Benjamin Bomar

{{Short description|American politician (1816–1868)}} {{Use American English|date=November 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Benjamin Bomar |image = |office = 2nd Mayor of Atlanta |term_start = January 17, 1849 |term_end = January 23, 1850 |predecessor = Moses Formwalt |successor = Willis Buell |birth_date = August 9, 1816 |birth_place = Spartanburg, South Carolina |death_date = February 1, 1868 (aged 51) |death_place = |party = |spouse = |children = |education = }} '''Benjamin Franklin Bomar''' (August 9, 1816 – February 1, 1868) was an alderman, clerk of the Superior Court and the second mayor<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pifer |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e9AHEAAAQBAJ |title=Hidden History of Old Atlanta |date=2021 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-4671-4607-4 |pages=150 |language=en |quote=Bomar, who would become Atlanta's second mayor}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=31 Dec 1916 |title=Mrs Sarah Bomar is Dead at 91: Widow of City's Second Mayor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/970922485 |url-access=subscription |access-date=23 June 2025 |work=The Atlanta Journal |pages=12}}</ref> of Atlanta, Georgia. He was born in South Carolina and trained as a doctor. In 1847, he and his family settled in the burgeoning town of Atlanta. After the town received its first charter, Bomar won election as alderman. He served for one year, before becoming mayor the following year. Bomar also co-founded Atlanta's ''Daily Intelligencer'' newspaper''.'' Bomar served in the Civil War as a paymaster in the Georgia infantry. He returned from the war in poor health and died 3 years later.

== Early life == Bomar was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to Reverend Thomas Bomar and Elizabeth Carlton High and studied medicine in Charleston.

He practiced medicine in America's first gold rush town of Dahlonega, Georgia, for a number of years until he tired of the winters in the Appalachian Mountains. He heard good things about Texas from his brother, Gen. Alexander Carlton Bomar who was serving in the Mexican–American War, and decided to move his family there. En route to Texas<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=1962-08-06 |title=Atlanta's First Mayor Was Murdered |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-journal-atlantas-first-mayo/141454182/ |access-date=2025-06-23 |work=The Atlanta Journal |pages=3}}</ref> with his wife Sarah Elizabeth Lumpkin Haynes of Cumming, Georgia, and two children, Bomar arrived in Atlanta on April 30, 1847, fell in love with the bustling young town and settled there, running a general merchandise business on Whitehall Street.

== Political career == The young town soon thereafter received its first charter, and elections were held December 1847. Moses Formwalt was elected mayor,<ref name=":1" /> Bomar its alderman, and five others were elected councilmen, all for one-year terms.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Darnell |first=Tim |date=2023-01-03 |title=Bars, brothels and brawls dominated Atlanta's first election 175 years ago |url=https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2023/01/03/atlvault-bars-brothels-brawls-dominated-atlantas-first-election-175-years-ago/ |access-date=2025-06-23 |website=Atlanta News First |language=en |quote=Formwalt would serve as mayor for one year; mayors in the new city were term-limited to a year.... The next two mayors were also Rowdies: Benjamin Bomar and Willis Buell. Norcross was finally elected the city’s top executive in 1851.}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/cityofatlantades00unse |title=City of Atlanta. A descriptive, historical and industrial review of the gateway city of the South, being the World's fair series on great American cities |date=1892 |publisher=Interstate Pub. Co. |others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center |location=Louisville, Kentucky |pages=10, 16 |language=en |quote=The first poll of voters for the initial Mayor of Atlanta, Moses W. Formwalt, was two hundred and fifteen. The first City Council consisted of Jonas Smith, Benjamin Bomar, Robert Ballard, James Collins, Anderson W. Walton and Leonard C. Simpson.}}</ref> The next year, in 1849, Bomar was elected mayor<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=4 January 1898 |title=Celebration for Atlanta |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/969458039 |url-access=subscription |access-date=23 June 2025 |work=The Atlanta Journal |pages=10 |quote=In January, 1849, Benjamin F. Bomar was elected mayor, with Messrs. Jonas J. Smith, Ira O. McDaniel, Ambrose R. Forsyth, P. M. Hodge, J. A. Hayden and Henri C. Holcombe as councilmen.}}</ref> at the age of 32, as a member of the Free and Rowdy Party. He was sworn in on 17 January 1849.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bennett |first=Lorraine |date=8 Jan 1970 |title=Youngest Mayor? It's Not Massell: 'Twas Moses Formwalt |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/970998433 |access-date=23 June 2025 |work=The Atlanta Journal |pages=1}}</ref> During his term, he selected and purchased six acres (24,000 m<sup>2</sup>) at $75 per acre to serve as the new Oakland Cemetery.

In 1849, while serving as mayor, Bomar co-founded Atlanta's first successful newspaper, the ''Daily Intelligencer''. He never practiced medicine regularly again.

When Fulton County was formed as Atlanta's new home in 1854, he became the first clerk of its Superior Court which he remained as late as 1859, when his residence was on the Marietta road a mile outside of town (roughly where Howell Mill Road splits off today).

== Later life == Benjamin Bomar was 44 years old at the outbreak of the American Civil War. He volunteered and served as the paymaster of Georgia's 28th Infantry,<ref name=":0" /> at a rank of captain. At the evacuation of the city following the Battle of Atlanta, his family refugeed to Macon, Georgia.

After Lee's surrender, he rejoined the family in Atlanta; but by then his health was broken and he died less than three years later in 1868. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Neal |first=Willard |date=20 February 1927 |title=Pet Mocking Bird's Grave |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/971573918 |access-date=23 June 2025 |work=The Atlanta Journal |department=Sunday Morning |pages=3}}</ref> His widow died in 1916, aged 91.<ref name=":0" />

== References == {{Reflist}}{{S-start}} {{Succession box|title=Mayor of Atlanta |before=Moses W. Formwalt|after=Willis Buell| years=January 17, 1849{{spaced ndash}}January 23, 1850}} {{S-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bomar, Benjamin}} Category:Mayors of Atlanta Category:1816 births Category:1868 deaths Category:19th-century mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War Category:Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta)