After the Civil War, former Georgia Governor Joe Brown had worked his way back up the ladder to a position of power despite Reconstruction. And on top of his political maneuvering, he became president of Western and Atlantic Railroad. Joe needed coal to run his trains and he found some on Sand Mountain, in a gulf that had had coal mines since at least 1856. The Yankees had traversed it to make their way toward Chickamauga.
So far I haven't found a lot to tell us what happened in Dade County between 1863 and 1873. There are no Dade County newspapers for those years that can be found. Our microfilmed copies at the library begin in the 1870s and, oddly, come to us as a result of the Dade Coal Company and the Rising Fawn Iron Works. The communities that came to thrive then because of the industry those companies brought to Dade were unique and are almost forgotten now, but the 1880 census brings them to life.
The census taker for Cole City was named Robert Lindsay. He took the census in Militia District 1222 from June 4-June 9 in 1880. Even he didn’t spell it correctly and wrote it “Coal City,” which is still a common error today. But we know it was “Cole” because the legislature of Georgia proclaimed: “That the village or association of persons residing at the Dade Coal Mines, operated by Joseph E. Brown, William C. Morrill, John M. Born, Jr., Walter S. Gordon and others, be the same is hereby incorporated under the name of Cole City (in honor of Colonel E. W. Cole).”
They also planned the government of commissioners (“five in number”) and stated what could and could not be taxed. They mandated the geographical size. “The corporate limits of the said city shall extend two miles in every direction from the present main entrance of the coal mine now operated by the Dade Coal Company...” Legislative Act No.CXXII -- (O.No. 163) was approved on February 21, 1873. Where the main entrance was remains a mystery.
It is extremely amusing that two days earlier, on Feb. 19, 1873, another piece of legislation passed. Even before those old-time lawmakers incorporated the Dade area into a city, they made rules about the prevention of the “sale of spirituous or malt liquors . . . within two miles of Dade Coal Company.” It was also “unlawful for any person to vend, sell, dispose of or donate any whisky, brandy or any intoxicating liquor of any character whatever, at the Dade Coal Mines. . . .”
In long-ago research which I can’t find now, I read that during this time, Murphy Hollow boasted from 10-16 saloons. I always wondered why there were so many concentrated in one spot. I can only assume that because there was a rail spur from Cole City to Murphy Hollow. Since Murphy Hollow was about two miles from the mine, it became the most logical choice for a little fun and a sip of brandy.
(Photo: Ruins of a Cole City coke oven.)
Local Cole City researchers cannot determine what a two-mile radius of the gate would mean since we have not been able to discover maps of the site from that period. The maps used today were done by TVA in the 1930s or ‘40s. Someday I plan to visit the library that holds the papers of Gov. Joseph E. Brown and I may be able to add another piece to this puzzle. If anyone has a copy of a pre-1910 map of Cole City, I would love to see it.
The census pages for 1880 would hold 50 names per page. There were 20 pages and 19 were full, with page 20 showing less than 20. More than 950 people were counted in Cole City. About 375 of those were prisoners. The census counted the prison itself as the last two dwellings; number 93 and 94. This was still a thriving operation by 1890 and even in 1900. The 1890 censuses do not exist because they were burned. So we can’t use that data to determine what was happening at the mines, but by 1900 the mine had a separate census from Cole City proper.
Many of the family names from that census are familiar to modern-day Sand Mountain and Dade County. Names such as Stephens, Prince, Davis, Rogers, Graham, Elliot, Wells, Allison, Estes, Russell and Phillips were just a few of the families at the district then. The work listed in the census was still largely farming, with many other jobs related to the railroad.
Miners and laborers were the next highest in number. Then there were superintendent of the mine, civil engineer, doctor, railroad brakeman, engineer of N.G. railroad, prison guards, a couple of preachers and a schoolteacher. Interesting is that the teacher named Cusack was born in Ireland. Some of the widows were running boarding houses. By the 1900 census, there were more firemen on the railroad. At least one store (probably the commissary) was evident. A traveling salesman was in the community, at least during the census.
Thinking that Cole City had been named for coal made sense to me, but I always thought that it was actually COLE because one of the largest landowners in the north end of the county was named Cole. Before the war, he was known around the Southeast and the country for his strict boarding school for boys called Cole Academy.
Well, I was wrong. When I found the reference in the legislation to Colonel E.W. Cole, I went into a tizzy and got the internet fired up to see just who he was. The first thing that popped up was in the New York Times on May 25, 1899, and was about his death. The title and the article tell that he was stricken in the corridor of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. He was with his wife and daughter on a business trip. It noted that he was “one of the most prominent coal and iron men in the South” and that he “was stricken with heart disease” and fell to the floor, fracturing his skull. “After lingering about a half an hour he died in the office of the cashier, despite the efforts of two physicians who were immediately called in.”
Edmund Whiteford Cole was given the title of Colonel by the Confederacy while he was president of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis (NC & St. L) Railroad line. He oversaw the transportation of troops and supplies around the Southeast. At his death he was still heavily involved in the rail business as the president of Southern Railway System.
Note: Don’t forget to sign up for the hike into Cole City and the coke ovens on Sat., Feb. 16. Sign up at the library (we are keeping a master list there). Please leave a contact person for the group, number attending, phone number and email address.
--Donna M. Street
donnam.street@gmail.com
