Early Chamber of Commerce

The purpose of the Chamber of Commerce has changed drastically since it was organized here 94 years ago. The original intent was to educate the progressive farmers in the area, among other things. The Tri-State Fair was an event the Chamber put on each year that drew thousands of people into the city. The name of the fair was eventually changed to the Tri State Watermelon Festival, and in 1939 it drew a crowd of more than 15,000 from the three-states area.

The following article was originally published in a 1929 Citizens Journal.

WORK DONE BY ATLANTA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND AGRICULTURE

The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture was organized in April, 1926. The birth of this organization came as an outgrowth of the need for cooperative effort on the part of the citizenship of Atlanta, and to meet the demands for organized civic enterprise and community development and expansion. Since its organization, and during the three short years of its existence, it has been of inestimable value to Atlanta and Cass County.

In formulating the program of activities for the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, the Board of Directors, were fortunate in having elected as their president, Hon. H. A. O’Neal, who has served continuously as president since the organization.

Mr. O’Neal has made a lasting contribution to the Chamber and the city, in the proper exercise of his administrative functions. He has been in close and intimate touch with the work of the organization every day since its organization; he has personally supervised its operations and scrutinized its expenditures, and has given exceptionally freely of his time, his thought, and his remarkability, and in common with his associates on the Board of Directors he has faithfully and ably fulfilled the duties of his office.

The Chamber has been fortunate in having at its head a Board of Directors composed of intelligent, public-spirited and progressive men, whose faith in Atlanta is well known, and whose ability is unquestioned. The accomplishments of the organization, in a large measure, are due to the untiring efforts of these men. The directors and members of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture have based their activities on the hypothesis that the trade territory of Atlanta, inhabited by the intelligent and progressive farmers of this section, contained the key to the prosperity of Atlanta and her friends and neighbors of Cass County. And with this attitude in mind, this organization has launched and put over an agricultural program that has no equal or parallel in this section.

Quoting the Hon. W. N. Blanton, manager of the East Texas Chamber of Commerce, he says, “After reading the annual report of your secretary, I am convinced that your organization has put over the most complete and far-reaching agricultural program ever initiated by any little city in East Texas.”

The Chamber has been active in the educational phase of its agricultural program. Farmers night schools have been taught in twenty-one rural communities and have been attended by over three thousand farmers. These night schools have been a very potent factor in moulding the progressive attitude that exists in the mind of the average farmer in the Atlanta trade territory. Improved farm practices have followed in the wake of these night schools. Farmers have bought cooperatively 24 farm levels, and thousands of acres of cultivated lands have been terraced.

More intelligent methods in the purchase and application of commercial fertilizers have come into general use, and farmers of this section are saving literally thousands of dollars annually in the use of commercial fertilizers. Sixteen purebred registered Jersey bulls have been imported into the Atlanta trade territory, and dairying, an important phase of the agricultural program of the Chamber, has been given much impetus. Plans are now in progress that will give the farmers of this section an adequate and satisfactory market for their dairy products.

Two annual Home Orchard campaigns have been conducted by the Chamber that have resulted in the planting of 242 home orchards, that totaled in excess of 9,000 fruit trees. A comprehensive follow-up program is in progress wherein farmers are given instructions as to how to spray and prune these trees and to care for them properly.

The community cotton plot contest sponsored by the Chamber and participated in by 19 communities has yielded $4,309.00 to the rural schools of this section. This project alone justifies the existence of the organization.

The Tri-State Fair of Atlanta is another project of the Chamber. This fair has, in three short years, grown to be one of the largest fairs in this section of the State, from a standpoint of quantity and quality of exhibits, and from attendance.

Another substantial element of the agricultural program of the Chamber in cooperation with the Board of Education of the Atlanta High School, is the establishment of a department of Vocational Agriculture in the school.

This department gives scientific agricultural instruction to approximately fifty farm boys, who attend the Atlanta High School each year. These boys, in their home project work, earn from three to four thousand dollars annually, and learn the scientific angle of farming. This department has added three units of affiliation to the high school.

Many substantial civic improvements in the city of Atlanta have been brought about through the activities of the Chamber. New fronts to many of the business houses, new and modern awnings, paved streets, and enumerable other improvements can be traced to the activities of the organization.

The most potent and far-reaching contribution that the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture has made to Atlanta and her trade territory, is the cooperative spirit and friendly attitude that exists today between the business and professional people of Atlanta and the farmers of this section. The old antiquated idea that there is an imaginary line that separated Atlanta and the adjacent communities to Atlanta has been obliterated, and today there, exists a feeling between these people that bespeaks good will, friendship, and deep seated community loyalty and patriotism.

The contribution of this organization to the society of this section has been made very largely by the progressive attitude and active cooperation on behalf of the farmers of the Atlanta trade territory towards the board of directors and membership of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. This progress, coming in the wake of the outcome of the constructive program of this organization, is, however, in its infancy, and its potential value to Atlanta and this section is just now being realized by its constituents.

Certainly with this long line of accomplishments to its credit in the past, the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture will within the next decade, contribute immeasurably to the betterment and to the uplifting of the good people of this section, and will add many leagues to advancement of Atlanta and the Atlanta trade territory on the great highway of progress.