A Few News Snippets from the 1880s

Over the last few months I've periodically buried myself in newspaper research mainly with Atlanta's Constitution to see what was said about Douglas County and Douglasville during our earliest days.

We are mentioned fairly frequently, and it's fair to say by reading these snippets we can get a good picture of what our own paper at the time - The Weekly Star - was publishing since the text of their articles is what was published in the Atlanta paper.

Here are a few entries in chronological order printed in italics along with my reactions and explanations.

September 10, 1882 - The first new bale of cotton was sold [in Douglasville] today at auction by Dr. G.W. McLarty and was bought by Mr. M.B. Watson, one of the first merchants of the place. It will be shipped to J.M. Watson, Atlanta, and sold at Cumming's exchange next Wednesday at two o'clock at the First Bale of Douglas County for 1882, and the first new bale for the year shipped over the Georgia Pacific Railroad.

G.W. McLarty was George Wilson McLarty and M.B. Watson would be Mathias Bates Watson.  Watson was born in 1855 and married Lillie J. Vansant. Her father, Young Vansant was the man who donated land that would become Douglasville. The picture below shows M.B. Watson and Lilly on their honeymoon.  Sadly, Lillie would be dead a year later.

Once the railroad was operational Douglas County cotton would be loaded on the train and sent to Atlanta for auction. "Cumming's" mentioned in the above article was J.F. Cummings & Company located at 37 Broad Street in Atlanta. The company dealt in cotton, grain and meat futures.

Along with several others J.F. Cummings was one of the men who incorporated the International Cotton Exposition. It was similar to a world's fair and was held in Atlanta from October through December, 1881.

December 6, 1883 - From an article titled "Newspaper Change" - Dorsett & McElreath have disposed of the "Star", to W.A. Breckenridge, who will continue its publication. Mr. Breckenridge is the proprietor of the "Fairburn News - Letter" and the "Dallas News Era", which with the "Star", makes him proprietor of three of the best weeklies in west Georgia.

Dorsett & McElreath would be Samuel N. Dorsett and Samuel A. McElreath. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find out more about W.A. Breckenridge, yet. It is interesting that ownership of the paper ended up in hands outside of Douglasville though. I'm sure the editors continued to be local citizens.

June 15, 1884 - From an article titled "Newspoints From Douglasville" - Tom Edwards showed a blue sparrow [in Douglasville] this morning that he had caught. Dr. T.R. Whitley, who has lived in Atlanta the past five years, has moved [to Douglasville] to practice his profession. Mr. T.J. Smith of Gadsden, Alabama passed here today in pursuit of Joe Blalock who had stolen his horse. W.J. Camp of this county has a field of cotton that will average two feet high.

Catching a bird, the height of cotton, and a move from Atlanta to Douglasville seems like rather mundane news to us today, but the pursuit of a horse thief is rather interesting. Note that Mr. Smith is pursuing the thief himself. No mention of the police is made.

Those were the days, huh?

Once he moved to Douglasville, Dr. T.R. Whitley was very involved with various things including the establishment of Douglasville College which was located approximately where the armory is located on Church Street today.

October 1, 1884 - The crop outlook in Douglas County is above average. The small grain crop is good, while there is an abundant yield of corn. The indications are that, while the cotton crop is late it will be much better than was anticipated.

With a population of one thousand inhabitants it has about thirty stores, the proprietors of which [have] a thriving business. All of the merchants are classified as gilt-edged.

Within the past year many improvements have been made. Notably among them being the three...brick store houses by S.A. McElreath and Brother, J.M. and M.B. Watson and Selman, Smith & Co.

The cotton receipts of the past year were 5,000 bales and this year they will probably reach 7,500 bales.

There has been much immigration to this county of the smaller farmers from the "stock law" counties.

The taxable value of the property in the county has increased over two hundred thousand dollars as shown by the tax books during the past year.

In Douglasville there is no ad valorem tax and there is now source to ascertain the increase of the town. The entire revenue of the town is derived from the licenses exacted from bar-rooms. This is placed at such a high figure that it runs the entire expense of the municipal authorities. They now have under advisement and it will  soon be a certainty, of establishing a complete system of water works that will furnish water for the whole town.

Douglas is a new county and has many resources that the completion of the Georgia Pacific will develop.

The most interesting part of the above article that jumped out at me was this particular sentence, "The entire revenue of the town is derived from the licenses exacted from bar-rooms."

Seriously?!?

What an interesting bit of history!  In the early days the City of Douglasville was funded almost exclusively by liquor licenses during the saloon era.

You might also be wondering what was meant by a "stock law county". Basically, it has something to do with fences and folks who might allow their cattle and other livestock to roam freely. A section of the law provided that land owners could keep any livestock that might wander onto their land if you were in a "stock law district." Apparently, Douglas County was NOT a stock law county in 1884.

December 5, 1884 - In Douglas County, West Summerlin is charged with the offense of committing an assault with intent to murder on the person of Tom Williams. Both are negroes. Summerlin only has one arm. Yet the evidence shows that he made Williams "tote the fast mail".

I've done some checking but have been unable to discover what "tote the fast mail" might mean, but considering Williams was assaulted Summerlin must have had the "upper hand", even if he only had one.

He most certainly had the matter "in hand".

April 15, 1885 - Real estate is being rapidly improved in [Douglasville], and is held at good prices. The population is being increased at the rate of about four per week - with new babies. The farmers are staying severely at home, planting, hence trade is dull. The merchants, however, say they had rather see them preparing for the fall payments than loafing around town now.

In October, 1884 the population hovered at one thousand and six months later four babies a week are being born. Well, it would be easy to surmise what the folks were doing in their free time, right? They were most certainly planting seeds of various kinds.

October 3, 1885 - Douglasville, with a population of one thousand, has but one foreigner and two citizens born above the Mason and Dixon line. All are lawyers, merchants and physicians and were raised in this and the adjoining counties. We have an emphatically Georgia town.

Oh my! Two Yankees.  I think my research has identified them, but that's a story for another time, but seriously...a foreigner?  I will keep my eye out for an identify.

April 18, 1886 - From an article titled improvements in Douglasville - The spring improvements have begun. A.W. McLarty has let out contract for the erection of two fine brick two-storied stores, while S.N. Dorsett will match them with one similar to them. This will give Douglasville a block of fine brick stores. Besides these there are five new dwelling houses in process of erection.

Samuel N. Dorsett was one of Douglasville's first merchants and was a co-owner of Dorsett, Price an McElreath. He also co-owned The Weekly Star before it sold, was the city's second postmaster and was on the City Council in 1889. We also need to add Superior Court Clerk, County Treasurer, and he served on the committee to secure a bank.

February 10, 1887 - From an article titled "Douglasville's New Council" - The new municipal officers were installed last night. J.C. Wright was elected mayor pro tem, S.M. Cash, marshall; W.T. Roberts, city attorney; and W.M. McElreath, treasurer.  Messers. E.H. Camp, J.J. Haynes, A.R. Bomar and W.J. Camp are attending the state agricultural convention at Americus. There are two flourishing agricultural clubs in [Douglas County].

September 28, 1887 - Can you imagine checking into an Atlanta hotel and it making the paper? Well, apparently in the 1880s The Constitution regularly published the names of people who were in town and staying at the local hotels. A blurb from September 28th indicates S.N. Dorsett was staying at The Markham. Apparently Markham House was a very nice hotel in the 1880s located close to Atlanta's Union Station. The hotel had 107 rooms and central heat. The building was lost in a fire in 1896.

August 10, 1889 - The headline read Farmers Alliance Day - Today is a great one at Piedmont Chautauqua. The Piedmont Chautauqua in Lithia Springs was in full swing. The article goes on to advise the 8 p.m. address for that day would be given by Colonel J. G. Camp on "Women and Her Influence". Mr. Camp is one of the most gifted orators in Georgia.

Joseph G. Camp was known as the orator of the south.

The advertisement states, "His splendid graceful periods are interspersed with enough humor to prevent a surfeit of beauty." Maybe so, but somehow I think Mr. Camp and I would have differing opinions on the subject of women and their influence.

Well that's some of the local news from the 1880s - I hope you enjoyed it!

Dr. R.J. Massey: The Man Who Saved Georgia's State House

Through my months of research I’ve come to the conclusion that Douglas County history is packed with interesting people who contributed to our area and to our state in very important ways.   

Some of those people were born in Campbell/Douglas County, lived here and died here like Joseph S. James.   There are others who lived here for a time and then left to make their mark on the world like Hugh Watson, and still others who arrived in Douglasville for a brief time and then moved on like Dr. Robert Jehu Massey.

Dr. Massey was born near Madison, Georgia in October, 1828 and grew up near Penfield, Georgia.  He received his degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and began a medical practice in Penfield before moving to Atlanta, Georgia.  He married Sarah Elizabeth Copeland on June 16, 1850.

During the Civil War Dr. R. J. Massey assisted the Confederacy by serving as a surgeon.   He often worked right in the field.   In fact, an Atlanta Constitution article from 1908 concerning Dr. Massey’s 80^th birthday has him recalling his efforts to save the life of General John Bell Hood when he was severely injured at Chickamauga.   The article states, “When General Hood was operated on at the old Alexander bridge hospital……Dr. Massey administered the anesthetic.”  In fact, several sources indicate Dr. Massey performed approximately 2,000 surgeries using anesthesia.  Hood had been wounded so severely his right leg had to be amputated four inches below his hip. General Hood’s leg was sent along with him in the ambulance because it was thought Hood wouldn’t live much longer and at least his leg could be buried with him. 

Of course, Hood did live to fight another day….

As the focus of the war shifted towards Atlanta Dr. Massey ended up at the Brown Hospital and helped it relocate further south to Milledgeville as Sherman’s men advanced on the city.  Dr. Massey’s position was surgeon in charge. 

This website advises [Governor] Brown and other state officials fled the [Georgia state] capital ahead of General Sherman’s army.  The Union soldiers occupied the city of Milledgeville on November 23, 1864. 

Lee B. Kennett in Marching through Georgia: the Story of Soldiers and Civilians during Sherman’s Campaign confirms Brown Hospital and Midway Hospital were the only public institutions still functioning when Sherman’s men entered the city.

Basically…..you could say that Dr. Brown and the doctor in charge of the Midway Hospital were the only officials….of sorts…..available to Sherman during his brief stay in Milledgeville.

Kennett recounts how Massey asked for Union guards at the hospital to keep soldiers from ransacking it.   He had to do this more than once because the guards kept disappearing. 

Apparently Dr. Massey kept his eye on what the Union soldiers were doing in other parts of the city and in particular at the state house even though he had no power to stop them.   

  

It would seem that Dr. Massey’s visibility during the brief Union occupation of Milledgeville and his interaction with General Sherman helped save the state house from the torch.   Though the building was in great disarray when citizens returned to the city, important documents and records belonging to the state of Georgia were saved. 

Years later the Georgia General Assembly acknowledged Dr. Massey’s actions.

Kennett also advises how General Sherman left twenty-eight of his injured men with Dr. Massey.   Sherman told the doctor to give them a decent burial if the soldiers died, or if they lived to remand them over to the care of the prison at Andersonville.   In return for taking care of the soldiers Dr. Massey received ten gallons of rye whiskey that had been discovered.  

Apparently the whiskey had been hidden by the owner of the Milledgeville Hotel in hopes the soldiers wouldn’t get it.   Instead….Dr. Massey was able to use the whiskey at the hospital.

Another book…..Civil War Milledgeville:  Tales from the Confederate Capital of Georgia by Hugh T. Harrington discusses Dr. Massey’s efforts during the Milledgeville occupation and states Dr. Massey wrote his own articles in The Sunny South and the Atlanta Constitution regarding his war experiences that were published in the early 1900s. 

Dr. Massey’s obituary  from the Atlanta Constitution (March 19, 1915) states, “He possessed a wonderful memory, stored with vast knowledge of the pioneer history of the state, and his writings, which are written in a pleasing style dealt largely with this period.”

He was a great friend to Georgia’s Governor William J. Northern (1890-1894) and contributed over one hundred biographies to Northern’s book…Men of Mark in Georgia.   The Library of Southern Literature also advises Dr. Massey wrote for Uncle Remus Magazine at frequent intervals.

After the war Dr. Massey practiced in Gainesville, and St. Simons, followed by a move to Douglasville.   Dr. Massey’s son….Robert A. (Alexander) Massey….was an attorney, judge and Douglasville postmaster in the late 1800s.   I’ve written about him here.

In the book From Indian Trail to I-20 Fannie Mae Davis relates how Dr. Massey had a kitchen lab in his home which he used to concoct cures from herbs and roots he collected across the county.   One such extract he marketed was Compound Georgia Sasparilla which was billed as….”The best, cheapest and most complete blood remedy in the world.”  The extract could be bought directly from Dr. Massey at his office and at area stores for the sum of one dollar.   Apparently, Dr. Massey also operated a drugstore in Austell before selling it to Dr. C.C. Garrett around the turn of the century.

While he lived in Douglasville Dr. Massey cultivated his love of history and exercised his writing skills.   He was an early editor of The Weekly Star per Mrs. Davis.  She states, “He…added great interest in the early paper which gave away to The New South a few years later.....and…..of several legends, giving the original source of the Skint Chestnut name.  Dr. Massey’s story has been the most acceptable by lovers of local history.”

Thought he spent his last years writing Dr. Massey still practiced medicine.   He returned to Atlanta in 1893 and served as the lead physician for the Confederate Soldier's Home.  

Dr. R.J. Massey’s grave can be found in Douglasville’s City Cemetery.

Anatomy of a Photo

Look at the wagon wheel I’ve pictured above.  Notice the hub in the middle.  Let’s say the hub of the wheel is our starting point – or a topic I felt needed a bit of research this week.  

Notice radiating from the wheel’s hub is several spokes – all heading off in various directions.

The wheel is a great visual regarding my history research.  I just never know where my focus or hub of research will take me, but one thing is certain…..my research usually develops several spokes carrying me off in several different directions all at once, and then I get to decide how to put it all together.

 

The process is interesting, intriguing, frustrating and delightful……all at the same time.
 

My most recent research involves the house in this picture below:

 

....as a reminder you can click on pictures to isolate them and make them larger.  Then hit your "back" button to return to the text

 

McElreath House on Cambellton close to the Broad Street intersection.

I’ve been hanging onto the picture for several months.  I had it stored on my camera phone, but didn’t get any type of caption with it, and I had forgotten the source.  I had hoped I would eventually happen upon the picture again.  

I finally put the picture on my personal Facebook page and hoped someone would be able to tell me something about it.   The picture really intrigued me because the house appeared to be sitting in the middle of our downtown area.  While I mentioned it might be Broad Street I was quickly corrected by a very knowledgeable friend who told me the only houses that would have been on Broad Street would have been east of today’s Hartley, Rowe and Fowler law firm and west of the buildings next to the courthouse.   Houses would have been on the side streets and along Church and Strickland Streets.

Finally, I located the source of the picture much like I locate many other things– while I’m busy looking for something else.   It wasn't the original source, but it was a picture of the house.

The picture was in Fannie Mae Davis’ book From Indian Trail to Interstate 20. The caption for the picture said, “The McElreath House –  [around 1900 used for] board and room.   Later George McLarty home.”

The house was most certainly a boarding house and might have been known as the McElreath house in later years, but according to local genealogist Elaine Steere, the 1880 census indicates the house belonged to John Morris, and two important citizens of Douglasville reported living there in 1880. S.A. or Samuel McElreath and Robert Alexander Massey both reported living in the Morris “hotel”.
During the 1870s and 1880s McElreath served as a city councilman.    He was a partner with David W. Price in one of Douglasville’s first businesses.   In 1878 a business license was issued to Price and McElreath Drygoods and Groceries.   The next year the business changed its name by adding the words “cotton warehouse” to the title. 

The store was located where the Precedence building  is located today at the corner of Campbellton and Broad.   The building is one of the oldest brick buildings in the commercial district, and I commend Greg Peeples and Allen Bearden for making the location a viable part of our downtown business district.    

Samuel N. Dorsett was later brought in as a partner with Price and McElreath. Samuel McElreath was also  involved with Mr. Dorsett in another business venture….that of the Weekly Star newspaper.

Samuel McElreath died in 1886 still a relatively young man of 35.  I am making the assumption the home in the picture above was his since it was located directly behind his business, but I have not researched the property for a direct line of ownership to him. 

Soon after her husband’s death Sara Emma McElreath was given the job of postal attendant by Judge Robert A. (Alexander) Massey.   My research indicates he had been a good friend of McElreath’s.    Massey had been appointed as postmaster in 1888 following a scandal involving the position, but he was too busy to oversee all of the duties.   He appointed his friend’s widow since she happened to need the income.

Within the year Sara had a new husband and father for her son, Glen.   Yes, you guessed it – she married Judge Massey and later had a daughter named Louise.   The couple settled on Price Street in what Fannie Mae Davis described as a three room cottage….. and another spoke for my research wheel is born.

Per the City of Douglasville’s well researched brochure titled “Founding Fathers” Judge Massey “was a local lawyer, devout Democrat, and was the first editor of The Weekly Star.
  

Are you beginning to pick up on the fact like I have that almost every mover and shaker in the City of Douglasville….at one time or another…..was connected to The Weekly Star?

Judge Massey was also Mayor of Douglasville from 1880-1881 and was a county court judge from 1884-1886. 

 

Sadly the good Judge passed away in 1890 leaving Sara alone….again… now with two small children

 

Poor Sara.

 

Within five years she had given birth to three children. One had died and she had had a child with each of two husbands plus she had buried both of the husbands.

I can’t even imagine the stress, and apparently Sara couldn’t handle it. Joe Baggett’s research on file at the Douglas County Public Library indicates Sara became emotionally unbalanced and disappeared in 1891.Baggett states his source was the County Ordinary’s minutes.

The Ordinary’s minutes also indicate that a member of the McElreath family – John McLarty Morris – was awarded the guardianship of Glen McElreath in 1891 while a member of the Massey family took Judge Massey’s daughter, Louise.

I’ll be writing the rest of the story involving Sara Emma McElreath Massey at a later date.

Getting back to my original focus – the house in the picture – it was torn down in the 1950s. At one point the property was home to Smith Motors, a used car lot owned by R.L. Smith

 

Smith Motors on Campbellton near the Broad Street intersection....1950s.   Source:   Bob Smith

For as long as I remember the space has been an empty gravel lot.  Today we see a little more action there since it’s the endpoint for the new Plaza East.   This Douglas County Sentinel article advises, “Plaza East is the final phase in a three-pronged project spanning 20 years and three mayors.  Completion is set for June….The City of Douglasville’s downtown area is intended to create a community identity and have a greater livability, mobility, and development alternatives, such as mixed use and walkability…When the plaza is complete, there will be connectivity to the main plaza [O’Neal Plaza] and Plaza West….“ [per City Planning Director Michelle Wright.

 

While projects come and go….while progress marches on....as it should....remember…..a gravel lot is never JUST a gravel lot just as a picture is never JUST a picture. 

Douglasville's Saloon Era

The word saloon conjures up images of the dusty west with gunslingers, cowboys, soldiers, miners and brazen women. There was card playing, lively piano music and fights involving fists and guns a la Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

By January, 1877, Douglasville had her own saloons as well, with the passing of an ordinance that ushered in the Saloon Era, and for the next nine years citizens could obtain a drink of whiskey in one of several saloons that advertised regularly in The Weekly Star, the main Douglasville newspaper of the time.

Venture over to the west corner of Broad Street and Courthouse Square (known as Pray Street in the 1870s) and you would find yourself in front of the first saloon opened under the new ordinance by Mr. G.R. Turner. Mr. Turner was a member of the city council and also served as the city clerk.

The building that house the saloon was also known as the Old Skint Chestnut store building and was the site of the original skint chestnut tree that gave the area its original name.

Other saloons during the period were the Alligator Saloon, the Magnolia, White's Saloon, an Stewart's Saloon was located on Pray Street before it moved to the corner of Price and Broad.

The only difference between the saloons of the Wild West and the Douglasville saloons were the gunfights, as the folks who frequented the Douglasville saloons preferred to fight with knives and their fists. Many a citizen found themselves cut up during a knife fight, but Fannie Mae Davis' book regarding Douglas County history relates there were no murders. A week without a street fight was rare during the saloon heyday, and during election time votes could be bought for a shot of whiskey. By 1881, the citizens of Douglasville and other cities and towns across Georgia had had it with the street fights and bad element the saloons brought in.

This time period also coincided with the beginning of the Progressive Era -- a period of time in American history where reforms in social, political, an economic life took place. Areas of reform included women's suffrage, education, labor reforms including child labor laws, and even prohibition. Many of the calls for reform in Georgia did not come from political stars of the time but came from journalists -- men President Theodore Roosevelt is given credit for labeling the journalist as "muckrackers" because even though they told the truth they continually "raked the muck".

Douglasville was no different. Our fair town had a muckraker in Charles O. Peavey, the editor of The Weekly Star. Peavy began to speak out on the evils of whiskey as early as 1881 and by 1884 the issue had become an election focus. Mr. Peavy also operated a barbershop at the corner of Broad and Bowden streets.

The call for temperance across the state of Georgia had begun much earlier than 1881. The Georgia State Temperance Society had formed in 1828, and when the state chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union was established in 1880, efforts in the state really picked up steam. As the debate for Prohibition became stronger in Douglasville whole families split over wanting the saloons to close or keep them open.

Peavy compared the removal of the saloons to Shakespeare's The Tragedy of MacBeth using the popular line "Out, out damned spot" in one of his editorials calling for the saloons to be shut down.

He was interested in sending delegates to the State Temperance Convention in Atlanta during June, 1885 and US Senator, Dr. W.H. Felton of Cartersville, a man whose oratory skills were on the same par with the famous William Jennings Bryan, spoke in Douglasville against the ills of whiskey and he railed against "the whiskey men" -- those citizens who owned the saloons.

Prohibition was finally voted on and passed in Douglasville on October 28, 1885 passing by 114 votes. At this time there were three saloons remaining in the city. The city council worked with saloon owners who still had inventory to dispose of, but soon the saloon era was a thing of the past in Douglasville.

You can read more about Doc Holliday's connection with Georgia by reading my post The Hollidays, the Hamiltons and the Wilkes: A Connection over at Georgia on My Mind.