Jim Glover- Roots that Run Deep in Marietta

The Glover Family

There is Old Marietta and then there’s Old Marietta.  The Glover family—Marietta’s pioneer family—established their roots in Marietta before Marietta was born.  Six generations of Glovers claim Marietta as home.

“We’ve always loved Marietta and loved the community,” stated James Bolan “Bo” Glover, IV, (5^th generation) the eldest living Glover at age 81.  “There’s no place like Marietta.”

Like his ancestors, Bo has witnessed many changes in Marietta over the years.  “We had cows just three blocks off the Square when I was a boy,” Bo said.  “I remember the whole southwest corner of the Square was reserved for cotton wagons.“

Bo recalled traveling Dallas Highway before the construction of expressways.  He described rolling hills, trees, and red clay.  “I’m sure that’s what my relatives must have seen when they came here the first time.  I would imagine they just loved it,” he said.

“Marietta is just a lovely place.  I think it’s the prettiest place in the whole world,” said the husband of Joan Wooten Glover.

When John Heyward Glover, Jr. (JHG) and his wife Jane Porter Bolan Glover (JPBG), arrived in Marietta in 1847, it was considered a summer resort town.   The Glovers moved from Charleston, SC to escape coastal diseases like yellow fever that took the lives of several family members, according to James Bolan “Jim” Glover, V (6^th generation).

Based on a promissory note to “John Heyward Glover, Jr. 13 June 1839, Marietta, GA,” it appears that JHG engaged in business in Marietta eight years before settling in the area.

JHG who became the first mayor in 1852 played a vital role in the establishment of Marietta as a thriving town as did generations of Glovers to come.  An original incorporator in 1852, JHG built his first home, Bushy Park, a large Greek revival plantation, due south of Marietta (off South Cobb Drive).

(Bushy Park in modern time was converted into a restaurant first known as The Planters and subsequently The 1848 House.  Another Mayor, Bill Dunaway owned The 1848 House from 1992 until the house sold in 2004.  The restaurant closed in 2002.)

JHG sold Bushy Park in 1851 when JPBG decided the home place was too far from town.  The couple built their new home west of the Marietta Square at the corner of Paulding Street (now known as Whitlock Avenue) and Ayers Street (now known as Wright Street.)  The grand pink stucco home still stands today and is currently owned by a German Carpet Company.

The mansion built by JHG is also a symbol of history in Marietta.  “(The John Heyward Glover, Jr. mansion) was used as a stable during (the Civil War) while Yankee troops occupied the Marietta Motel located on the west side of Marietta Square, next to the railroad tracks,” Jim said.

Andrews’ Raiders slept at the Marietta Motel, (a breakfast house before JHG sold it to Dix Fletcher in 1855), the night before they stole The General during the Civil War escapade known as The Great Locomotive Chase.  (The building currently houses the Marietta Museum of History.)

The early Glovers owned other notable properties in the city including land donated by JPBG for use as a Confederate Cemetery along with a Citizens Cemetery (located side-by-side at the intersection of Powder Springs Street and the South Loop.)

In addition to being vast landowners, the Glover family forged industry and growth in Marietta.  “From the incorporation of Marietta in 1852 until WWII, the Glover family enterprises were among the largest employers in town,” Jim stated.

Among JHG’s many businesses the Marietta Steam Tannery, (locally known as Glover’s Tannery,) established on Atlanta Street was one of the largest industries in the south.  During Sherman’s March to the Sea, the Union Army burned the tannery to the ground because the business made leather shoes for Confederate soldiers.

A generation after Glover’s Tannery, James Bolan Glover, Jr. (2^nd generation) purchased Phoenix Foundry & Machine Shop in 1888, later renamed Glover Machine Works.  A premier builder of steam locomotives, Glover Machine Works attracted an international market to the small agricultural town.

Glover Machine Works made 200 locomotives that were transported all over the world.  “The first one was made right across the railroad tracks across from the present day Dupre’s (now a Walgreens Pharmacy),” Bo said.    In 1903 the factory was moved to Butler Street (near South Cobb Drive) and remained in the Glover family until 2001.

“We did have an international market.  That was unusual for a little town like Marietta,” Bo added.

“Glover Machine Works was the only locomotive manufacturer south of Virginia,” Jim said.   “At the turn of the century Glover Machine Works was Marietta’s largest employer and then later on McNeel Marble became the largest employer.”

“We had a family of employees from all over Cobb County that weren’t employees, they were family.  We had a relationship with them,” Bo stated. “We probably would still be doing it if it weren’t for the Pacific Rim producing things that we couldn’t compete with.”

Perhaps what made the Glover family such a constant in Marietta is their continued love for the community.  In 1852, JHG donated land to the City now known as Glover Park in historic Marietta Square.  He stipulated that if the land were used for anything other than a park it would revert back to the Glover family.

In the 1960’s when discussions ensued proposing changes to Glover Park, Marietta’s first family led by James Bolan Glover, III (4^th generation) rallied.  Because the deed to Glover Park was destroyed during the Civil War, the City initiated a lawsuit to clear title.

JBG, III hired one of Margaret Mitchell’s brothers as part of the legal team, according to Jim Glover.  “All the court had to rely on was hearsay.”

Although the Georgia Supreme Court agreed with the City and ruled that proof of title could not be established by hearsay evidence, Marietta agreed with the Glover Family and kept the area a park.

“(Glover Park) would have a 3 or 4 story parking lot in it if it hadn’t been for my grandfather (JBG, III).  He fought that thing 4 years,” said Jim, a real estate agent with Atlanta Fine Homes-Sotheby’s International Realty.

“My grandmother always said, ‘I’d have a new fur coat and a new Cadillac if it weren’t for that park,’” Jim said chuckling.

For the Glovers, the Marietta Square is a reminder of the once small town and why they continue to choose Marietta.  “What they’ve done with the Square and all the outside things they do in (Glover) Park, it draws the hometown feel,” Jane Porter Glover Hawkins (5th generation) said. “It’s a wonderful place to be where there’s so much interaction between the people and the businesses.”

“I love sitting outside and having dinner and seeing all the people on the Square,” Jim added.

It is easy to understand why these OMs remain.  “Marietta is where our heart has always been,” Prilla Rice Glover (5^th generation) stated.

“Marietta is just home,” stated Jim who lives in Myrtle Hill, the home his great grandfather, John Wilder Glover, II purchased from Luke Simpson Northcutt.  (Jim moved the antebellum home to Burnt Hickory Road when the land on Whitlock Avenue was sold to a developer.)

“I don’t think we even thought about going anywhere else,” said Jane who is married to Charles Edward Hawkins.

“It’s grown a lot but it’s still maintained a lot of its small town capabilities.  We wouldn’t think of living anywhere else,” Bo said.

“I think the families that continue to move Marietta contribute to making Marietta what is,” Jim said.

The Glover Family—a link to the past, a bridge to the future.