-Chapter V- GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Moving The County Seat
Chatsworth, Murray's seat of government, was founded in 1906. A group of Murray County businessmen had formed the Chatsworth Land Company to start a new town on the newly completed railroad. Many of the city fathers came from Spring Place, the county seat since 1833, three miles west of the new town.
Perhaps there were two major reasons for the interest in the new enterprise: Chatsworth's railroad location made it easier to transport goods and Spring Place was declining—the buildings were old and the city had already begun to be plagued by fires. The Chatsworth Land Company even saw that a brick plant and three lumber companies were established to furnish materials for the building of the new town. Soon stores, hotels, livery stables, the post office, a school, two churches, a blacksmith shop, a shoe shop, a cotton gin, a grist mill, a barber shop, and numerous houses lined the streets of the well-planned town-plans that, when viewed with hindsight, must have included making Chatsworth the county seat of Murray County.
If one examines the original map of the Land Company, he can easily see that an entire block between Fort and Market Streets on Third Avenue is clearly labeled "Reserved for Courthouse Square." However, little was said about this until 1912 when a group of Chatsworth businessmen went to Atlanta to find out just what it took to move the seat of a county's government. When these well-meaning individuals returned, they began circulating petitions hoping to secure enough signatures to force an election on "the county seat question"-a question they had created. Thus began a period of Murray County history some have likened to earlier divisive eras such as the Trail of Tears or the War Between the States.
By August 19, enough names had been collected and the petitions were presented to Ordinary J.M. Campbell. Campbell, thinking all was well, set September 30 as Election Day. Voters would decide if they wanted the county seat moved to Chatsworth.
However, by September 5 the first complication had arisen. Unable to buy advertising space in the pro-Chatsworth Murray News, Eton residents went to The North Georgia Citizen which ran the headline "Eton Starts Great Fight" on the front page. The Eton folk even paid for copies of The Citizen to be distributed in Murray. The account went on to say:
'The election ... is one in which Murray county people are most vitally interested. Practically every voter in the county has wanned up to the approaching election, and never before in the county's history has there been so much genuine interest in anything as in the present campaign.
Eton has offered a free site for the court house and county jail, and also $10,000 in cash to go to the fund for the new buildings. Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Walter Harris, who is one of the leaders in the Eton camp, was in the city and stated to The Citizen that the certified check for $10,000 would be deposited with the ordinary this week. He also stated that in the advertising matter for Eton next week would appear a cut of the certified check, which would be the means of effectually wiping out the sneers of "Eton bluff." A certified check is as good as money, for the signer of the check cannot stop payment on it. Hence, by depositing it with the ordinary, the Eton people put up $10,000 in cold cash . . .
This hustling little city is showing an energy that would do credit to a city many times its size, such energetic public spirit is bound to result in a big vote for Eton in the approaching election-
Emotions remained high and rumors abounded in the weeks preceding the history-altering election. The Citizen reported the following on October 3:
CHATSWORTH LED FIELD
Murray County Seal Election Passed Off Quietly on Last Monday
Spring Place Will Remain County Seat Chatsworth's Big Vote and Two-Thirds Majority Was Barely Missed
Eton Ran Second and Spring Place Third
The election held in Murray county Monday on the county seat removal question passed off quietly, Chatsworth easily leading the field, but failing to receive the necessary two-thirds majority. The vote was: Chatsworth. 933; Eton 440; Spring Place, 150.
Chatsworth missed landing the county's public buildings by less than 100 votes. As there were 1.523 votes polled, a two-thirds vote was 1,016, Chatsworth missing this by only 83 votes.
The surprising strength shown by Chatsworth was the feature of the election. Both Chatsworth and Eton were claiming enough votes to win; but looking on the matter from a disinterested standpoint, after considering the claims of both, it appeared that the vote was about evenly divided between Chatsworth and Eton, outside of those who wanted the court house and jail to remain at Spring Place.
Eton carried the northern part of the county, while Chatsworth came back strong in the central and southern parts. The game fight put up by Eton proved unavailing, for, whUe the inducements offered by this hustling town were unusually attractive-much more so than the proposition of Chatsworth, the voters apparently wanted Chatsworth as the county seat, this fact being evidenced unmistakably by the large vote secured.
The election, despite the intense feelings aroused, passed off quietly in all precincts, the voters going to the various polling places and voting without confusion.
However, the newspaper also reported that Chatsworth had not "given up." "The Eton vote will be contested—not because of any off-color work, but because Eton entered the fight after the call had been made for the election. They claim that as the petition was signed by the voters and expressly stated that the question was for removal to Chatsworth, Eton had no legal right to enter the fight. The question will likely be fought but in the courts."
The same day the above story was released in Dalton, an official notice of contest was filed with Secretary of State Phillip Cook by W.E. Mann and W.C. Martin, attorneys for contestants S.M. Barnett, G.A. Kelly, Alvin Jones, S.H. Kelly, Hull Kerr, J.F. Harris, T.M. Wright, W.S. Bradley, J.B. Gregory, S.C. Gregory, and W.D. Wilbanks. In this document they cite results as 862 votes for Chatswoith, 427 votes for Eton, and 155 votes against removal. They contended that the votes for Eton were illegal and should not have been counted in making up the total number of votes cast. Thus Chatsworth would have had far more than the needed 2/3's majority.
On October 7, 1912 Spring Place residents M.W. Shields, W.H. Steed, W.M, Lowery, G.W. Cox. J.L. Cole, J.L. Rouse, D.D. Kemp.M.L. Roberts, J.S. Keister, J.W. Robinson, F.E. Vonberg, and C.W. Brown denied the Chatsworth protest. Their attorney, W.W. Sampler, said that the call for the election did not restrict people to just voting for Chatsworth or against removal. Therefore, they said, the Eton votes were legal and should be counted. Thus Chatsworth did not have the required majority and Spring Place would remain the county seat. The counter-contestants also added that the original petitions were not legal either. Georgia law said that a petition must have signatures of two-fifths of the registered voters. Ordinary Campbell could only verify that two-fifths of those who had "paid the poll tax" and voted in the 1912 Primary had signed the petitions. Here ended Round One!
Round Two began a few days later when members of both parties testified before Justice of the Peace W.A. Childers regarding the petition and the conduct of the election. First,both sides agreed that 1,444 votes were cast in the election, but then things got serious. The registration list included some 2,203 names, but SJrf. Barnett and the other contestants said that this number was inflated. Following the Spring Place challenge that the petitions were illegal, the contestants had found that several men were registered more than once, some were no longer Murray residents, and still others had been dead "two or three years." In his testimony Barnett stated that, even using the inflated figure of 2,203, the petitions had more than the required number of signatures.
On the second day of testimony W.M. Lowery testified that he had examined both the petition and the voters' list. He found "347 names on the petition not on the registration list." Attorney Mann challenged this and Lowery said that sometimes he could not "state that the names on petition are not registered in some other form as to nicknames or other initials." At any rate, when this number was deducted, the petitions did not contain enough signatures to even call the election. Attorney Sampler objected to any questions which would alter the voting list since the list had been used in State Elections and was the only legal evidence. He was overruled since he had not objected to Barnett's earlier comments.
The question of whether the signatures on the petitions were legal or not was then addressed. When the contestees noted that several signatures seemed to be in the same handwriting, Ordinary Campbell reminded the group that there were many names on both the petition and the registration list of people who could not write, but who often had others sign for them. (One widely circulated rumor at the time was that Cleve Gregory and Bill Wilbanks took names from tombstones at Ball Ground Cemetery for the petition, using the adage "Silence gives consent" to account for affirmative votes-according to the late R.E. Chambers.)
The Chatsworth contestants then said that another reason for throwing out the Eton votes was that Eton had "bribed voters" by offering to furnish funds for the construction of county buildings. Sampler, also clerk of the Board of Roads and Revenues who had held Eton's "deposit," had to give evidence in this matter. G.W. Cox testified that "Eton lost as many votes by reason of their proposition ... as they gained." He had "heard it said that Murray County was no pauper." D.D, Kemp and T.J. Ramsey backed up Mr. Cox's statement saying that they, too, had heard similar comments.
After 2 days in the Justice of the Peace court, the matter was still far from settled. The evidence was forwarded to the Secretary of State's office, but rumors still abounded in Murray County. One story is that someone in Chats-worth cut the telephone lines between Eton and Spring Place on Election Day. Then a messenger was sent to Spring Place to say that many votes were going to Eton. Many Spring Place supporters, feeling that they had lost anyway, then voted for Eton—possibly as "the lesser of two evils."
Meanwhile, attorneys Mann and Martin prepared an extensive argument in favor of Chatsworth. The legal brief, which cited many earlier county seat precedents (including Fannin County), was also sent to Secretary Cook. Apparently, Eton, caught in the middle, paid no lawyers to prepare a case for that town and Spring Place "didn't go all out like Chatsworth," according to one resident, but remained confident.
In November, 1912 A.W. Fite, Superior Court Judgement this note to Cook:
Dear Phil,
I send you herewith some petitions for your considerat ion -1 have no personal interest in the matter and have taken no ... part in it, but in as much as the election has been held and the majority is so large for Chatsworth, which added to these petitions makes more than two-thirds for Chatsworth. I hope that you ... if you are doubtful as to the law, . . , give the benefit of the doubt to Chatsworth. I am sure this would meet the approval of more than two-thirds of the people . . . and be to the best interest ... of the county . . .
Yours truly, A.W. Fite
Cook finally announced his decision in early January. He threw out the votes for Eton and ruled in favor of Chatsworth. This left the matter up to the State Legislature. Round three was over, but still another remained.
At this time Murray County's representative in the General Assembly was "Colonel" Herbert H. Anderson, then a resident of Spring Place, but later a Chatsworth citizen. His granddaughter Joann Warmack provided these excerpts from his letters home during the hot months while the legislators examined the situation in Murray:
July 8, 1913 - "We have been rather hard at work this week ... The Committee would not postpone the hearing of the Courthouse question, and it will be heard Friday."
July 14 - "We had another hearing on the Courthouse question this evening, and I am sure we have won out for Chatsworth, but the report will not be made until Wednesday,
July 23 - "The Courthouse will come up for passage this morning."
July 24 - "The question of moving the Courthouse was settled today, by the bill for removal going through with only 9 votes against it. The Spring Place crowd consisting of Frank Vonberg and Bill Brown have been here since Sunday and have made themselves very conspicuous by their remarks about me, but you can see from the number of votes they received what effect it has had."
August 7 - "The Governor signed the Courthouse bill this morning, which finally closes up the matter and puts it at Chatsworth."
The act authorizing the move to Chatsworth included an account of the controversy but ignored the votes for Eton. A partial district breakdown of the vote follows (53 votes are missing):
District Chatsworth Eton Against
Town (No. 824) 226 17 87
McDonald's (No. 1013) 63 116 0
Eighth (No. 984) 113 2 12
Alaculsey (No. 1506) 18 18 0
Ball Ground (No. 825) 118 6 4
DooLittle (No. 972) 133 2 6
Cisco (No. 1011) 39 37 3
Bull Pen (Nol 1291) 17 1 10
Shuckpen (No. 1039) 23 149 8
Tenth (No. 874) 59 79 25
Note: Town then included Spring Place and most of Chatsworth.
Yes, the matter of locating the courthouse was finally settled, but "hard feelings" existed for many years and, according to one former resident, the loss of the courthouse "killed Spring Place." However, the people of the old county seat were not completely silenced. Following are excerpts of an "underground" newspaper expressing Spring Place's views in the aftermath of the controversy and the beginning of a new one:
THE SPRING PLACE SNAG
A FORE-RUNNER
ISSUED SEMI-OCCASIONALLY
BY THE TAN YARD BRANCH POWER PRESS
IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, GROW ONE TO SUIT YOU
ALWAYS REMEMBERED BY WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. A few months ago there was published at Spring Place an inoffensive, newsy, fair-dealing paper known as the Murray County News, Citizens took the paper, read it and welcomed its dealings, and gave both sides of all local questions and people read it and formed their own conclusions. But some taxpayers used its columns to express their disapproval of any attempt to levy a tax to build a court house and jail at Chatsworth; because Murray County already had a good courthouse and a good jail at Spring Place. They even put the people on notice that they would never pay the tax except at the end of the law. This seems to have been a crime, the last straw to break the camel's back, and the owners of the paper proceeded to squelch the thing, strangle it, put it out of business, pulverize It and annihilate the innocent thing-the only paper in the county through which the people could be heard. "Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad." "Truth crushed to earth will rise again. The eternal years of God are hers."
But the people of Murray County believe in freedom of speech guaranteed to them under the constitution and they are going to see this thing through. The owners of the paper had a right-to sell it; it was their property; but the people resent the spirit of tyranny displayed in muzzling the press and leaving them to the one-sided mercy of the Chatsworth Reminder.
We live and learn; but this is the first time we ever knew that the freedom of speech and freedom of the press was equivalent to shaking a red flag in the face of a mad bull. Hence the SNAG.
TAX PAYER
LEST WE FORGET, LEST WE FORGET. Somewhere at some time a judge without intending any harm or strife, innocently suggested that it is very inconvenient to have a court house away from the railroad. He innocently hinted as much to a grand jury in one of his excellent charges. No fault to find with (he judge. And forthwith a petition supposed to be signed by two-fifths of the taxpayers was presented to the Ordinary . . . But the Ordinary did his duty and no one blames him for ordering the election for removal of the County Site from Spring Place to Chatsworth.
And here is where some of the trouble starts. Eton, after having consulted the Ordinary, the law, and reputable lawyers was advised that she could enter the race and her vole would be counted. So Eton entered the race. The idea that Eton, "the little upstart," should get into the race was too much. The Chatsworth leaders, who were not startled, or paralyzed got very busy and flew around so fast that it was difficult at times to keep the lower part of their skirts concealed just because Eton bound herself to build the court house and the jail without expense to the county. On election day there were rumors and counter rumors, phones and counter phones, fake messages, delayed messages, and the grounding of wires. But the fur flew and Eton got licked-skinned a whole block and alley. When the election was over the people found out they had been voting in a contest between Chatsworth and Eton and not for removal or against removal of the County Site from Spring Place. Many good men, believing that the County Site would move, cast their votes either for Chatsworth or Eton when they favored its remaining at Spring Place. Now they regret they were deceived-misled-be fuddled into voting against their convictions and the interest of the county. This is how the court house question got into such a "mell of a hess."
But Chatsworth did not get the necessary two-third vote to win the County Site and she proceeded to raise a regular La-la-pa-loo-loo and her antics reminds one of how a little boy looks with his pants on hind part before-you just can't tell all the time whether he is going towards the court house or away from it.
So she contested the election. And in that contest it developed, when the list was purged, two-fifths of the taxpayers had never signed the petition calling for the election. The names were there all right, but how did they get there? Echo answers how? A name occurred twice here; there the name of a man who had been dead for years and so on, many of them written in the same hand. A part of the list appeared to be copied from an old tax digest by one who had not kept posted on the funerals, runaways, removals, and marriages of Murray County, especially where one had married a widow, and the husband appears to have taken the wife's name, and his step-children her name and her step-children his name.
Then the base was changed and a claim put in that the amended law required a petition of two-fifths of the qualified voters of the county. The list was checked again and the list still was short of the necessary two-fifths to call an election. It was then discovered that some of the signers had not lived in the county for several years; they had at one time lived in the county bul had moved away and were scattered from Dan to Bersheba, and from Cape Cod to the Panama Canal. No one seems to know how those lists were obtained, but of course, they were secured honorably, for all interested are honorable men. It seemed for a time that the court house would remain at Spring Place; that the courts would put the everlasting kiboosh on Chats-worth's claim for the County Site.
And it did seem under the law and the facts in the case that Secretary of Stale Phil Cook would fasten the roller skates to Chatsworth's claim and let her hit the ceiling with head and heels hanging down like a watch charm. It is a mystery how Mr. Cook reached any other conclusion than that the petition calling the election was illegal, the election illegal and void. But he put the roller skates on the other fellow, while admitting that Chatsworth did not get the two-thirds of the votes cast yet he counts Eton's vote illegal and then decides in favor of Chatsworth as against Spring Place. Then it goes up to the Legislature for settlement. That erudite body regarding the matter as a local affair in accordance to the wish of Murray's representative sustained Mr. Cook. Looking at the matter now after all the excitement is passed, it is impossible to determine where the Secretary of State, the Legislature, and the Governor found any law to sustain their decision. While they may not have intended to do so, yet their decision virtually robs Spring Place of the safeguards of the law, it ignores Eton, injures the whole county, and practically disfranchises more than 500 tax payers who voted for Eton and Spring Place. There is another ugly feature in the case. Those who voted for Eton and Spring Place pay three fifths of the taxes of the county. You can disfranchise them but they never intend to pay any tax to build a court house and jail at Chatsworth except at the end of the law.
TAX PAYER
WE NEED THE RECALL. Why don't the County Commissioners assess the tax to build a court house and a jail. Are they afraid of it? They need not assess it; we are not going to pay it. They tried bonds once and called it off. They order another election for bonds and called off again. Who are the commissioners anyway? The men we elected, or the three great lights of Chatsworth who seem to pull off all the stunts without a hitch? How does this look in print: Summonses sent out for court at Spring Place, court ordered to be held at Chatsworth; furnilure ordered not be removed from Spring Place; records ordered to be moved to Chatsworth next Monday; if you county officers do not move your offices to Chatsworth we will certify you to the Governor for not performing your official duty and have your commissions taken from you. What everybody would like to know is this: Who furnished the backbone, the plans and chloroform for the county commissioners? When they straddle the fence who unstraddles them? 1 have heard of a commissioner who straddled the fence so much that the button on his pantaloons is now two inches below his chin and his neighbor has to go at night and get him on one side of the fence. Time for the recall.
TAX PAYER
NOTES. Had there been no town site company to enrich there could have never been an election to change the county site. What has Chatsworth ever done for Murray County that she now wishes to tax the county to build her up into a city. Build your own town. You live there, you own it. You have never built-even a road, a church, nor a school house, nor a bridge, nor anything else and donated it to the county, and some of the commissioners are bent on taxing the people of the county to build up your town. Whenever two-thirds of the people vote you the court house then we will be willing to submit to the tax. The 500 disfranchised voters will bet a $75 donation to the slush, against a $lOO retainer fee that you will never collect
Murray County Heritage