Dr. Benjamin Bomar

Stiles/Akin

Sergeant Major
Joined
Apr 1, 2016
Location
Atlanta, Georgia
50 yrs. ago today, December 27, 1868: In Atlanta, this year, the City’s second Mayor, Dr. Benjamin Bomar has died at age 49. He is buried at Oakland Cemetery but no date is recorded, just the year. His gravestone does not have the date on it and Franklin Garrett only furnishes us with the year. I have looked through all the local papers of this year and can find no story to tell the date, although “Wikipedia” and “Find-a-grave” both list February 1 as death date but give no sources and there is error in the Wikipedia report regarding his involvement in the purchase of land for Oakland Cemetery. It was not done under his administration but that of Willis Buell….Dr. Bomar was a practicing physician in Dahlonega until early 1847 when he came to Atlanta on his way moving to Texas with his family. He decided to stay here for a while and rented a store building on Whitehall St. where he established a general merchandise store. The Atlanta City charter was issued in December of that year, and in the ensuing election in January of 1848, he was elected as a City Councilman. The following year, 1849, he was elected Mayor, succeeding our first and youngest Mayor, Moses Formwalt. ….. In 1850, he was on the committee that searched for and bought the initial land that would become Oakland Cemetery. That same year he was on the subscription committee that would purchase the land near the cemetery that would become the grounds for the Southern Agricultural Fair, the street leading to both it and the cemetery to be called “Fair Street”……When Fulton County was formed in 1853 and organized in 1854, Bomar was the first Clerk of Superior Court, a job that he performed very well for several years…… In the war, Dr. Bomar volunteered and served in the rank of Captain with the 28’th GA Infantry, in administrative positions such as paymaster. I have read but can’t remember where that he was plagued with crippling arthritis in his hands. If that is so, it would explain his total retirement from medicinal practices, including the military. The war left him with broken health and an early entry to Oakland Cemetery as a “Silent Citizen” of note.
Benjamin Franklin Bomar painted by Oakland Resident John Maier


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