Letters, 1871 Page 469
June 9th 71
Robt C.Brownfield Esq
Opelika Ala
Dear Sir
Your letter of the 6th was recd this morning. My agt Col. Swearingen has previously mentioned the subject of a Park and designated the square number 55, on which there is a spring and some rude cabins erected by some persons during the war without authority from me. – I have expressed my willingness to set apart that block and to give the city a conditional title, only requiring that the same, for the present, shall be put under good fence and the old shanties removed, and leaving to the sense of the citizens or Council the question of time for ornamenting the grounds. – The square to be used for no other purpose than ornamental grounds for public resort. – Your council can give any name to the park which seems to them appropriate. – If they should feel disposed to honor my beloved wife, the name should be “Laura Loomis Grant”.
Very Respectfully
Yr obt svt
L. P. Grant
Page 491
Atlanta Oct 18th 1871
Jas. G. Bree Esq
Baton Rouge La
Dear Sir
Mrs. Spiller enclosed your letter to her of July 26th. – I wrote you about that date requesting to know if you would submit the Spiller place to sale at public outcry. – I had been unable to sell at private contract. – I have had no answer to that question and have not been able to sell at your figure. Please write what I shall do. – I can readily understand the feelings of Mrs. Spiller in the matter, and at the same time appreciate your difficulty in hesitating to sell the property at a sacrifice. – I have just returned from Maine where I saw my old mother die at the age of 86½ years. Please remember me with expressions of kindness to your wife and her sisters. I wish you back here in the same pleasant locality and we could resume our usual evening amusements. Your friend
L. P. Grant
Page 493
Oct 23rd 71
Jno. H. Swearingen Esq
Dear Sir
Your letter of the 20th is at hand. You are needlessly alarmed (in my opinion) about the future prospects of Opelika. – The S&M will coquette with Columbus as long as there is a prospect of gain from that quarter. - That is all right. – If Columbus will risk her money or credit in building either or both of your Roads, she ought, at least, to have a temporary advantage. – Opelika is poor in what constitutes immediate wealth – but rich in what will eventually rule the south – centres of facilities, combined with a pure atmosphere and good water. – The city of Savannah has a temporary prosperity. – Charleston is under a cloud. –
In the main, the pressure of a bad Govt, has crushed the latter. – The former without visible advantages has lately controlled, to a great extent, the cotton exchanges of the Atlantic Seaboard. – A few years hence may witness a change that will surprise even the most cautious thinkers, and solid men of time. – Channels of transportation are being multiplied by means and men of straw. – These investments will go into the hands of receivers, and finally be sold to real capitalists. – The carrying trade will soon be controlled by interior routes and Southern Seaboard markets ignored. – This can only be averted by foreign capital and direct lines of steamers to European ports. – The great combination generally known as the Penn. Central has now reached its feelers to Augusta and will soon touch Macon. – It opens the same influence to Atlanta, with the completion of the Ga. Air Line Rail Road. – These combinations are the order of the day. – At this time, the interior routes are striking at the cotton from Atlanta. – Before the close of the present cotton season rates to New York will be offered from Opelika at lower rates than from Columbus. – These ideas are mainly my own private views. – Please consider them as personal and not connected with my official position. – I have no objection to their use, but only for consideration with your solid men. - Truly yours
L. P. Grant
(From Volume II)
Atlanta Nov 21st 1871
To the Hon. Mayor & Council of the City of Atlanta
The undersigned purposes to give a strip of land along the East side of Connally Street from Glynn to Glenn Sts (except the space knows as the Bree lot), 20 feet in width a distance of about 1200 feet, in exchange for the strip owned by the city along the South Boundary of the Old Fair Ground lot between Glynn St and lands of the undersigned and John A. Grant. This strip is 35 feet in width and 620 feet in length extending from Connally to Hill Streets. The strip offered to be occupied only for widening Connally Street.
The areas are - Grant’s land about 24000 squ ft
City “ “ 21700 “ “
Respectfully submitted
By yr. Obt. Svt.
L. P. Grant
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