The History of Cass County, Part 8
NEW CENTURY BRINGS NEW WAY OF LIFE AND HIGHER PRICES TO ATLANTA Continuing Cass County’s History: In the early 1900s. life in Atlanta was self-sufficient, leisurely and generally pleasant. A skilled clerk or bookkeeper could earn as much as $8 a week and live comfortably on it. Potatoes were 30 cents a bushel; eggs 12 cents a dozen; and milk 5 cents a quart. Breakfast or supper at a local hotel cost 15 cents, and a good hot turkey dinner could be bought for 20 cents.
Then prosperity’ began to seep in. The first evidence of this was the coining of utility companies to Atlanta. J. S. Conley was granted a franchise by the city council on April 24, 1900 to lay mains in the city to serve the people with natural gas.
On May 6, 1901, a contract was granted to R. B. Walker and Associates giving them the right to construct and operate a telephone exchange in the City of Atlanta. On December 11, 1902 a franchise was granted to W. A. Boyton and John T. Chamblee to erect and maintain an electric light plant in the city. Street lights were also installed in the downtown area, and Mayor Paul Dunklin threw the switch at the opening of the plant. An ice plant was included in the project, and the Atlanta Electric and Ice Plant delivered ice daily to the residents by horse-drawn wagons. A sewage system was also installed in the west part of town.
In 1911, the first artesian water well was drilled in Atlanta, and the Atlanta Electric and Ice Plant also furnished power to pump the water to the homes of those who were financially able to pay for installing the mains. It was also about this time that the first picture show was built in Atlanta.
Following the turn of the century, more factories were built in Atlanta. In 1902 a jug factory’ opened for operation. It was owned by J. H. Hoffman and made churns, crocks, marbles, and smokers’ pipes, along with the production of jugs Atlanta also was the site of a tan yard where farmers exchanged raw hides for leather or paid with syrup, corn, sweet potatoes and other farm products for the tanning of hides.
Ben Singletary had been operating a brick plant on Buckner Street for several years. In his plant, he made the brick by hand. Then after the turn of the century. Porter opened another brick plant on Holley Street this one of a more modern type and Singletary operated it for him. In later years the plant was sold to R. S. AUday and finally, after some twenty years of operation, it was closed.
In addition, John S. Harvey owned and operated a bottling plant in Atlanta where he bottled red, yellow and green soda pop, filling each bottle individually by hand.
Atlanta was also the site of a number of cotton gins and saw mills which accommodated the large amounts of cotton and timber that were grown in the surrounding area.
In 1910. a new era was introduced to Atlanta when Dr. R. L. Long purchased the first automobile in town, a new red Buick in which he chugged along the streets, which were six inches deep in gray sand. The concrete watering troughs located in downtown streets and the hay barns of Mr. Jett and J. M. Pepper were supplying all the needs for the still useful horse, but the horse age was on the way out. Henry Ford was selling a mass-produced car for $825, and a major change in American life was about to take place. Exhaust fumes would soon replace the unforgettable smell of the horse as a prevailing national odor.
The first gasoline station in Atlanta was located downtown, and it also sold auto accessories. The gas tank was a one gallon stoke Browser. Gasoline sold for 10 cents a gallon and was purchased from John Harvey, the distributor for Pierce-Fordyce Association.
Most of the early cars had kerosene lights for side and tail lights. Carbide and Prestolite were for headlights. Most cars were equipped with rubber bulbs for horns, and all cars except Fords operated with steering wheels on the right side of the car.
John J. Ellington, Jr. operated the first auto agency in Atlanta, selling the EMF Studebaker in 1911-12 and the Ford in 1913. Charles Goodman sold the Fords in 1914, and Floyd Mitchell and Jewel Hutchins handled them in 1915. They were all sub-agents through the W. K. Henderson Agency in Shreveport. T. R. Richey secured the first Ford agency in Atlanta in 1916.
The first firefighting apparatus in Atlanta consisted of a water hose mounted on a cart that could be quickly attached to the back of Guy Hughes’s jitney. A fire whistle was perched atop a pole located between the present Miles Drug Store and the railway station. The fire alarm was sounded by the telephone switchboard operator.
-to be continuedinmates