Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-08-15
Towns Once Prosperous Desc tedBy Frederic j. Haskn

Tobacco. The stream has been filled in by
erosion to such an extent that its banks are
half mile away from the town.
Now Deserted Village
Port Tobacco chung to its traditions for
some years after its water highway had de-
serted it because it was the county seat. La
Plata, new and growing town some three
miles away, which had sprung UP when the
railroad came through, was jealous Of Port
Tobacco's courthouse La Plata argued that
Port Tobacco was declining and herself
growing and petitioned the legislature to
move the county seat. But tradition was too
strong Sand the courthouse stayed at Port To-
bacco. The jealousy of La Plata was not
abated, and the legend says, finally reached
a pitch where a group Of young La Plata
bloods stole in to Port Tobacco one night
and burned the fine old brick courthouse.
Inasmuch as the county must bear the ex-
pense OF erecting new building, it was
urged successfully that it might as well be
built in the new town and it was. Today
the few old mansions of Port Tobacco, the
ruins Of the courthouse, the tumbled down
remains Of the hotel and even portions of
the marble fountain are grass-grown and
lonely-well fitted to Goldsmith's description
of the Deserted Village.
Piscataway was port on an estuary of
the Potomac not far distant from Mount
Vernon. It Is perhaps the best preserved
of the three typical lost cities. 1t would not
be possible to get even a canoe up the stream
which in the old days bore ships big enough
to cross the Atlantic Piscataway is at least
three miles from navigable water. The town
is some Is miles from the nearest railroad
and therefore is about as deserted a ghost
of colonial days can be found. 1t has
several very beautiful mansions. Some of
them stand starkly empty, with loose shut
ters banging in the wind. One or two are
still kept up by survivors Of the old families
that once flourished there and a few are
used as tenement houses by negroes. The
single tiny store and postoffice could not
live were 1t not supported by the surround
ing country, for the port which once had
merchants who sent ships to England now
has not to exceed hundred souls.
Yorktown is across the bay on the Vir-
ginia shore. It's fate Is attributable to some
what difference causes. It's water highway,
the York river, has not filled up for the cur
rent and tide are extremely rapid at that
point. But the washing away of the top-soil
has impoverished the farms. Yorktown once
was the port of entry for Philadelphia and
New York, being regarded as an important
place. Today 1t has a population of 800, half
negro. Yet its harbor, the mouth Of the
York river, is one Of the most magnificent
in this country. During the war, the Allan
tic fleet anchored in the harbor of the little
town and after the armistice, more than a
thousand shipping board vessels were moored
there. The harbor is IS feet deep.
But progress has tricked these cities into
oblivion. The very activity and prosperity of
the early days fastened their decay. The
more industriously the planters ploughed to
produce the wealth on which the cities throve,
the more surely was their fate being sealed.