The Town Incorporated

The first act of incorporation, of the Town of Columbus passed the Legislature of Georgia in December, 1828, and was signed by the Governor on the 19th of that month. It provided for the election on the 1st Monday in January, 1829, of an Intendant and six Commissioners, and vested the municipal government in them. The election resulted in the choice of Ulysses Lewis as Mayor, and Samuel B. Head, James Van Ness, Ira Scott, Simon L. Smith, George W. Dillard and Thos. G. Gordon as Commissioners. [Another ticket for Commissioners, which associated Messrs. Van Ness and Scott with M. B. Lamar, Fitzgerald Bird, T. T. Gammage and Henry C. Phelps, had previously been nominated by a meeting of citizens; but Messrs. Lamar, Bird, and Gammage declined before the day of election.]

On the same day county officers for Muscogee were elected, as follows:
Arian Coaker, Tax Collector;
James Johnson, Receiver of Tax Returns;
E. E. Bissel, Jas. Hitchcock, B. A. Sorsby, Samuel E. Andrews and W. P. Baker, Justices of the Inferior Court.
R. T. Marks was Clerk of the new city government.

On the 19th of January, "nine fisheries on the Chattahoochee, within the corporate limits of the town of Columbus," were publicly rented out for the year by the Clerk of the Town; but the amounts for which they rented are not published. All other traps were required to be removed within ten days.

In accordance with authority specially delegated by the new charter, the first ordinance of the municipal government was one requiring all houses on the streets and common to be removed, and forbidding all persons to cut down or destroy any tree on the river common.

At this time the "Northern and Southern mail" was carried through Columbus, tri-weekly, across the Indian Territory, via the Creek Agency in Alabama.

On the 27th day of February, the sale of the remaining half-acre lots in Columbus was closed, having continued six days. The aggregate amount of the sales was $4,585.

The Intendant and Commissioners passed an ordinance to let out to the highest bidder, on the 2d of February, the work of cleaning out of Front, Broad, Oglethorpe, Randolph, and St. Clair streets, the two latter to their intersection with Oglethorpe. Front, Broad and Oglethorpe were to be cleaned entirely of trees, stumps, and bushes, which were to be taken up by the roots, the streets to be grubbed, and all rocks over three pounds in weight to be removed.

We take this order as an indication of the extent to which close occupation of the town had then progressed from the river eastward.

On the 14th of February, the Enquirer said: "Columbus is rapidly advancing in improvements. Building is carried on in a style that would do honor to our populous cities, and with a rapidity scarcely equalled within our knowledge. Such is the progressive style, that we frequently find large two-storied houses and well-cleaned gardens, in various parts of the town, where but a short time previously, we were rambling after game. Ramblers are not unfrequently surprised at finding their hunting ground so suddenly converted from a wilderness into cultivated fields or adorned by the labors of the architect and enlivened by traffic. We have dry goods and groceries in abundance, and all the difficulty in the way of good living is the want of the wherewith to purchase the commodities. Few of our citizens having the necessary cash or credit, are often reduced to deplorable straits. The absence of the grand sine qua non, however, seems to be no barrier to the growth of the town."

There was much apprehension, this year, of trouble with the Indians. The Legislature passed an act forbidding their crossing the river into Georgia without permits. In July the President of the United States had a thousand stand of arms forwarded to Fort Mitchell for the use of the frontier citizens, and thirty or forty regulars, on their way to the Agency, passed through Columbus in July. But many of the head men of the Indian nation visited Columbus and pronounced the reports of their hostile intentions false. The "Frontier Guards" were, however, ordered out on one occasion.

Politics ran so high this year, that we find an advertisement offering prime cotton for sale by retail to "anti-tariff ladies."

On the 10th of November the Commissioners appointed for the purpose announced that they had laid out a market road from Decatur to Columbus.

The Bank of Columbus was organized this year.

We find the names of the following steamboats that arrived during the year: Fanny, Robert Emmett, and Virginia. The latter was the first arrival of the winter, and did not get up until the 28th of December, so low was the river in the fall and early winter. The Emmett made one trip in 60 hours.

Incidents

On the __ of January, Mr. Elisha Avery, a native of Connecticut, and four Negroes were drowned by the upsetting of a batteau in which they were making a trip from Columbus to Apalachicola. The Mayor, Col. Lewis, Mr. Root, and eight Negroes in all were in the boat, but all except those first mentioned escaped.

Marriages and Deaths

There was a great rise of the Chattahoochee in February of this year. Back lots (in the lower portions heretofore mentioned) were inundated, and the house of the editor of the Enquirer was submerged almost to its windows.

On the 25th of May, the steamer Virginia, a large and fine boat, arrived, having made the run from Apalachicola in 38 hours.

W. A. Spalding, of the firm of Fontaine & Spalding, was drowned in the Chattahoochee on the 1st of June. He was a native of Maryland, and was only 21 years old.

A temperance society was organized on the 1st of August, E. L. DeGraffenried, President; Andrew Harvill and Rob't Jones, Vice Presidents; James Van Ness, Corresponding Secretary; James W. Fannin, Recording Secretary; Thos. W. Cox, Secretary.

On the 8th of August it was announced that Mr. Richard T. Marks had purchased a half interest in the Enquirer.

In September, Upatoie post office was established, Simon Manning, postmaster.

At the October election of this year, M. B. Lamar, Senator, and W. D. Lucas, Representative, were elected to the Legislature.

Oct. 17th, the first load of new cotton was brought in by John D. Chambless of Talbot County. It was classed middling, and bought by S. & R. T. Woolfolk at 7c.

The Virginia again arrived on the 28th of December, being the first boat of the winter, after a suspension of navigation in the summer and fall. The Virginia took down 400 bales of cotton for New Orleans.

On the 7th of March 500 shares of the stock of the Bank of Columbus had been taken, and it was anticipated that the Bank would speedily go into operation under favorable auspices.

The Superior Court of the county then took jurisdiction of such offences as fighting in the streets and keeping disorderly houses in Columbus, as we find in the presentments of the Grand Jury at February term.

The town tax this year was 5 per cent, upon the amount paid to the State for the town lots.

We find the names of two Columbus volunteer companies--the "Frontier Guards" and the "Columbus Fencibles" mentioned in June. A. Y. Gresham was Captain and ______ Marks, Orderly Sergeant of the "Frontier Guards."

The 4th of July was celebrated under an arbor--a large crowd attending. The "Frontier Guards" formed the procession. Prayer by Rev. Mr. Hammill; reading by Nathaniel P. Bond; oration by Capt. A. Y. Gresham; dinner at Howard's Hotel.

Marriages

Feb. 3. - Capt. James Johnson, of the steamboat Emmett, and Miss Dorothy Coker.
Feb. 10. - Richard T. Marks and Miss Jacintha E. Dawson.
March 10. - Oliver Jeter and Miss Mary Ann Gartrell.
March 12. - Wm. Middleton and Miss Lydia Dobbs.
Aug. 24. - Thos. Slack and Julia Ann Howard.
Dec. 20. - Sowell Woolfolk and Miss Sophia W. Thomas, the latter of Milledgeville.

Deaths

June 1. Matthew Wells, aged 50.
Aug. 2. Mrs. Judith W. Thornton, consort of Dr. Hudson A. Thornton.
Sept. 5. Pleasant Robinson, Deputy Sheriff.
Oct. 18. Wm. Martin, aged 27, a native of Georgia.
Dec. 18. Benjamin Jepson, Sr., a native of Boston, aged 63.

Cotton was quoted, Dec. 26th, 7 7/8 to 8c. No other quotations given.

The following business men (not mentioned in 1828,) advertised in the Enquirer in 1829: