The History of Cass County, Part 7
ATLANTA APPROACHES TURN OF CENTURY WITH A HEALTHY POPULATION Continuing Cass County’s History: Other early businessmen in Atlanta included a Mr. Petty who opened a cobbler and harness shop. A Dr. Rush was also a tinker. Ben Ellington introduced banking in the town. A Mrs. Bricker opened a millinery business, assisted by the Misses Lucy and Alma Morriss.
The first music instruction was given by Mrs. Dodd Coke. A Mr. Brewer was the first agent for the railroad, and the telegraph operator was Mr. Lee. Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Moores bought the old Hardy Hotel and operated it.
A Mr. Foreman opened another drag store, and other merchants included a Mr. Jones and a Mr. Bailey. All these businesses were in operation before 1881. John Law and Joe Taylor were also among the early merchants.
The first post office in the new Atlanta was established in 1874 with Robert Lanier as postmaster. The mail was brought from Marshall and other points by Pony Express. Sawmills flourished in and around Atlanta for several years. The Sheets brothers operated a big mill and lumber yard in the north part of town.
The first musical band was organized and composed of the Sheets brothers, assisted by other young men. This band frequently assembled in the evening on the upper front veranda of their large home and played music that entertained the city for hours.
Walter Allen was their drummer. The Sheets family, who lived on Butler Street, was composed of the parents and nine sons and daughters and their spouses. They all lived together in one large home. The younger Sheets men also organized and composed the first baseball team in Atlanta. John Walker often played as catcher, and Matt Walker and Snow Groves also played with them. The pitcher was Park Nichols, formerly from Iowa.
Atlanta became incorporated September 9, 1876. Its boundaries began “at a point in the center of Hiram Street where said street crosses the railroad bed at a stake, thence half-a-mile in every direction, making a circle with said stake as the center.” The first elected officials were J. F. Christian, mayor; James M. Maxey, constable; and A. Miles, J. \\V. Law, C. R. Kelly, J. L. Write, and M. W. Hines, aldermen.
The first Presbyterian church in Atlanta was organized as Cumberland Presbyterian Church on September 3, 1871, with fifteen members. They erected their first building in 1885. The Methodist Church in Atlanta was organized in 1873 with the Rev. J, Osgood. pastor in charge. The services were held under a brush arbor until ] 875 when their first building was erected. The first Baptist church of Atlanta was organized February 17, 1875, with nine members. A. A/files was one of the organizers of the church and served as its Sunday School superintendent from its organization until his death in October 1927. The church built its first auditorium in 1896.
In the late summer of 1890, a few men got together and began church services in homes, which led to the founding of the first Christian Church in Atlanta, and in 1891, a building was erected to house the church.
On August 17, 1889, the city council passed an ordinance issuing a bond to build a female academy. A male school, named the Atlanta Institute, was also constructed. Then on July 13. 1896, the council voted to consolidate the two schools, and Professor and Mrs. M. V. Loney were chosen to teach the consolidated school. In that school, the girls occupied one side of the room and the boys the other. The playground was separated by a blind fence about eight feet high. At the close of school, the boys had to go home in one direction and the girls in the other.
In May of 1899 the citizens elected their first school board as follows: Honorable Howard F. O’Neal, president; and J. T. Chamblee. R. S. Allday, Charley Carney, T. J. Swint. and G. W. Willis, members.
Following the closing of Ben F. Ellington’s private bank, the First National Bank was organized in 1884.
At a meeting of the city council on April 5, 1897, a franchise was granted to The Texas. Arkansas, and Louisiana Railroad Company to do business in Atlanta and. further, if said track was completed into Bloomburg by September 1897. to give them depot grounds and also free taxes for a period of ten years. Thus was the beginning of the “Dummy” railroad which made twice daily round trips from Atlanta to Bloomburg for the next twenty years, until 1918 when it was ordered closed.
Atlanta approached the turn of the century with a functioning city government, a good school system, a number of churches and businesses, and a healthy population of 1.301 residents.
-to be continued-