Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3042 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSbusiness obligations. President Johnson offered him the place and friendsurged him to accept it, but he was constrained to decline the honor in ordernot to jeopardize important interests already entrusted to his guardianship.That was only one of many proofs that might be found of his stern senseof duty, which could never be compromised by political ambition or anyother influences. The democratic convention that met in Atlanta to nominatea candidate for governor offered the nomination to General Austell. A committee from the convention, with Colonel Saffold, of Madison, as chairman,waited on General Austell at his residence and formally tendered him thenomination. He considered the proposition twenty-four hours and declinedthe unusual honor on account of the sacrifice it would entail upon his large railroad projects at that time. No other son of Georgia has had the tribute paidhim of having a republican President appoint him, and a democratic convention offer him the highest executive office in the state. All absolutely unsolicited.On September 1, 1865, General Austell organized the Atlanta NationalBank. While the national banking act had been passed by the Federal Government several years before, the first charter granted to any bank in the seceding state was given to General Austell and his associates. From the time ofits organization until his death General Austell was president of the AtlantaNational Bank and more than any other individual is conceded the credit formaking it one of the strongest financial bulwarks in the country. During thepanic of 1873, when credit was generally paralyzed and when numberless business houses and banks went down before the storm, the Atlanta NationalBank reserved its credit and continued uninterrupted business, and morethan that used its impregnable resources to uphold the financial integrity ofits customers. This experience alone was a splendid tribute to General Austell's financial sagacity, and there is every reason to believe the truth of theassertion that Atlanta's financial credit even at the present time rests largelyupon the bed-rock foundation laid under the leadership of this pioneer banker.While his distinctive place in the business annals of the South is as abanker, General Austell's activities were widely extended and proved vitalfactors in many enterprises designed for the upbuilding of Georgia and theSoutheastern states. With William H. Inman, General Austell organizedthe New York Cotton Commission House of Austell & Inman, which latergrew into the great firm of Inman, Swann & Company, through which agencythe markets of the world were opened to the chief agricultural product ofthe South.A great deal might be said concerning General Austell's achievements asa railroad builder. He early recognized the need for more extended railwayfacilities through the territory normally tributary to Atlanta, and thus turnedhis business ability and his private resources to railway construction. GeneralAustell was chairman of the first board of directors of the Atlanta & CharlotteAir Line Railway, now a part of the Southern System. He was also vice president and financial agent of this road when it was built, and for ten years wasits vice president. He was the prime mover in the construction of this road,and more than any other individual deserves the credit for the achievement.He was also instrumental in building the East Tennessee, Virginia & GeorgiaRailway, and the Spartansburg & Asheville Railway. All these lines have,it is hardly necessary to state, played a most important part in developing thematerial resources of the region commercialry tributary to Atlanta.In 1853 General Austell married Miss Franchina Cameron. Mrs. Austellis now in the eighty-second year of her life, a resident of Atlanta, and stillstrong and vigorous and enjoying good health, her many years being onlythe crown of a noble womanhood. She became the mother of four children:William W. Austell; Janie, who married James Swann, both now deceased;Leila, widow of A. E. Thornton; and Alfred Austell, Jr.