Petersburg soon assumed the proportions of a respectable village. It was regularly laid off in town lots, with convenient streets intersecting each other at right angles. The tobacco warehouses and shops were located as near the point formed by the confluence of the rivers as the nature of the ground and the liability to overflow would permit. The residences were situated above, and occupied lots, each about three quarters of an acre in extent. In 1797 William Watkins secured from the Legislature[255] the right to establish upon his lots,—35 and 37,—in the town of Petersburg, an extensive warehouse for the inspection and storage of tobacco. By an act[256] of the General Assembly assented to November 26th, 1802, eighteen of the principal citizens of the town were incorporated into a society “under the name and style of the Petersburg Union Society.” The avowed objects of this association were the diffusion of knowledge and the alleviation of want. It maintained an active existence for some years and exerted a marked influence for good. On the first of December, 1802,[257] Robert Thompson, Leroy Pope, Richard Easter, Samuel Watkins, and John Ragland were appointed Commissioners of the town of Petersburg, and were charged with its “better regulation and government.” They were to hold office until the first Monday in January, 1804. Then, and on the first Monday in every January thereafter, the citizens entitled to vote for members of the General Assembly were required to choose by ballot five persons to act as Commissioners of the town. These Commissioners were invested “with full power and authority to make such by-laws and regulations, and to inflict or impose such pains, penalties, and forfeitures as in their judgment should be conducive to the good order and government of the said town of Petersburg:” provided such by-laws and regulations were not repugnant to the constitution and laws of Georgia, and that the pains and penalties contemplated did not extend to life or member. Two years afterwards[258] the powers of these Commissioners were materially enlarged, and they were directed to have a correct plan of the town and commons made by the County Surveyor and recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Elbert County. Speaking of Petersburg in 1800, Mr. George Sibbald says:[259] “In point of situation and commercial consequence it is second only to Augusta.... It is a handsome, well built Town, and presents to the view of the astonished traveller, a Town which has risen out of the Woods in a few years as if by enchantment: It has two Warehouses for the Inspection of Tobacco.”