Buchanan Timeline
1880s - 1902
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1880
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Buchanan pop. 158
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Sept 1881
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Buchanan town incorporation amended on the 20th, now providing that the government of said town shall be vested in a Mayor and four Councilmen... who shall hold their offices for one year. G. M. Roberts is appointed Mayor, while J. Williamson, T. H. Riddlepurger, T. J. Lovelace, and D. B. Head are appointed Councilmen until the first Saturday in November. These officers are now obliged to keep, or cause to be kept, open to the inspection of the citizens of said town a record of its proceedings in full, as well as the acts and doings of all its officers, and a full and itemized statement and account of all moneys...
The town gains the explicit power to establish, open, change and abolish streets and alleys... by paying the owners of such property required to be taken... just compensation for the same which passages the town is obliged to keep unobstructed and in good repair and order by using a power to require and compel persons resident... who are subject to road duty, to work on... not to exceed fifteen days in each year, but may receive in lieu thereof such commutation fee as may be by said Mayor and Council prescribed. The town can now tax real and personal property at up to 50% of the state tax rate on same, as well as levy special taxes on shows and exhibitions for gain, on peddlers and itinerant traders, and on billiard tables, pool tables, bagatelle tables, and all other establishments for amusement and gain,. The town gains the power to license and regulate the sale of liquor. The mayor gains judicial power, and the mayor and council can provide for the arrest, trial, and punishment of offenders and impose upon the guilty fine, imprisonment, or work on the streets of said town; Provided, such fine shall not exceed fifty dollars, and such imprisonment or work shall not exceed thirty days; and any one or all of said punishments may be inflicted in the discretion of the Mayor and Councilmen. Town limits are expanded to a 1.25 mile diameter circle. |
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Circa 1881
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Buchanan is shown on a new map. The proposed route of the Georgia Pacific Railroad through Haralson County is shown. In 1881, the Rome And Carrollton Railroad is chartered to build a rail line between the two towns, but would never lay any track under that name.
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Sept 1882
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Pay $80 for bridge for road from town to Draketown crossing the Little River built by W. H. Bush and J. R. Davenport
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Sept 1883
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The Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee Railroad Company is incorporated to build a railroad to run from Rome, Georgia, by way of Buchanan, in Haralson county, to Carrollton, or Bowden, in Carroll county, Georgia. The details of its failure to serve town are unknown.
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1883
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Buchanan is marked on a new map. The new Georgia Pacific Railroad runs east-to-west several miles south of town.
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Jan 1884
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Haralson County Banner starts publication in Buchanan. This is Haralson County's first local newspaper. A Georgia Dept. of Agriculture book published next year would take note of it as a locally-focused weekly.
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1884
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Buchanan Academy opens. Monthly school tuition: elementary $1.50, high $3. So-called "Old Field Schools" serve others in countryside.
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Oct 1885
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The Columbus and Northern Railway Company is incorporated to build a railroad from the city of Columbus, in Muscogee county, by way of... by way of Carrollton, in Carroll county, Buchanan, in Haralson county, and Cedartown, in Polk county. The details of its failure to serve town are unknown.
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Jan 1886
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Under the title Killed With A Stone, dateline Buchanan, GA, The New York Times reports this month The murder of J.W. Holland by Bud Hughes has created a great sensation here, where both men were well known. Both were prosperous farmers, and were members of the same Baptist church. Some time ago Hughes contracted a debt with Holland, in satisfaction for which he proposed to give notes to cover the new year. This he failed to do. Photograph of original article.
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Mar 1886
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The New York Times this month reports the murder in the Buchanan area of George Elliot by Henry Norris for what it calls a trifling cause. It adds The friends of the murdered man are terribly enraged, and threaten summary measures.
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Aug 1886
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The New York Times this month carries an item from the Haralson (Ga.) Banner, writing: Living between Buchanan and Draketown is one of the most thorough-going women we know of... Mrs. [M.E.] Smith's husband died three or four years ago, and since that time she has built a dwelling worth $400 and cleared up over 30 acres of land. She hired a young man and went with him to the woods... The financial management of this lady surpasses a majority of our men and would do credit to most of them.
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Oct 1886
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Until 1924, judicial execution of criminals in Georgia was carried out by the counties. The only such act in Haralson County took place in town on the 24th of this month, when Henry Norris, a white man many considered mentally unbalanced, but ruled sane and convicted of murder, was gruesomely executed by a botched hanging.
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1887
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The Chattanooga, Rome and Columbus Railroad (until this year called the Rome And Carrollton Railroad) lays track through town, connecting it with Bremen, Felton and points far beyond. It is 17 years since the first hope of railroad service was raised!
*Click the related images below to view full-sized version*
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1888
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Buchanan Methodist Church southwest of courthouse burns; rebuilt church, also framed, sits due west of courthouse. Presumably it is this blaze which was the one which damaged the (first) Haralson County courthouse this year.
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Jul 1888
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Buchanan High School, housed in a wooden building, opens - boarding of students typical. Monthly school tuition: elementary $1.25, high $3.
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Nov 1889
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Buchanan town incorporation amended on the 7th, providing for a Mayor and Council. M. J. Head is appointed Mayor; J. Williams, T. P. Moore, Isaac Weathersby, and R. E. Loveless are appointed Councilmen until the election of Jan 1890. The Mayor and Council have the new duty to appoint three upright, discreet and intelligent free-holders of said town to serve as a Board of Tax Assessors. Taxes of up to 1% on both real and personal property, as well as financial assets within the town are now authorized. Real property with street frontage is subject to a lien to finance its sidewalk and every male inhabitant of said town, who is subject to road duty under the laws of the State can be compelled (apparently without explicit limit) to work on the town streets, or pay a commutation tax the Mayor and Council prescribe. Special taxes are authorized for shows and exhibitions, as well as pool & billiard tables and ten pin alleys.
A variety of other regulatory powers are created, including those relating to the prohibition of free-ranging animals, the speed of animals & vehicles, guarding against fire hazards, keeping combustibles, steam engines, the taxation of liquor dealers, and the creation of street lighting and public parks. The Mayor's judicial power expands to exclude the Council in setting punishment, and he can now impose punishment on convicts by a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the calaboose of said town not to exceed thirty days, and to work at hard labor on the streets, or such other public works of said town as the Mayor shall adjudge, not to exceed thirty days. Any one, or all the punishments may be inflicted... |
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1890
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Buchanan pop. 324. A letter published in The Haralson Banner says: ...steps should be taken at once to build a commodious courthouse instead of the dilapidated structure that now occupies the public square. It is whispered now that Buchanan is dead and that we (Tallapoosa and Bremen) will draw straws for the county seat.
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Jan 1891
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Buchanan newspaper Haralson Banner renamed Banner-Messenger. It will publish until at least November 1900. Also this month, the decision is made to build a new county courthouse.
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May 1891
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G. W. Goulding gets a contract to build the second Haralson County courthouse, (now the Historic Courthouse) for $19,000. County leader, Ordinary S. M. Davenport will later supplement this by warrant with an additional $1,000 and be turned out of office at the next election.
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Jun 1891
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The Banner-Messenger describes the newly completed courthouse so: The dimensions on the ground are 64x92 feet... [On] the second floor... [is] the Superior Court room... [which includes] seating, on raised floor, [of] 250 to 300 person comfortably... The exterior... makes a very neat and attractive building with a large corner tower about 110 feet high, and on the other corner a small round turrett..."
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Mar 1892
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The courthouse is christened with a dance.
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May 1892
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The Atlanta Constitution runs this headline: Down the Gentry Desperadoes in Haralson. FOR THE MURDER OF BYRNES, Irish Peddler, Who Was Killed Near Buchanan in March
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1893
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Buchanan is marked on a new map. The Chattanooga, Rome and Columbus Railroad is shown passing through town.
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Dec 1894
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Under the title Killed a Masked Robber this month The New York Times reported that Three masked man last night attempted to kill and rob B. D. Summerlin, an old man living at Buchanan, Ga., who was reported to have money at his house. The old man seized a knife and in the encounter killed one of his assailants. One of the robbers shot the old man, and he will probably die. The other two assailants escaped, but a posse is in pursuit. Photograph of original article (at bottom). One wonders what relation B. D. Summerlin might have been to William Wesley Summerlin, aid and successor to Ralph Spencer, the Tallapoosa promoter.
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Oct 1895
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Town votes $3,000 in bonds to build elementary school building.
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Aug 1896
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Town school opens, supported by both local taxes & student tuition.
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Circa 1896
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 click image to view full-sized version
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Dec 1897
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The Tribune newspaper begins publication in Buchanan. With the demise of the Banner-Messenger in a few years, it would style itself successor to the shuttered journal. In our composite profile of The Tribune in this era (image below), we aggregate 1913 photographs of the staff with a 1906 masthead. The paper comes out every Friday, and an annual subscription runs $0.75 in 1906, but ...widows of ex-Confederate soldiers, residing in Haralson county, can receive the paper free. The 1906 masthead lists a telephone for this Official Organ of Haralson Co. - 'Phone No. 25.
 click image to view full-sized version
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1897
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The Chattanooga, Rome and Columbus Railroad serving town is sold and renamed the Chattanooga, Rome and Southern Railway.
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1898-1907
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The surviving original written records of the town begin with those created in its fifth decade, the so-called Mayor's Books, almost completely devoted to recording outcomes of Mayor's Court cases. These three volumes survived the 1950 record fire and are archived at the Historic Courthouse today. (Dec. 2007). A popular offense of the time is "drunk and disorderly", which often draws a $2 fine, the daily wages of the highest county official (the Orderly). $2 also happens to be a typical price in newspaper ads for a gallon jug of "mountain dew" corn liquor, giving the typical fine a liquid volume equivalent - one gallon!
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1898-1902
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Buchanan Mayors:
J.S. Ridgdill (Mar-Aug 1898) W.R. Hutcheson [Mayor Pro Tem] (May 1898) Dr. J.T. Cobb (Nov 1898- Feb 1899) E.S. Griffith (Apr 1890- Jan 1902) |
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1899
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Buchanan is marked on a new map.
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Nov 1900
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"John Robinson's big show in Carrollton" leads the railroad to run a one-day excursion train to it. Roundtrip fares from various towns are as follows: Cedartown $1, Youngs, $0.90, Dug Down $0.80, Felton, $0.75, Buchanan $0.65, Bremen $0.40, Mandeville, $0.40.
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1900
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Buchanan population 359
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Circa 1900
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 click to view full-sized image
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Jan 1901
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The Tribune runs an article titled WHITE WEDS BLACK. It reads in part: Charles Johnson, a white man, and Eleanor Moody, a mulatto girl, were arrested in Atlanta, Ga., Thursday morning on the charge of having violated the state law by getting married... Johnson admits the charge, and makes a statement which would indicate that the man is either a degenerate or a lunatic... The woman says she married the white man because he worried her so, and that was the only way to get rid of him... Johnson and the woman arrived in Atlanta from Rome... The couple finally went to the office of Justice Cook, so they stated, and were married... It is presumed that Justice Cook, if he performed the ceremony, supposed Johnson to be a man with negro blood in his veins... Johnson's home is in Rome, Ga., and he is said to belong to one of the best families in that city. He has travelled a great deal, and is a stock trader by trade... Johnson is about thirty years of age and the woman about twenty... To a reporter of The Constitution the man stated that he married the mulatto girl because he loved her, and it was nobody's business. He said he intended to take her to Cuba, where such marriages are not socially barred. He claims not to have known that he had violated the law of Georgia... Johnson sent for a reporter and handed him a manuscript which he said was a sketch of his life which he wanted published. It was a lot of allusions to his love for the negro race, which were unfit for publication. A follow-up article bore the following heading: LAW IS DEFECTIVE / Whites and Negroes Can Marry In Georgia With Impunity. / NO PROVISION FOR PUNISHMENT / Statute Aims Only at Ministers or Justices Who Perform Such Ceremony.
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Nov 1901
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Late last month The Tribune reported Booker T. Washington, colored, president of the Tuskegee, Ala. institute, was a guest of President and Mrs. Rooosevelt at dinner at the white house... Washington is probably the first American negro to dine with a president of the United States and his family, although it was reported that President Cleveland once entertained a negro friend at the white house board. This month the paper offers these opinions: Whatever else may turn up, it is certain that Mr. Roosevelt will never be loved for his "nigger" dinner guests... The negro preachers are doing their best to keep the country from forgetting Roosevelt's dinner to Booker Washington... No man has ever been great enough, and no man will ever be great enough to wipe out nature's line between a superior and an inferior race.
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Dec 1901
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Local newspaper reports on a demonstration in town of an innovative mining device by Mr. Chas. F. Durr.
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1901
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The Chattanooga, Rome and Southern Railway is purchased by the Central of Georgia Railway (sic.).
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1902
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Mayor W. T. Eaves
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Sept 1902
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Local newspaper item from Principal R.L. Dodd, A.B. of Buchanan High School notes that: We do not solicit idlers - boys and girls who attend school for a 'big time'. We do desire those who are earnest and in whose minds we can inspire a thirst for knowledge, and for the higher and better things in life... Our boys must be gentlemen. Our girls must be ladies. Slovenly habits, swearing, and 'cigaretteing' will not be a part of our school. In an issue four years hence, The Tribune will say of the school: The curriculum is high and standard. A graduate of Buchanan High School may enter the sophomore class at the university, Emory or Mercer.
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Dec 1902
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Newspaper item advocating state-wide textbook uniformity compares Georgia, using county-wide systems, with lower-cost North Carolina, using a state-wide system.
Holmes' Reader GA NC First Book $0.18 $0.13 Second Book $0.29 $0.22 Third Book $0.46 $0.29 Fourth Book $0.58 $0.36 Fifth Book $0.85 $0.42 |
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Dec 1902
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Buchanan, until now a town, is re-incorporated as a CITY by Georgia on the 13th.
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