Cedartown, Polk, Georgia in the 1900s

Work

Mills, furnace, farms

Cedartown advertised eight cotton mills⁶ in 1903, while state boosters listed cotton manufactories, a cottonseed-oil mill, knitting mills, an iron furnace, and an electric-power cotton gin⁵. Outside town, Polk County still had 2,226 farms averaging 69.1 acres by 1910⁴.

Law & power

County seat and color line

Cedartown was the county seat of Polk County^3,5, so courthouse business, taxes, deeds, and trials pulled people into town. Politics operated inside Jim Crow Georgia, and the 1908 state disfranchising amendment sharply reduced Black voting power across the state.

Who lived here

Growing, divided town

The town grew from 1,625 people in 1890 to 2,823 in 1900^2,4. The 1904-1905 state count reported 2,067 white residents and 756 Black residents⁵, a population living under segregated law and custom.

Home & table

New streets, older edges

Northwest of downtown, roughly two dozen residences had been built by 1890², with farmland still close by. White high-school pupils from that area attended Cedartown High School on West Avenue between Bradford and Furnace streets².

Roads & news

Railroads carried the world

Cedartown sat on the Seaboard Air Line and Central of Georgia routes⁶, and a state publication described a crossing of the Central of Georgia system with the East and West Railway⁵. Newspapers, freight, drummers, kin, and rumors arrived by rail.

Money

Cotton market town

A 1906 sketch called Cedartown a market for cotton and other produce from surrounding plantations⁸. That meant farmers, tenants, merchants, ginners, mill owners, and railroad agents all watched cotton prices.

In the air

Boosters sold industry

The Chamber of Commerce promoted Cedartown as the heart of the iron district⁶ and as a place with eight cotton mills⁶. The argument was that cheap fuel, labor, freight, minerals, and raw cotton could make this small county seat into an industrial town.

What people feared

Fire was mapped

The 1900 Sanborn map existed to measure fire risk, recording building construction, water facilities, and fire-department notes¹. In a town of mills, wooden dwellings, cotton, and business blocks, fire was a practical civic fear.

Year by year

1. 1900A six-sheet Sanborn-Perris fire-insurance map recorded Cedartown's buildings, churches, businesses, dwellings, water facilities, and fire risks. here¹
2. 1900Cedartown reached 2,823 people after rapid growth during the 1890s. here^2,4
3. 1901President William McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, and Theodore Roosevelt became president. the country
4. 1903Cedartown's Chamber of Commerce advertised the town as having eight cotton mills, one blast furnace, waterworks, electric lights, public schools, and rail connections. here⁶
5. 1903The Wright brothers flew a powered airplane at Kitty Hawk, a national marvel likely carried in newspapers into railroad towns like Cedartown. the country
6. 1906The Atlanta Race Massacre took place about 70 miles away, a violent warning heard across north Georgia. nearby
7. 1908Georgia adopted a disfranchising amendment that further restricted Black voting through tests and qualifications. the country
8. 1910Polk County counted 2,226 farms with an average size of 69.1 acres. nearby⁴

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Cedartown's population was 2,823 in 1900, up from 1,625 in 1890. from the sources^2,4
• A Sanborn-Perris fire-insurance map of Cedartown was made in February 1900 on six sheets. from the sources¹
• The 1900 Sanborn record says the map shows building construction, commercial and religious occupancies, dwellings, property boundaries, house and block numbers, water facilities, and fire-department notes. from the sources¹
• Cedartown was the county seat of Polk County in the 1900s. from the sources^3,5
• Cedartown's public waterworks and electric-light plant had been built in 1892 on the south side of Wissahickon Avenue. from the sources²
• By the early 1900s, Josephine Mills, a maker of cotton underwear, operated on the west side of Pine Street just north of Pine Street and Wissahickon Avenue. from the sources²
• A 1903 Cedartown Chamber of Commerce advertisement claimed the city had eight cotton mills and that two companies were expanding. from the sources⁶
• The same 1903 advertisement described Cedartown as in the heart of Polk County's iron district and said the city had one blast furnace. from the sources⁶
• A historical marker says the 1900 Sanborn map shows Cedartown's original town plan bounded by East Avenue, Bradford Street, Main Street, and West Avenue. inferred⁷
• By 1903, local boosters advertised Cedartown as being on the main lines of the Seaboard Air Line Railway and the Central of Georgia. from the sources⁶
• A 1904-1905 state publication placed Cedartown on the former Chattanooga, Rome and Southern Railway, then part of the Central of Georgia system, at its crossing with the East and West Railway. from the sources⁵
• The same 1904-1905 state publication listed Cedartown industries as cotton manufactories, a cottonseed-oil mill, knitting mills, an iron furnace, an electric-power cotton gin, city waterworks, and an electric-light plant. from the sources⁵
• Northwest of downtown, about two dozen residences had been built by 1890, but much of the district still remained farmland before later 20th-century development. from the sources²
• Cedartown High School stood on the north side of West Avenue between Bradford and Furnace streets, south of Prior Street. from the sources²
• Across Polk County, the 1910 census counted 2,226 farms with an average size of 69.1 acres. from the sources⁴
• A 1906 county sketch described Cedartown as a manufacturing town that served as a market for cotton and other produce from surrounding plantations. from the sources⁸
• Polk County's population was 17,856 in 1900, a gain of 2,911 since 1890. from the sources⁸
• The 1904-1905 state publication gave Cedartown's 1900 racial count as 2,067 white residents and 756 Black residents. from the sources⁵
• Georgia's 1908 disfranchising constitutional amendment, adding devices such as literacy and property tests, sharply reduced Black voting power across the state, including in Cedartown. inferred
• No detailed online household budget for Cedartown mill families in the 1900s was found in this search. not known

Sources

1. Cedartown, Polk Co., Georgia, Feby 1900 / Sanborn-Perris Map Co., Limited. Digital Library of Georgia, 1900
2. Northwest Cedartown Historic District, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. National Park Service, 2008
3. Polk County Historical Marker. Georgia Historical Society
4. Joint County-City Comprehensive Plan 2007-2027: Polk County Community Assessment. Georgia Department of Community Affairs, 2007
5. Georgia's Resources and Advantages, 1904-5. State of Georgia, 1904
6. The Cedartown Standard, August 20, 1903. Georgia Historic Newspapers, 1903
7. Cedartown's City Plan Historical Marker. Historical Marker Database
8. History of Polk County, Georgia. Genealogy Trails, 1906

Cedartown in other decades

Nearby, about the same time