Reuben Cone

Judge Reuben Cone (July 14,1788–April 10,1851) was an important pioneer and landowner in Atlanta, Georgia.

He was an early pioneer in DeKalb County, Georgia where he married Lucinda Shumate (1796–1872) and served on an education committee in 1823. [Garrett, Vol. I, p.31] . He began serving as a justice of the inferior court there in February 1825. [Garrett, Vol. I, p. 52] This was at a time when Decatur consisted of a dozen log cabins. [ [http://www.julen.net/family/files/lucinda_shumate_cone_underwood.html The Girl From Julen: Family History: Lucinda Shumate Cone Underwood ] ]

Land Lot 78

This important section of 202½ acres includes all of the current Fairlie-Poplar district and Centennial Olympic Park was originally granted to a Jane Doss of Jackson County, Georgia who sold it a year later, in 1826 to Matthew Henry of Gwinnett for $50. Henry held onto it for twelve years and sold it to Judge Cone for $300. [Garrett, Vol. I, p.60]

The spike that Stephen Harriman Long drove into the ground to mark the terminus of the Western and Atlantic Railroad lied within Judge Cone's Land Lot 78, an event which founded the eventual city of Atlanta. [Garrett, Vol. II, p.955] When selling off his large land holdings, he would divvy up small lots and sell for low prices to encourage more people to settle in the young town. [ [http://www.julen.net/family/files/lucinda_shumate_cone_underwood.html The Girl From Julen: Family History: Lucinda Shumate Cone Underwood ] ]

Assault

The event for which Judge Cone is most well known occurred in the late summer of 1848 when he was 60 years old. Congressman Alexander Stephens was in Atlanta campaigning to deny the acquisition of New Mexico and California under the Wilmot Proviso and the Clayton Compromise. [Johnston, p.231] Stephens had heard that Cone had called him a traitor for this position, but Stephens said he did not believe the Judge would have said that. When coming across Cone, Stephens asked if he had indeed said such and Cone denied that he had. Then Stephens remarked that if Cone had said it, Stephens would have slapped him in the face. Again Cone denied that he had and the matter seemed dropped. [Johnston, p.232] But talk of the confrontation began to circulate the town and Judge Cone wrote a letter demanding that Stephens retract the threat and Stephens responded with a letter stating that since his threat was contingent on avowal of Cone's statement and since Cone had denied that he had made it, there was no conflict.

At the time the largest hotel in town was the Atlanta Hotel run by pioneer Dr. Joseph Thompson and here was where important businessmen, traders and politicians would meet every evening.Unfortunately, the two were to run into each other there before Cone had received Stephens' reply. Cone angrily demaned a retraction, Stephens replied that he had already responded in letter and had no more to say in the matter. Cone then called him a traitor and Stephens struck him with a small cane. Cone came at him with a knife and began stabbing Stephens violently and was set to cut his throat when bystanders pulled the two apart.

Stephens was stabbed eighteen times and his wounds were immediately dressed. His right hand was badly mangled and one thrust was very close to his heart and another severed an artery. [Johnston, p.233] But he survived and returned home to Crawfordville, Georgia to recover. Cone was mortified by what he'd done and Stephens refused to testify against him but he was eventually convicted of a less serious crime of stabbing and released after paying $1,000. The two became friends again and remained such until Cone's death three years later. [Johnston, p.234]

Other works

Also in 1848, Judge Cone donated a section of his land along Marietta street for the First Presbyterian church (this lot is now part of the State Bar of Georgia building) which was completed by Richard Peters in 1852. He is buried at Oakland Cemetery and remembered by Cone Street in downtown Atlanta.

References

* Garrett, Franklin, "Atlanta and Its Environs", 1954, University of Georgia Press.
* Johnston, Richard Malcolm, "Life of Alexander H. Stephens", 1883, J. B. Lippincott & Co. (Philadelphia) [http://books.google.com/books?id=XsELAAAAIAAJ]

Notes