First Mayor of Oakhurst Murdered! …Nearly 100 Years Ago
Decatur Metro | October 29, 2010And you thought the historic district dispute was brutal!
In recognition of Oakhurst’s 100th Birthday Bash on Saturday, I’ve been greedily holding onto this little nugget of drama that occurred just a few months after Oakhurst’s incorporate in 1910. This whole story is courtesy of ATLHistory.com that posted pieces of the original article in the Atlanta Georgian, from which I will now quote…
In a great many places in Oakhurst the road is torn up, so [grocer Pearson] Zuber was forced to employ a boy with a push cart to deliver groceries. The boy, according to those who witnessed the affair, had left the cart standing on the sidewalk in front of Mayor Johnston’s home in Viola ave [now Madison]. Johnston, it is said, seeing this, walked up and deliberately kicked the cart, with its cargo of groceries, into the gutter. The delivery boy ran to the nearest telephone and notified Mr. Zuber of the mayor’s action.
Zuber hurried to the scene and demanded that Johnston pay for the ruined groceries. This the mayor, it is said, refused to do. A blow was struck. By whom it is not clear, but the consensus of opinion of witnesses indicates it was by Johnston. For a moment or so they battered each other, and then Johsnon was seen to pull away from the grocer and draw from his pocket a revolver. Five shots rang out as Johnston emptied his revolver at Zuber. Blood spurted from the two wounds Zuber had received, but, picking up a heavy scantling [basically, a two by four] that lay near by, he started for Johnston, who was retreating. With a blow he felled the mayor and then, standing over his prostrate form, beat out his brains.
ATLhistory has done a great job of piecing together the fallout from this brutal event, which you can read for yourself on their website.
Happy Birthday Oakhurst!
What a truly morbid tale — perfect for Halloween.
Gosh, thanks for that bit of morning cheer… it was a rollicking tale, and I was sort of enjoying it until I got the visual of,…”With a blow he felled the mayor and then, standing over his prostrate form, beat out his brains.”
So, DM, you can come over and clean the coffee from my computer screen and keyboard. Happy Halloween to you, too!
Had the grocery cart been booted?
Sounds like self-defense to me. I would never convict him.
What a great story. Sounds like Mayor Johnston was a bit of an SOB. There ought to be a historical marker commemorating this at Johnston and Madison.
Oh! Is is why we still don’t have a decent grocery story in Decatur?
Ha! My first reaction too.
Wow, as a current resident of Madison Avenue I’m wondering if anyone could shed light on where the Mayor lived? I swear my house is haunted; it may just be squirrels. This answers the question of why Johnston Street has that name. Very interesting DM!
Compared to this, Oakhurst today is a bastion of non-violence, peace, and quiet.