Following the granting of an official charter by the State of Georgia, the City of Atlanta was obligated to elect a city government. If the number of fistfights that broke out in the city are any indication, Atlantans apparently felt very passionate about the person who should hold the title of Atlanta’s first mayor. The […]
Category: Stories of Atlanta
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GA Tech night school
Coming out of Reconstruction, the City of Atlanta was experiencing growing pains but one of the more positive results of Atlanta’s emergence as an up-and-coming city was the founding of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Georgia Tech had been founded in 1885 as part of a plan to build a Southern industrial economy. At its […]
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The Penny Problem
One of the most sought-after attributes in our fast-paced, never enough time lives is convenience. As with the mousetrap, create something truly convenient and the world will beat a path to your door. The microwave oven, overnight shipping and drive-thru windows come to mind and, if you think about it, you’d probably agree with the […]
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The Stepfather
Donn’s father was a well-respected mathematics and psychology professor. He was, in fact, the chairman of the mathematics department of an Oklahoma university. Unfortunately for Donn, he lost his father at the age of six months to Leukemia. The family moved to Atlanta, where Donn would graduate from Booker T. Washington high school. It was […]
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Alvin York slept here
America’s entry into World War One required the country ramp up its training efforts in order to accommodate the thousands of conscripted servicemen who were joining the war effort. Sixteen temporary camps, or cantonments as they were known, were built at locations around the country. One of those camps was constructed on the outskirts of […]
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World War I Cotton
Asa Candler is widely known for building the Coca-Cola Company from a soda fountain syrup to a household name. He is not particularly known for his involvement in the cotton industry. But, it is just that industry where – as World War I raged – Candler found a niche. It is the tale of an […]
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Atlanta Hawks prodigal son
When a professional sports franchise moves from one city to another, not everything in the process goes smoothly. One St. Louis Hawks NBA basketball player discovered, in 1966, that moving to Atlanta, Georgia, sometimes takes longer than one might think. It’s the story of Atlanta Hawks fans having to endure delayed gratification on this week’s […]
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Law comes to town
The town of Atlanta had designated its first commissioners in 1845. The 5-man governing body was comprised of stalwart citizens, none of whom had any previous experience in government affairs. They did their best to bring order to the young railroad town but, by all accounts, their efforts fell on deaf ears. There was little […]
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Ignored Laws
Atlanta’s population in 1850 was around 2,500 people, of which 493 were slaves. Unlike the southern part of the state where large landowners utilized slave labor to tend and harvest crops, the bulk of Atlanta’s slave population was utilized for domestic labor, carpentry and blacksmithing. Unlike their southern counterparts, many of Atlanta’s enslaved peoples lived […]
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Hired Out
When the colony of Georgia was first founded, slavery was banned. The board of trustees that oversaw the new colony wanted to avoid creating a plantation-based society dependent on slave labor. The decision was one of practicality and not moral imperative. Georgia would serve as a barrier against Spanish encroachment in the new world and […]
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The One
We know the last name but apparently no one bothered to write down the first name. It’s a cautionary tale about the value of taking notes on this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
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He wanted to play ball
Though he would lead a very exciting and successful life, Leonard Wood’s time in Georgia gave him the opportunity to do something he’d always wanted to do.
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Never Seen Again
He was among the more well-known writers of his day, often compared to the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He traveled in a rarified circle of fame and success which was certainly a far cry from his days writing sports for the Atlanta Journal. A Georgia man who made it big discovers the end is near […]
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In 1891 Atlanta’s Mayor began spending the City’s money, secretly buying land on the outskirts of Atlanta. It wasn’t a case of embezzlement, just good old business common sense. In attempting to solve one of the City’s on-going issues, the Mayor had made a decision, a decision that would not only affect every single Atlantan […]
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A chance to chill
It was rumored to have miraculous, healing properties and, if the first-person accounts were to be believed, drinking the water from this spring was good for what ails you. Miracle cure or not, what it most definitely turned out to be was a really good business opportunity. It is the tale of thirst and the […]
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The last of his kind
Two men sit down for a conversation. As a result, one of the men, and influential industrialist and newspaper owner, commits his political support to the other man. This is enough to get the other man elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, where, according to the plan they hatched during their conversation, the new […]
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G.W.’s land
G.W. Collier was one of those Atlantans who got in on the ground floor of a good thing. When he first came to the region there was nothing but wilderness and Indians. When Marthasville was incorporated as Atlanta, he became the city’s 1st postmaster and to fulfil his duties, he purchased a small parcel of […]
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The story of a friendly man
One of the early residents of Atlanta was Dr. Joseph Thompson, who had been lured to the young city by an old friend. Dr. Thompson had a well-known and respected 20-year medical career in Decatur but issues with rheumatism put an end to his practice. He was running an inn when J. Edgar Thomson, a […]
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He chose Atlanta
He was on his way from Covington to Newnan via a 2-horse coach when Richard Peters first laid eyes on the young city of Marthasville. It was 1844 and Peters, an engineer for the Georgia Railroad, was part of the team building a rail line that would connect Augusta to Marthasville. As he passed through […]
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From the story files of an Atlanta institution
“You want to be where everybody knows your name.” That is a line in the chorus of the theme song from the long-running TV show “Cheers,” a show about a fictional Boston tavern and its regular customers. “Cheers” was patterned after Boston’s Bull and Finch Pub, an actual tavern that opened for business in 1969 […]
