City of Bostwick, GA - Home of the Cotton Gin Festival -
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Last Visited: 11/27/2008
John Bostwick, Sr. was born in 1859, the son of Green Berry Bostwick and Ann Frances Hester Bostwick, originally of Greene County, Georgia.
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Upon graduation, John Bostwick accepted a job as school teacher at the Braswell School.
He remained in this position for two years, also, as one of the area's finest college graduates, he became increasingly involved in county affairs.
He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1884, holding the position until 1896.
In 1885 Bostwick married Susie Green, the daughter of Henry Harden and America Malcom Green of Walton County.
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Bostwick was a successful cotton farmer, during a period of growing cotton wealth.
On the basis of his success, he started a small mercantile business in 1892 on his property.
In 1901 he also constructed a cotton oil mill, which soon became known as the Bostwick Manufacturing Company.
As part of his overall development scheme, Bostwick helped in 1901 establish a spur-line from the Central of Georgia Railroad.
This connected his property with the Macon and Athens Branch at the nearby Morgan County community of Apalachee.
The line, which became known as the Greene County Line railroad, eventually connected Bostwick with Monroe to the North, thereby tying Bostwick's various businesses into a regional transportation network.
A post office branch had been established in the Bostwick Supply Company, the area's "country store", in 1895; and in 1902 the town was incorporated by an act of the Georgia Legislature.
John Bostwick was elected mayor of the small farm-based community.
In 1902 John Bostwick Sr. built the Susie Agnes Hotel and purchased a large track of land.
As the train continued to pass through this area and people stopped for overnight trips, the town of Bostwick began to develop.
John Bostwick Sr. purchased a huge track of land and divided it into 122 lots for residential development.
Thus, the City of Bostwick was born.
The southeast side ground floor of the structure was used for commercial purposes, originally conceived by Bostwick as a provision store.
He continued to run the store until 1910.
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While other local farmers and business men competed for space in the prospering community, Bostwick managed to buy up much of the local property.
His own farm eventually extended to over 380 acres, and Bostwick also acquired property to the south of the road, primarily through the purchase of lands of another resident, Robert R. Jones.
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Jones had once vied with Bostwick to be the town's founder and early maps indicate the early Jones' properties.
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In 1908, after his purchase of the Jones lands, Bostwick hired C. Olin Jones, a civil engineer from Greenville, South Carolina to undertake a complete survey of a large section of his property south of what was labeled Main Street.
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Otherwise, the town and its new hotel were essentially Bostwick's.
Bostwick's fortunes were reversed suddenly in the pre-World War I era, and were further compounded after the war with the sudden decline of cotton prices.
Overextended like many other cotton farmers and processors, Bostwick was forced to sell off parts of his substantial commercial holdings.
As early as 1910 a portion of his business, including the hotel property, was deeded to Monroe Oil and Fertilizer Company as a result of the bankruptcy of Bostwick's development company.
John Bostwick, Sr. continuously worked for economic development in Morgan County.
He served on the Board of County Commissioners, pressing for road construction and school construction.
He was the main proponent of the State Agricultural School in Morgan County and was eventually elected president of the Potato Growers Association of Georgia in 1922.
Before his death in 1929, Bostwick also served as a member of the Georgia Legislature.
Descendants of John Bostwick, Sr. still reside today in the town that he founded.
The Susie Agnes Hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is an intact example of a turn-of-the-century commercial and hotel building typically constructed in a small Georgia community.
The building is the design of W.D. Calvin, a local Morgan County architect / builder who also designed several other buildings in Bostwick.
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Expecting continued growth and prosperity in the city, founder, John Bostwick, Sr. constructed the Susie Agnes Hotel in 1902 to house the growing number of traveling salesmen, or "drummers," who came through town, visiting the supply company, and also the oil press.
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The rear of the second floor was devoted mainly to a Masonic Hall, which Bostwick, an active Mason, provided for the local lodge.
A separate staircase provided access from the alley to the southeast.
The southeast side ground floor was used for commercial purposes from the beginning.
The space consisted of a single room, separated from the original hotel lobby, kitchen and dining room by a plank partition wall.
The store was conceived of by John Bostwick, Sr. as a provision store - a use that continued under various owners through the 1970s.
Under and with rail-mounted ladders, most of which remain in place today.
There was also a screened store office window, at one time located near the entrance, dating from approximately 1915 but now moved to the rear of the lower floor.
A well to the north provided water, pumped by a small engine to a steel cistern above.
Water was then supplied by gravity to both the floors of the adjacent hotel.
As John Bostwick, Sr. had hoped, traveling salesmen stayed for a night at the hotel, eating in the downstairs communal dining area and sitting around the front lobby.
The store met the provision needs of the community.
Local farmers received credit and paid bills in the store, a practice passed on to successive owners.
After the bankruptcy of Bostwick's development company in 1910, the hotel was deeded to the Monroe Oil and Fertilizer Company.
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