They walked into the woods and made lives for themselves. That’s a concept 21st-century Atlantans understandably might have trouble wrapping their heads around. But, for the 19th century settlers whose names would become a part of our city’s history, it was business as usual. While the immediate area chosen for the termination point of the Western and Atlantic Railroad…the Zero Mile Post…was pretty much empty forest, thanks to the State’s land lotteries, people were slowly beginning to move into the region.
Richard and Martha Todd built a home on what would become the Virginia Highland neighborhood, Sam and Sarah Walker had put down roots just west of the Todd’s homestead on the future site of Piedmont Park, and Richard Todd’s sister Sarah and her husband, Hardy Ivy had purchased land up the hill a bit, within the city limits of the future Atlanta.
By 1839, news of the soon-to-begin railroad construction in the region was public knowledge, but railroads were so new and unproven that few people got excited enough to bet their future lives by moving to the region. For one thing, there was no there…there. No visible evidence of any sort tipped the hand that a railroad line was coming. No evidence, that is, until 21-year-old John Thrasher made his way into the area, built a general store and a few single-room, dirt floor cabins, and then began hiring Atlanta’s first immigrants, Irish laborers, to help him construct a railroad embankment. In doing so, Thrasher became Atlanta’s first retailer and cemented his place as one of Atlanta’s earliest pioneers. The name “Cousin” John Thrasher would be well-known to Atlanta’s early citizens. We meet the neighbors on this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
Great post. In any field, we need pioneers like this.