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HE election of December 4, 1878, for municipal officers to serve during 1879 and 1880 was somewhat more exciting than its immediate predecessors . Voters had a choice of three candidates from which to choose a mayor, William Lowndes Calhoun, James Warren English and Daniel Pike Hill. The Constitution came out for English in a front page recommendation on December 4, 1878. "VOTERS, DON'T YOU FORGET IT! Jim English is the Solid Man for Mayor. Jim English started poor in the world! Jim English early learned to labor and to hope! Jim English won the esteem and confidence of his fellow-men! Jim English was a gallant soldier in the late war for southern rights and liberty! Jim English came to Atlanta on foot with less than a dollar in his pocket after the war and has made himself all that he is by honest and laborious methods! Jim English stands today, in the eyes of the people of Georgia, as a bright exemplar of the progress and enterprise of the great city of Atlanta, the capital of the state! Jim English was the recognized leader of the hard-fought and brilliantly earned capitol campaign, and should the building of the capitol be required at once by the legislature, he is the right man to see the contract executed! Jim English is the friend of the workingman and no vote of his in the council can be shown to the contrary. Any attempt to array the workingman against him is useless, for he is their friend and will remain so as long as he remembers how he used himself to work at the bench! VOTE FOR ENGLISH and vindicate the good name of your neighbor, show your appreciation of his great services to Atlanta and let us give him a rousing majority today." The inning of Captain English as mayor was to come later. When the returns were in, William L. Calhoun emerged the winner, with 2,509 votes to 1,898 for English and 162 for Hill.1 The new mayor had been a resident of the Atlanta area all of his life, having been born at Decatur in 1837, a son of James M. Calhoun, wartime mayor of the city. W. L. Calhoun was admitted to the bar in 1857, and became the partner of his father. During the war he served gallantly in the Confederate army at Knoxville, Vicksburg, Baker's Creek, and in Johnston's retreat from Dalton to Resaca, at which latter point he was wounded. He emerged from the struggle with the rank of captain and immediately resumed the practice of law with his father. From 1873 to 1876 he served as a representative in the state legislature.2 Among the landmarks of his term as mayor were the funding of the city's floating debt of $600,000, from a high to a six per cent rate of interest, and T CHAPTER 57 1879 THE EIGHTEEN-SEVENTIES 953 the procuring of legislation necessary for the inauguration of a street paving system for Atlanta.3 New members of council elected with Mayor Calhoun were: Aldermanat -large, John B. Goodwin; councilmen, first ward, Ed A. Baldwin; second ward, W. D. Ellis; third ward, James K. Thrower; fourth ward, William H. Patterson, and fifth ward, Andrew P. Stewart.4 At an election held on July 7, 1879, for ministerial officers, the following were elected: Clerk, Willis R. Biggers; marshal, W. H. Holcombe; city attorney, W. T. Newman; city engineer, Robert M. Clayton; treasurer, John H. Goldsmith ; sexton, L. G. Holland; tax receiver and collector, John Milledge; hallkeeper , William A. Bonnell.5 A few changes were made in county officials for both Fulton and De Kalb, in January, 1879. In Fulton, John S. Holliday succeeded James D. Collins as clerk of the superior court; Dr. William G. Drake succeeded veteran coroner William Kile, and William A. Wilson succeeded Angus M. Perkerson as sheriff. Only two changes were made in De Kalb. J. L. Teat succeeded W. J. Williams as tax receiver, and E. M. Kittredge succeeded Frank L. Guess as surveyor.6 Under date of Friday, January 31, 1879, S. P. Richards wrote in his diary: "Gen. Sherman has just honored our city by a visit to see how nicely we have builded it up after his burning it." The General reached the city from Rome, Georgia, by train during the early afternoon of Wednesday, January 29th. A large group of people, mostly white, gathered upon the...

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