very interesting......I love History
Just as President-elect Obama went to Hawaii after his election to recharge his physical batteries, so it was 100 years ago that William Howard Taft came to Augusta to do the same.
According to a later article in The Chronicle , a physician friend of Taft's in Cincinnati had visited a patient in Augusta and suggested that it would be a good place for the president-elect to recuperate from his campaign.
An estimated 4,000 met the Ohio native when he arrived from New York at Augusta's Union Station train depot (where the post office is now) at 10:40 a.m. Friday, Dec. 18, 1908.
With him were his wife, Helen; their two sons, Robert and Charles; his Filipino valet, Monico Lopez; various office and administrative assistants; and one Secret Service guard. Taft's daughter, also named Helen, a student at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania, would join them later.
Reporters from the New York Herald and the New York Sun daily newspapers and The Associated Press also came.
Because the inauguration in those days would not occur until March 4, the president-elect stayed in Augusta until Jan. 23, 1909, when he left by train for Charleston, S.C., where he would board a ship for Panama. He had a keen interest in Panama since serving as governor general of the Philippines and had supervised the beginnings of the Panama Canal construction in 1907.
The articles referred to him as Judge Taft because of his service on the U.S. Court of Appeals. He also had served as President Theodore Roosevelt's secretary of war. His defeat of William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 presidential race was his first election victory.
FOR THEIR FIRST two nights in Augusta, the Tafts were guests on Milledge Road in the Summerville Hill mansion of Landon A. Thomas, the president of King Mill.
The Tafts then moved into Terrett Cottage just behind the Bon Air Hotel. They ate many meals in the Bon Air.
The president-elect worked on forming his cabinet in Augusta but still found lots of time for sports even though, at age 51 and 6 feet tall, he weighed about 300 pounds. He was a golf fanatic and, within hours after his arrival, was on the links of the Augusta Country Club on Milledge Avenue
It was at the Augusta Country Club on a visit in November 1909, he met another golf enthusiast, Ty Cobb, who had begun his professional baseball career in Augusta just five years earlier.
Taft also loved riding horses. He spent Christmas Day 1908 in Augusta riding from the stables of the Bon Air Hotel.
"The party went out the Washington road, at Berckmans cut across country, returning to the city by Wrightsboro road," The Chronicle reported on Dec. 26. "Judge Taft enjoyed the ride thoroughly and expressed himself as delighted with the splendid roads and the very excellent views afforded from points along the ride."
TAFT WAS VERY ACTIVE throughout the Augusta area during his stay. He spent New Year's Eve at the Augusta Country Club. He was honored by the Augusta Bar Association with a dinner at the Bon Air Hotel on Jan. 11.
Two days before, Taft went to a barbecue lunch at the historic Beech Island Agricultural Club in a car, which was not a common means of transportation in this area at the time. Taft would be the first president to own a car and would convert the White House horse stables into a four-car garage.
Because there was no bridge, his car was placed on a ferry at the Savannah River and pulled over to the South Carolina side.
Milledge Murray, vice president of SunTrust Bank, recently bought on eBay an old magazine that covered Taft's visit to the Beech Island club with photos.
During his stay Taft also visited Shiloh Orphanage and sent a donation to the charity; attended a performance of The Prisoner of Zenda at the Grand Opera House at Eighth and Greene and visited with the cast backstage after the show; addressed more than 1,000 members of Augusta's black YMCA at Tabernacle Baptist Church; addressed a packed gathering at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute (which became Lucy Laney High School); and was honored by the Augusta Chamber of Commerce with an elaborate banquet at the Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta.
The banquet guests included multimillionaire John D. Rockefeller, who spent winters in Augusta; North Augusta founder James U. Jackson; and South Carolina Gov. Martin F. Ansel, who had been inaugurated the day before.
The day after Taft left, The Chronicle noted that he had told newspaper reporters "that the South's well-heralded hospitality was even more hospitable as exemplified by the people of Augusta, than he had been led to believe. He paid high tribute to the climate and pronounced it our grandest asset."
Taft returned to Augusta many times as president and as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. That included being in the Grand Opera House in 1912 for a memorial service of his military aide, Archibald Butt, who died on the Titanic. Taft returned in 1914 for the dedication of the Butt Memorial Bridge.
Comments
very interesting......I love History
It sounds like Augusta really had it going on back then...what happened?
Terrific piece as always, Mr. Rhodes.More!
Good to know but now is not the time.lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
"where the post office is now" well that narrows the location down a bit...
Very interesting article, just fascinating. I love history.
I was born and raised in Augusta and the older I get, the more I appreciate the history. For those who feel the same, "The Story of Augusta" by Edward Cashin is a great book, with some wonderul, old pictures.
Excellent reading!There should be more of these type of articles.
I remember a picture that my grandmother had showing President Taft, I think dressed in knickers, talking with her and her siblings. Her name was Naomi Burns. She lived close to the Augusta Country Club. It breaks my heart that this picture can no longer be found. Thanks, Don, for a look back at a different time and place in Augusta.
Augusta's best days...receeding into the rear view mirror. What a sad little town, clutching at yesterdays glory. The future for Augusta is dark, very dark.
During this time President and Mrs. Taft were guests at tea in Waynesboro, hosted by Major William Archibald Wilkins and his wife. Mrs. Wilkes a Lousiana native prepared many Creole dishes for the occasion. The beautiful old mansion still stands in Waynesboro and is locally known as the Bates Hagood House. This old house has beautiful Tiffany windows and many architectural features reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's monticello. Another interesting footnote is that during Taft's visit to Augusta (the extremely busy Winter Season) there was literally no room at the inn (The Bon Air) for his party. Apparently, J.D. Rockerfeller held a suite which which consisted of twelve rooms. Management tried to persuade Mr. Rockerfeller to give up only two rooms to accomodate the President but was refused. So, Taft's military aid, Capt Archibald Butt (Butt's bridge fame) and a secret service agent were quartered in remote parts of the hotel away from the President.
There is no comparsion between Hawaii, and augusta. The only thing augusta got going for it is the once a year masters, for outsiders. What is there to augusta after the masters, the same old dreary ,no transportation,no nite-life, no nothing , augusta.
As someone who is not a native of Augusta or of Georgia, I found this article very interesting. I've loved living here so far - being close to the mountains, ocean, Atlanta, Charlotte, Savannah, Charleston, etc....it's a great location! Now we just need to clean up the slums and it would be a great destination as well!
Augusta's history is amazing. Thanks for this new insight to another part of this history. People do not realize just how great this city once was. Too bad it isn't like that anymore. Mr Rhodes, keep up the good work.
To some people Augusta will never be good enough, it would'nt leave anything to complain about but I think Augusta could be a very nice city, there is a lot of history here. It needs to be cleaned up and it needs city management with fresh new ideas. First it needs to get these thugs off the streets.
The area mentioned about the post office is the main post office on 8th street. There is a onument there still that notes it as the place of the old Georgia Railroad. There is an arch with the logo an all still standing.
"It sounds like Augusta really had it going on back then...what happened?" --- Lack of vision. Back then folks were interested in making the city a shining example, and thought out things in advanced, like Broad street (the widest street at that time in the country). Augusta had many firsts, it was a progressive town, with leaders that weren't "conventional". Read online an interesting booklet from the 19th century addressing Augusta's sanitation, that you swore was written for a city the size of London. Very detailed, very forward thinking. Today? If it's called "forward thinking" every dumb idiotic GOP self-styled conservative will label it "liberal" and shoot it down. That's what happened. Augusta's stagnating with folks wanting to live in the past, where Augustans from the past were MAKING a future.
"it needs city management with fresh new ideas." --- I was born and raised here (and probably even die here), and I love this city. But at times I want to take our city leaders and SHAKE them, as they're destroying the city's legacy. Vision here in this city now is payback politics; turning a profit for their self-interests; and folks trying to pad their CVs for better jobs outside Augusta (case in point, our former mayor Bob Young). Remember him at a function, and a very learnt lady asked him what can be done about a matter, his retort was this, "What are YOU going to do about it?". I lost respect for that man ever since, as that cheap debating tactic does nothing to boost confidence in his, and city, LEADERSHIP -- and as history shows, both are true. I could never run for office, but if I could, priority on day one is to get a think tank together, and work out a new city plan. One that incorporates the values of Augustans old, and with the vision of Augustans new. It's about time we reclaim that "shining city on the hill" again.
"If it's called "forward thinking" every dumb idiotic GOP self-styled conservative will label it "liberal" and shoot it down." ... You've got to be kidding. What is holding Augusta back now is the fact that if you do something for a certain group, you must do something for another group. Some can't see past race and the good of the city is put in the background. What is good for one group can be good for another group but some will never give it a chance. To have the commissioners vote solely on race, defeats any progress. To see how the backroom deals defeat any progress, shows Augusta won't grow until progress is first and foremost in everyone's mind and deeds.
Yes, part of it is "payback" politics, but another is the overly conservative nature of leaders in this town. Take for example, this "forward thinking" idea -- Retrofit the city street lights with baffles to direct the light going up into the night sky, down to the ground where it belongs. Why? 50% of the city light bill goes to complete waste (nothing in space is going to need a light!). The result? More light in dimly lit areas to deter crime; less street lights per foot is needed (saving money); and we can have a dark night sky again! Used to be able to watch the meteorite showers from the backyard, but with the newer sodium lights that shine in a 360 degree arc, that's history. The light needs to be on the street, not in the sky. Now try to get that idea passed in this town. You won't, because someone will equate no light in the sky means no light on the ground. It's that STUPIDITY that keeps Augusta down.
If, God forbid, any city planners ever read these comments....Read this, read it thoroughly, read it for w-h-y lighting the sky isn't good for a city....... http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do | http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/light-pollution/klinkenborg-text
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