Reconstruction era – 1870-1871

Part of the ‘Smith family history’ series

Robert and Mary’s family was enumerated in the 1870 federal census on June 16, 1870. In addition to Robert, Mary (M C), son Eugene Everton (E E), and daughter Evelyn Alexander (E A) the census lists a 28 year old domestic servant, Lucia Turner, a 12 year old “nurse” Flora Wall, and a 40 year old mattress maker Thomas Turner, presumably related to Lucia. Robert’s occupation is listed as an express messenger.

The Smith family is listed as inhabitants in Atlanta’s First Ward, and I believe the home was situated on the northwest side of Whitehall Street, and I’m fairly confident it was this plat and structure from a later (1878) map shown below. As we saw in Robert’s mother Eveline’s letter to McNaught prior to her death in 1869 she made mention of her wish to “have the balance of the lot on which Robert lives divided between my three youngest children.” She also mentioned that “two thirds of the lot joining Robert belongs to them.” We can see the apparent two thirds of the property north of Whitehall as presumably owned by the L. W. Smith estate.

I’m confident that this is where Robert and Mary lived prior to their eventual move to Kirkwood in ~1890. I’m jumping ahead a bit but later Atlanta city directories list them living at 339 Whitehall. Atlanta went through a renumbering process in 1892, and at that time 339 became 385 Whitehall. Another renumbering in 1927 would have resulted in it being renumbered to approximately 441 Whitehall St SW. In a later post I’ll mention some of the later owners of the property. The following 1899 Sanborn map shows the “T”-shaped 385 Whitehall in relation to the intersection of Hood and Whitehall.

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Around this time in 1870, M. W. Legg continued to correspond with McNaught, primarily continuing to ask for funds related to board for the Smith heirs, as well as tuition for the girls to attend school in Bardstown, KY and Windsor to attend the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA (he appears in the 1870 census there as an enrolled cadet). I don’t know if it was out of necessity or opportunity, but McNaught appears to have decided to convert real estate holdings into cash around this time.

I’m aware of at least three auctions conducted by G. W. Adair in 1870 and 1871 where the Smith property was subdivided and sold as 124 lots:

• Thursday 4/28/1870 [ 49 lots ]
• Wednesday 5/18/1870 [ 35 lots ]
• Thursday 4/20/1871 [ 40 lots ]

But, as you may recall, the Smith estate also owned storefront property in the heart of downtown Atlanta. In the next post we will look at some of the early retail tenants as well as new additions to the Smith family.