formed.

Yet my research indicates folks had no problem interacting with their neighbors, getting around, forming business partnerships, or finding folks to marry.....

Take for example an Atlanta Constitution article from May 4, 1882 titled "Sweetwater Scenes"...an article that was supplied to the Constitution more than likely by Charles O. Peavey, the editor of the Weekly Star, Douglasville's paper at the time.  

This particular article is interesting in that it paints a picture for us regarding property owners along Sweetwater Creek during the early 1880s.   It's almost as if we are on a tour floating down the creek and a tour guide is giving us information regarding the various property owners along the route.

The text of the actual article is in italics.  I've added additional information in regular type.  

After watching several years the cars have made their appearance in our county.   They moved across the Sweetwater Creek last Wednesday and moved into Douglas County last Friday, on the Georgia Pacific railroad, two and half miles west of the Sweetwater Creek.  New life seems to take hold of our people at once.

As I explained in an earlier post titled How the Railroad Built Our Town work to build a rail line out of Atlanta heading west had begun in the 1850s before the Civil War, but problems and a bit of apathy plagued the project.  Numerous attempts were made in the 1870s to revive the interest in the railroad but the cleared right-of-way just sat idle for many years.

Once the process had begun to set the tracks citizens understood the huge significance to the surrounding area and the papers reported new details of the railroad's process every day.  

Sweetwater Creek is one of the best streams in any section of this state for mills and factories.

It's very obvious the tone of the article reads not only as a road map regarding the property owners along Sweetwater Creek, but as an advertisement for others to come to the area to make their home and to build their businesses.

Coming from your city to Douglasville by the Tallapoosa Road you will enter Douglas County at Love's Bridge, and you will pass through the farm of Colonel D.K. Love, which has been in cultivation many years.  Indeed no small part of it was cultivated by the Indians.

Of course the Tallapoosa Road was the forerunner of Bankhead Highway today.

Colonel D.K. Love was David Kolb Love (1844-1892) who was born in Campbell County.  He married Margaret Catherine Baker in December, 1861.  She was the daughter of Absolum Baker (1811-1876) who ran the ferry....Baker's Ferry.....that crossed the Chattahoochee River close to where Six Flags happens to be today.

You rarely see a tree or stump on the plantation and the land is still good and produces well.  

Love operated a gin and grist mill along Sweetwater Creek at Salt Springs in the 1870s.   During the 1880s when this newspaper article was written....he also had a mill and fertilizer store at Salt Springs with his brother, Charles B. Love (1847-1911).

Back of the residence of Colonel Love in a pine orchard old Sweetwater, the chief of the Cherokee Indians, is buried.  Sweetwater Creek takes it's name from him. 

Near the grave of this Indian during the war a [Confederate soldier] stood and shot down a Yankee by the side of General Kilpatrick on the opposite side of the creek.   The headquarters of Kilpatrick, on the farm of Colonel Love, were also the headquarters of Sweetwater.

This page gives a good idea regarding the situation with Union troop movements around Salt Springs during October, 1864.

The next farm you pass is that of Judge J.C. Bowden, which is a splendid place, containing several hundred acres.

I've written about Judge Bowden before here.  Originally, I used information obtained from one of his great granddaughters stating he owned 5,500 acres, but as this article states it was more than likely several hundred acres.

On this place you will find the Salt Springs.  You can take the water and boil it down to salt.  The mine has never been worked to any extent.   Denmead and Johnstone leased it and worked it a short time during the war, but were driven off by the enemy before they had worked it to any extent.  

It is thought there is a good salt mine here.

This article was written prior to any of the water from the springs being bottled or sold and prior to the fabulous hotel and Chautauqua grounds being built.  The book On the Threshold of Freedom:  Masters and Slaves in Civil War Georgia by Clarence L. Mohr confirms Denmead and Johnstone leased the property during the war (1862) with a labor supply comprised of slaves.

The next place is the farm of H.P. Howell....or Humphrey Posey Howell (1819-1891) who partnered with D.K. Love with the gin and mill.   The article states...On this place Mr. Howell and Colonel Love have a cane mill and cotton gin and a supply of water power enough to run four times the machinery they have.  

Howell's Find-A-Grave entry tells of the tragic death of Lula Howell, his fifteen year old daughter in 1883.  

The next place, going south is the farm of J.A. Watson....James Anthony Watson....He has just purchased this place containing one thousand acres on both sides of Sweetwater Creek and from the way he moves things around, it appears he will make as good a farmer as he does a merchant.   He has 500 acres sown in oats, which are looking fine.

Records indicate Watson operated a dry goods store in Atlanta from 1870-1896 at 20 Mitchell Street.  During the 1880s he also had a store in Salt Springs, and in 1894 he served as the major and later a councilman at the springs.  

Watson is best known for partnering with E.W. Marsh, S.M. Inman, Henry W. Grady and several others in the development of the Piedmont Chatauqua, and he's responsible for the Sweetwater Park Hotel.

Going on down Sweetwater you pass the splendid farms of Cooper, White and Columbus Blair, who has one of the best places in our country and is one of our most successful farmers.  

I'm still researching the names Cooper and White, but Columbus Blair (1836-1901) was a state representative for Douglas County in 1895.   His children include Judge Daniel Webster Blair of Marietta an Ruth Blair, director of the Georgia Department of Archives and History and Georgia historian for many years.

After leaving  Blair's, the next place is the farm of Angus Ferguson.  On this place the shoals properly begin.

Mr. Ferguson owns a fine mill on this place and water power to run a large factory.  

Ferguson moved here from North Carolina and set up a mill at Factory Shoals that was operational during the Civil War.   While the New Manchester mill was destroyed there are conflicting stories in the research that Ferguson's mill was not touched.   Ferguson is an interesting man, and I continue to collect information regarding his life and property.  I hope to be able to devote a full column to him soon.  His grave lies within the boundaries of Sweetwater  Creek State Park.

One mile below this mill is the site of the New Manchester factory.  This factory was owned principally by ex-governor Charles J. McDonald and was in successful operation up to and during the war, until a few weeks before Atlanta was taken and burnt by order of General Sherman, which was a great loss to this section of the country.  The old brick walls are still standing.

The property has been sold and is now owned by A.C. McIntosh of Powder Springs and S.N. Dorsett of Douglasville and is for sale.

Dorsett was very involved with business and politics in Douglasville.  He served as the first Clerk of the Superior Court and....I will be writing about his interesting relationship with A.C. McIntosh very soon.

From this place to Aderhold's Ferry there is 190 feet of falls and water plenty to run six or seven factories as the old New Manchester factory.  This is a field for persons wishing to run cotton mills by water power.  

This is good country for capitalism.  It is undeveloped.  About two-thirds of our land is original forests.   With railroad facilities we are bound to prosper.  Land is cheap and plenty for sale.

Aderhold's Ferry was located where Riverside Parkway cross Sweetwater Creek.   

Getting back to my original thoughts....we like to think about how advanced we are today with various communication devices, various forms of media outlets streaming news twenty-four hours a day...yet, the people who lived along Sweetwater Creek in 1882 seemed to have a great social network themselves.

The folks along the Sweetwater corridor supported one another, went into business together, married into each other's families, and formed a thriving community yet they did it in a very simple way.

I have to wonder....we may be advanced technologically, but are we any further along socially?

The pictures with this post were taken along Sweetwater Creek by Mike Shirley, a longtime Douglas County resident.  You can find MIke's blog, "Dinner Table Stories"  here.