A short history of Atlanta, Texas

A settlement named Atlanta was started in 1862 by Reverend Jesse Dodd and his wife, Martha Caroline James, when they built a home one-half mile east of present(1972) Queen City. Other people soon established homes and businesses near the Dodd place, Ten years later another settlement was started about two miles southwest of the Dodd home because the T & P Railroad had changed its route. The new settlement was named Atlanta, too, and it grew into present day Atlanta which began in 1872.

Several years later the two Atlanta areas were combined within the same corporate limits, and the Jesse Dodd home rightfully has the distinction of being the oldest house remaining in Atlanta. This historic home, recently restored, now belongs to Drs« Jesse and James Brooks, great grandsons of Rev. and Mrs. Dodd.

Some early citizens of the first Atlanta were Henry Ray, Sr. who built a general mercantile business? Dr. G. H. Salmon who ran a drug store and post office in connection with his medical practice; Lovic P. Clements, Sr. who gave the land on which the Methodist church was built, and Mrs. Eliza Pattillo who named it Concord Church. Several years later it was moved to Queen City. The first Atlanta dwindled away as Its people moved to communities along the railroad.

The Atlanta community which started in 18?2 on the town site donated by Captain Preston Rose Scott has become the largest town in Cass county. Development was slow and discouraging in the early years when communities to the north tried to prevent the progress of Atlanta; also, during 1880’s and 1890*3 when several business buildings were burned. They were replaced by new brick buildings and others soon constructed. Today Atlanta is a growing town of numerous business firms, churches, schools, recreational facilities, and beautiful homes.

Additional bits of information about early days in the Atlanta vicinity include the following items : In February. 1864, Captain Preston Rose “Uncle Pet’ Scott lived in a hewn log house on a hill at the west end of what is now Miller Street in Atlanta. At that time, the main road from Jefferson to Little Rock ran about one hundred yards east of Scott’s residence, crossing Sulphur river at Line Ferry (at NE corner of Texas) and went on by Fulton and Washington, Arkansas.

On the east side of the Jefferson ~ Line Ferry road stood an old horse gin with an old-style lever press. When T.R.A. Willis, another early settler, passed the gin in 1864 he saw about one hundred bales of cotton stored in the gin house and pens. The cotton had been grown and harvested in 1861 by slaves of Captain Scott.

After the Civil War. Scott built a large saw mill, grist mill and gin combined about two and a half miles east of Atlanta’s present downtown area and a quarter mile southeast of the old Robert Miller Blaydes home.

John A. Odell who had been clerking for F. A. Schluter at Jefferson, opened a store at Scott’s Mill in the winter of 1867 or spring of 1868, Two or three years later he was planning to move into the first Atlanta (Dodd settlement). Captain Scott persuaded Odell to wait and see whether the railroad would be routed through Scott’s land. As soon as the route was assured, Odell moved his stock of goods from Scott’s Mill and opened the first store in the new Atlanta. Odell cut cornstalks to provide space for his store building. It was located on the site now occupied, 1972, by James Verschoyle’s law offices on East Street, between Main and Hiram Streets.

When Odell built the first store in Atlanta, the only road into and out of town passed through the corn field. A fence at Scott’s Mill had to be let down and put up for passers for quite a while on account of livestock.

John A. Odell and wife, Annie Willis, had two sons, John A. Odell II, and Roy Odell. Later Mrs. Annie Willis Odell married Charles L« Gorman. The present Atlanta’s original town site was established on 111 acres belonging to Preston Rose Scott who had purchased it from his father-in-law, T. J. Richie. R. P. Spell moved a small, boxed house from the Line Ferry road to the top of a hill west of town and about ?0 yards east of Scott’s residence and ran a saloon during the fall and winter of 1872. Then he rebuilt it on the location now occupied by Atlanta Motor at the corner of West and Main Streets. Bob Lanier ran the saloon for Spell. After a few months, it went out of business. Lanier opened a saloon in 1875 on Main Street east of the railroad (now the location of Roger Rice’s State Farm Insurance office). The next year Lanier joined the Methodist church, closed his whiskey store, and remained a Christian and prohibition- est.

J. B. McReynolds, Bailey Wood, and John W. Law were among those living in Atlanta by 1874 McReynolds opened and operated a general store on his lot (now Lindsey-Manning) T. S. Spell’s store once had the same site. Law had a store facing west toward the railroad. The location is now occupied by Tape & Disc Music Shop on north side of Hiram Street. In 1875 or 1876, Law built his residence on a lot now occupied by Atlanta National Bank about one half block west of the railroad depot. Bailey Wood moved from Linden in 1874 and built on South Louise where B-Mart is in 1972.

J. W. Hughes came to Atlanta by 1874, bought a lot and ran a mercantile business (on the site now next-door west of Allday’s Clothing Store). Hopkins Dry Goods once had the same location. Hughes residence was on the site now occupied by Atlanta Federal Savings & Loan Association at corner of Hiram -and Louise Streets, Overton Clark McClung moved to Atlanta in 1875 from Bright Star, Arkansas. He and his son, W. W. “Waddle” McClung clerked in a store belonging to Charley Kelley who had married 0. C. McClung ‘s daughter. Later W. W. McClung and B. F. Ellington established a general store at the corner of Main and Williams Streets. Afterwards W. W. entered business with his son C. W. “Wright” M. Clung who had a general store at the corner of Main and East Streets where Roark Motor Supply is now.

John Hardy , in 1876, built the first hotel in Atlanta. That year more than three thousand persons attended a big picnic and barbecue in the wooded area at the corner of Boggy and East Main Streets. A fine spring furnished water for the crowd. Fred Cameron now has a fish pond just south of the spring.

Dr. Richard Lauren McClung and family moved to Atlanta about 1873 from Lafayette in Upshur county where they had settled after the Civil War. Dr. McClung bought a block of land extending from Boggy and Baker Street corner to Park Street in Atlanta. A small two-room building formerly used for a community church and school was on the property. The McClung family lived in it until carpenters hand dressed lumber and built their new home.

Mrs. Dodd Coke was an early (maybe the first) music teacher in Atlanta.

Dr. James H. Hughes began his optometric practice here in 1949 and has served continuously his many patients. Other optometrists had been here several years before Dr. Hughes, but he has remained much longer.