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RAILS TO PROGRESS: HOW THE ARRIVAL OF THE GEORGIA PACIFIC RAILROAD INFLUENCED THE DEVELOPMENT OF CITIES AND TOWNS IN WEST GEORGIA 1870-1900.
CHARLES A. LOTT JR
Douglasville GA
2012
INTRODUCTION
Before the railroad came to western Georgia, freight and passengers could only be transported by the labors of man or animal. Rough roads proved damaging to cargo and uncomfortable for travelers on wooden wheeled stagecoaches or horseback. Moving raw materials proved cumbersome, slow, and expensive. The steam engine proved to be one of the most prominent influences in the development of the area. The steel rails made it possible for passengers to travel in comfort, to move freight economically, and provided the necessary impetus to bring industry, development and manufacturing jobs to areas in which gold prospecting had played out and agriculture was the primary means of employment for most area citizens. The rails also brought opportunities for savvy investors and town boosters who used the railroads as devices of speculation to increase property values in relatively isolated regions along the tracks. The following case study of six towns in North Georgia between Atlanta and the Alabama state line will show that local entrepreneurs and “boosters” also played significant roles in the effect of the Georgia Pacific Railway on local communities along its right-of-way.
In his book, The Transportation Revolution, author and historian George W. Taylor contrasted the expense of transatlantic shipping costs versus transportation costs after the cargo was offloaded in America. “In 1816, the Senate reported that one ton of goods from Europe, traveling 3,000 miles, could be shipped for $9; the same shipment could be carried only 30 miles overland in the United States for the same price.” [1] The establishment of American railroads significantly changed that equation. The steam engine and steel rail made astounding contributions to the economy and industrial development of the nation’s economy, and specifically to that of the West Georgia region after 1881. Western Georgia was typical of most rural areas prior to the railroad in terms of movement of freight and passengers. Pack animals, ox and mules teams and wagons were the primary carrier of freight and many times, damaging to cargo over the rough primitive roads. Many people rode on horseback or in cramped stagecoaches, which were slow and uncomfortable for travelers.
The war of 1861-1865 had been devastating to Georgia and the city of Atlanta, which was one of the key cities and last strongholds of the Confederate States of America. Much of Atlanta was destroyed by Union troops in 1865. After 1865, prewar infrastructure of the south, especially that of the railroads, lay in ruins. According to author Maury Kline, “During the period of 1865-1877, known as ‘Reconstruction,’ most of the rail lines were rebuilt or repaired, although the system was not greatly expanded into new areas or were efforts made to consolidate existing roads”.[2] Prior to the rail, local towns and comminutes were located near old trails or roads which were mostly through fertile agricultural areas or near available water routes. According to Fannie Mae Davis (p. 153), the Georgia Western and bought and surveyed a right-of-way from Atlanta to Birmingham that was halted by the outbreak of war and what roadbed had been completed was used to drive cattle to market in Atlanta. Davis does not give a date and states that that this information is hearsay. Symbolically rising from the ashes, the rebuilding Atlanta needed steel from Birmingham, Alabama for its new buildings and bridges. There was a need to construct a rail line to transport the bulky and heavy materials and this presented an economic opportunity for savvy investors of the time. [3] Today, there is a renewed interest in local histories. According to the State of Georgia Heritage Tourism Handbook, “Tourism, the world’s largest industry, is essential to a Community’s economic vitality, sustainability, and profit-ability.”[4] The Douglas County Comprehensive Plan, October 2004 specifically documents the time period of the inception of an east-west rail corridor. “The idea for a railroad from Atlanta to Birmingham was conceived well before the civil war, yet it was many years before it became a reality. Work was begun on the railroad as track lying commenced in November 1881, and the track was laid to the city of Douglasville by April 1882. Villa Rica was reached in July 1882, and the line was completed between Atlanta and Birmingham by November of 1883.”[5] The rail route closely followed the “Old Federal Road” as it passed through western Georgia. “It (the Federal Road) crossed the Chattahoochee at Buzzard Roost, on to Lick Skillet, Deer Lick (Lithia Springs), Vansant Place, Skinned Chestnut (Douglasville), Hix Town (Villa Rica), Hart Town, Buckhorn, Wolf Pen (Bremen), Possum Snout (Tallapoosa) and on to Jacksonville, Alabama.”[6]
Many counties and towns have published books or pamphlets that detail how communities were formed and the stories of the first citizens and their roles in these endeavors. Common to most of these is the documentation of how the railroads were instrumental in the development of these areas. As the reconstruction era (1865-1877) ended, the period of the “New South” brought a sense of expansion and industrialization to the south.
The Route of the Georgia Pacific Railway from the 1883 Cram Map of Georgia.
Expansion of the railroads enticed northern investors as well as northern immigrants to the south looking for new opportunities to make money as well as a place to settle to enjoy the warm climate of the region.[7] Writers and historians have examined the roles of railroads and the money brokers who were behind these organizations during the formative years of 1850-1910.[8] How did the building of the Georgia Pacific railroad influence the development of these cities and towns during the 1870-1900 era?
According to the Railroad History website, the Georgia Pacific Railway Company was chartered on December 31, 1881, and took advantage of the economic opportunity that a rail line along the Old Federal Road connecting Atlanta, Georgia with Birmingham, Alabama presented. “Constructed between 1882 and 1889, The G.P.R.R. connected Atlanta and Greenville Mississippi.”[9] This paper focuses on the towns that sprang up between Atlanta and the Georgia-Alabama boundary on the rail line, specifically between Lithia Springs, and Tallapoosa, the westernmost Georgia town on the G.P.R.R. line.
For those people wishing to relocate to the Southern states, the new railroads made long distance travel affordable, comfortable, and economical. Writing in The Georgia Historical Quarterly of March 1942, Author C. B. Tebeau examined the state of the Southern region of the United States during and immediately after the Civil War. According to the author, “The number of railways projected in Georgia is so great as to remind one of the periods of railway mania elsewhere of unfortunate memory.”[10] The railroads made manufacturing and industries more viable, and these sprang up readily in cities that were served by the rail. Immigrants found employment in job in the South that would have been available on in more developed Northern cites prior to the railroad’s arrival in small Southern towns that bordered the rail.
The railroad’s influence was felt in every aspect of Southern life, so much so that its development through west Georgia came to be known as a ‘boom time’ of economic development.[11] In the 1870’s, just the mention of new railroad surveys caused flurry of activity that was in many ways, similar to that of gold rush fever. Speculators themselves fueled these rumors, primarily in newspaper articles and editorials to increase the value of their investment lands, as well as schemes to raise capital for future rail endeavors. [12] The history of rail development in western Georgia was not all favorable, however. The failed enterprises led to many local residents feeling swindled out of life savings as well as deflated hopes for local prosperity. In June 1871, with the rail line ending at Carrollton, the residents of Bowdon collectively “borrowed twenty thousand dollars and paid it over to the company” to have the rail continued to their community. “Bowdon property immediately arose in the estimation of everybody.” The rail was not built, and the repayment of the loan proved disastrous for many citizens and led many to bankruptcy. [13]
The major schools of thought regarding the railroads influence in the development of West Georgia cities and towns are reflected in the historiography relating to these events. John F. Stover argued in 1955, that the Northern railroad investors during the reconstruction period (1865-1877) were detrimental to the South’s economic recovery. Stover wrote, “The late 1860’s and early 1870’s were also years of intense and profitable railroad activity by carpetbaggers and their white and colored collaborators.”[14] The author indicates that the influence of these investors into the railroads and manufacturing in the South was ended by the third quarter of the 19th century, “ By the early 1870’spractically all the political railroad spoilsmen had left theSouth. They left behind a heritage of poorly constructed, financially weak railroads not prepared for the financial problems of the time.”[15] These ‘financial problems’ referred to by Stover was a decimated infrastructure and manufacturing capacity as a result of the drawn out wartime activity in the region. However, other historians have written differing points of view regarding the role of outside investment into the rail and manufacturing recovery in the south and how these relate to town development.
Historian and Professor Maury Klein described the immediate post-bellum southern railroad situations in his article, “The Strategy of Southern Railroads”, published in 1968. After the war, Southern infrastructure mostly lay in ruins and most manufacturing capability of the region was severely crippled. Klein wrote of the power brokers regarding not only railroad development, but also the location and development of towns and cities along the tracks as well. “The men who dominated southern railroads immediately after the war were for the most part, the group that had controlled them before the war,”[16] Before the war, the railroads were local ventures that were keenly competitive and resistant to linking to other lines. These were predominately isolated enterprises backed by local citizens. Southern investors rebuilt rail lines; however, northern investors who invested huge sums of capital into the rail system soon bought out these roads. The newly joined lines created a network of rails and connected the South to other regions of the country.[17] As these rail lines were built and allowed economical transportation of raw materials, manufacturing plants were constructed and small towns flourished in the wake of these enterprises. These manufacturing operations brought jobs for workers in those industries, but also economic opportunity for the agricultural communities as well.
Other publications focused on Northern money and expertise with hastening the development of cities and towns in the western Georgia region after the Civil War. Author Wilber W. Caldwell discussed many facets of railroad expansion and how the rail lines’ influence was felt in western Georgia during this period. In his book, The Courthouse and the Depot, a Narrative Guide to Railroad Expansion and its impact on Public Architecture in Georgia 1833-1910, Caldwell states “Beginning with the Panic of 1873, a series of bankruptcies had cleared this feast from the table set by local governments, leaving a tempting array of leftovers to be gobbled up by hungry Northern Capitalists who saw sweeping opportunities for what was amount to a second conquest of the American South.”[18] Quite the opposite John Stover argues that, “By the early 1870’s practically all the political railroad spoilsmen had left the South.” According to Caldwell, Northern investors took advantage of a struggling Southern rail enterprise and infused money and expertise to influence the development of towns and cities along the railroad’s path. [19] When the railroad was completed, these towns began to update many of the buildings along the rail that were visible to passengers on the train. Speaking of Douglasville in particular, Caldwell writes, “The arrival of the Georgia Pacific in 1882 brought the usual clamor regarding a new courthouse. In 1884, the grand jury suggested that the old courthouse, which was only a few years old, ‘was in bad shape and perhaps dangerous’ and recommend that the building be ‘bolted and banded without delay.”[20] The railroad’s influence in local politics and the ways that communities perceived themselves changed when the railroad arrived. Gone were the days of wooden storefronts. Impressive brick structures soon dominated the facades of the buildings facing the newly constructed railroads.
Stephanie Aylworth also wrote of the railroad’s effects on local town development along the tracks and how these influenced the local economies. “The rise of Southern railroad towns and the shift to cash-crop agriculture were mutually reinforcing trends that fostered a spirit of boosterisim among local businessmen and professionals.”[21] Aylworth agrees with that of Caldwell in that both show the connection between the railroad’s arrival and the cities and towns replacing older wooden structures with new brick storefronts along the tracks.
Mississippi State University Professor Roy. V. Scott, in his article “American Railroads and Agricultural Extension, 1900-1914, A Study in Railway Developmental Techniques,” wrote about the benefits that the rail provided for the towns where the rails were laid and would seem to support both Aylworth’s and Caldwell’s appraisals of the impact of railroads on local town development. Additionally, Scott included the impact on agriculture that the railroad affected. “Railroads were far, the most important business group involved in the (agricultural) movement” Scott wrote. [22] Railroads meant inexpensive shipping of crops to market, as well as reducing the cost of equipment purchased by the farmers who had access to the depots. These developments allowed farmers to plant larger plots and raise more commodities that were direct results of railroad’s locations in these small towns.
The predominant factor in the location and development of towns and cities along the east-west corridor from Atlanta to the Georgia-Alabama state line was the influence of the railroad’s location through the region. However, local citizens also played instrumental roles that have been overlooked in many instances. Every town had local advocates of the rail who were known as ‘boosters’ who used the railroad to further expansion of their communities and business ventures. Many of these men were politically connected on the state level and used their considerable influence to further their entrepreneurial strategies. [23] In order of westward expansion from Atlanta, the rail route went through the areas that are now Lithia Springs, Douglasville, Villa Rica, Temple, Bremen, and Tallapoosa. Each town has similarities and differences worth examining, both before the railroad and how the constructed railroad affected the community. This article contributes to understanding of the development of these cities and towns by examining and comparing the particular circumstances of each. The case study of six west Georgia towns will provide insights regarding how the railroad’s location influenced each of them. There are recognizable patterns in the development of these towns that can be brought to light. Evidence from period newspaper articles, maps that depict rail lines, both antebellum and postbellum, photographs, local histories, books, and journal articles will be utilized as primary and secondary sources to show that the involvement of local citizens has been underestimated in the previous historiography concerning the development of towns and cities along the Georgia Pacific Rail Road after its completion to Birmingham, Alabama.
LITHIA SPRINGS
The first city this study will examine is Lithia Springs. In her book, Douglas County Georgia, from Indian Trail to I-20, local historian Fannie Mae Davis, presents many factors that were key to the development in the cities in Douglas County along the rail line. Located thirty miles west of Atlanta, Lithia Springs in the 1880’s became one of the most popular and influential young cities in West Georgia.
Lithia Springs as a community predated the arrival of the rail. Both Indians and early white settlers used the springs, according to Davis, for its medicinal qualities. The early settlement grew up around the home of prominent early businessman John C. Bowden who, Davis wrote, “became owner of the springs and much of the surrounding land. Bowden built a comfortable home and around 1850 the post office, designated the ‘Salt Springs Post Office’ was located in his home.”[24] The commercial potential for the springs began in earnest when Atlanta businessman James Watson identified their medicinal potential. Davis describes the significant trip in 1881 when Watson made a stagecoach trip from Atlanta to Douglasville to visit his mother. On his return trip to Atlanta, Watson became too ill to proceed and took refuge at the home of Bowden and remained there several days to recuperate before proceeding home. “During his stay, he drank the salty spring water and became convinced that the water was more than incidental to his recovery.”[25] Watson carried a container of the water to Atlanta and had its content chemically analyzed, which proved to be “rich in sodium bi-carbonate and many other ‘healthful minerals’.[26] Watson was already an established entrepreneur with large developments in Atlanta and saw the potential for a resort and hotel near the springs as a commercial venture.
Bowden was fortunate that while he began plans for his venture, principals of the Georgia Pacific railroad was making plans as well and surveying the right of way for tracks near the newly planned resort. Watson, according to Davis, “readily saw the commercial and recreational possibilities that would be opened by the railroad.”[27] Through an act of the Georgia legislature, Salt Springs became an incorporated city in 1882. Although Bowden did not influence the G.P.R.R. surveyors, he was indeed fortunate in that the railroads location was relatively close to the salt springs.
Lithia Springs Rail Depot circa 1888. Photo: Collection of Earl Albertson
John. C. Bowden sold 700 acres of land to a new development company led by Watson, E.W. Marsh, and Hugh Inman, but retained the water and mineral rights. Bowden began the Bowden Lithia Bottling Company, and in 1884, began the first commercial sales of the mineral rich water. [28] The subsequent development of the Sweetwater Park Hotel, one of the largest in the eastern United States, met the need for more visitor access to the area, and the Salt Springs and Bowden Lithia Shortline Railroad was built to carry passengers and freight from the G.P.R.R. Lithia Springs Depot to the Sweetwater Park Hotel.
The Sweetwater Park Hotel c.1900
Photo: Douglas County Bank Federal Slide Collection
The Weekly Star newspaper, printed in nearby Douglasville, included in a story about the hotel, that the company will “have a new engine and cars on the narrow gauge to the Springs just as soon as the money and energy can get them there.”[29] The narrow gauge rail connected Salt Springs and the recently completed Georgia Pacific track. The train, according to Davis, “pulled a car over a ‘dummy’ line carrying passengers (from the Lithia railroad station to the new hotel) for five cents.”[30] The train carried cargoes of bottled and packaged Bowden Mineral Water to ship on the new rails as well as passengers arriving and departing to the resort. Wilber W. Caldwell, writing of the connector railroad between the G.P.R.R. and the Sweetwater Park Hotel, carried “a host of the nation’s wealthiest families including Vanderbilts, Astors, and four U.S. presidents” from the depot in Lithia Springs to the Sweetwater hotel. [31]
Steam engine and passenger cars en route from Lithia Springs Depot to the Sweetwater Park Hotel c.1895. Photo: Douglas County Federal Bank slide collection
The town along the G.P.R.R., originally Salt Springs, became known as Bowden Lithia Springs and in the late 1880’s the name was shortened to ‘Lithia Springs’. The city of Lithia Springs grew as a direct consequence of the influx of passengers and cargo to the rail depot on the G.P.R.R. in the center of the new city. Town boosters, such as John C. Bowden were instrumental in crafting a city on the new rail line when the opportunity was presented to develop the area for commercial purposes.
DOUGLASVILLE
Douglasville, the county seat of Douglas County, owes its existence to the railroad and local businessmen who used the rails to gain a foothold in the west Georgia economy.
First Train to Douglasville 1882. From the collection of Earl Albertson
Local historian Stephanie Aylworth, in Setting the stage: The Development of Douglasville Georgia’s Historic Commercial District from 1875-1915 notes that the location of the city itself was not without controversy among the local business leaders. “Farm owners desired a central location (for the county seat) that was the small village of Chapel Hill, but the town boosters favored the area known as Skint-Chesnut, which was located next to the surveyed railroad right of way.”[32] Chapel Hill was an agricultural community located about five miles south of the current downtown Douglasville business district and current railroad line. Aylworth also spells out the town booster’s motivations, “Town boosters believed that having the county seat next to the anticipated railroad was imperative to actualize their New South vision of the town and industry building.”[33] Wilber Caldwell also wrote of the same situation, “The dispute raged between those who advocated a central location, and those who sought a location on the proposed line of the railroad.”[34] The locals voted Chapel Hill as the county seat in a general election that was contested by the town boosters and eventually wound its way through the state court system. The fact that town boosters could win a state court challenge indicated that the
Douglas County Map Depicting the Relative Locations of Chapel Hill and Douglasville
in a1919 Douglas County Sentinel newspaper article. Courtesy: Douglas County Sentinel.
dispute was more than neighbor against neighbor; it was also men with political influence versus farmers. Joseph S. James, who according to Aylworth was, “A lawyer, a devout democrat, and a Henry Grady supporter; James dedication to Douglasville’s success was strong and his list of accomplishments were long.”[35] Included in this list, was the successful overriding of the citizen’s vote on the location of the new county seat. In 1875, the new city of Douglasville was incorporated by an act of the Georgia general assembly.[36] Allworth concludes, “The creation and development of the town, and particularly the central business district, was the first of the town booster’s accomplishments in supporting and capitalizing on the area’s existing agricultural commerce and the anticipated railroad line.”[37] In Douglasville, typical of these New South railroad towns, building facades were arranged parallel to the railroad tracks so that passengers on the trains could view the buildings through car windows as they passed through the city aboard the new steam trains.[38]
In the late 19th century as new towns developed along the new rail lines, newspaper editorials were one of the prominent means of attracting visitors and investors to the areas. The Atlanta Constitution ran an article, “Douglasville’s Situation,” submitted as a “special guest submittal,” undoubtedly by a Douglasville town booster trying to lure outsiders to the rail side community. The article soundly expounds the virtues of the land and citizens, “Very pleasant is its location, on the crest of a ridge, the county sloping away on either hand” and “Beyond, as far as the eye can reach the landscape, is highly diversified, hill and valley, forest and cultivated field constantly present new and ever changing attractions.”[39] The enticement to relocate to the new town listed in the article included a section on the local government and its facilities, guest lodging, along with agricultural and mineral potentials. The article’s emphasizes the new railroad as of the young town’s most important features to those who would settle in the area to raise crops or begin manufacturing industries. “The rapidly growing towns but short distance away will absorb a large proportion of these products while numerous railroads will convey the surpluses in from twenty to forty hours to the largest and best markets in the wide world.”[40] Shipping by rail opened the markets of Atlanta and other points on the line to market locally grown produce that was time sensitive due to spoilage, and greatly improved the prospects of farmers who had access to the freight depot in Douglasville.
Although only 12 miles apart on the rail line, Lithia Springs and Douglasville had similar results from the railroads constructed through their areas. Douglasville lacked the tourist destination that Lithia Springs had in the Sweetwater Hotel complex; Douglasville’s residents grew much more cotton and other agricultural products. Both however, quickly took advantage of the new railroad’s capability to move passengers and freight quickly and for reasonable costs to greatly expand its manufacturing capabilities and entice new settlers into the areas.
VILLA RICA
The “City of Gold” as the city’s name translated into the Spanish language, did not exist prior to the railroads arrival in 1882. Approximately one mile north of the present day city was the town known as “Cheeves,” which sprang up as a result of the gold discoveries in the area around 1824 to support and supply the prospectors in search of mineral wealth in the newly acquired Indian lands. [41]
The G.P.R.R. reached Villa Rica and the first train arrived to much fanfare in June 1882. Local historian Mary T. Anderson documents the holiday type atmosphere surrounding the event, and concluded, “So, with the arrival of that first train, Villa Rica reached a new milestone in her history. It was evident that very soon a new and greater Villa Rica was to spring up around the railroad.”[42] As in the case of Douglasville, town boosters submitted “specials” to the Atlanta Constitution promoting the virtues of their city, and clearly promoted their entrepreneurial endeavors in the process. TheAtlanta Constitution contained the article, “Old and New Villa Rica: A New Life Given to a Flourishing and Important Section of the State.” The submitted article praises the effects of the new rail line to the area. “To those who believe that railroads do nothing toward developing the natural resources of a country, building up the towns along its line and acting as important feeders to the cities, we would respectfully invite them to a short trip out on the Georgia Pacific, when they will be convinced that one of the most important and flourishing sections of the state have remained longer without railroad facilities than they deserve.” The author continues, “In a few short months, where once stood immense forests the lots have been surveyed, sold into town property, businesses houses are erected, filed with goods, and each station is now doing a thriving business.”[43]
As a result of the Frierson & Leak Auction of town lots on August 15th 1882, the new city of Villa Rica became the latest new town on the Georgia Pacific Railroad. Just as in the case of Douglasville, the railroad also brought controversy and conflict among local citizens. “The new town has sprung up within the past seven months, and now numbers three or four hundred people with twelve to fifteen business houses” wrote the author of an Atlanta Constitution article “Old and New Villa Rica,” and that “considerable rivalry exists between the two places, each one struggling for their respective town. Efforts are being made to remove the post office, but with what success is yet unknown.”[44] Many residents resisted the lure of the railroad and fought to keep their town intact. Hixtown and Cheeves residents were unsuccessful. One by one businesses moved to the new city of Villa Rica. The remnants of the old towns are visible only to those who recognize the former businesses that were converted to private homes and still dot the landscape of the west Georgia community.
Flyer for Villa Rica Land Auction 1882.
Mary T. Anderson “History of Villa Rica” (City of Gold) 1976,” Map of the “Big sale and Excursion” to Villa Rica Georgia on the Georgia Pacific Railroad. (Inside front cover).
TEMPLE
10 miles west from Villa Rica, The GPRR line entered the city of Temple. Author Burell Williams Holder, in his book, A History of Temple, Georgia, describes the agricultural community’s situation prior to the construction of the G.P.R.R. line, “after the cotton was ginned, the farmers turned their wagons southward and traveled to Carrollton, the nearest railroad town. The cotton was sold and supplies bought from the Carrollton merchants whose stores were nestled around the square of the county seat.”[45] The economy of Temple was significantly impacted by the lack of the rails. The citizens of Temple had also realized that there was money to be made if the rail line could be extended to the town. “For months, the farm families of the area had been hearing rumors that a railroad would be built from Atlanta to Birmingham.”[46] However, the most likely scenario was that the line would pass through Carrollton rather than the northern part of the county. “Then toward the end of 1881, the railroad rumor took on new life and quite a stir was evidence in the crossroads.” Burrell wrote “The Georgia Pacific Railroad was to be built from Atlanta through Ringer’s crossroad (Temple) and onwards to the coal fields and iron beds of Alabama.”[47]
Town boosters of Temple, just as those in Douglasville and Villa Rica, looked to the coming of the rail as opportunities to gain wealth. “A new, bustling railroad town was envisioned by business men of Carroll and surrounding counties.” [48] Auction companies surveyed the land for the city into lots and distributed plats that allowed prospective business owners to visualize the coming city. Burrell wrote, and that, “The crossroads soon became quite a lively spot as prospective merchants, millers, ginners, sawmillers, and carpenters arrived to look over the land which would be suitable for their enterprises.”[49]
Following a pattern that was seen in Villa Rica, the first engine steamed into Temple in 1882 and the town development soon began in earnest. “Out of sparsely settled northwestern Carroll County this place was surveyed and platted. On October 12, 1882, a big auction was held to sell the town lots. A special train brought perspective buyers from Atlanta.”[50] According to Holder, The city of Temple was incorporated by an act of the Georgia state legislature on August 28, 1883.[51] The town continued to rapidly develop and services such as schools and churches promptly sprang up in the new town. It seems that in the late nineteenth century along the G.P.R.R., the local populations can support one town per every ten miles of track. As in the case of Douglasville and Villa Rica not all residents were enamored with the railroad’s effects. “Farmers were happy over the price of land” Burrell wrote but, “Farmers found it difficult to hire farm laborers since most of them had gone to work with the railroad. They were making more money than they had on the farms.”[52] The railroad brought to Temple, just as it had to Lithia Springs, Douglasville, and Villa Rica, a boom time of building, development and prosperity for many of the towns citizens.
,
Railroad Crews lying track near Tallapoosa. Photo: Vanishing Georgia.
BREMEN
Bremen, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, “took its name from the nearby railroad station and the German seaport town of the same name.”[53] Bremen became a railroad town with a distinction that the other west Georgia rail towns did not have; two railroads intersected in the city. The railroad lines were surveyed and laid through the countryside into Haralson County in 1882. Prior to the railroad, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia: Haralson County, the area economy revolved around gold prospecting and mining ventures, which soon played out and forced the inhabitants to become farmers and timber managers.[54] Dr. Carole E. Scott, writing in the online publication Roadside Georgia also documents the area’s early mineral holdings as magnets to settlers who, following the gold finds at nearby Villa Rica, flocked to the area in search of quick wealth.[55] “When the Chattanooga, Rome and Columbus railroad was built, it crossed the Georgia Pacific at Bremen and gave the town a real boost.”[56] Others make this same observation. “Bremen’s location at the intersection of the Chattanooga, Rome, and Columbus Railroad and the Georgia Pacific Railroad appealed to manufacturing interests,” author Elizabeth Cooksey wrote in her work, Cities and Counties: Haralson County. [57] Places where the railroads intersected quickly became hubs where freight and passengers connected to trains going elsewhere. These rail hubs had significant impact upon the community, bringing jobs and industries to the rail towns.
TALLAPOOSA
Tallapoosa is one of the oldest settlements in western Georgia. Dr. Carole Scott wrote, “Although other names were used to refer to it during the early years, (Pine Grove, Pineville, Possum Snout), a Tallapoosa post office was established in 1839.”[58] Just as the case with its neighbor, Bremen, early settlers came to the area in search of gold.
The publication of the Haralson County Historical Society, Haralson County History Book, 1983, documents the impact of the railroad in the late nineteenth century, “In 1884 a dream came true. The railroad came within a mile of the city, to the south, but for several years went no farther. It was the terminus for some time. Some of the prominent families, living in and around Tallapoosa, are here merely because the railroad went no further west.”[59] Tallapoosa became the furthest west that people could travel and move freight by rail, and being at the end of the line, a destination settlement soon came into existence.
The new city of Tallapoosa, that settlement along the railroad tracks, is a direct impact of the railroad on the region.Excursion trains that carried passengers along the rails to auctions of lots in new rail towns became commonplace in the late nineteenth century. “Starting a Town, An Important Sale of Lots in One of the New Towns on the Georgia Pacific” an article in The Atlanta Constitution , advertised the upcoming auction and excursion. “ On Tuesday, the 28th, a special train on the Georgia Pacific railroad will carry a number of excursionists from Atlanta to Tallapoosa sixty three miles from Atlanta, to attend the sale of lots by T.A. Frierson.”[60] Similar excursions were documented in Villa Rica, as well as Douglasville as the railroad provided new opportunities for land speculators to gain quick fortunes in the booming 1880’s real estate market.
The Georgia Pacific Railroad brought a wave of immigration to both Bremen and to Tallapoosa that other towns along the west Georgia section of the railroad did not attract. Ralph A. Spencer, a northern investor envisioned a planned community “for the purpose of wine making” in the area. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Spencer purchased two thousand acres of land and invited Hungarian immigrants from Pennsylvania to relocate to the region and begin a winemaking operation in the fertile west Georgia soils. The winemakers “led by a Father Francis Janishek, according to Scott, included two hundred families who accepted Spencer’s invitation.” [61] These families caused an increase, not only in the population numbers of the citizens, but to their diversity as well. The area became a haven for northern European immigrants, the descendants of whom still live in the area today. “The county’s population became quite diverse as immigrants from other European regions joined the first groups.” [62] However, as fate would have it, “Prohibition passed the Georgia (laws) in 1907 effectively ruined the industry, and causing many of those in the new communities to leave.”[63] The railroad brought tourists that were target markets of the wine producers as well as transportation of the finished products to outside destinations. The railroad’s ability to move passengers and material quickly produced dividends for Tallapoosa. Tourism became a major industry and the Lithia Springs Hotel was built in 1881. It is recorded as the “largest wooden building in the South.”[64] It had, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, 175 rooms, a large ballroom, banquet room, billiard and pool rooms, and an elevator.” The building was razed in 1943.
Different patterns emerged in these western Georgia cities. Lithia Springs and Tallapoosa embraced the railroad and began efforts to draw tourists with lavish resorts and large hotels with viable, although short-term results. Douglasville, Villa Rica, and Temple each experienced conflict among the citizenry relating locations of settlements and cities. In these cases where
Lithia Springs Hotel. Tallapoosa GA. Photo: Vanishing Georgia
towns were relocated, citizens who remained faced diminished services and property values. Although the trains could transport locally produced products inexpensively and quickly, railroad construction teams took away valuable farm labor sources limiting the production of the western Georgia farms. Common to Villa Rica, Temple, and Tallapoosa, speculators bought large parcels of land and employed auction companies to sell the lots with successful results. These auctioneers placed ads in The Atlanta Constitution offering excursions to the new towns for the auction dates. Town boosters and investors, in each of these towns submitted editorials expounding and exaggerating the potential of these perspective cities along the track.
CONCLUSION
Although it could be argued that the influence of the railroads themselves were the primary determinant of town locations and industries, it is apparent from the case study of six west Georgia towns that the local citizens and outsiders who were involved in the late nineteenth century boom years also played important roles in the development of the towns that grew there. Investors came from all over the country, as did speculators, immigrants, and settlers to these new railroad towns to seek fortunes or fresh starts in new areas. Of one thing there is no doubt: after the first train steamed into these towns, life there was never the same.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
Newspaper Articles
Atlanta Constitution (1869-1875), accessed 12 January, 2012.
Douglasville, Georgia, Sentinel, 1919.
Douglasville, Georgia, Weekly Star, 25 May 1886.
Maps
Alabama Department of Archives and History, “Map of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, c.1870,” University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Anderson, Mary Talley. “History of Villa Rica” (City of Gold.) Villa Rica
Bicentennial Commission. 1976.
Douglas County Sentinel. “Map of Douglas County.” 18 Jul., 1919.
“Georgia Pacific Railway 1883 Map”.
website, accessed Feb 7, 2012, http://railga.com/gpacific.html.
Georgia Digital Map Collection “Railroad map of Georgia 1887,”accessed 1 Jan., 2012. http://usgwarchives.org/maps/georgia/railroad/ga-1887.gif.
History of Georgia Pacific Railway. “Georgia Pacific Railway 1873 Map”.
website, accessed 7 Feb, 2012. http://railga.com/gpacific.html.
Norris, George E., “Historic Map – Tallapoosa GA-1892” Burleigh Lithography Company
(1892), accessed 1 Jan., 2012 at: http://worldmapsonline.com/historicalmaps/1W-GA-TA-1892.htm.
Photographs
Albertson, Earl. M. Portraits of History, Train “The Accommodation” published by author, Douglasville GA. c 2000. Reprints available from author only.
“First Train in Douglasville, 1882, known as the Southern Pacific.
Lithia Springs Depot 1890.
Douglas County Federal Bank, Historic Photograph Collection. Douglasville GA.
Haralson County Historical Society, Haralson County History Book. Taylor
Publishing Company, Dallas, TX, 1983.
Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia Collection. Bremen Railroad Depot circa 1925,
Accessed 8 Feb, 2012 at http://www.georgiaarchives.org.
Lithia Springs Hotel, accessed 6 Apr., 2012. http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgibin/vanga.cgi?query=id:hrl039-84.
Railroad Workers In Tallapoosa GA, 1913. Accessed 6 April, 2012 at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi- bin/vanga.cgi?query=id:hrl006.
Secondary Sources
Anderson, Mary Talley. History of Villa Rica (City of Gold). Carrollton, Georgia: Villa Rica
Bicentennial Commission, 1976.
Aylworth, Stephanie Sage. Setting the Stage, The Development of Douglasville
Georgia’s Historic Commercial District from 1875-1915. (MA Thesis, University of West
Georgia), 2010.
Caldwell, Wilber W. The Courthouse and the Depot, A Narrative Guide to Railroad
Expansion and its impact on Public Architecture in Georgia 1833-1910. Macon, Georgia:
Mercer University Press, 2001.
Carroll Historical Quarterly, Vol. 1. 1968. Winter Issue. Collection located at the
University of West Georgia Library, reference collection. Accessed Feb. 4, 2012.
Cooksey, Elizabeth B. “Cities and Counties: Haralson County,” The New Georgia
Encyclopedia, accessed 6 March, 2012,
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2344.
Davis, Fannie M. Douglas County Georgia: From Indian Trail to Interstate 20. Fernandina Beach, Florida: Wolfe Publishing, 1997.
Douglas County Planning Commission, Douglas County Comprehensive Plan, October 2004.
Douglasville, Georgia.
Georgia Pacific Railway, “Railroad History,” Accessed 21 Jan., 2012. http://www.railga.com/hpacific.html.
Greene, Frances. The First One Hundred Years, Haralson County, Georgia. Dallas
Texas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1983.
Griffith, Ben. At Home in Carrollton, 1827-1994, A History Illustrated. Carroll
County Historical Society. Roswell, Georgia: Wolfe Publishing, 1994.
Haralson County History Book . Dallas, Texas: Haralson County Historical Society, Taylor Publishing, 1983.
Holder, Burell Williams. A Historical Sketch of Temple Georgia. Centennial Edition.
Carrollton Georgia: Thomasson Printing Company, 1976.
A History of Temple Georgia. Centennial Edition.
Carrollton Georgia: Thomasson Printing Company, 1982.
Klien, Maury. “The Strategy of Southern Railroads”. The American Historical Review,
Vol 73. No. 4. (Apr.,1968), 1052-1068. Accessed 21 January, 2012.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1847388.
Scott, Carole E. “Tallapoosa, Georgia, USA”. Roadside Georgia. Accessed 21 January, 2012.
http://roadsidegeorgia.com/city/tallapoosa.html
Scott, Roy V. “American Railroads and Agricultural Extension, 1900-1914: A Study in
Railway Developmental Techniques”. The Business History Review, Vol. 39, No.
1, 74-98, accessed 21 January, 2012 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3112466
Speno, Lynn ed. “Heritage Tourism Handbook: A How-to-Guide for Georgia,” Accessed 12 January, 2012. http://www.georgia.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/Industries/Tourism/Product%20Development/GA%20Heritage%20Tourism%20Handbook.pdf.
Stover, John. F. “Northern Financial Interest in Southern Railroads 1865-1900.” The
Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 3. (September 1955), 205-220, accessed 21 January, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40577595
Taylor, George Watson. The Transportation Revolution. 2nd ed., New York, Harper
Torchbooks: 1951.
Tebeau, C.W. “Visitor’s Views of Georgia Politics and Life, 1865-1880.” The
Georgia Historical Quarterly. Vol. 26. No. 1, (1942), 2-15, accessed 21 January, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40576818.
University Libraries, “Manuscript Sources for Railroad History,” Virginia
Tech, Blacksburg VA. Accessed 21 January, 2012. http://spec.lib.vt.edu/railroad/rrintro.htm
[1] George Roberts Taylor. The Transportation Revolution 1815-1860, 2nd ed.
(Harper Torchbooks, 1968). 132-152.
[2] Maury Klein, “The Strategy of Southern Railroads,” The American Historical Review
Vol. 73, No. 4. (Apr. 1968): 1052-1068, accessed 12 Jan., 2012.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1847388.
[3]L. Blalock, “Railway Notes,” Atlanta Constitution, March 2, 1905, 5.
[4] Lynn Speno, ed. “Heritage Tourism Handbook: A How-to-Guide for Georgia,” accessed January 12, 2012,
5Douglas County Planning Commission, “Douglas County Comprehensive Plan,” October 2004.
[6] Mary Talley Anderson, History of Villa Rica, (City of Gold) (Villa Rica Bi-Centennial Commission, 1976), 80. Anderson also mentions that the Federal Road originated near Augusta GA.
[7] C.W. Tebeau, “Visitor’s Views of Georgia Politics and Life, 1865-1880,” The Georgia
Historical Quarterly Vol. XXVI, No. 1 (March 1942): 1-15, accessed 21 Jan., 2012,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/405768818.
[8] Several authors have established the relationship of power brokers, town boosters, and
Northern investors in Southern railroad expansion schemes. C.B. Tebeau’s article, “Visitors Views of Georgia Politics and Life, 1865-1880”, in the 1942 edition of The Georgia Historical Quarterly,as well asJohn F. Stover’s article, “Northern Financial Interest in Southern Railroads, 1854-1900, also in the Georgia Historical Quarterly, in the September 1955 issue both wrote extensively of the influence of Northern investors in the southern regions’ railroad expansions and consolidations.
[9] Georgia Pacific Railway, “Railroad History,” Accessed 21 Jan., 2012. http://www.railga.com/hpacific.html. The Georgia Pacific website also has maps of 1873 and 1883 that show the rail lines in western Georgia.
[10]Ibid., 7.
[11]Ibid., iii
[12] “New Line To Douglasville, An Electric Railway Soon to Connect it with Atlanta,” Atlanta Constitution, June 4, 1897, 6, http://search.proquest.com/docview/495369858?accountid=15017.
[13] Carroll Historical Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter Issue, 1968): 17.
[14] John F. Stover, “Northern Interest in Southern Railroads, 1865-1900,” The Georgia
Historical Quarterly Vol. 39, No. 3 (September, 1955): 205-220, accessed 12 Jan.,
2012. http//www.jstor.org/stable/40577595.
Although Stover was an Assistant Professor of History at Purdue University in Illinois, this article shows
a significant Southern bias, with frequent references to “Carpetbaggers.”
17Ibid., 1052.
[14]Wilber W. Caldwell, The Courthouse and the Depot, a Narrative Guide to Railroad
Expansion and its impact on Public Architecture in Georgia 1833-1910,
[15] Ibid., 210.
[16] Ibid., 1064.
17Ibid., 1052.
[18]Wilber W. Caldwell, The Courthouse and the Depot, a Narrative Guide to Railroad
Expansion and its impact on Public Architecture in Georgia 1833-1910, (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2001). One aspect of Caldwell’s work shows how county courthouses were updated with brick facades and elaborate architecture in response to being seen from the rail cars passing by.
[19] Ibid., 342.
[20] Ibid.
[21]In her thesis, Setting the Stage, The Development of Douglasville Georgia’s Historic Commercial District from 1875-1915. (MA Thesis, University of West Georgia, 2010)., 8, Stephanie Sage Aylworth cites Douglas Flaming’s, “Creating the Modern South, Millhands and managers in Dalton” in support of this line of thought.
[22] Roy V. Scott, “American Railroads and Agricultural Extension, 1900-1914, A Study in
Railway Developmental Techniques” The Business History Review Vol. 39, No. 1 (1965): 74-98. Scott also cites Frank Andrews, “Railroads and Farming,” United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Statistics, Bulletin 100 (1912), accessed 12 Jan., 2012, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3112466.
[23] Stephanie Aylworth, “Setting the Stage: The Development of Douglasville, Georgia’s
Historic Commercial District from 1875-1915” (MA Thesis, University of West Georgia, 2010); Douglas County Planning Commission, 2004.
[24] Fannie Mae Davis, Douglas County Georgia, From Indian Trail to I-20 (Fernandina Beach,
Florida: Wolfe Publishing, 1997), 120.
[25] Ibid.,110
[26] Ibid.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.,111.
[29] Ibid. The Weekly Star was the Douglasville newspaper and published by one of the town’s major backers of the rail line. The article ran in the May 25, 1886 edition.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Ibid., 343.
[32] Aylworth, 4; Davis, 67.
[33] Aylworth 4.
[34] Ibid., 4.
[35] Ibid., 16.
[36] Ibid., 4.
[37] Ibid.
[38] Ibid.,16.
[39] “Douglasville’s Situation. Its People, Its Businesses, and its Future Prospects.” Atlanta Constitution, May 5, 1888, 8.
[40] Ibid., “Douglasville’s Situation.”
[41] Anderson, 80. “Hixtown”, an alternative name for Cheeves is found Anderson’s book.
[42] Ibid., 30.
[43] “Old and New Villa Rica: A New Life Given to a Flourishing and Important Section of the
State.” Atlanta Constitution, December 24, 1882, 6.
[44] Ibid.
[45] Burrell W. Holder, A History of Temple Georgia (Carrollton, Georgia: Thomasson Printing Company, 1982), 24. Holder also wrote A Historical Sketch of Temple in 1976, which contains much of the same material as his 1982 offering, A History of Temple Georgia.
[46] Ibid., 25.
[47] Ibid., 25-26.
[48] Ibid., 25.
[49] Ibid., 26.
[50]Ibid., pp.27.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Ibid., 27.
[53] Elizabeth B. Cooksey, “Cities and Counties: Haralson County,” The New Georgia Encyclopedia, 24, accessed 6 Mar., 2012, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2344.
[54]Ibid.
[55] Carole E. Scott, “Tallapoosa Georgia,” Roadside Georgia, accessed 31Jan., 2012,
http:www.roadsidegeorgia.com/city/Tallapoosa.html.
[56] Haralson County History Book . Dallas, Texas: Haralson County Historical Society, Taylor Publishing, 1983.
[57] Cooksey, 1.
[58] Scott , 1.
[59] Haralson County History Book, .9.
[60] “Starting a Town, An Important Sale of Lots in One of the New Towns on the Georgia
Pacific,” Atlanta Constitution, November 26, 1882.
[61] Ibid., 2.
[62] Ibid.,1.
[63] Cooksey, 2.
[64] Ibid.
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