After 40 years of distinguished service, Judge John W. Maddox, who was retiring from public life on February 1, 1913, delivered his valedictory Thursday as he adjourned the January term of Superior Court.
Governor Brown offered the judgeship to Moses Wright, who had resigned the post in 1909 to make the race for Congress. At that time the governor had appointed Judge Maddox as his successor.
At the end of this week a half century ago, Judge Wright had not decided whether he would accept the appointment, which naturally caused him some embarrassment as Col. R.A. Denny, a law partner, was an applicant for the bench.
Judge Maddox was to devote his duties as president of State Mutual Insurance Company, after having served in numerous capacities in public office, including 12 years in Congress.
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East 11th Street was being turned into a fine boulevard and on the crest of the hill it passed the residential property known as Collinswood Road residents had laid concrete sidewalks abutting the property lines, therefore affording passersby a walk in the shade of trees far enough away from the curb as not to be covered with dust from passing carriages and automobiles. … Another East Rome improvement was on Second Avenue at 8th Street, where the street had been filled in and cut away as needed to turn it into gentle rises and slopes. … Bids were to open on February 1, 1913, for the paving of East Second Avenue from East 6th Street, where the pavement ended, to the city limits at Dean Street. The curb and gutters were to cost an estimated $3,425, the asphalt macadam pavement to run around $9,574. The chain gang was to do the work, residents on each side to pay one third of the cost each. …
In an after dinner speech teeming with sensational allusions, Honorable Wright Willingham declared that Rome’s city government was on the verge of bankruptcy and rapidly growing worse, attributing the cause to undue interest in law and order movements. “Our people have gone plumb crazy over this law and order business. So long as they can send Will Martin, et al, to the chain gang they are perfectly willing to let everything else go to hell, and that is right where the town is going unless the people wake up to their real conditions and take more interest in their own affairs,” Mr. Willingham said at the annual banquet of the Hanks Stove and Range Company. … At the city executive committee meeting the coming week, a delegation of citizens was to appear before it and ask that the quest of a commission form of government be presented to the voters at the regular city primary. …
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East 11th Street was being turned into a fine boulevard and on the crest of the hill it passed the residential property known as Collinswood Road residents had laid concrete sidewalks abutting the property lines, therefore affording passersby a walk in the shade of trees far enough away from the curb as not to be covered with dust from passing carriages and automobiles. … Another East Rome improvement was on Second Avenue at 8th Street, where the street had been filled in and cut away as needed to turn it into gentle rises and slopes. … Bids were to open on February 1, 1913, for the paving of East Second Avenue from East 6th Street, where the pavement ended, to the city limits at Dean Street. The curb and gutters were to cost an estimated $3,425, the asphalt macadam pavement to run around $9,574. The chain gang was to do the work, residents on each side to pay one third of the cost each. …
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Romans read that the articles of incorporation for the so-called Rockefeller Foundation to administer a philanthropic fund of $100 million, to be donated by John D. Rockefeller, passed the House 152 to 65 this week in 1913 and had gone to the Senate. … $1,200 a year was the sum fixed upon which an average family could live on in New York at “a comfortably American plane.” … At the wishes of President-elect Woodrow Wilson, there was to be no inaugural ball. … The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that cruel treatment within the meaning of the civil code as grounds for divorce was willful infliction of pain, bodily or metal, upon the complaining party such as reasonably justified an apprehension of damages to life, limb or health. … Twenty-five divorces were granted in Superior Court here this week a half century ago, Judge Maddox keeping four juries busy untying fetters which Cupid had erred grievously in welding. …
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