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A South Side Story
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very corner of Downtown LaGrange is bursting with history. But, the history of the corner south of the Square at what is now Lafayette Square and Bull Street, the one occupied by Lafayette Plaza, is especially interesting. In October of 1862, the country was embroiled in the Civil War and Mary Curtright had not seen her husband in months. Writing to her from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Captain John Cornelius “Jack” Curtright explained that a visit home to LaGrange would be a “violation of what I consider best for my company & country.” He was the commander of Company E of the 41st Georgia Regiment, a unit that styled themselves as the “Troup Light Guards.” The regiment was serving in Kentucky under the leadership of Confederate General Braxton Bragg seeking to bring the state into the fold of the Confederacy. At the conclusion of his letter, he implores his wife to settle his business’ accounts “right away. The fall is now here & I suppose the farmers will have cotton. He [presumably Curtright’s bookkeeper] must take it in settlement.” Prior to the war, Capt. Curtright operated his mercantile on the corner of Court Square and Bull Street. An 1860 advertisement describes him as a Wholesale and Retail Grocer and shows him selling corn, bacon, tobacco, flour, coffee, and, oddly, nails and “a large lot of Iron and Plow steel.” However, two ads appearing in the October 17, 1862 edition of the LaGrange Reporter reveal the dire
Capt. Jack Curtright 38
February 2022
A LaGrange Fire Department ladder truck tests its ladder on the LaGrange Banking & Trust Building straits Curtright and many other local businessmen were in: “Desiring to close up my business…immediately, I propose to take in payment of debts due to me, COTTON, CORN, WHEAT &C., at the Very Highest Market Prices…CONFEDERATE BONDS or TREASURY NOTES, better than money with me.” Sadly, just a few days after this ad’s appearance, Curtright’s wife and three small children would be informed that he had been killed in Kentucky. As the captain of the Troup Light Guards, Curtright led his men into battle on October 8th near a small creek near the crossroads settlement of Perryville. Ten men from his regiment lost their lives in the fierce battle that day. According to family tradition, his enslaved manservant, Berry, found the body and buried it on the battlefield marking it with a cedar board. Years later, one of Curtright’s daughters married a Methodist minister, Warren Candler, who would eventually become a noted bishop in the church. In 1919, after giving a speech in Lexington, Kentucky, Candler mentioned that his father-in-law was buried somewhere near Perryville. An older gentleman happened to recall the burial spot of a Confederate officer, and the remains were recovered and miraculously identified as those of Capt. Curtright. The remains were brought to LaGrange where they were buried next to his wife in Hill View Cemetery following a service conducted by Bishop Candler. What became of the building that Curtright occupied is unknown, though there is a possibility it was burned by Union Colonel
Oscar LaGrange who marched through town in mid-April of 1865. This is the same unit that legend holds was challenged by the Nancy Harts as they marched into town. While they promised to not destroy any of the homes and churches here, they did destroy the depot, several mills, and other parts of downtown. A few years after the war, Anderson D. Abraham (pronounced “Abram”), who commanded Company F of the 41st Regiment from Meriwether County alongside Curtright’s Company E, opened his own mercantile with partners Dr. Hezekiah Wimbish and Virgil L. Hopson on the north side of the square. In 1871 or 1872, Abraham decided to open the LaGrange Bank and Trust Company adjacent to his store on the northeast portion of the square. He had a fine building constructed for it and hired some of the best craftsmen in the area to appoint it. The LaGrange Reporter notes that the vault was constructed using granite from Stone Mountain. Abraham was engaged in running the bank for several decades until his death in 1895. In 1906, the bank commenced construction on a grand bank building at the corner of Bull Street and Court Square. The building was built to provide commercial, office, and living space in addition to the bank. Just like their original building, the new bank was outfitted with a state-of-the-art vault, one so modern that it commanded a full-page description in the LaGrange Reporter. The new bank opened the second week of November with King Hardware sharing the first floor, Bedford Heard’s grocery store
