Rome’s founding story endures as a tale woven from truth, rumor, missing history, and the decisions of five influential men who shaped the hub of Northwest Georgia.
The history of Rome’s founding is largely based on oral tradition, the passing of information from one family to another, from one generation to another.
The term “urban legend” comes to mind, but historians do know that, once upon a time, there was actually a written document penned by Daniel R. Mitchell, which was printed in a precursor to the Rome News-Tribune. However, no one has ever found a copy of that document, and the newspaper archives don’t go back that far.
What we are left with is the legendary story of the Founding Five: Col. Daniel R. Mitchell, Maj. Philip Hemphill, John Lumpkin, Col. Zachariah Hargrove, and Col. William Smith. You’ve probably heard the story that the five were seated around a spring, which was located in the general area of the Midtown Transit Station, where they supposedly pulled the name Rome out of a hat.
Is that really what happened? There is no written documentation to support it, unless it was in Mitchell’s long-lost article. It’s certainly a fun story, but historian Selena Tilly says the process of founding Rome was not an overnight thing, and a process which took many months to come to fruition.
What is generally regarded as accurate is that Mitchell and Hargrove were coming to Rome—well, actually Livingston, which was the original county seat just north of Cave Spring—for a trial. They are believed to have stopped at the spring to water their horses when He mphill came upon them, stopped to chat, and invited them to his home for the night because, by the time they got to Livingston, court would be adjourned for the day.
Hemphill’s home, called Alhambra at the time, is now an administrative building on the Darlington campus known as the “Home on the Hill.”
In fact, some of the old stories suggest that the naming of the city may have taken place at Hemphill’s home.
Mitchell and Hargrove went on to Livingston for their trial the next day, but loved the area near the confluence of the rivers and thought it would be a great place for a town. Back then, Rome was home to numerous Native American communities called chiefdoms.
Remember, we’re not far, time-wise, from the forced removal of the Cherokee. Chief John Ross was living in a plantation near what is now the Fifth Avenue Nursing Home, and Major Ridge was on the other side of the Oostanaula River at what we now know as Chieftains.
New Echota near Calhoun was the capital of the Cherokee Nation, but the power brokers in the early and mid-1830s lived in Rome.
At some point during the discussions between Hargrove, Mitchell, and Hemphill, John Lumpkin was brought into the conversation, largely because he was the nephew and personal secretary to then–Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin. Historians believe that Col. William Smith was the last to join the “Founding Five,” perhaps sometime in 1834.
Their plans for the creation of a new town rolled along for weeks, maybe months, before at some point Col. Mitchell actually suggested the name Rome, and paperwork was sent to the Georgia legislature for the official chartering of the new city.
1803 - 1876
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Later, the county seat was moved to Rome from Livingston.
Sometime thereafter, as the city was being developed, an old Indian mound—located between Cosmic Dog Outpost and Unity Point at the confluence of the rivers—was destroyed, and earth from the mound was used to level up portions of what we now know as the south end of Broad Street.
Mitchell and Hargrove are buried within feet of each other near the top of Myrtle Hill Cemetery. Lumpkin is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery off Riverside Parkway, right behind Applebee’s, and Smith is buried in the Cave Spring City Cemetery. Hemphill moved away from Rome and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in North Carrollton, Mississippi.
FOUNDERS AT A GLANCE
- Col. Daniel R. Mitchell — Suggested the name Rome; early civic leader and key organizer in the founding discussions.
- Zachariah Hargrove — Influential attorney whose involvement helped shape the earliest plans for the new town.
- Maj. Philip Walker Hemphill — Hosted the founders during early conversations; his property was a central meeting point.
- John H. Lumpkin — Nephew of Gov. Wilson Lumpkin; instrumental in advancing the chartering of Rome.
- Col. William Smith — The last member to join; he participated in the formal planning and decisions that led to Rome’s establishment.