The Forgotten Town of Constitution, Georgia
Constitution, a Ghost Town of Georgia
By Marissa Howard, Programs and Membership Coordinator
On South Moreland Avenue, south of East Atlanta Village, lies the ghost hamlet of Constitution, Georgia. This place is a label on the map, but no city exists. This part of DeKalb is a bit of a no man’s land for more DeKalbians. The land surrounding the four-lane highway of Moreland is filled with trucking businesses, landfills, and Georgia Department of Correction Detention Centers. However, you should be familiar with the area. It is home to the Starlight Drive-In, the South River Forest preserve, and the controversial Cop City project. But why is Constitution on the map?
Constitution was formally organized in 1911 as a response to the organization of a Black Cemetery, Chestnut Hill.
The following is taken verbatim from the Atlanta Journal and lays out the entire history.
GREATER CONSTITUTION OPPOSED TO CEMETERY
Jan 9, 1911, Atlanta Journal
“The Town of Constitution – 200 people, a depot, and several dwelling houses on the Southern railway, eight miles south of Atlanta – has been corporated, and now boasts a mayor, a recorder and five councilmen, to say nothing of a Greater Constitution stretching out a mile in each direction from the depot.
This Memphis-like spreading out was not done primarily with the idea of having the town figure in the 1920s census, but to forestall the activity of a negro cemetery association which has 70-odd acres in Greater Constitution. The active heads of this association – the Chestnut Hill Cemetery association – are David T. Howard and L. L. Lee, negro undertakers. When their intention to sell cemetery lots became known, several white property owners brought action for an injunction, but their petition was denied by Judge Pendleton of the superior court on the ground that a cemetery per se was not a nuisance, so long as its owners complied with proper burial regulations.
The property owners followed the example of Peachtree Road who had been menaced with a cemetery and became corporated. The first act of the mayor and council was to pass an ordinance prohibiting the use for burying purposes of any part of the corporate territory except that already set aside for white and negro burial grounds – about one acre for the whites and two for the blacks. Since then the cemetery association has held no funerals in Constitution. The mayor of Constitution is N. H. Mayor [Maddox]; recorder H. L Allen and the councilmen, W. S. Gillett, G. L. Tanner, W. F. Swinney, D. M. Almand and J. H. Everhart.
The objection to the cemetery was largely on a hygienic score. Constitution is composed largely of dairy and truck farms. The new territory comprises parts of Fulton and DeKalb counties and embraces the would-be cemetery. Gleaton & Gleaton are the lawyers representing the property owners.”
Let’s back up to explore this story and the claims made in the article.
Constitution
It’s unknown when and where the name Constitution came from. The name was chosen around the time the railroad came through in 1885.
The East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad was built, passing through this community. A depot was erected. Advertisements in the 1880s were selling property close to the Constitution Depot, with good prospects for a store, manufacturing, and cultivation. Side Note: “Constitution Spring” in Grant Park was also built around this time. The name could have something to do with the Centennial Celebration of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, which was being celebrated across the country.
Several churches and cemeteries were established. New Hope Church and Cemetery, located on Moreland Avenue was founded in 1869 by Dr. Thomas Terrell Key. This church and cemetery still exist, the current granite one room church built in 1936. Graves in the churchyard date back to 1872.
New Hope Methodist Church and Cemetery, established in 1869. It is now New Hope Independent Methodist.
Peachtree Road Cemetery
Around 1909, 80 ½ acres of land once owned by Atlanta families the Colliers and Plasters were sold. These adjoining properties on the northern edge of what was then Atlanta (now roughly Brookwood on Peachtree Street to Piedmont Road) were purchased by the American Securities Company of Georgia. However, much to the annoyance of everyone and made very clear in the press, the company was operated by out-of-town businessmen from Mobile, Alabama. This company intended to turn the property into a large burial ground called Peachtree Hill Cemetery. This development was met with immediate backlash from neighbors. The proposed Peachtree Hill Cemetery was envisioned as a beautiful park cemetery for white people only. Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish burials would be segregated.
Neighbors began to fight back against this cemetery by beginning the process toward incorporation of an independent municipality, called Peachtree Heights. Ultimately, the cemetery proposal was blocked and thrown out by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners for multiple legal reasons. The American Securities Company of Georgia then turned around and began developing the area into a neighborhood development called Peachtree Hills, which still exists today along Peachtree Street, just north of Brookwood.
Chestnut Hill Cemetery
Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Photo by Findagrave.com contributor Zanna. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/33255/chestnut-hill-cemetery
Chestnut Hill Cemetery is a large cemetery located just south of Starlight Drive-In on Moreland Ave. It was founded around 1906 by Black funeral home owners David T. Howard and Lucious L. Lee.
David Tobias Howard was born enslaved in 1849 to Colonel T. B. Howard (who was father of future DeKalb lawyer, legislator, and Kirkwood resident William Schley Howard). In his 1935 obituary, David Howard was described as “Atlanta’s most beloved citizen and the city’s pioneer businessman.” In 1880 he established his first funeral directing company, Howard & Sons, which became the premiere black funeral business in Atlanta. In addition to operating a funeral business, he established Atlanta’s first African American owned bank. A noted millionaire and philanthropist, he donated land to establish an elementary school for Black students called David T. Howard school. Today, there is still a David T. Howard Middle School in the Atlanta Public School System.
The other founder of Chestnut Hill was Lucious L. Lee. Lucious was born in 1854, in Georgia. He had a funeral home practice in downtown Atlanta for 30 years. He died in 1915 and in his obituary described his “Record-Breaking” funeral. The funeral procession was two miles long to South-View Cemetery. The hearse led the funeral cortege, carrying an $800 steel lined silver gray casket. Following behind were members of his secret societies: the Masons, Templars, Odd Fellows, and the Knights and Daughters of Tabor. There were nearly 100 carriages in the line and two wagon loads of floral offerings.
In Lee’s will he bequeathed 46 shares of Chestnut Hill Cemetery to his 11 grandchildren.
In around 1906, Howard and Lee together purchased 70 acres for $5,000 in unincorporated DeKalb County off of Moreland Avenue (then called Old McDonough Road) to create their own cemetery called Chestnut Hill. In 1910, before any burials took place, neighbors attempted to block the cemetery by citing it as a nuisance; their claim was that the land was filled with dairy farms. The case was denied, the judge ruled it was not a nuisance. However, before the case was determined, neighbors led by Nolan Maddox decided to follow the precedent set by Peachtree Heights and incorporate as a city.
In January 1911, the town of Constitution elected Nolan Maddox as Mayor, city council members were installed, and the first order of business was passing an ordinance against any burials within the town limits which included Chestnut Hill. This also supposedly included a prohibition on any burials in the white cemetery of New Hope Methodist Church. The town of Constitution also secured the passage of a state law.
Section 1 of Ga. L. 1910, p. 131.
“Be it enacted, That in all counties in this State having a population of one hundred and twenty-five thousand (125,000), or more, the Board of County Commissioners, or if there be no such Board, the Ordinary of said county, shall have the power to grant or refuse permission to establish outside of the limits of incorporated towns, cemeteries, hospitals, sanatoriums, or similar institutions.
The law was later amended: Ga. L. 1911, p. 200, sec. 1, extended the provisions of the act of 1910 to all counties adjoining counties having a population of 125,000 or more. Given that the only counties in Georgia at that time to fit the requirements of population were Fulton and DeKalb, this law was challenged in court during the trial. Chestnut Hill performed a burial and cemetery employee Willis Turner was arrested. Turner’s arrest added more legal questions to the case, eventually going to the Georgia Supreme Court. (L. G. Self vs Willis Turner, 1912) During the lead up to the trial set for late 1911, the town of Constitution had all but ceased to exist. Attorneys representing the town admitted that by the cessation of its administrative function the town failed to exist. The final decision came in the fall of 1911 in favor of Chestnut Hill. “The fact that the corporate authorities of the municipalities passed only two ordinances, and that the mayor, recorder and aldermen voluntarily ceased to perform their official duties, did not operate to terminate the corporate existence of the town.” It is not clear when Constitution officially disbanded as a municipality, but by the end of 1912, Mayor Maddox sold his property which was located next to the Cemetery.
Many thanks to South-View Cemetery President Winifred Hemphill who has in their collection the ordinance passed in 1912 by the town of Constitution permitting Chestnut Hill to operate. Today, South-View manages the cemetery.
Ordinance passed November 1912, signed by Mayor Nolan Maddox. Courtesy of South-View Cemetery.
History of the Land
The land that Chestnut Hill Cemetery sits upon is deeply tied with the community of Thomasville on the Fulton County side of Moreland. Thomasville was founded by Henry Thomas, a Black Freeman born in 1820 in South Carolina. He moved to Atlanta around 1845, and married Amanda Simpson in the 1850s. In 1865 he founded Mount Carmel AME church and owned land around that area. A rural community of predominantly Black land owners and single family homes remained until the 1950s. In 1959, Thomasville was selected as one of the Urban Renewal Areas of Atlanta. Landowners sold their land to make way for affordable housing for displaced residents of other Atlanta neighborhoods. Today, an active effort is being made to revitalize this community.
Marriage License of Eliza Thomas and Anderson Turner, 1876.
One of Henry Turner’s daughters, Eliza, married Anderson Turner in 1876. Not much is known about Anderson Turner, but it’s around this time of the marriage that he begins to own and pay taxes on 60 acres of land. The land could have come into his possession due to the marriage or he may have owned it already. Anderson went on to be one of the founders of South-View Cemetery in 1886. He passed away sometime around 1900 and the land was given to his son, Willis Turner. By 1906, there was a land transfer to David Howard and L. L. Lee. Willis Turner continued to work at the cemetery, assisting with burials. Mentioned earlier, during the prohibition on burials in 1911, Turner was arrested. His arrest pushed the legal case forward eventually to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Atlanta Journal, August 6, 1981. Article written by Scott Thurston.
In 1981 a news article was written about the “DeKalb’s Lost Hamlet.” Various residents were interviewed about the history, adding personal recollections and thoughts. Mary Nelson, owner of Ted’s Constitution Grocery, a small grocery and deli, said, “Lord, I never thought about it much. As far as I know it was never a town.” Franklin Garrett, Atlanta’s leading historian surmised it had to do only with the flag stop on the railroad.
Now we know so much more of Constitution, GA, the Lost Hamlet with its forgotten history.
Many thanks to South-View President Winifred Hemphill who provided the ordinance. This unlocked the key to the landowners and the connection to Thomasville Heights.
South-View Cemetery, located in Fulton County, is the oldest African-American non profit corporation in the country, and is the final resting place for over 80,000 African Americans. Located near Lakewood Stadium and the South Atlanta neighborhood, this historic cemetery is the final resting place for many notable Black Atlantans including David T. Howard, Lucious Lee, and Senator John Lewis.
Thanks also to Scott Candler, IV, of McCurdy and Candler, LLC, who provided guidance on understanding the language of 1911 legal writing.
Sources:
“Stallings Coming Back,” The Atlanta Constitution, October 8, 1884.
“North-Siders Hold Meeting,” The Atlanta Constitution, February 19, 1910.
“Cemetery No Nuisance Per Se, Judge Says,” The Atlanta Journal, September 25, 1910
“Chestnut Hill Negros Win Suit On Cemetery, ” The Atlanta Journal, Aug 23, 1911.
“Greater Constitution Opposes Cemetery,” The Atlanta Journal, September 9, 1911.
“Is Permission of County Necessary to Bury Corpse,” The Atlanta Constitution, November 27, 1911.
“Cemetery Association Restrained By Court,” The Atlanta Constitution, December 10, 1911.
“Supreme Court of Georgia: Judgements Affirmed, August, 22, 1911.” The Atlanta Journal, August 11, 1912.
“When May A Town Go Out of Business, ” The Atlanta Journal, April 12, 1912.
