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CHAPTER 17 1839 URING the summer of 1839 a young man of 27, even then upon the road to distinction, was traveling through De Kalb County with a companion, C. C. Hammock. The young man was Alexander Hamilton Stephens. Stopping at the southeastern terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, he stood apart from others who may have been present and, gazing into the distance, became silent in contemplation. His companion, noticing this, asked, "Why such interest?" His answer was, "I was just thinking what a magnificent inland city will at no distant date be built here."1 Indeed Stephens had been and continued to be a staunch advocate of the W. & A. He lived to see his prophecy realized, and to die, forty-four years later, the duly elected resident of the Governor's Mansion at Peachtree and Cain streets in Atlanta. His companion of the summer of 1839, Cicero C. Hammock, was to serve as mayor of Atlanta in 1873, 1875 and 1876. By 1839 trains of the Georgia Railroad were running as far as Greensboro and averaging about twelve miles per hour. One schedule called for an Augusta departure time of 6 P.M. with arrival in Greensboro, a distance of 93 miles, at 1 A.M.2 Night running in these early days, without benefit of headlights, was dangerous in spite of the slow speeds attained. One rainy night, the Augusta-Greensboro evening run came to an untimely end. A washout had occurred which the engineer could not see. In the ensuing wreck two men were killed, causing a discontinuance of night trains for a time. The press, in commenting upon this wreck, proffered the advice that "night was intended for sleeping, not for traveling."3 Meanwhile progress on the Western & Atlantic between the southern terminus and the Etowah River was slow, steady and somewhat unruly, judging from the following letter published in the Southern Recorder, April 23, 1839.4 "Marietta, April 15, 1839. Messrs. Grieve & Orme: Gentlemen:—It may be interesting to some of your readers to be informed of a horrid murder committed in this county on the night of the 6th inst., on the road leading from Marietta to Montgomery's ferry on the Chattahoochee river; the circumstances are as follows: Twenty-one Irish workmen from Savannah, going to Allatoony (sic) with their carts and plunder, to work on the Railroad, they struck camp near the house of a Mr. Brumley, and about 10 o'clock went to rest, and at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning, were awakened by the fire of a gun, and next followed about seventy of the Irishmen who were engaged with Mr. Thomas on the Railroad, near the place where they encamped, with picks, spades, knives and sticks, killed two of the females dead on the spot, and severely wounded eight more, and did not stop at that, they next broke open their trunks, and plundered them of everything valuable. On the next day the citizens raised in arms and went and arrested sixty-four of the supposed murderers, and thirty-four of that number were identified to be the murdering clan and committed to jail to await their trial. If you should think any part of this will be interesting, it is at your service." D THE EIGHTEEN-THIRTIES 165 The letter was unsigned. It should not be inferred from this account that all of the many Irishmen who emigrated to this section to work on the railroads as pick and shovel men, teamsters and stone masons, were such desperate characters. Not a few of them bought land in and around Atlanta and settled down to become law abiding and useful citizens. During the fall of 1839 the Monroe Railroad opened for bids, the construction of an embankment for future use in carrying its track across the low ground between the present north end of the Terminal Station and its proposed junction with the W. & A. at what is now Foundry Street. Its main line was building toward Terminus and was then in the neighborhood of Griffin. The successful bidder for this piece of earthwork was a youth of twentyone , John J. Thrasher, known far and wide in later years as "Cousin John". He was then a resident of Newton County, having been born there in 1818.5 On April 24, 1871, a number of gentlemen assembled in the Kimball House to organize a society for perpetuating the incidents and early history connected with Atlanta. At this time the Atlanta...

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