Macon Magazine

42 l Macon Magazine october/noveMber 2013 or Savannah to Columbus. In Macon's favor was its central location in the state and the convenient possibility of a branch line from the Macon road to Milledgeville. In 1835 Jerry Cowles was named president of the Macon Branch Bank. In June 1836 he succeeded in selling 2,500 shares of stock in the company to Macon citizens. Also in that month, he set out on horseback to attend a convention of railroad interests from seven states to be held in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was accompanied by three colleagues. Their mission was to survey the terrain enroute in order to convince the convention to endorse a railroad line from Cincinnati, Ohio, that would run through Macon to Savannah. They succeeded. In April 1837 a new bank, the Ocmulgee, was organized and Cowles was elected its president. A rival bank, the Monroe, failed and Cowles purchased its large stucco building and converted it into a fireproof cotton warehouse. In 1860 that building was converted into Macon's City Hall, which it remains today. In 1838 the locomotive, the Ocmulgee, was floated up the river and made its first run on the Macon to Forsyth line. A national financial panic had swept the country in 1837 and its effects were eventually felt in Macon. Cowles suffered a dramatic reversal of his fortunes and, in May 1842, his mansion house, the ultimate symbol of his success, was sold at a sheriff's auction for $3,110. Beginning with the sale of his home, Cowles' career was checkered with periods of success followed by periods of failure. His friend, Judge Clark, recalled that though Cowles suffered losses he always held his head high in Macon. By 1845 he was able to recoup some of his losses, and Sarah Cowles purchased his mansion from its interim owner for $6,000. The year 1845 also marked what some would later call Cowles' greatest success. The rail line to Forsyth and Atlanta, which he had worked so hard to secure, failed after a $2 million expenditure. The line was sold by the courts and the successful bidder at $153,600 was Jerry Cowles. Macon's old rivals, Charleston and Augusta, had hoped to buy the line and let it die. When Cowles began bidding they retreated believing that he would never be able to arrange financing, and they could then buy the line for even less than his bid. His friend Judge Clark wrote, "When he bid he represented no one but Jerry Cowles, with no backer but his genius and pluck." To the astonishment of the rival interests, Cowles arranged financing with New York backers and saved the railroad from oblivion. Also in 1845, Cowles personally arranged for a charter for a railroad to connect Macon with the Gulf of Mexico and arranged for his friend Elam Alexander to be named president of the new Southwestern Railroad Company. He had saved one railroad and started another, but his personal fortunes did not keep pace with his achievements. In 1847 his "mansion house, peach orchard and other property" were sold to Joseph Bond of Lee County for $16,000. In December the Georgia legislature chartered a new railroad, the Macon and Western, with Cowles as president. He may have invested the

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