Obituary of Judge Julius A. Hayden I
This obituary appeared in the Atlanta Constitution in 1899
Judge J. A. Hayden
Death of one on Atlanta's Earliest Settlers
The burial to take place today--How Judge Hayden Gained the Esteem of his Fellow Citizens and Helped Build Up the City.
On Sunday night the news of Judge Julius A. Hayden's death reached Atlanta.
Telegrams which were received yesterday stated that Judge Hayden died at his orange grove in Florida from the effects of a stroke of paralysis which he had a year ago.
The body will reach here today at 12 o'clock via the Central railroad, and will be taken at once to Oakland Cemetery, where the burial services will be concluded.
The following gentlemen have been invited to act as escorts and pall-bearers, and will meet at Patterson's, on Loyd street, at 11:30 a.m. today:
Escorts--Judge John Collier, W. Markham, John Glenn, W.A. Moore, T.G. Healey, M.B. Berry, G.W. Adair, W.A. Powell.
Pall-bearers--Z.D. Harrison, T.J. Hightower, H.T. Inman, R.J. Lowry, R.M. Farrar, Dr. J.F. Alexander, W.W. Draper, and C.E. Currier.
Judge Hayden came of a vigorous family. His ancestor, William Hayden, come from England in 1630, and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and one of his descendants, Luke Hayden, was the father of Judge Hayden.
On the 25th of August, 1810, Judge Hayden was born in Winstead, Connecticut. His mother was Lucinda Shumate, a daughter of Mason Shumate, of French Huguenot descent, who settled in Decatur...(word obscured)
[NOTE: This is wrong. Lucinda married Reuben Cone, and was Harriet Cone Hayden's mother.]
Mr. Shumate kept the first hotel in Decatur. He owned a large quantity of land, and what is now Edgewood was once his hog pasture.
In 1835, there came to this section three men from Connecticut--Julius A. Hayden, William Markham, and John C. White.
Messrs. Hayden and Markham knew each other from boyhood.
Mr. Markham went to Henry County where he married Miss Berry and settled in in McDonough. Mr. Hayden located in Decatur, where in 1847 he married Miss Harriet E. Cone, only daughter of Judge Reuben Cone. Mr. White married Miss Laura Farrar.
All three became members of the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.
Judge Hayden served several years as judge of the inferior court of DeKalb county, and afterwards as a member of the city council of Atlanta. In 1855 he became a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, Rev J.E. DuRose (Du Bose?), pastor, and at the time of his death was an elder of the Presbyterian Church.
He was a public-spirited man, and aided greatly in developing Atlanta. As the first president of the Atlanta Gas company, his prudency and energy made success possible and sure. He built a large number of buildings in the city. The Arlington house, the Austell residence, the building on Broad street next to no. 1 Engine House, etc, were built by him.
He was a member of the firm of Healy, Berry, & Co, that erected the old State House, the first H.I. Kimball house, DeGive's Opera House, the Governor's Mansion, the Capitol City Club house, the Georgia Lottery Building, Hook and Ladder House no. 1, Trinity Church, Loyd Street Church, First Baptist and the Catholic churches, two buildings for Atlanta University, running from Jackson's corner, on Pryor and Alabama, to the corner of Alabama and Loyd streets; Senator Brown's buildings on Wall street from Norcross's corner to Grant's building on Marietta street, between Fitten's building and Granite block on Broad street--in fact, there is scarcely a block or a street in the city that does not contain specimens of their work. They also manufactured their own brick.
By industry and frugality he amassed a good deal of property. At all times he was unassuming and unostentatious. He sold off lots on reasonable terms and gave purchasers as long times as they wanted.
Judge S.B. Hoyt, in speaking of Judge Hayden, said: "He was kind, genial, hospitable, charitable, unselfish, and public-spirited in disposition. He had no enemy."
Hon. William Markham remarked of Judge Hayden: "He was a man true to his word and to his friends. He had no enemies. His integrity was unfaltering. No better man ever lived."
This testimonial to his worth is a fitting tribute to the man.
Mr. Reuben Cone, Judge Hayden's father-in-law, was judge of the superior court in DeKalb county. He owned between 300 and 400 acres of land in Atlanta. The Arlington hotel stands where Mr. Cone once lived. He donated the ground to the First Baptist and First Presbyterian churches, laid out Marietta street, and Cone street was named after him.
Mr. Hayden married Miss Cone in Decatur on the 5th of January 1847. [All but] Two of his children that are still living: Mrs. A.M. Thrasher, Mrs. E.H. Phillips, Mrs. G.W. Harrison, Mrs. H. Hightower, Mrs. H. Whittier, Miss Nellie Hayden, Julius A. Hayden and Reuben Cone Hayden--Gertrude died in 1859 and Ellie M. in 1861(?).
At the time of his death, Judge Hayden was living on his orange grove two miles south of Sanford. There are fifty acres in the grove containing 4,500 trees in full bearing. He and Mr. Markham bought it in 1875 for $30,000. Mr. Markham has since sold out his interest. Mr. Frank Hayden, his brother, died here about the close of the war. His sister married Dr. Darnall of Griffin.
The friends and acquaintances of the families of Judge J.A. Hayden, Mr. G.W. Harrison, and Mr. H. Hightower are invited to attend the burial services at Oakland cemetery , from the train at the Union Passenger Depot at 12 p.m. today.
...
You wouldn't know it from this obituary, but Julius Hayden was a fervent Douglas supporter and anti-secessionist before the Civil War. He led anti-secessionist meetings in the year before the Fort Sumter, and inspired all sorts of threats and, undoubtedly, hatred.
He was known to be a Unionist during the War by Atlantans, which was not an easy thing to be in a town that was primarily Secessionist.
After the War, their loyaly to the Union allowed a group of primarily northern-born Unionists to rebuild the city quickly and effectively
Julius' Unionist leanings came as quite a suprise to us. We had suspected he may have been sympathetic to the Union cause due to his origins in New England and his friendships and business relationships with Unionists, but never knew the extent of his sympathy. He felt secession was a bad financial decision, and likely to be unsuccessful.
He was a slaveholder. They made bricks and constructed buildings for him. They worked his small plantation in Northern Georgia. They took care of his children. During the war, he made a deal with the husband of his children's nanny (a remarkable man who was "owned" by a local divorced and scandalous woman; she hired him out to others. He owned and ran a garden stand in the city and was quite the entrepeneur.) - that deal: if Prince Ponder would stand guard over his house near Atlanta, prevent Federal troops from burning it, and hand over the cotton to the Union Army - and get a receipt for reimbursement, Prince Ponder could have all of the food and goods produced on the farm to resell. After the war, they testified for each other to prove they had been loyal to the Union.
We learned a lot from Thomas Dyer's excellent book, Secret Yankees which used a secret diary of a northern woman living in the south, source documents, and other primary materials to tell the story of the fifty or so Unionists in Atlanta during the war - it was a very different story than the family legends. The stories we had heard from one older cousin was more like Gone With the Wind than reality. Of course, she also felt that the Haydens had "always been Congregationalists," too.
