Opelika Branch Railroad---Gas Light Company Formed

J. L. Morton, Wiley Williams, R. M. Gunby and M. N. Clark were candidates for Mayor at the January election, and the vote stood, Morton 235, Williams 188, Gunby 162, Clark 25.

The Aldermen elect were:
1st Ward, Lewis M. Durr and Thos. B. Slade;
2d, Dr. A. I. Robison and Wm. Perry;
3d, Dr. T. Stewart and Thos. M. Hogan;
4th, R. C. Shorter and John Quin;
5th, A. A. Lowther and H. H. Epping
6th, Wm. Matheson (and Thos. R. Herndine was afterwards elected.)
James M. Hughes was elected Marshal
A. M. Robertson, Deputy Marshal
Calvin Stratton, Clerk
Jordan L. Howell, Treasurer

Council, at its first meeting, elected:
Beverly A. Thornton, City Attorney
Jere Terry, Sexton
Thos. Nix, Clerk of the Market
Wm. W. Martin, Bridge-keeper
B, Ingram, Hospital keeper

The following gentlemen were elected Health Officers: Dr. Thos. Hoxey, J. L. Barringer, Jos. Kyle, Jas. M. Everett, Wm. Danerly, George Pitts, Charles Wise, Wm. C. Cooper, Isaac Mitchell, Wm. Brooks.

Dr. J. B. Hoxey was elected City Physician; and the following gentlemen Port Wardens: F. G. Wilkins, John C. Calhoun, A. K. Ayer, Edward Birdsong, James McGuire.

The Fire Wardens for this year were: J. A. Deblois, H. T. Hall, John H. Madden, J. B. Strupper, P. Adams, Ezekiel Davis.

Quite a flurry was created in Council, in January, on the subject of repealing the ordinance of 1851 which located and regulated the Negro marts of the city. Council refused to lay on the table an ordinance amending the ordinance of 1851; whereupon Aldermen Slade, Durr, Lowther, Stewart and Slaughter tendered their resignations, which Council refused to accept. But these Aldermen retired, and at an election held on the 4th of February, Messrs. Wm. C. Gray, Wm. Y. Barden, Richard P. Spencer, George W. Lively and Wm. Williamson were elected in their places. [The fair presumption is that the amendatory ordinance was passed, but the record does not show it. It allowed the Negro traders to bring their slaves into the city for sale in the day-time, but required them to be kept on the South Common at night.]

Wm. Brooks was in February elected an Alderman of the 6th ward, in the place of Ald. Matheson, resigned.

The appraisers appointed by Council reported the valuation of real estate $1,516,970, showing a small but steady increase for several years. The city debt at that time amounted to $3,200, besides some unpaid railroad subscriptions. The receipts from all sources were about $27,500, and the expenses, with Muscogee Railroad interest, about $24,000.

The Enquirer of April 20th indulged in fond anticipations of the growth and prosperity of Columbus as soon as the progressing railroads afforded better facilities for commerce. The article stated that almost all the dry goods then consumed in this section were wagoned from Macon at heavy expense; but that when the Muscogee Railroad was finished, such goods could be sold in Columbus as cheap as at Macon or Savannah. It looked also for a great increase of trade from the Girard Railroad, and urged the importance of constructing plank roads or some other improvements to facilitate trade with the counties north and south of Columbus.

Col. John G. Winter's Bank of St. Marys suspended specie payments on the 23d of April. The circulation was stated to be about $350,000.

The cars on the Muscogee Railroad commenced running 25 miles on the 18th of May.

The first substantial movement towards the building of the Opelika Branch Road, of which we find any mention, was a proposition by the city of Savannah, in May of this year, to loan the credit of that city to the amount of $100,000 in aid of the enterprise. Curiously, the Enquirer regarded it with suspicion, as a move in opposition to the Girard road. This subject was warmly discussed on both sides through the columns of the city press. Several meetings of citizens were held to consider the policy of a city subscription of $50,000, and finally a poll was opened, when the citizens, on the 12th of June, voted in favor of a conditional subscription. The vote stood for a subscription, provided other parties subscribe a like amount of $50,000, and that the road cross the river, 192; for subscription unconditionally, 52; no subscription, 85. The Times advocated the road and the subscription.

Jos. S. Pruden was in July elected an Alderman of the 4th Ward, vice Alderman Epping, resigned.

The total population of Muscogee County this year was 18,750.

A committee of Council this summer made a contract with Jonathan Bridges for boring an artesian well, but Council did not ratify the contract. The Times of November 9th said of the water supply of the city:

We do not know a community that is so poorly supplied with this first necessity for health, comfort and cleanliness (water) as Columbus. There are many families in the city who have no regular and certain source from which to derive their daily supplies of this precious element, and whose servants are actually obliged, at every turn of the water-bucket, to go forth on a foraging expedition in search of it. The water works are as good as used up. No attention is paid to the pipes furnishing the supply, and it is only occasionally that some half a dozen hydrants in very low localities, run. Those in more elevated positions are as dry as the miraculous rock before Moses touched it with his rod.

[This refers to a system of wood pipes and hydrants by which certain parties furnished citizens paying for it with water brought into portions of the city from "Leonard's Spring," about three miles from the city.]

A gas company, at the head of which was Mr. James Hoy, of Trenton, N. J., made a proposition in November to light the city with gas. Council appropriated $10,000 to the capital stock of the company. The company was known as the "Columbus Gas Light Association." John Forsyth was chosen President, Henry T. Hall, Secretary, and Messrs. Daniel Griffin, Henry T. Hall, W. G. Clemons, John Forsyth and J. L. Morton, Directors.

Incidents

The Histrionics, a dramatic company composed of resident citizens, gave a number of very pleasant and creditable entertainments this spring. On the evening of the 2nd of April they performed a national drama written by the gifted Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, then of Columbus, which was pronounced a production of extraordinary merit, and received with much applause. It was entitled "Lamorah, or the Western Wild."

The Baptist State Convention met in Columbus in April, Thomas Stocks, Esq., Moderator.

A "Citizen Merchant," writing in June, claimed that the Eagle Manufacturing Company were then making osnaburgs "superior to any in the world, being heavier and made out of better cotton"; also that the goods of this company were sold quite as low, and in some cases lower, than the same qualities of goods were sold in New York.

The house of J. J. McKendree, Esq., at the upper end of Oglethorpe Street, was consumed by fire on the morning of the 21st of June; also a kitchen on the adjoining lot, of Mr. J. B. Wright.

The Times reported the discovery of a valuable mineral spring immediately on the river and under the bank, on the east side, four miles above the city. The water was represented as unusually clear and cool, and containing both iron and sulphur. As the Times said that the railroad about to be constructed to West Point would pass within twenty steps of the spring, perhaps our citizens of the present day will have no difficulty in finding it.

Another very creditable Agricultural and Horticultural Fair was held during the first week in October. Council appropriated $150 to aid it.

A two-story brick building owned by Messrs. Mott and Cleghorn, and occupied by Mr. S. C. Pryor as the "Exchange" bar and billiard room, was burned on the 15th of November.

An extraordinary and disastrous flood in the river occurred on the 25th of November. During hard rains the river rose thirty feet, and "a section of the east wall of the reservoir extending from the Eagle Factory to the Palace Mills and Variety Works, gave way under the pressure of water, and carried with it the flume of the Palace Mills and the bridge which connected the Variety Works with the shore." Fifteen men and a boy were in the Works at the time, and these were cut off' from the main land by a current which no boat could cross. The river was still rising at the rate of three feet an hour. After a number of unsuccessful efforts, communication was established by means of a light cord and weight at first, and then by ropes passed, connecting the second story of the Variety Works with a pile of rock on shore. A basket was made to slide upon the ropes, drawn by cords, and in this frail conveyance the people in the Variety Works were taken from their perilous position to the land. Mayor J. L. Morton fell from a rock into the river, swam thence to another rock, where he had to remain until communication was in like manner established with him and he was rescued. The damage done to all the factory business was very great. The machinery in the Variety Works, the Palace Mills, and all the Factories except the Coweta, which stood at the dam (now known as the old upper dam) was stopped. Four or five hundred operatives and their families were temporarily thrown out of employment.

The Female Orphan Asylum was destroyed by fire on the night of the 9th of December. But the citizens raised in a few hours a subscription of $1,700 to rebuild it.

The 4th of July was celebrated by the City Light Guards, the Ringgold Artillery, and the Fire Companies, by an excursion on the railroad, some 22 miles from the city. The declaration was read by Private Salisbury, and the oration delivered by Thomas J. Nuckolls, Esq. The Columbus Guards went to Montgomery and had a fine time there.

The first bale of new cotton was received on the 20th of August, from the plantation of Charles Fisher, Esq., of Muscogee County. It was sold at 10 cents.

The third annual Fair of the Georgia and Alabama Agricultural Society was held in Columbus on the 6th and 7th of October.

Five deaths occurred in the city during the first week in December, from cholera morbus caused by eating bad oysters. A report got out in the country that it was Asiatic cholera.

Up to the 15th of May, Columbus received 42,976 bales of cotton. Prices in January, 5� to 7 cents; in May, 6� to 8�; in October, 8� to 9� cents.

Personal

The M. E. Church appointments for Columbus were Revs. W. Crumley, J. L. Pierce and T. H. Jordan. Rev. J. E. Evans was Presiding Elder of the District.

A. S. Rutherford was Sheriff; John Sturgis, Clerk of the Superior Court; A. P. Jones, Clerk of the Inferior Court; John Johnson, Ordinary; H. Noble, Tax Collector; Dan. J. Reese, Tax Receiver; J. B. Hicks, Coroner; and Philip Lamar, County Surveyor of Muscogee County.

T. Lomax, Esq., became one of the editors of the Southern Sentinel in February.

Marriages

January 1, William Y. Barden and Eliza D. Jernigan.
January 1, Francis G. Wilkins and Lucinda King.
Jan. 4, Benjamin A. Hearn and Mary Decker.
Jan. 5, Willis H. Jones and Cynthia A. Pace.
Jan. 11, James Castleberry and Susan J. Cobb.
Jan. 15, Nathaniel A. Deblois and Angelica L. Hurd.
Jan. 15, Hannibal Harrold and Elizabeth R. Howell.
Jan. 20, George H. Decker and Sarah Gibbs.
Jan. 22, Isham Gallups and Charlotte T. Johnson.
Jan. 22, John Ramsey and Pauline S. E. Bazemore.
Jan. 25, Joshua Hutchins and Sarah A. Joins.
Jan. 28, Thomas J. Cobb and Harriet A. Flannigan.

February 1, Eldred A. Chatterton and Rachel Lewis.
Feb. 2, William Robinson and Georgia A. Kelly.
Feb. 4, James Whipple and Alsey W. Mays.
Feb. 5, Joel T. Scott and Navini J. Wood.
Feb. 5, Hervey M. Cleckley and Frances P. Schley.
Feb. 11, Stephen F. McGehee and Adaline Browning.
Feb. 15, Henry Smith and Matilda Taylor.
Feb. 24, John M. Jones and Cordelia A. Ridgeway.

March 4, Madison T. Key and Amanda C. Jernigan.
March 4, Anderson H. Holmes and Elizabeth Garrett.
March 18, Martin Duke and Felicia A. Phelps.
March 19, John W. Suggs and Nancy M. Austin.

April 5, William B. Fansett and Nancy Carlile.
April 15, Henry M. Morris and Jane E. Searls.
April 21, Davis Owen and Catharine B. Lestergett.
April 22, William H. Cochran and Priscilla Crawford.
April 29, Joseph A. Hewell and Aquilla A. V. Dean.
April 29, Henry Mangham and Louisa Sempler.

May 4, Thomas J. Trammell and Permelia E. Gunn.
May 4, Benjamin F. Ray and Annetta J. Hall.
May 5, George M. Lucas and Sarah P. E. Edwards.
May 13, Alexander B. Huey and Susan A. Edwards.
May 20, Henry Johnson and Irene Stanfield.
May 22, John H. Webb and Sarah K. Gordy.

June 6, James W. Bolen and Martha A. Carter.
June 6, William M. Lewis and Martha A. Mason.
June 20, John King and Elizabeth Brown.
June 24, Lewis Scott and Martha A. Owen.
June 30, Madison L. Patterson and Augusta P. Benning.

July 1, William M. Watts and Sarah F. Johnson.
July 1, Charles Brady and Rosannah Foran.
July 4, Hugh Hall and Isabella A. Senn.
July 10, Robert F. Pickren and Susan A. Wall.
July 13, DeWitt F. Willcox and Julia C. Carnes.
July 13, Edward W. Brannon and Mary A. Crouch.
July 16, Anthony F. Rodgers and Martha A. Rowell.
July 21, Lafayette Walker and Elizabeth Stephens.

August 8, Hamilton Boland and Evaline Jones.
Aug. 29, Andrew J. Floyd and Sarah V. Shippey.
Aug. 31, James H. John and Elizabeth J. McGlaun.

September 1, John G. Brooks and Permelia Castillo.
Sept. 9, John Laman and Mary M. Rodgers.
Sept. 23, Vincent L. Averett and Rosannah E. Stephens.
Sept. 28, Samuel E. Whittaker and Henrietta Leonard.

October 4, Eldridge H. Calhoun and Ellen Blankenship.
Oct. 5, Asa W. Chapman and Laura A. Ward.
Oct. 13, Abner C. Flewellen and Sarah T. Shepherd.
Oct. 14, Henry S. Duffee and Elizabeth M. Rus.
Oct. 14, Wootson Gooldsby and Epsy Johnson.
Oct. 19, Cyrus A. Royston and Mary F. Calloway.

November 3, Jesse Goodwin and Mary C. R. Johnson.
Nov. 7, Joseph J. Shippey and Martha A. Hamar.
Nov. 9, William E. Bryan and Elvira A. R. Randall.
Nov. 9, John E. Dennard and America Atkinson.
Nov. 9, John J. Oliver and Mary C. McGrady.
Nov. 10, Simon Stern and Betty Heller.
Nov. 11, James Burrays and Martha Putnam.
Nov. 14, George W. Cherry and Elizabeth Dean.
Nov. 14, John N. Bragg and Harriet Watkins.
Nov. 18, David Garris and Mary Robinson.
Nov. 29, Samuel Klein and Mina Wolff.

December 2, Thomas B. Norris and Rebecca J. Cook.
Dec. 5, Jeptha D. Wilkinson and Barbara A. Reed.
Dec. 7, Henry W. Wood and Mary E. Patterson.
Dec. 10, James Thomas and Elizabeth Harper.
Dec. 11, Benjamin F. Nunnelee and Elizabeth Shippey.
Dec. 16, Bassill M. Milton and Jane Johnson.
Dec. 16, Thomas Hamar and Sarah J. Lokey.
Dec. 19, James Eyre and Catharine Murphy.
Dec. 21, Daniel Y. Morrell and Susannah Wallace.
Dec. 21, Wherry M. Cannon and Belsy A. Nelson.
Dec. 23, Francis A. Yarbrough and Caroline Rodgers.
Dec. 23, Joseph Dimon and Sarah M. Skinner.
Dec. 23, Henry L. Martin and Rosannah Stewart.
Dec. 29, Benjamin F. Doles and Elizabeth J. Holcomb.

Deaths

(From The Sexton's Reports.)

January 4, Cornelia Brickhouse
Jan. 6th, James Ivey
Jan. 7th, child of David Hudson
Jan. 8, Miss Lewis
Jan. 17, Mr. Herne
Jan. 18, Elizabeth Calhoun
Jan. 22, child of Mr. Eaton
Jan. 23, James Simpleman
Jan. 25, Mr. Browning
Jan. 25, Elizabeth Eaton
Jan. 31, George Robison

February 5, Shadrack Sanders
Feb. 6, Mary Wilson
Feb. 10, ____ Conoway
Feb. 11, Thomas Maddox
Feb. 13, child of John Clark
Feb. 15, Nancy Loving
Feb. 25, Mr. Pike
Feb. 29, Esther Jepson

July 1, James Savage
July 2, a child of Mr. Lewis
July 8, a child of Mr. Holley
July 10, a child of Mr. Whittlesey
July 14, John Vansant
July 17, child of Mrs. Crossman
July 20, child of J. Chisholm
July 21, James Hammock
July 21, child of Mr. Lloyd
July 23, child of M. McGowen
July 23, child of Mr. Van
July 23, Patrick Sullivan
July 23, child of Mrs. Tendall
July 29, child of Mr. Nix

August 1, Child of Mr. Norris
August 5, Jordan Newby
August 5, child of Sarah Sanders
August 12, Henry Crumwell
August 13, J. F. Chisolm
August 15, Mrs. Magner
August 15, child of Mrs. Stubblefield
August 17, John Lewis.

September 1, Child of Mrs. Pettis
Sept. 5, Ann McKenzie
Sept. 9, child of Mrs. Hiatt
Sept. 9, child of Mrs. Hackrey
Sept. 11, Miss Murphy
Sept. 11, Martha Faulkenberry
Sept. 12, child of Sarah Sanders
Sept. 26, Willis S. Cooper
Sept. 27, Mrs. Webster
Sept. 27, child of Mr. Finchin
Sept. 28, child of Mr. Webster
Sept. 28, child of Mrs. Stafford
Sept. 30, John McCarty
Sept. 30, child of Mr. Garbin

(From The Newspapers)

January, (At Panama) George Chalmers, of Columbus.

March 4, Mrs. Sarah Vivian, wife of James W. Warren.
March __, James H. Scott.

April 13, James T. Rives

May __, Mrs. Nancy Baugh

June __, R. A. Owens
June 18, Laura Winship, daughter of John R. Sturgis
June 19, Mrs. Frances Vivian Schley
June 25, Robert Parham, infant son of O. V. Brown

October __, James L. Baugh
October 15, Franklin Duncan
October 15, Lucien Strawn, infant son of H. H. Barrow
October 28, Miss Amanda F. A. Patrick
October 29, John R. Dawson

November 17, (in Alabama) George W. Cowdery, of Columbus

December 11, Edgar Perry, son of Hines Holt;
December 11, Dr. John J. B. Hoxey.