Historic Macon

purpose was to survey the land and convince
the Knoxville Railroad Convention to support
construction of a line to Macon. They
succeeded. One stop on the rail line that
was built was called White Hall, which later
became Atlanta.
The depression that spread across the
country after the Panic of 1837 had an effect on
Macon and on Jerry Cowles. He lost a large part
of his fortune and gave up his house on the hill.
His losses made his most noble act even more
noble. In 1845 the unfinished rail line to
Forsyth and Atlanta was sold for unpaid debts.
The Charleston and Augusta Railroad planned
to buy the line and let it die. Jerry Cowles
outbid them and saved the line he helped create.
Years later a friend of Cowles wrote, “When he
bid he represented no one but Jerry Cowles,
with no backers but his genius and pluck.”
Cowles started several railroads and rescued
one, but he was unable to regain his own
fortune. In 1849 he left Macon for New York
City. When the War Between the States began
Cowles returned to Macon and swore an oath of
allegiance to the Confederacy. He started an iron
business to help the South, but it did not
prosper. After the war he looked for new
opportunities, but with little success. His friend
wrote that he never lost his sense of humor or
his spirit, and that he “always held his head high
in Macon.”
Cowles died in 1877 while visiting his family
in New York. His body was returned to Macon
and he was buried high on a ridge in Rose Hill
Cemetery. His two outstanding houses remain as
his monuments in Macon.
Jerry Cowles was the last of the pioneer
leaders who came to Macon in its earliest days.
An 1826 map of the town printed by Simri Rose
includes names of pioneer settlers such as
Lamar, Napier, Holt and Ellis. These and other
early families made a rough clearing on the
frontier into a thriving center of trade.
Leadership, location, and cotton made
Macon an important town by 1860. In 1830
fifty thousand bales of cotton were sold in
Macon. (A bale of cotton was equal to about
four hundred pounds.) In 1858 almost ninetyseven
thousand bales were sold, and one
planter, Joseph Bond, sold his crop for one
hundred thousand dollars.
As early as 1830 Macon held an agricultural
fair where farmers could display their products
and compete for prizes. The fair was made
an annual event in 1851 and, in 1852, visitors
from seven states saw exhibitions of rare
birds, tropical plants, and the latest steam
engines. For the 1860 fair a ship from Belgium
sailed up the Ocmulgee and sold a cargo of
European goods. From these beginnings Macon
established a long tradition as home to the
Georgia State Fair.
❖
In 1874 the Society of Jesus, an arm
of the Catholic Church, established
Pio Nono College at Vineville,
Macon’s suburb. The name was
changed twenty-five years later to
Saint Stanislaus College. In 1921 the
large building was destroyed by fire
and in the blaze hundreds of books
were lost, some dating to the early
Renaissance. The college did not
reopen and, in 1925, a real estate
development called Stanislaus was
created on its former campus.
Chapter II ✦ 21