More Valdosta and Lowndes County History, continued
Commissioners Worthington, Stapler, Harrell, and Goldwire procured the
property for the new town. On the 12th of December 1859, for $1,250, they
purchased 140 acres in the northeast corner of Lot No. 62, District 11, from
William Wisenbaker, who did not like the railroad coming so near his farm.
Mr. Wisenbaker later moved to the Lake Park section of the county. William
Wisenbaker reserved fifteen acres of the parcel of land as a donation to the
Atlantic and Gulf Railroad Company for a right of way and for depot
purposes. If the Railroad Company did not require the entire fifteen acres,
the County Commissioners were to acquire the un-needed property at a cost of
$10.00 per acre. William Wisenbaker's home was the only residence when
Valdosta became the county seat. The one-story frame house stood on what
came to be Wells Street and faced the new Central Avenue. John T. Roberts
later purchased the home for his large family, and he added a second floor.
The commissioners set aside one acre, Block No. 15, for the court house, and
the town included the land within one mile of Block 15. They made the blocks
of the business district one acre in size and divided them into small lots.
For the residential area they marked off lots of either two acres with two
home sites or four acres with four lots each. On January 19, 1860, the
commissioners sold at public auction each lot to the highest bidder. For
example, Charles H. M. and William D. Howell bought Lot No. 1, Block 32, for
$100. The lot, which was the southeast corner of Crane Avenue and Stephens
Street, came into possession of the M. M. Caswell family. In the business
district, Dr. William Ashley secured Lot No. 7, Block 9, 45 x 90 for $175.
His was the first lot south of the alley on the west side of Patterson
Street between Hill and Central avenues. Powhatten B. Whittle and Henrietta
Goldwire bought property in the business section, James W. Patterson
purchased for $170 Lot No. 20, Block 20, which was the property across from
the court house bounded by Patterson, Valley and Ashley streets.
Subsequently Patterson sold two acres outside the downtown area to Albert
Converse for $100 and ten acres to Richard A. Peeples for $300.
The day the deed was signed by William Wisenbaker granting the railroad six
acres of land south of Hill Avenue on which to build the first station,
"Uncle Billy" Smith tore off the wing of his hotel in Troupville and moved
it to Valdosta, where he operated a small hostelry for several years. In a
few weeks Troupville, as a town, was no more. A few families, however,
remained in Troupville for some time.
At the time of the June 1860 census approximately 120 whites and 46 blacks
lived in Valdosta. James Goldwire served as postmaster, and Rufus Phillips
was a lawyer. Richard Peeples was both a lawyer and a farmer and James
Patterson also was a lawyer and a planter. Editor L. D. DeLyon emphasized
politics in his weekly Watchman, which had a circulation of 1,300. The
Pattersons and DeLyon's resided with John May, who was a merchant. R. T.
Roberds was one of the nine other merchants in Valdosta, as was George
Roberts. Living in town was farmer Albert Converse and family. Other
inhabitants of Valdosta were physician John F. Trippe, clerk of superior
court John Goldwire, and Daguerrian Wilson Boyd. Armistead Hewitt was a
mason, and Thomas Conner was a blacksmith who lived with hotel keeper Nelson
Connor. David McCall was also a hotel keeper. Two laborers and twelve
carpenters had households in Valdosta. Among them were Christopher Grace,
John Woods, William J. Knight and Jacob Ezell whose brother Thomas resided
with him.
According to tradition, on July 4, 1860, the first train came over the new
road to Valdosta. The event had been announced for weeks in advance and
extravagant preparations had been made to make the day a gala occasion. A
barbecue dinner had been prepared and crowds gathered from the entire
section to take part in the demonstration. As the crowds watched and waited
the train came puffing down the track and many a spectator felt his or her
knees give way and an almost irresistible desire to run seized them, for
this was the first train most of them had ever seen. The engine was called
Satilla No. 3, and it was the wonder of the hundreds who had gathered for
the occasion. After the Satilla had served its full number of years of
usefulness as an engine on the railroad it was purchased by the Wall Mill,
which was located about two miles east of Valdosta. It was used to pull a
logging train and many a load was hauled by the faithful old engine. For a
few years the Satilla worked faithfully when something went wrong inside and
the old engine blew up. Report of the explosion was heard for some distance
away.
On December 7, 1860, the city of Valdosta was incorporated by the
Legislature for the election of mayor, marshal and councilmen. The citizens
chose Reuben Thomason Roberds to be the first mayor.
Willis Allen was one of those moving to Valdosta from Troupville and he was
appointed the first agent of the railroad, which was first called Savannah,
Florida & Western, but later became part of the Atlantic Coast Line. Mr.
Allen later built the hotel which was leased to Mr. Charlie Stuart and was
known as the Stuart House. This hotel was very popular with the traveling
public until it burned in 1885. The hotel was located south of the railroad,
between Ashley and Patterson Street.
Valdosta quickly became the largest community in Lowndes County. With the
coming of the railroad the town soon grew into prominence as a business and
trading center. It was largely an agricultural section and the majority of
the farmers brought their cotton and other produce to Valdosta to be
marketed. In time Valdosta became the largest inland market for sea island
cotton in the world, and it grew in wealth and population very rapidly.
In 1863 Thannie Smith, a step-daughter of Mr. Benjamin Force, refugeed to
Valdosta with her family from Rome, Georgia. She later married Emmett
Balthorp "Ballie" Wisenbaker and wrote her memoirs of her early impressions
of Valdosta in the years 1863-1865:
