John M. Vandiver was highly commended by the county board of tax collections for 1911, after reading his report. The amount of insolvent taxes due the county was only $111.97 out of a total collection of $1,495,167.26. The amount of uncollected taxes was the lowest in the county in 37 years and the amount was the highest collected ever. This stamped Mr. Vandiver as probably the best tax collector in the state.
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For the first time since 1886, Rome felt the tremors of a real earthquake early Friday morning a half-century ago. There were three different shocks, with a gentle lateral motion which was sufficient to swing mirrors in the houses and rattle window panes. After the shocks, occurring at intervals of a few minutes, a rumbling under the earth was heard. No damage was reported as in the one of 1886, when Charleston was destroyed along with damage throughout the South. … Romans regretted to read that Charles F. Walsh, the noted flier, fell 2,000 feet to instant death while performing before 50,000 spectators at Trenton, N.J. fairgrounds. He was trying to make a spiral descent when he lost control of the plane and nearly every bone in his body was broken in the crash. Walsh made spectacular flights in a Curtiss biplane over Rome on Nov. 25, 1911, the first aeroplane flights ever made here and witnessed by many thousands of North Georgians. …
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By special act of the general assembly the Rome Board of Public Works was dissolved this week in 1912. City Council was to appoint a committee to have charge of the water works and street system formerly looked after by the B. of P.W. … W.B. Davis, of West 12th Street, requested council to extend the city water service just one block from 11th Street, to take in five new houses on 12th Street. … Work on Rome’s Great White Way was begun at the corner of Broad and Fifth Avenue and was expected to be completed with the lights on by November 1. … There was no interest in the state and county elections, occurring this week fifty years ago. Socialist Candidate Castleberry had his hat in the ring for governor as usual, all other Democrats nominees being unopposed. …
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An important real estate transaction occurred when Capt. John J. Seay purchased from Capt. J.L. Bass the building occupied by the Seay-McCatha garage and the Southern Steam Laundry on East 1st Street, for some $14,000. … W.S. Cothran took out a building permit to erect an addition to the residence at 805 Second Avenue in the East Side, to cost $800. … M.L. Roper was granted a permit to erect a five-room house on North Fifth Avenue for $800. … Monday was pay day for city employees. The city’s pay roll amounted to about $3,100 per month. … Judge John W. Maddox meted out severe punishment to absent jurors from Superior Court this week in 1912. P.H. Mull, Thomas Hawkins, J.R. Landers, J.H. Metcalfe, R.C. Carr and N.H. Bass were fined $40 each for failing to answer to their names when called. Judge Maddox was very severe on absent jurors and witnesses and planned to fine them heavily when pot on hand promptly when the court was in session. …
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