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

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. He was an early pioneer in

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where he married Lucinda Shumate (1796–1872) and served on an education committee in 1823. He began serving as a justice of the inferior court there in February 1825. This was at a time when Decatur consisted of a dozen log cabins.The Girl From Julen: Family History: Lucinda Shumate Cone Underwood
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Land Lot 78

This important section of 202½ acres includes all of the current Fairlie-Poplar district and

Centennial Olympic Park Centennial Olympic Park is a public park located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, owned and operated by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority. It was built by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) as part of the infrastructu ...

was originally granted to a Jane Doss of

Jackson County, Georgia Jackson County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 60,485. The county seat is Jefferson. Jackson County comprises the Jefferson, GA Micropolitan Statistical A ...

who sold it a year later, in 1826 to Matthew Henry of

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for $50. Henry held onto it for twelve years and sold it to Judge Cone for $300. The spike that

Stephen Harriman Long Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most pro ...

drove into the ground to mark the terminus of the

Western and Atlantic Railroad The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (W&A) is a railroad owned by the State of Georgia and currently leased by CSX, which CSX operates in the Southeastern United States from Atlanta, Georgia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was fo ...

lay within Judge Cone's Land Lot 78, an event which led to the foundation of the city of Atlanta.Garrett, Vol. II, p.955 When selling off his large land holdings, he would divvy up small lots and sell them for low prices to encourage more people to settle in the young town.

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 the naming of 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)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cone, Reuben 1788 births 1851 deaths Pioneers of Atlanta Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta)