Evening journal., 1913-05-23
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Man Who Was ReSpOn-
Sible for Atlanta,
Georgia
By Holland

Although the late c. p. Hunting
ton was a man of sufficient original
creative force to prevent him from
becoming initiative Of anybody, yet
there was probably no man promi-
nently identified with railroad con-
struction vino was more generous in
his estimate of others who had
achieved greatly.
= He once said to some friends who
we're anxious 20 compliment him and
who had told him that he was the
only man in the United States who
had actually created a city and made
It great I'm his own lifetime: why.
you forget Richard Peters"
Not one of Mr.. Huntington's friends
knew who Mr. Peters was. Mr.. Hunt
ington then described, practically in
these words. the personality and ca
reer of Mr. Peters, going so far as to
say that he had been to some extent
inspired to undertake the work which
he did when he established city at
Newport News by the achievement
of Richard Peters in Georgia:
81 don't know how much Richard
Peters owed to the men who had
created the Pennsylvania Railroad.
He was associated with some of them
and It is my impression that il is due
to that association that he went to
Georgia a good while before the Civil
War. But he would have been a great
man anywhere. no matter whether his
lot had been cast in California or in
Maine.
81 have been told that Peters was
about the first of the really strong
forces that undertook the develop
ment of railway systems in Georgia.
My impression Is that at first he went
TO Augusta to undertake the building
OF railways from Augusta into the in
terror of the State. But he could not
have been very long in Augusta be-
fore he realized what a possible fu-
ture for the little village Of Marthes-
Vile there might be.
There IL stood in the center Of the
State. the place fixed upon as the
central point from which the rail-
roads of Georgia should radiate.
Peters went to Marthasville. I think.
about the time that James K. Polk
was elected President He did not
like the name of Marthasville. He sug-
gested that in view of what he saw
of the future Of the place. the name
be changed and he suggested that
the village be. called Atlanta. I think
IL would be hard to find anywhere in
the United States a single citizen to
whom the creation of that great me-
tropolis and railroad center was so
directly due as it was and is to Rich
ard Peters. All that the city now is
he foresaw. They call it the Gate
City, but like Atlanta best.
81 have been told that it was in
great measure due to the work done
by Peters that the capital of Georgia
was moved from Milledgville to At
lanta. Here Is a man who put hi;
finger upon an obscure hamlet IN
the center Of great State and said
Here is to be your metropolis; here
are 10 be established your great in
dustries; here the railway system'
I. of Georgia are to concentrate. and
y will join with you in Undertaking tI
accomplish all these things.
when ! chose Newport News al
the Atlantic terminal for tho system
I planned from the Pacific to the At
lantic. ! did not exercise any speca
wisdom There was a great and safl
harhor. and TO that point the Chesa
peake and Ohio Railroad system wa
naturally attracted What other plac
on the Atlantic coast could have sc
lected?''
But Peters went into the heart o