Let's Explore The Bowden Plantation

As I’ve stated here before we drive by places everyday in never realizing the significance the place holds in our historical record. The place I have in mind to examine this week was once the hub of a thriving plantation containing 5,500 acres.

I can’t even imagine what 5,500 acres looks like. Can you? Perhaps we need to put the number in terms we can understand. 

640 acres of land is equal to 1 square mile. So 5,500 acres figures out to be an area encompassing approximately 8.5 miles. 

Picture yourself at the intersection of Thornton Road and Bankhead Highway in Lithia Springs. Now think about heading off from that spot in any direction for 8.5 miles. From the intersection south towards I-20 you travel a distance of 2.5 miles. If you turn around and re-trace your route passing over Bankhead Highway and continue on C.H. James Parkway towards Hiram you would end up past Brownsville Road to travel, a full 8.5 miles. If you travel up Bankhead from the interesection past the center of Lithia Springs towards Douglasville you would need to go through the middle of the commercial district to the western edge of town to travel 8.5 miles. 

Are you getting the picture? 5,500 acres would have been a huge plantation.

Now think about the land in terms of horse and buggy days and that area of land seems even larger, doesn’t it?

5,500 acres of land in the vicinity of Thornton Road and Bankhead Highway and one man owned it all.

The planter’s home was always the center of all activities for a plantation and in this case the home still exists. I’m certain that you have driven by it more than once. I’m referring to the yellow two-story home with green shutters on the south side of Bankhead Highway as you head towards the Thornton Road intersection. 

The house is a little deceptive. It doesn’t appear to date back to 1849 until you examine it a little closer. The chimneys on each side of the house are important markers. 

Long-time residents of Douglas County refer to the yellow house as the Bowden home. It belonged to Judge John C. Bowden, and he controlled a 5,500 acre plantation surrounding the house. Judge Bowden’s holdings were located in Cobb and Campbell (now Douglas) Counties.  

Born in 1826, Judge Bowden moved his business concerns from Cave Springs to Salt (Lithia) Springs in 1850. The next year he married Mary Rosa Summerlin, the daughter of a Salt (Lithia) Springs landowner named Joseph Summerlin who per the 1855 tax digest owned several hundred acres and nearly three dozen slaves.

There are some discrepancies in the historical sources regarding who built the house. Some state Judge Bowden built the house in 1849 while others state Joseph Summerlin gave the house to the newlyweds. The more important point is that Judge Bowden owned the house for many years, and he and his wife raised eight children there. The Salt (Lithia) Springs post office was located for a time at the Bowden home since the Judge was appointed post master in 1859.

Joseph Summerlin died in 1863 and is thought to be buried across the road from the Bowden house in what some records refer to as the Summerlin-Bowden cemetery. I had never noticed the private family cemetery until just the other day after I had begun my research. It’s easy to breeze by the spot as you try to keep your eyes on the road. My husband and I visited the small family plot and noted the county refers to the place as the Bowden-Mozley Cemetery. While the Douglas County Cemetery Preservation Commission monitors the site I could not find it listed on their database at the Celebrate Douglas website. Today the graveyard is wedged between a carwash and a church across the street from the Bowden home. There are several graves, but only two have markers you can actually read.

Judge Bowden’s home survived General Sherman’s troops when they invaded the area on , however the troops did vandalize the family cemetery searching for valuables.

It is said that Mary Rosa’s step-mother, Susan, was among the women in the area who were sent north when the mill at New Manchester was destroyed. I have no direct confirmation of this but after Joseph Summerlin’s death she remarried and was in the Chestnut Log area per records dated 1870, so she apparently is one of the few women who made her way back to Douglas County.

Judge Bowden presided over the Inferior Court in 1864. This was a court that had limited jurisdiction. The staff was generally part time and judges weren’t necessarily schooled in the practice of law. The court usually handled minor financial civil cases. Judge Bowden was an original Douglas County commissioner and served as a school commissioner in 1872. Most of the biographies I’ve located also list him as a merchant, planter, and Mason. 

Part of Judge Bowden’s land holdings included the springs. Folks in the surrounding area had been aware for years regarding the health benefits the water held. Judge Bowden bottled the water and sold it on a somewhat limited basis.

In the summer of 1881 James A. Watson, an Atlanta businessman, was on the way to visit his mother in Douglasville. The route from Atlanta cut through Salt (Lithia) Springs with the Bowden house serving as a stagecoach stop. Somewhere between Atlanta and Salt (Lithia) Springs Watson fell ill causing him to spend a couple of days at the Bowden home. During his stay he was given some of the water from the springs and credited it with his speedy recovery. He left the Bowden home with a jug of the water and once he was home in Atlanta he had the water tested. It was discovered the water was rich in Lithium bicarbonate. Though Judge Bowden was already selling the water Watson saw a business opportunity and shared his idea with a couple of his friends from Atlanta.

Three years later Judge Bowden sold the springs along with 700 acres to Atlanta businessmen E.W. Marsh and Hugh Inman who along with Watson eventually developed the Sweetwater Park Hotel. They were also instrumental in bringing the to Lithia Springs along with several others businessmen and involved citizens.

The men began an extensive advertising campaign which must have worked because The Weekly Star dated February 17, 1885 advised large quantities of water were being shipped and the company had offices in Atlanta, New York and New Orleans. Willie Bowden, Judge Bowden’s son was in charge of the shipping department. In future columns I’ll be writing more about the springs and the Sweetwater Park Hotel.

Over time Judge Bowden’s plantation was divided among his children and eventually sold off bit by bit. New owners came to live in the yellow house.  In 1948, Edwin Arthur Hetzner moved into the historic home. Hetzner was known to locals as Coach Hetzner since he was the basketball coach for Austell High School. Later he transferred to and he was the principal of Beulah Elementary as well.

After retiring in 1967, Coach Hetzner devoted his time to his hobbies including a miniature village he constructed called Piddleville he put on display for friends and neighbors to tour. Coach Hetzner and his wife also devoted many hours to restoring and renovating their historic home.

When Coach Hetzner passed away in 1967 his wife, Lois, ran a flower shop as well as a mobile home park on her property before moving to Pennsylvania in 1988.

Today, a plumbing company operates from the Bowden home.

Who would have ever thought that the land radiating from the nondescript yellow house was part of a large plantation or held such significance historically?