Men of mark in Georgia : a complete and elaborate history of the state from its settlement to the present time, chiefly told in biographies and autobiographies of the most eminent men of each period of Georgia's progress and development

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

3 3433 06730175 8

of JHarfe m Georgia

A Complete and Elaborate History of the State from its settlement
to the present time, chiefly told in biographies and auto-
biographies of the most eminent men of each
period of Georgia's progress and
development

Cbtteb fap
JT. J^ortfjen,

Cx=<@obernor of

HON. J. C. C. BLACK
HON. W. G. BRANTLEY
HON. ALLEN FORT
HON. DUPONT GUERRY
HON. W. M. HAMMOND
HON. WALTER B. HILI-

HON. G. GUNBY JORDAN
HON. P. W. MEL.DRIM
HON. W. J. NORTHEN
HON. HOKE SMITH
HON. J. M. TERRELL,
HON. MOSES WRIGHT

Sntrobuctorp bp STofm temple

, Cbttor

^Tolume

CalbtoeU,

Atlanta.

1908

WE NEW Yu^

PUBLIC LIBRAE

54053 A

AEfOR, LENOX AND
TtLDXH

OOPYBIQHTHD, 1908, BY

A. B. CALDWELL.

EDWARDS 4 BROUQHTON PRINTINQ CO., RALEIOH, N. C.

of Contents!

A complete index of all the volumes of this work will be found at the
end of Volume VI.

PAGE.

ADAMSON, WILLIAM CHARLES 128

AKIN, JOHN WESLEY 171

ALLEN, YOUNG J 246

ASHMORE, OTIS 21

ATKINSON, WILLIAM YATES 377

BACON, AUGUSTUS OCTAVIUS 8

BARRETT, CHARLES SIMON 298

BARTLETT, CHARLES LAFAYETTE 371

BLECKLEY, LOGAN EDWIN 80

BRANHAM, JOEL 167

BRANSON, EUGENE CUNNINGHAM 257

BRANTLEY, WILLIAM GORDON 75

BRITTAIN, MARION LUTHER 193

BROWN, JAMES POPE 53

CANDLER, ALLEN DANIEL 29

CANDLER, ASA GRIGGS 322

CANDLER, WARREN AIKEN 59

CHAPPELL, JOSEPH HARRIS 121

CLAY, ALEXANDER STEPHENS 39

CLEMENTS, JUDSON C 14

COOPER, GEORGE WASHINGTON 238

DAVIS, DR. JEFFERSON 388

DENMARK, ELISHA PECK SMITH 332

DESSAU, WASHINGTON 113

DICKEY, JAMES EDWARD 71

DOUGHTY, WILLIAM HENRY ....;... 383

EVANS, BEVERLY DANIEL 146

FELTON, WILLIAM HARRELL 103

FLEMING, WILLIAM HENRY 401

FORT, ALLEN 141

FREEMAN, ALVAN DEAN 63

GAINES, FRANCIS HENRY 208

GRAVES, JOHN TEMPLE 304

GRAY, JAMES RICHARD 25

HALL, JOHN IREDELL 252

HAMILTON, ALFRED SHORTER 412

HAND, JUDSON LARRABEE 242

HARDEMAN, ISAAC . 293

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE.

HARDMAX, LAMARTINE GRIFFIN 163

HARRIS, NATHANIEL EDWIN .314

HART, JOHN COLLIER 153

HILL, WALTER BARNARD 271

HOWELL, CLARK .233

INMAN, WALKER PATTERSON 230

JACKSON, CHARLES HADDOX SPURGEON 351

JOHNSON, HENRY HERBERT 204

JORDAN, GEORGE GUNBY 45

KINCAID, WILLIAM JOSEPH 355

LAMAR, JOSEPH RUCKER 360

LANDRUM, WILLIAM WARREN 338

LAWSON, THOMAS GOODWIN 117

McDAXIEL, HENRY DICKERSON 393

McINTOSH, THOMAS MURDOCH 415

MADDOX, JOHN W 137

MERCER, GEORGE ANDERSON 108

MILLER, ALEXANDER LAWTON 174

MILLER, FRANK HARVEY 33

MILLER, GEORGE HENDERSON 185

NEWMAN, WILLIAM TRUSLOW 216

NORTHEN, WILLIAM JONATHAN 285

NORWOOD, THOMAS MANSON 89

OGLESBY, JAMES WOOD 341

OGLESBY, ZENAS WISE, SR 345

PARK, ROBERT EMORY 197

PEETE, DR. COLA H 348

PENDLETON, CHARLES RITTENHOUSE 131

POLLOCK, PINCKNEY DANIEL 95

PRICE, WILLIAM PIERCE 124

SANDERS, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 408

SHOWALTER, ANTHONY JOHNSON 188

SIMMONS, THOMAS JEFFERSON 279

SMITH, HOKE 1

SPENCER, SAMUEL .367

TRAYLOR, JOHN HUMPHREY 327

TURNER, HENRY GRAY 157

YEREEN, WILLIAM COACHMAN 150

WALKER, BILLINGTON SANDERS 181

WALKER, JOHN DAVID 212

WATSON, THOMAS EDWARD 221

WEST, EDWIN POSEY 335

WIXSHIP, GEORGE 67

WRIGHT, BOYKIX 261

WRIGHT, WILLIAM AMBROSE 178

[C LIE

.\<VTOR.
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

R L_

Hofee

HOKE SMITH, Governor of Georgia, former member of
the cabinet of President Cleveland, member of the bar,
and man of affairs, was born at Newton, North Caro-
lina, September 2, 1855. His ancestors on his father's side
were among the early settlers of New Hampshire, and several
members of the family served with distinction in the Revolu-
tionary War. The great-grandfather of Hoke Smith was a
Colonel in the Revolutionary Army, and his grandfather, Wil-
liam True Smith, was a graduate of Dartmouth College and
a man of prominence in New Hampshire. The characteristics
of the family have ever been a sturdy self-reliance and an
earnest acquisition of knowledge, advancement in the various
departments of industry and an intense love of country. Hoke
Smith's father, Prof. H. H. Smith, LL.D., was born in New
Hampshire and is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He came
to the South about 1850 and settled at Newton, North Carolina,
where for several years he was President of Catawba College.
His entire life has been spent in educational work. He was
professor in the State University of North Carolina and held
other positions of importance, in which he was always remark-
ably successful. Professor Smith married Miss Mary Brent
Hoke, daughter of Michael Hoke of Lincolnton, North Carolina,
a lawyer of marked ability and a political leader of prominence.
The ancestors of Miss Mary Brent Hoke were among the early
settlers of North Carolina and Virginia. The family has pro-
duced several lawyers of distinction, one of whom was the first
Chief Justice of North Carolina and member of the Continental

2 MKN OF MARK

Congress. Her brother, R. F. Hoke, was one of the youngest
Major-Generals in the Confederate service and after the war
was prominent as a developer of Southern material resources.

From both his father and his mother, Hoke Smith inherited
great intellectual strength, a superb physique and indomitable
energy. He was educated at Chapel Hill until his thirteenth
year. At that time the University was placed in the hands of
incompetent men by the Republican or radical administration,
all the old faculty being suspended. Negroes were admitted to
the University. Hoke Smith's education was continued under
his father. In 1872 he began the study of law in Atlanta but
soon afterward taught school at Waynesboro where he pursued
his legal studies when not engaged in school. He was admitted
to the bar in May, 1873, when seventeen years of age and began
the practice of his profession in Atlanta. Before he attained his
majority, he was in possession of a lucrative practice. His rise
was very rapid and he was identified with a number of important
cases. In 1887 he was appointed by the Governor, with Judge
George Hillyer, to represent the State in the prosecution of the
convict lessees, and his work in this litigation added to his laurels.
His cases were always prepared with the greatest care and
thoroughness and he won by force of his logic and the presenta-
tion of law rather than by tricks of speech or impassioned ora-
tory, and he became known as a safe and able lawyer. At the
same time, he was identified with the material affairs of the City
and State, and for many years was President of the Board of
Education of Atlanta. While closely occupied with his profes-
sion, he took an active interest in politics and when only twenty
years of age was Chairman of the Fulton County Democratic
Executive Committee. His capacity for organization was recog-
nized, and he was prominent in many campaigns. He spoke
throughout a large part of the State in the interest of Atlanta

HOKE SMITH 3

when the removal of the Capitol was submitted to the voters in
1877. He was a member of the gubernatorial convention in

1882.

In 1883 Mr. Smith was married to Miss Birdie Cobb, of Ath-
ens, Georgia, daughter of Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb, who com-
manded Cobb's Legion, and who was killed while repelling the
furious assaults of the Federals upon the famous stone wall in
the battle of Fredericksburg.

Mr. Smith's interest in public affairs led him, in 1887, to or-
ganize a company and purchase The Atlanta Evening Journal.
He was President of the company and directed its editorial
policy, though he continued to devote himself to his law practice.

A pronounced tariff reformer, he led the campaign for Grover
Cleveland in 1888 and was President of the State Convention.
Mr. Smith steadfastly fought the domination of the State by
corporation influences and in 1890 championed the cause of
Gen. John B. Gordon, who was a candidate for the United
States Senate and who was opposed by railroad interests. He
threw great energy into the campaign and Gordon was trium-
phantly elected. In the national campaign of 1892 Grover
Cleveland was bitterly antagonized in Georgia by those who ad-
vocated the nomination of David B. Hill. The Atlanta Jownal
had grown to be one of the most powerful papers in the South,
and all its force was thrown by Mr. Smith into the campaign in
advocacy of the nomination of Cleveland, with the result that
Georgia sent a Cleveland delegation to the convention. Upon
the election of Cleveland, Mr. Smith was made a member of the
President's cabinet, being given the portfolio of Secretary of the
Interior, a department which he administered with great success.
In the Presidential campaign of 1896, Mr. Smith, who was still
a member of the cabinet, engaged in a series of joint debates
with Hon. Charles F. Crisp, who was Speaker of the National

4 MEN Oh' MARK

House of Representatives. Mr. Smith espoused the cause of
sound money and opposed the free coinage of silver at a ratio of
sixteen to one when the intrinsic value of the metal would have
made the money worth not more than fifty cents on the dollar.
Bryan was nominated, however, and Mr. Smith resigned from
the cabinet when he learned that President Cleveland and others
of his official family would not support the Democratic nominee.
Although Mr. Smith opposed Mr. Bryan's views on free silver he,
nevertheless, regarded it as as his duty to the party to give the
nominee his active support, which lie did.

When Mr. Smith returned to Atlanta from Washington, he
resumed the practice of law and at once found himself in pos-
session of a large business. He also gave some attention to The
Atlanta Journal, and its circulation and advertising increased
rapidly. In 1900 he received a fine offer for his newspaper, and,
desiring to devote himself more completely to his law practice
and to other affairs, he sold The Journal to a company of which
Mr. James R. Gray was the head. Under Mr. Gray's manage-
ment The Journal continued the same policies that it had pur-
sued while Mr. Smith was the owner of the property.

Mr. Smith considered himself in a large measure out of poli-
tics, but his great interest in educational matters and the other
material concerns of the people led him to visit the various sec-
tions of the State and in numerous addresses he urged better
schools, especially in the rural neighborhoods.

The continued discrimination by the railroads against Georgia
cities and towns and the continued manipulation of State politics
by the representatives of those corporations finally aroused the
people to such a pitch of resentment that it was determined to
wrest from them the power which they unduly exercised over the
affairs of the State. Mr. Smith was in hearty sympathy with
this sentiment and had been so closely identified with every effort

HOKE SMITH *

looking to the regulation of corporations that the people turned
to him as pre-eminently the man to lead their fight for reform.
It was a recognized fact that the corporations would make a
strenuous resistance and that the reform movement which was
proposed meant the greatest political upheaval that had been un-
dertaken in Georgia within the last half century.

Mr. Smith had never desired to occupy the governorship, re-
garding it as largely an executive position not particularly in line
with his tastes. A man of great physical as well as mental
strength, strong convictions and the courage to assert them, with
a comfortable fortune which made him independent financially,
he was regarded as the man above all others to lead in the gigantic
struggle. Large petitions were sent to him and delegations of
the most substantial business men of the State called on him and
urged him to make the race. He knew that it involved heavy
financial loss both to make the campaign and to occupy the office.
The election was nearly a year and a half off, two terms in the
governorship meant four years in office or nearly six years in all,
the salary for the entire time being less than he would derive in
a single year from his profession which he would be compelled to
abandon. Considering the matter fully, however, he came to
view the call from the people of his State as one which he could
not disregard. Upon announcing that he would make the cam-
paign, he practically closed his law business and went into the
contest with the same thoroughness that always marked his pre-
paration of cases in court. He stated his platform briefly, but
in unmistakable terms. It involved increased powers for the
Railroad Commission, the disfranchisement of the ignorant and
purchasable part of the negro population, stringent laws to pre-
vent lobbying, better election regulations, etc. He thr,ew him-
self into the campaign with the most intense earnestness. Every
county was visited, some of them several times. He made him-

6 MEN OF MARK

dreds of speeches and literally lived on the stump. He urged
that it was the people's fight and that he was simply their repre-
sentative in the contest. There were four other candidates and
it was knowTn that they were combined against him. It was the
field against Smith.

The campaign was without precedent in Georgia for the bitter-
ness of the assaults made upon the candidate who had espoused
the cause of the masses in the contest with the corporations.
Every morning paper in the State, with the exception of one or
two small dailies, fought him. It was boasted that he would be
beaten and every effort possible was made to bring about that re-
sult for he was recognized as the towering influence opposed to
lobbyists, corporation influences and machine politicians.

When the election returns began to come in on the 22d of Au-
gust, 1906, it was seen that Hoke Smith had swept the State like
a whirlwind. Of the 145 counties, he carried 122, the 23 others
being divided among the four other candidates, Hon. Clark
Howell, Col. J. H. Estill, Judge R. B. Russell and Hon. James
M. Smith. The popular vote in the State was 170,000. Of these
Mr. Smith received 110,000, leaving 60,000 to be divided among
the four other candidates so that he received nearly double the
vote of the combined opposition, a mark of confidence and ap-
proval unprecedented in the history of the State. The victory
of Mr. Smith was complete.

The inauguration which took place on June 29th, 1907, was a
memorable event in Georgia. It assumed the aspect of a great
popular demonstration. Thousands came from over the State
and there was a parade of military and civic organizations. The
inaugural address was delivered before the general assembly
from an improvised pavilion on the grounds of the Capitol and
was heard by a large number of people. It was a clear and
strong presentation of the purposes of the new Governor and its

HOKE SMITH 7

sentiments were cheered to the echo by the enthusiastic multitude.
At the conclusion of the address the Governor was conducted to
the Executive Office and entered upon the discharge of his duties.
The legislature then in session passed three of the most important
bills in the history of the State : the bill advocated by Governor
Smith for the disfranchisement of the ignorant and vicious
blacks, the bill, also advocated by him, enlarging the powers of
the Railroad Commission and the bill prohibiting the sale or
manufacture of intoxicating liquors in the State of Georgia.
Bills covering the other measures which figured in the campaign
of 1906 were pending when the session came to a close by con-
si itutional limitation and were postponed to the session of 1908.

The home life of Governor Smith is ideal. Mrs. Smith is a
woman splendidly endowed in mind and heart to share in the
purposes, hopes and triumphs of the Governor. Although de-
voted to her home, which she has presided over with the grace
and charm characteristic of Southern women, she has, neverthe-
less, always taken the deepest interest in everything that per-
tained to the busy career of her husband. They have four chil-
dren. Their eldest, Marion Smith, is a graduate of the Univer-
sity of Georgia and succeeded to the law practice of his father
when Governor Smith entered upon the duties of his office. The
daughters are Misses Mary Brent, Lucy and Callie Smith.

Governor Smith's investments are principally in Atlanta real
estate, though he owns some industrial stock. He has a farm of
several hundred acres in DeKalb county in which he takes great
interest and his chief recreation is to drive out there and walk
over the fields and through the woods, talk with his tenants and
amid quiet rural scenes get a brief respite from the strenuous
labors which always occupy him when in the city.

JOSIAH CARTER.

Augustus; ©ctatrius paeon.

AUGUSTUS OCTAVIUS BACON, lawyer, legislator,
United States Senator, is the second son of Reverend Au-
gustus O. Bacon, a Baptist clergyman, a native of Liberty
county, Georgia, himself the third son of Thomas Bacon, of that
county. His ancestors upon one side were a colony of Puritans
who settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630, and who re-
moved to Georgia and founded the Midway settlement in 1753.
His great-great-grandfather, Samuel Bacon, and Richard Baker
arrived in that year, and were the advance guard and the first of
the Midway Colony, afterwards the community of Liberty
county. Upon this stock was engrafted a Virginia branch
springing from the Holcombes of Cavalier ancestry. Augustus
O. Bacon was born in Bryan county, Georgia, October 20, 1839,
although his mother's home at the time was in Liberty county,
where he was reared from his infancy. Her maiden name was

i/

Mary Louisa Jones, and she was her father's only child.
Through her he is a grandson of Samuel Jones, of Liberty
county, (himself the only son of Samuel Jones, an officer in the
Revolutionary Army), and a grandiiephew, through his maternal
grandmother, of Judge William Law, of Savannah, Georgia, one
of the most distinguished jurists of his time in the South. His
parents were residents of Liberty county, and here and in
Troup county he spent his childhood and boyhood in a typical
Georgian environment, chiefly marked by the fact of his early be-
reavement through the untimely death of both parents, his father
having died July 3rd, 1839, at the early age of twenty-three, be-
fore the birth of the son, and his mother at twenty years of age,

JK

.RY

-V

AUGUSTUS OCTAVIUS BACON 9

before he was a year old; while his only brother died within a
week after the death of his mother. The father and mother
and brother are buried in the old cemetery of historic Midway
Church in Liberty county. His paternal grandmother, by
whom he was adopted when thus doubly orphaned, was a daugh-
ter of the Rev. Henry Holcombe, D.D., a native of Virginia, and
a Captain in the Colonial Army of the Revolutionary War, and
thereafter a resident of Savannah. Under her fostering and de-
voted guardianship he received careful training and a good ele-
mentary education, and, at the age of sixteen, he entered the
University of Georgia, at Athens. He was graduated from the
collegiate department of that institution in 1859, and immedi-
ately thereafter entered the law school and as a member of the
first law class ever graduated by the University, received a de-
gree therefrom in the following year.

He selected Atlanta as the place in which to begin his profes-
sional career; but scarcely six months elapsed before he joined
the Confederate forces as Adjutant of the Ninth Georgia regi-
ment, with which he served in Virginia during the campaigns of
1861 and 1862. Subsequently he was commissioned as Captain
in the provisional army of the Confederate States and assigned to
general staff duty, serving at different times upon the staff of
Gen. Henry R. Jackson, Gen. Alfred Iverson, and General Mack-
all. He was mustered out of service at the close of hostilities
with the rank of Captain. Returning to the law after having for
a year reviewed his legal studies, he for the first time began prac-
tice at Macon in 1866, from which date he has been actively iden-
tified with the bar of Georgia. His success in his profession was
immediate, and he quickly assumed a ranking place as a trial
lawyer in both the State and Federal courts. He possessed ora-
torical talents of a high order, as well as legal learning; and
these soon led him into the political arena of his State, gave

10 MKN OF MARK

him growing influence, and marked him as one of the coming
men.

In 1868, when twenty-eight years of age, Mr. Bacon was nom-
inated by the State Democratic Convention for presidential elec-
tor from the then fourth congressional district. Two years from
that time he was elected from Bibb county to the Georgia House
of Representatives, and was returned to that body, at each suc-
cessive election, for twelve years, and was subsequently again
elected for a term of two years. During this period, he was
speaker pro tempore for two years, and speaker for eight years,
an unusual parliamentary experience, especially in the fact that
no other Georgian has ever been speaker for so long a time. He
served in this position of honor with distinction and dignity, and
displayed an executive ability, skill as a parliamentarian and a
knowledge of legislative procedure that subsequently gave him
immediate prestige when he entered the United States Senate.
Several times, in the face of the most powerful adverse political
influences, he was brought forward as a candidate for the govern-
orship of his State, and in the State Democratic Convention in
1883 he lacked but one vote for a nomination, when the nomina-
tion was equivalent to an election. This was one of the famous
convention contests of Georgia, in which there was a three days
deadlock before a nomination was made.

Mr. Bacon was frequently a member of the State Democratic
conventions, was president of the convention in 1880, and was
delegate from the State at large to the National Democratic Con-
vention at Chicago in 1884. Although his party was not with-
out sharp rivalries, he was always considered a stalwart, aggres-
sive leader, and, in 1894, after an exciting and remarkable cam-
paign before the people in which there were four active and in-
fluential candidates, he was elected by the Georgia Legislature
to a seat in the United States Senate. In 1900, after an endorse-

AUGUSTUS OCTAVIUS BACON 11

merit in the State Democratic primary, he was unanimously re-
elected to a second term in the Senate by a legislature in which
there were Democratic, Republican and Populist members. In
1906, after another endorsement in the State Democratic pri-
mary, in which he had no opposition, he was at the succeeding
session of the Legislature again unanimously re-elected to a third
term in the Senate. In this election he has the marked distinc-
tion of being the first Georgian who, since the foundation of the
Government, has been elected from the State to a consecutive and
uninterrupted full third term in the Senate.

In the Senate, Mr. Bacon has steadily grown in influence. He
is a member of both the Judiciary and Foreign Relations com-
mittees, and the ranking Democratic Senator on each of them.
He is easily entitled to rank among the leaders of the minority,
and as a graceful, fluent speaker, and ready debater, he is hardly
excelled by any one of its members. His speeches are character-
ized by richness of diction, and by good literary form, and
strength of argument. One of his most notable efforts was in
opposition to the acquisition of the Philippines. During the
contest over the question he made several extended speeches,
some of which now read like prophecy. He was at that time
the author of the Bacon resolution "declaring the purpose of the
United States not permanently to retain the islands but to give
the people thereof their liberty." The vote on this resolution
was a tie in the Senate and it was defeated by the casting vote of
the Vice-President — the only occasion in many years when there
has been a tie vote in the Senate upon any question, and upon
which a Vice-President has voted. Mr. Bacon has made in the
Senate, in addition to others, a number of speeches on constitu-
tional questions which have attracted marked attention. Among
them are those on the power of the President to recognize the in-
dependence of a revolting province of a foreign nation ; the power

12 MEN OF MARK

of Congress by joint resolution and without a treaty to acquire
foreign territory as in the case of Hawaii ; the authority of the-
Senate to require upon its order the production of any and all
papers in any of the executive departments ; the power of Con-
gress to exercise extra-constitutional power in the Philippines;
the constitutionality of a bill to charter an international bank;
the constitutional powers of the President and the Senate re-
spectively in the negotiation and making of treaties; and the
constitutionality of the bill entitled, "A Bill to protect the Pres-
ident of the United States." The design of this last proposed
law was to provide a different and greater penalty for an act of
violence against the President and certain other specified officials,
than for the same act of violence when committed against any
other citizen. This bill Mr. Bacon resisted to the uttermost, con-
tending that "there should not be one law for one man, even
though he be President of the United States, and a different law
for another man, even though he be the lowliest citizen of the
Republic. He fought it through two Congresses in the face of
the most strenuous advocacy by Senator Hoar and other Senators,
and finally defeated it. Many other speeches could be specified,
but it is sufficient to say that he has taken an active part in every
debate upon all important questions discussed in the Senate since
1894. Referreing to one of these debates which occurred in
February, 1906, the following comment was made editorially by
the Hartford (Conn.) Courant:

"Take down an old volume of the Congressional Globe and read one of the
debates on foreign affairs in which Lewis Cass and John M. Clayton were
pitted against each other — for instance, the debate (famous in its time) on
the merits of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Then take Monday's Congres-
sional Record and read the report therein of the debate between Mr. Bacon
of Georgia and Mr. Spooner of Wisconsin on the constitutional powers of
the President and Senate in treaty making. It would be scant praise to
say that the Bacon-Spooner debate is the more readable of the two. For
intellectual vigor, grip of the matter in hand, compactness and lucidity in

AUGUSTUS OCTAVIUS BACON 13

statement, brisk alertness in the give and take of dialectic fence, and last
but not least, good English, the Bacon-Spooner debate is the abler of the
two. Daniel Webster would have listened to every word of it attentively,
with keen interest and pleasure; Calhoun and Clay also."

Senator Bacon was married in 1864 to Miss Virginia Lamar,
of Macon, Georgia. He is a Regent of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, and is also, as he has been for many years, a Trustee of the
University of Georgia.

W. J. NOKTHEN.

f uteon C Clement*.

JUDSON CLAUDIUS CLEMENTS furnishes a notable il-
lustration of the possibilities of a country boy who has
habits of industry and strong native sense. He was
born on his father's farm, near Villanow, Walker county, Febru-
ary 12, 1846. As soon as old enough, he did daily farm work in
the fields. He was specially fond of the rugged and strong in
nature, while he had the most delicate appreciation of its beau-
ties and what he loved to call the music of the spheres. His
home life in the country gave him attractive ideals and constant
inspiration.

His father, Adam Clements, was a successful physician, and
trained his boy in healthful exercise and service which gave him
a vigorous body and strong vitality. Dr. Adam Clements always
interested himself in public affairs and was several times called
to public office. He was elected to represent his county in the
lower house of the General Assembly of the State, serving in the
sessions of 1853-54 and 1861-62. He was a man of strong re-
ligious convictions and great business energy. Judson Clements's
mother, Mary Wilson Hill (Park) Clements, a woman of culture
and artistic attainments, entered most lovingly and helpfully into
the intellectual and spiritual life of her son. She was a devout
and active Christian and the mother of ten children, eight of
whom grew to maturity.

Judson Clements's earliest known ancestors were Charles Clem-
ents, born in South Carolina, and Nancy Jack, his wife, who was
of Revolutionary ancestry. His direct ancestors came from
England and settled first in Pennsylvania.

JUD80N C. CLEMENTS 15

Young Clements received his schooling in the common and
private schools of his county. He never went to college. He
attended one law course at Cumberland University, Lebanon,
Tennessee, but was never graduated in law. He began life as a
lawyer in 1869, at La Fayette, his home town.

He was elected to the lower house of the General Assembly in
1873-74, just twenty years after his father had been honored in
the same way. He was re-elected to the succeeding term,
1875-76, and then elected to the State Senate from the Forty-
fourth District from 1877 to 1880. By close and intelligent at-
tention to public service in the positions held in the House and
Senate, Mr. Clements developed in his fitness for service and
grew in the favor of the people. His friends were ready to be-
lieve him worthy of higher honors and were quite willing to help
him to wider achievements. His name was suggested for repre-
sentative in the United States Congress, but it was greatly doubt-
ed by his closest friends, whether or not he could defeat so for-
midable an opponent as Dr. W. H. Felton, who then represented
the district and had served most acceptably for several terms.

Dr. Felton was an independent Democrat of great intellectual
power and unusual popularity. He was a vigorous fighter and
most successful campaigner and, possibly, the best "stump speak-
er" in the State. He was a man of unimpeachable character and
had an absolutely clean record, after a service of three terms in
Congress. All these unusually strong elements Judson Clements
was asked to meet in combat in contending for Dr. Felton's seat
in the House. He was thirty-four years of age and had only the
legislative experience of three terms in the General Assembly of
the State, and several prominent Democrats in the district had
made the unsuccessful effort to defeat Dr. Felton.

When the Democratic Convention met at Rome, in 1880, to
nominate a candidate for Congress, it was advised and strongly

16 MEN OF MARK

urged by some of the prominent politicians of the district, not to
make a nomination, but to adjourn, leaving a clear field to Dr.
Felton, for the reasons that they believed him to be invincible
and that a restoration of harmony in the party would be sooner
attained by this course than by continued organized opposition
to him.

The convention, however, believing the better policy to be to
strive by the regular open and consistent party methods for the
success of the organized Democracy, rejected this advice and pro-
ceeded to make a nomination. The choice fell upon Hon. J. W.
Robertson, of Cobb county, an eloquent, popular and strong man.
He declined the nomination, whereupon the delegates were re-
convened and Mr. Clements, though not a candidate, was nom-
inated on the first ballot. He was advised by some not to accept
the nomination, which under the circumstances they said was
only a "draft" to make a "sacrifice of future political prospects,"
as defeat was, in their opinion, inevitable. His reply to these
was that with a properly conducted campaign, defeat was by no
means certain, and that, even if it were, it was his duty to accept,
and that duty was the best policy. He promptly planned and en-
ergetically conducted a vigorous campaign, which was so free
from the noise and excitement which characterized the preceding
contests in the district, that although he made from one to three
public speeches a day during the short time in which he had to
canvass the fourteen counties of the district, his canvass was by
contrast called a "still hunt," though it was in fact far from such.
His discussion of the issues involved was free from personalities
and bitterness. He was unassisted by other speakers and the
barbecue and brass band were dispensed with. He made a calm
appeal to the voters and did not thwart his appeal by indulging
in harsh criticisms or abuse of his opponent. He was elected,
carrying the district by about 800 majority, thus defeating one

JUD80N C. CLEMENTS 17

of the most deservedly popular men of the State and one whom
Georgians have found delight in honoring.

Mr. Clements was again nominated without contest in 1882,
and though again vigorously opposed by Dr. Felton, was again
elected by an increased majority of about 1,600 votes. He was
elected in 1880, 1882, 1884, 1886, and 1888. He was four
years a laborious and conspicuous member of the Committee on
Appropriations and also served on the committees on Foreign
Affairs, Civil Service Reform and on Education and Labor.
During his service he advocated tariff and internal revenue re-
forms, the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and economy in
the public expenditures. He supported the bill, passed during
his service, to "regulate commerce ;" also that for the exclusion of
Chinese immigration. He favored liberal appropriations for the
improvement of the harbors and waterways of the country, and
opposed ship subsidies. He took an active part in the establish-
ment of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military
Park. In 1890 he withdrew from the contest for another nomi-
nation, after refusing to pledge himself to support the govern-
ment ownership and operation of the railroads and the so-called
"Sub-Treasury Plan," providing for the loaning of money by the
government upon various farm products to be received and stored
by it in its warehouses to be built for that purpose.

He was appointed by President Harrison a member of the
Interstate Commerce Commission in March, 1892, as a Demo-
crat, to succeed Commissioner Bragg, who had died, and has since
received similar appointment by three successive presidents : by
Cleveland in 1895, by McKinley in 1901 and by Roosevelt in
1907 for seven years, under recent change in the law lengthening
the time of service. Possibly no single branch of the government
service has grown more rapidly or increased with more tremen-
dous bounds, to keep pace with the gigantic strides being made by
2

IS MEN OF MARK

the railroads, the pipe lines and transportation systems of the
country, than has the Interstate Commerce Commission. Every
year the authority vested in the government to control and regu-
late railroads and common carriers is being more vigorously en-
forced, mainly through the Commission.

As a member of the Commission, Mr. Clements's record fully
merits the honor which the re-appointment to his present post by
President Roosevelt confers. He has been a conscientious and
thorough student of every detail of the questions coming before
the Commission and he never hands down an opinion until he has
convinced himself that his conclusions are sound. Many of the
ablest decisions rendered by the Commission have been prepared
by Mr. Clements. He is noted for his kindness and for his con-
siderate treatment of all who come in contact with him. By his
magnanimity and sound judgment, he has won numerous per-
sonal, political and judicial victories.

Mr. Clements, in common with his associates, has for many
years advocated amending the interstate commerce laws and,
in accordance with the act recently passed and believing in the
curative power of publicity, he has urged the utmost openness
and frankness in all cases. To this end, he favors a uniform
system of book-keeping by the common carriers of the country
and believes the government should have the right of visitation
and supervision of all railroad accounts. He does not, however,
favor government ownership of the roads.

He has also urged the injunctional power of the courts and
would not rely solely upon criminal procedure to stop rebates
and discriminations by the roads. He has made many addresses
before the committees of Congress in advocacy of the plan that
Congress should strengthen the power of the Commission to regu-
late railroads. Among the principal investigations before the
Commission in which Mr. Clements has participated are those

JUDSON C. CLEMENTS 19

relating to railway accidents, rebates, grain elevators, coal and
oil properties and discrimination in the shipment of grain, ice,
packing house products and cotton goods.

He conducted the inquiry upon which was founded the suit
by the government against the Chesapeake and Ohio and the New
York, ISTew Haven and Hartford Railroad companies, respecting
discrimination in the sale and transportation of coal by the rail-
road in competition with its patrons along the line. In the suit
growing out of this case, the Supreme Court of the United States
rendered a far-reaching decision supporting the view taken by the
Commission. Mr. Clements wrote the opinions and reports of
the Commission in the Tift lumber cases on an appeal made from
Georgia and Mississippi by the Yellow Pine and Georgia Saw
Mill Associations. The Commissioner's opinion, which was of
vast importance to the South, generally, was that the advance of
two cents per hundred pounds in rates on lumber from certain
points in the South to the Ohio River was unwarranted and that
the increased rate was, therefore unreasonable and unjust.

The Commission held in regard to complaint made by the
Georgia saw mill men that when an advance is made in rates
which have long been in force and on commodities in which there
is large traffic and extensive and growing trade, that an explana-
tion for such advance must be made and that the advance will be
held unjust unless satisfactory explanation is made. The Su-
preme Court of the United States has recently sustained the
Commission in these important cases.

The records of the office bear witness to Mr. Clements's faith-
fulness, his energy and his sense of justice. Courteous and con-
siderate in the ordinary relations of life, he is firm and unyield-
ing when a matter of right is to be upheld or a fraud is to be
uncovered. Frequently he has shattered the defense of corpora-
tions with a single question and has pilloried those who would de-
fend questionable and illegal practices.

20 MEN OF MARK

Mr. Clements was special United States Attorney in 1891 to
secure titles to the government of lands comprising the Chicka-
mauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

As a boy of seventeen he enlisted in the Confederate service
and remained under arms until the close of the struggle. He
was in Stewart's Corps under Gen. J. E. Johnston and Gen-
eral Hood and was slightly wounded in the battle of Atlanta,
July 22, 1864. He entered the army as a private and was First
Lieutenant at the close of the war.

Mr. Clements has been twice married. First, to Miss Eliza-
beth Wardlaw, who died in 1875. He was again married to
Miss Lizzie Elinor Dulaney, December 2, 1886. He has had
four children, three of whom are now living.

W. J. NOKTHEN.

OTIS ASHMORE, Superintendent of the Savannah Pub-
lic Schools, is one of Georgia's most notable teachers.
He was born in Lincoln county on the sixth day of
March, 1853, and is the son of Jeremiah and Malinda Wright
Ashmore. His ancestors on both sides were actively connected
with the War of the Revolution and after the close of that mem-
orable contest, came to Georgia from Virginia and the Carolinas,
with that stream of sturdy pioneers who did so much to develop
and enrich the Empire State of the South.

The early life of Superintendent Ashmore was spent upon the
old family homestead, about two miles from Lincolnton. Here
he passed his boyhood amid the closing days of the "Old South,"
and obtained such education as was possible at the village school
during those trying times. Fortunately for him, however, hia
father possessed a good library, and companionship with the
great minds of the past did much to strengthen and improve the
intellectual powers of the boy.

At the age of sixteen he became a pupil of his uncle, Thomas
P. Ashmore, who was a notable mathematician, and whose repu-
tation as an astronomer extended far beyond the State. In fact
so thoroughly established was his ability that he was employed
for nearly half a century to make the astronomical calculations
for that work, second only to his Bible in the farmer's affections
— Grier's Almanac. The opportunity thus afforded young Ash-
more was a strong factor in determining the tastes of his after
life and in giving him that bent towards astronomy and higher
mathematics in which he has become so proficient. Even in

22 MEN OF MARK

youth his skill in this direction was readily apparent and for
several years he was the acting surveyor of his native county be-
fore he had reached his majority. For this reason the office had
to be conferred upon him by appointment because he was too
young to be elected to the position.

In 1873 he taught a small school at Lincolnton and with the
money thus earned he went to Gainesville and studied under
Prof. George C. Looney, to whose training and inspiration he
gives much credit for the success he has attained in after years.

Mr. Ashmore did not graduate from college but in 1889 he did
post-graduate work at the University of Georgia in Analytical
Chemistry and in 1894 received the degree of A. M. from that in-
stitution. Convinced that teaching was his life work, he took
charge of a school in Wilkes county, and after two years of suc-
cessful effort he returned to his home neighborhood and taught
in Lincolnton during 1878 and 1879. In 1880 he went to Har-
lem where he remained for four years until elected to the school
at Jonesboro. Here he was in charge until 1887 when he was
appointed teacher of Natural Science in the Savannah High
School. This position he filled with such ability as to insure
his election as Superintendent of Schools of Chatham county.
This occurred 1896, and since that time he has filled this re-
sponsible place with credit to himself and with an ability which
has been recognized all over the State and the South.

While thus occupied he has made some distinguished contribu-
tions in the field of science. Since 1882 he has made the astro-
nomical calculations for Grier's Alamanac, the work which, as
mentioned before, his uncle had in charge for so many years.
Recognizing his ability in this line the United States authorities
appointed him upon the Naval Observatory staff to observe the
total eclipse of the sun in May, 1900.

At the request of the publishers, he has written several articles

OTIS ASHMORE 23

for different books and manuals used in the State, and in 1904
Ginn & Co. published his Manual of Pronunciation. In addi-
tion Superintendent Ashmore has contributed many articles to
the press upon scientific and popular subjects, and has for years
been in demand as a lecturer, particularly upon astronomy. In
the annual meetings of the Georgia Educational Association he
has long been recognized as a leader among his professional as-
sociates and when he speaks upon any topic his remarks are
always awaited with interest and heard with respect and appre-
ciation. He has been connected with all the progressive educa-
tional movements of his State for years and is always desired as
a lecturer at the annual institutes and summer schools of the
South. He is a regular member of the National Educational
Association and a constant attendant upon the sessions of that
great body. Superintendent Ashmore has also been prominent
in other fields closely allied with education. He is Correspond-
ing Secretary of the Georgia Historical Society and a member
of the Board of Managers of the Telfair Academy of Arts and
Sciences. He is also on the Board of Management of the Savan-
nah Public Library, and is chairman of the library committee
of that organization.

In politics, while never active, the subject of this sketch, like
most Southern white men of prominence since the war, has always
been identified with the Democratic party. With club life,
sports, and amusements of all kinds he has never been connected
by reason of the pressure of his many duties, and in fact, life to
him is much of the same cast as that attributed by the Scotch-
man to the sober-looking dominie — "a verra sarious business."
Indeed his friends say that his chief relaxation is found in study-
ing astronomy. A rather delicate constitution in early life,
coupled with a natural inclination for scholarly pursuits, has
always predisposed Mr. Ashmore towards literature and learn-
ing, and consequently he finds his chief delight in planning and

24 MEN OF MARK

executing the many and varied details of his important work in
Savannah and Chatham county.

His ancestors, on both sides, were of English descent, and on
coming to this country they first settled in Virginia and Mary-
land. His father for many years was Tax Receiver and Tax
Collector of the county of Lincoln, and from the Wrights as well
as the Ashmores he inherited the calm judgment and rational
ability for which he himself has been so noted. On January 16,
1884, he married Miss Editha G. Collins, of Harlem, Ga., whose
family moved to this State from Detroit, Michigan. To them
one child, a son, was born, but he died in 1892 at the age of seven
years.

To the fact that he spent the early years of his life on the farm,
and to the patience and strength which he there acquired, Super-
intendent Ashmore attributes much of the- success which has
come to him in the course of his useful career. His advice to
young men just starting upon their work in the world is charac-
teristic of the man. "Let every act be based upon the great
principle of right. Use economy of time, money, and effort.
Have well-formed plans and persevere in accomplishing them.
Be self-reliant, polite to every one, and honorable in all things."

M. L. BEITTAIN.

.

L

.

/ ^^ /)

JXtcfjarb

JAMES RICHARD GRAY was born in Adairsville, Bartow
county, September 30, 1859. A native Georgian, reared
and educated in the State, coming from the sturdy stock
that carved a State out of the wilderness, and gave it place in the
front rank of free Commonwealths, it was but natural that he
should prove to be a true Georgian, destined to illustrate in his
life the noblest traits of a bold, honest and enterprising citizenry.
It may have made some impress upon his young and tender
mind, that his early boyhood days were lived during the fierce
civil strife between the Northern and Southern sections of the
United States, especially as his home was on the line of march
of contending armies. Perhaps, the privations, self-denial and
suffering, enforced upon the people of Georgia during those
times, gave him an early lesson in the school that fitted him for
the arduous duties of his subsequent life. Following the War
between the States came those evil days of reconstruction times,
when hungry hordes of strangers came to fill the offices in the
South and plundered and oppressed the people, almost beyond
endurance. In these times the youth of young Gray was spent,
and the necessity of combatting threatening conditions and fac-
ing situations of dire distress was forced upon him.

It has been truly said, "There is no such school as adversity."
And when such adversity is common to a large portion of the
country and all feel alike its hardships, the lessons learned are
enduring and make lasting impress upon the future life of the
youths of the land. What wonder then that the traits of char-
acter so admirably illustrated in the life of James R. Gray were

26 MEN OF MARK

early and ineradicably formed, such as honesty, a courage that
halted at no obstacle, an energy that shunned no task, an ambition
that set high the prize to be obtained and a determination that
could hew out a path over seemingly impossible conditions, and
win a place among the world's worthy men.

During Mr. Gray's boyhood there was established in the neigh-
borhood where he lived one of the most famous schools of the
State. A man of renown, a strong character and splendidly edu-
cated, John H. Fitten, established a Classical School in Adairs-
ville, and there laid the foundation of character and education
for many of the youths of the South. There were no accessories
that suggested wealth or even convenience. Text-books and a
shelter, with a teacher, himself an accomplished scholar, and a
man of strong will and splendid character, were all that could
be had in those days of struggle and privation. There was noth-
ing that suggested luxury, and there is nothing suggesting effemi-
nacy in the life and character of Mr. Gray. His father was a
Lieutenant Colonel in the Eighth Georgia battalion, and from
him the son inherited the manly character that has asked no
odds in the struggle to climb to a high place in the public esteem.

Leaving Fitten's Classical School, young Gray became a stu-
dent in the North Georgia Agricultural College, another institu-
tion that has given to the State many sous who knew little of the
smiles of fortune, and nothing of easy stages to high attainments,
but who have won renown and adorned the councils of State. Lo-
cated among the rugged mountains of North Georgia, far re-
moved from railroads and among a people self-reliant and inde-
pendent, the little city of Dahlonega proved a splendid nursery,
from whose institution of learning came young men afraid of
nothing save dishonor, and ready for any undertaking requiring
character and fortitude.

In these schools young Gray was prepared for the battles of

JAMES RICHARD GRAY 27

life. Possessing a splendid physique, over six feet in height,
handsome and of athletic mould, he possessed the physical ability
to stand up under any mental strain. He aspired to the profes-
sion of the law, and in 1879, one year after graduating, he was
admitted to the practice, and for twenty-two years was a prom-
inent member of the Atlanta bar, one of the best in the land.
For several years he was the junior member of the law firm of
Ellis & Gray, and subsequently the senior of Gray, Brown &
Randolph. As a lawyer he was eminently successful, winning
fame and fortune.

On November 16, 1881, he was married to Miss May Inman,
daughter of Mr. Walker P. Inman, one of Atlanta's most sub-
stantial citizens, and his married life has been most happy. A
household, to which five children have come, has been peculiarly
happy, and Mr. Gray's domestic life has been greatly blessed.

Mr. Gray's mother was Sarah J. Venable, who came from the
good English stock of Abram Venable, of Devonshire, England,
whose sons in the House of Burgesses, in Virginia, and in the
Army of the Revolution, proved themselves American patriots
of the highest renown. A worthy descendant of noble and wor-
thy parents is James Richard Gray.

In 1891 Mr. Gray, having previously, with others, purchased
a controlling interest in The Atlanta, Journal, the leading daily
newspaper of Georgia, was made Editor-in-Chief and General
Manager. He has proven his aptitude for this work, and his
ability as a newspaper publisher by pushing The Journal to
greater success than it had ever known, and has made it a splen-
did, productive property, a journal of great influence, socially
and politically, and a monument to his genius and enterprise.
This is his life-work and that he may live long to adorn the pro-
fession is the wish of thousands of friends and admirers.

Mr. Gray has never sought public office. In 1904 the mem-

28 MEN OF MARK

bers of the Georgia State Convention elected him as a delegate
from the State at large to the National Democratic Convention,
and he was chosen Chairman of the delegation.

As editor of The Atlanta Journal, he championed the candi-
dacy of Hoke Smith for Governor in 1906 and conducted one of
the most vigorous and effective newspaper campaigns in the his-
tory of Georgia, contributing not a little to the sweeping victory
of his candidate and the enactment into law of some of the most
important measures which were issues in the campaign. Mr.
Gray was made chairman of the committee on platform and reso-
lutions at the Macon convention which nominated Hoke Smith
for Governor, and was the author of that important declaration
of principles.

Socially, politically, financially and in every way Mr. Gray is
a peer among the best. A true and loyal friend, a man of strong
convictions, and with a courage never questioned, he stands in the
prime of life, a man who has won success from unpromising con-
ditions, and having satisfied reasonable desires of ambition, seeks
to be a good, useful, helpful, patriotic citizen.

R. J. MASSEY.

Daniel Canbler.

ALLEN DANIEL CANDLER, Governor of Georgia from
1898 to 1902, was born in Auraria, Lumpkin county,
November 4, 1834. His earliest ancestor in America
was Daniel Candler, who emigrated from Ireland to Bedford
county, Virginia, about 1738, and was a grandson of Lieut.
Col. William Candler, of the British Army. Daniel's son, Wil-
liam, born in 1736 in Callan Castle, County Kilkenny, Ireland,
settled in 1768 in that part of Richmond County, Georgia,
now called McDuffie county. He espoused the cause of liberty
and became a Colonel in the American army, serving at the siege
of Augusta, King's Mountain, and with the dashing Sumter. He
was a comrade of the leading Georgia patriots, and, after the es-
tablishment of independence, was legislator and judge, dying at
the age of forty-eight.

Daniel, his youngest son, born in Columbia county in 1779,
led the life of a farmer and died in 1816. His son, Daniel Gill,
born in Columbia county in 1812, was married on October 8,
1833, to Nancy Caroline Matthews. While they were living at
Auraria, Lumpkin county, their union was blessed with a son,
Allen Daniel, one of the first white children born in that section,
then the home of the Cherokee Indians.

Daniel Gill Candler during a life of seventy-five years was
farmer, lawyer, judge and soldier, and was three times Mayor
of Gainesville. He was a soldier in two Indian wars, and during
the War between the States was Captain in the Second Georgia
regiment. His strong characteristics were devotion to duty and
loyalty to his native State. His wife was a lady of strong char-

30 MEN OF MARK

acter, who, by her wise training and precepts, inspired in her son
Allen the ambition to overcome all obstacles that stood in the way
of a successful career.

During his boyhood, Allen Candler's home was in Franklin
county, and the regular tasks required of him on his father's
farm impressed him with the necessity of labor and taught him
self-reliance, at the same time developing his naturally frail
body, and giving to him a fair degree of physical strength. For
lack of sufficient means to attend one of the high grade schools to
be found in the cities or large towns of Georgia, young Candler
enjoyed only such advantages as were afforded by the old field
schools of his neighborhood. His fondness for reading and study
enabled him to surmount all obstacles, and, after being prepared
for college by a Presbyterian minister, Rev. G. H. Cartledge,
and was graduated from Mercer University in 1859. In the
same year he entered iipon the life of a teacher at Jonesboro
and was the founder of the Clayton High School. But he was
not long permitted to enjoy this avocation.

In 1861 he cheerfully obeyed the call of his State to defend her
rights and sovereignty, and entered Confederate service as a pri-
vate soldier in Company H, of the Thirty-fourth Regiment of
Georgia Volunteers. He was elected Lieutenant, and a year
later promoted to Captain. He rendered brave and faithful ser-
vice in the battles of Bridgeport, Tennessee, Kentucky Campaign
of 1862, Baker's Creek, and the seige of Vicksburg, Missionary
Ridge, Resaca, Cassville, Kennesaw, and around Atlanta and
Jonesboro, during which time he was twice wounded and lost an
eye. In May, 1864, he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the
Fourth Georgia Reserves, and in January, 1865, promoted to
Colonel in the same command, surrendering his regiment with
General Johnston.

He was married January 12, 1864, to Eugenia T. Williams,
daughter of a planter of Jones county.

ALLEN DANIEL CANDLER 31

Upon the return of peace he resumed teaching at Jonesboro,
and in 1866 was honored by Mercer University with the degree
of A. M. During that same year he was elected Mayor of
Jonesboro.

Removing to Gainesville in 1870, he entered the lumber trade,
became a contractor and railroad constructor, and superin-
tended the building of the Gainesville, Jefferson and Southern
Railroad, sixty-five miles in length, and of this he was made
President. The Gainesville Street Railroad and part of a rail-
road from Gainesville to Dahlonega were constructed under his
supervision.

In 1872 he was elected Mayor of Gainesville, and from 1872
to 1877 was representative in the Georgia Legislature, and State
Senate for 1879-80. In 1882 he was called by the Democratic
party to make the race for Congress against Emory Speer, rank-
ing with the most brilliant orators that Georgia has produced,
and who had twice defeated the regular Democratic nominee.
Colonel Candler was successful, and for four successive terms
served his State with distinction in the United States Congress.
He declined to run for a fifth term, since his business required
his attention.

Upon the death of Gen. Philip Cook, Georgia's honored Secre-
tary of State, in 18 94-, Governor North en appointed Colonel
Candler to the vacant position, to which he was elected a second
time by the people, and continued to serve with ability in this
responsible office until his resignation in 1898 to become a can-
didate for Governor. He was elected over Hon. J. R. Hogan,
his opponent, by about sixty thousand majority, and re-elected
in 1900 by an almost unanimous vote.

Governor Candler's administration was marked for its progres-
sive and economical features. During both terms in which he
stood at the helm of the Empire State of the South, he sought to
equalize the burden of taxation, and favored measures to force

32 MEN OF MARK

the payment of taxes on property that was, in so far as such a
thing could be done, hidden out. He advocated the improvement
of the public school system and co-operation between the State
and counties in measures to increase the public school fund. He
warmly advocated the acceptance by the State of the Confederate
Soldiers' Home and liberal appropriations for its support, and
favored liberality in pensions for true Confederate soldiers, and
the weeding out of those who were undeserving.

In order to throw every safeguard around the purity of the
ballot he urged an amendment to the State Constitution provid-
ing for qualified suffrage based on property or education, or both.
He ever favored the proper care of all public institutions and a
liberal support of the military of the State.

Soon after the expiration of his second term as Governor, he
was commissioned by the State to compile the Colonial, Revolu-
tionary and Confederate Records of Georgia. He has been
President of the Southern Mutual Life Insurance Association
since 1903.

Governor Candler comes of Presbyterian parents, who trained
him to love truth, honesty, sobriety and industry. He is a mem-
ber of the Masonic fraternity and endeavors to be faithful to the
obligations of that noble order. The line of reading which in-
terests him most is history and political science; and he has a
special fondness for the writings of Thomas Jefferson and John
C. Calhoun. He has always been identified with the Democratic
party, from whose principles he has turned to neither the right
nor the left.

His wife, to whom he was married during the war, still lives.
To them were born eleven children, nine of whom are living.

Though past 'three score and ten," Governor Candler is a vig-
orous, active and earnest man of business, setting a good exam-
ple of industry, and a purpose to serve his day and generation
faithfully to the end. JOSEPH T. DEEKY.

>

34 MEN OF MARK

He has devoted himself studiously and uninterruptedly to the
practice of his profession, except during that part of his life
given to the Confederate service as a soldier. He has never
sought or desired judicial or political office, but he has freely
given his time, his talent, his money and his experience to insti-
tutions established for the public good, and to the service of his
country when men were called to the arena of war.

He was President of the Board of Trustees of Richmond
Academy from February, 1882, to January, 1888, from which
he voluntarily retired. He is now the re-elected President of
this board. He has been Chairman of the trustees of the Ma-
sonic Hall in the city of Augusta for twenty-eight years. He
is a prominent, active and useful member of the Protestant Epis-
copal Church. He was a member of the standing committee of
the Diocese of Georgia from May, 1888, to the corresponding
month 1901. He has been Chancellor of the Diocese since May,
1899. For fifteen years he has been a delegate to the General
Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United
States. These positions have come to him because of his gener-
ous spirit in public service and his devotion to Christian duty.

In January, 1855, when a student at law, Mr. Miller joined
the ranks of the Oglethorpe Infantry, a volunteer company, then
under the command of his father, who as a cadet at West Point
had acquired military knowledge that made his company famous
for discipline and soldierly manliness.

On January 24, 1861, under the command of the Governor of
Georgia, Mr. Miller marched with his comrades in the Ogle-
thorpe Infantry to attack the United States arsenal near Au-
gusta, receiving the gratifying information "en route" of an un-
conditional surrender with the honors of war. His first duty as
a soldier in active service was performed that night in guarding
the trophies of war, and the first Federal arsenal that had sur-

FRANK HARVEY MILLER 35

rendered to the Georgia State troops after the Ordinance of Se-
cession had been adopted. Mr. Miller's company, which by
division became Company B of the Oglethorpe Infantry, was or-
dered into actual service by the Governor of the State, November
10, 1861. The company went into camp at Tebeauville, now
Waycross, being assigned to the Second Brigade under command
of Gen. F. W. Capers.

This company, of which Mr. Miller had been made First Lieu-
tenant, became a part of the Ninth Regiment of State Troops,
and at Savannah was attached to the Third Brigade, commanded
by Brig.-Geii. William T. Walker. February 9, 1862, Mr.
Miller was made Adjutant of his regiment, which office he
held until the regiment was mustered out of service. From
his entry into this service until April, 1862, he was Judge Advo-
cate of every court-martial in the brigade, and served in this ca-
pacity in other brigades in the division. In this way he did
double service, being occupied in court and field duty as occasion
demanded. Mr. Miller's eminent legal ability and his patriotic
devotion to the cause of his country fitted him most peculiarly
for the excessive demands made upon him.

Upon being mustered out of service under the general order
placing all State troops between the ages of eighteen and thirty-
five in the Confederate service, Mr. Miller was appointed asso-
ciate counsel for the receiver of sequestrated estates. His duties
as Acting Assistant Confederate States Attorney and as legal ad-
viser of the Provost Marshal required his residence in Augusta.

Feeling that his country was entitled to all his time, and being
unoccupied on certain days of the week, when he was able to prac-
tice law and earn a support for his family, he preferred, as a
manifestation of patriotism and devotion, never to present a bill
for services rendered professionally, or for mileage incurred in
any way in attending any court on account of the business of the

36 MEN OF MARK

Confederate States. All the cases represented by Mr. Miller be-
fore the Supreme Court as such counsel were decided in favor of
the government, save one.

When the war was over Mr. Miller resumed the general prac-
tice of his profession in Augusta. He never cared to practice on
the criminal side of the court, but devoted himself almost exclu-
sively to civil cases. For this he was singularly gifted by his
judicial temperament, his wonderful memory, his keen power of
investigation and analysis, as also by a marvelous system of re-
cord, which enabled him at any moment to put his hand upon all
the details of any case which had ever engaged his attention. He
has always had a great capacity for taking pains with whatever
was entrusted to him, and his large grasp of details, together
with his untiring diligence and his trained judgment, made his
opinion second in value to no man's. He was successful in the
majority of his cases before the Supreme Court.

It was at his instance that the question was first raised as to
the liability of State bonds to taxation, and it was he who secured
the important ruling which exempted these securities from an
unjust tax, and made them sought after as a safe and judicious
investment.

In his mature years Mr. Miller is devoting himself to commer-
cial and ecclesiastical law, being one of the lay Judges of the
Court of Review of the Fourth Judicial Department established
by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church,
and comprising twelve Dioceses and Missionary Jurisdictions
of the Southern States.

In 1874 Mr. Miller had an interesting case at law in which
he succeeded in breaking an entail of property to which his client
was declared the heir of entail. The estate was located in the
north of Scotland, near Wick. It became necessary for Mr. Mil-
ler to visit Scotland for personal investigation. He was inform-

FRANK HARVEY MILLER 37

ed that for many years long ago there had obtained in the High-
lands of Scotland what was known as hand-fasting marriages.
A hand-fasting marriage was, in effect, a marriage on trial for
six months. If the marriage resulted happily, it was confirmed
by subsequent marriage, thus making it final. If either party
was dissatisfied, a separation ensued on or before the expiration
of the six months without any reflection upon the character, mo-
rality or social standing of either party.

If a hand-fasting marriage resulted in the birth of a child,
both parties were in honor bound to make provision for it prior to
and superior to any child afterwards born to either in lawful
wedlock.

This custom was abolished by an act of the British Parliament,
by which all children thereafter so born were declared bastards.

The original grantor of the estate entail had entered into a
hand-fasting marriage with a young maiden. This marriage
was not afterwards consummated, and separation ensued. A
son was born to them and each parent had, therefore, executed a
deed of entail for all holdings of realty they possessed for the
benefit of this son and his heirs ; whom failing, then to the lawful
issue of the original grantors. The son so born had arisen to
distinction as a Major-General in the British Army, but finally
died unmarried and without issue, thus admitting under the
deeds of entail, into possession the lawful issue of the original
grantors, in behalf of whose great-grandchild Mr. Miller was
then acting as counsel. The breaking of the entail made not
only an interesting case at law, but it brought a comfortable
estate to the absolute ownership and use of Mr. Miller's client,
George M. Gordon.

Mr. Miller was married to Miss Julia Dyer Kitchen, July 6,
1859. They have had six children, five of whom are living.

To the young, Mr. Miller commends: Steady devotion to

38 MEN OF MARK

duty, as to which an eminent divine has said, "A live word — a
word that has hands and feet and eyes and tongue and a heart-
immortal as the soul. Its home is in the human conscience ; its
hands are full of rewards. Honors, pleasures, and even crowns
lie at its feet. It has a voice as loud as thunder and yet musical
as the seraph's harp and rapturous as the angel's song."

W. J. NOBTHEN.

&lexanfoer ^tepfteng Clap.

IF ever there has been in public station a man whose highest
ambition it is to do that which is for the best interests of
the people he represents, that man is Hon. Alexander Ste-
phens Clay, United States Senator from Georgia. This is the
estimate of one who has known Senator Clay in every phase of
his official career. It is an estimate which will be given hearti-
est endorsement by every other man who knows Senator Clay as
citizen and as official.

Senator Clay is as much one of the people, and has as deeply
at heart their interests, as that other great Georgian for whom
he is named. One of the people because he belongs to them ;
one of the people because he was born among them, was reared
with them, has shared their hardships and their joys, and knows
first-hand their hopes and their aspirations ; one of the people in
fact, not for political purposes only.

Born on a little Cobb county farm a few years before the great
civil war, "Steve" Clay's boyhood recollections are all of destitu-
tion, privation and struggle. His father was a private soldier
in the army of the Confederacy, and the sweep of that terrible
struggle left destruction through all that section in which rested
the little Clay home. Returning after the surrender at Appo-
mattox, the father had, like so many thousands of the men of the
South, to begin anew the work that is man's great ambition-
home building.

It was under conditions of this kind that the eleven year old
boy who is now Senator of the United States began his fight for
an education. His mother was an educated lady, had been a

40 MEN OF MARK

school teacher, was full of ambition for her sturdy boy, and
the value of her influence in shaping his life to the higher and
better things can not be over estimated. The boy was full of am-
bition. He was strong and sturdy of body, bright and quick of
mind; and while he applied himself with thoroughness to the
work of a regular farm hand, he devoted his evenings to his
books, and by going into debt was able finally to secure the college
education which was ever his highest ambition.

Senator Clay was born on September 25, 1853, his father be-
ing William J. Clay and his mother Anna (Peek) Clay. The
father had moved to Cobb county from Washington county,
Georgia, to which the grandparents of Senator Clay had come
from Virginia. William J. Clay possessed one characteristic be-
yond all others, and this his son was fortunate enough to inherit
—practical common sense. The boy had in himself, therefore, a
foundation more valuable than all riches — a foundation built of
common sense inherited from his father and of intelligence and
ambition carefully nurtured in him by his mother. Equipped
also with strong and sturdy body, due in a great measure to his
life in the open air of the country, he was from the first marked
for success.

The Clays were English, being of the English gentry, and so
were the Peeks, of which family the Senator's mother was a
member. The blood in his veins is, therefore, almost pure Eng-
lish. The first Clay who came to this country was John, who
was the founder of a very large and prolific family, the members
of which spread over Virginia, Kentucky and adjacent States.
Henry Clay, "The Great Pacificator," came of this one branch.
Fifty years later the Georgia branch furnished the country an-
other National figure. The family of Senator Clay's mother
was also a good one. They came to Maryland in the early his-
tory of that province and later removed to that part of Richmond
county, Georgia, which is now Columbia county.

ALEXANDER STEPHENS CLAY 41

Senator Clay was educated in the country public schools,
then in the high school at Palmetto, and from there was able,
by going into debt to raise the necessary money, to attend Hia-
wassee College, Tennessee, from which he graduated in 1876.
He taught school two years after that, reading law at the same
time, and in the latter part of 1877 was admitted to the practice
of his profession. He has been an active, practicing lawyer ever
since.

There is perhaps no higher test of a man's character than is
found in the fact that his neighbors delight to honor him.
There never has been a time since he first began political activ-
ity when Cobb county was not solidly at his back; and as the
sphere of his activity has broadened, Cobb has, so far as he is
concerned, extended its confines until it embraces practically the
whole of northern Georgia which delights to call Senator Clay
"favorite son." The first office he held was as member of the
city council at Marietta and acting Mayor. Then followed a
service of eight years in the Georgia legislature, during which
he was Speaker of the House of Representatives and President
of the State Senate. He was always an active leader in the
Democratic party, and for four years was chairman of the State
Democratic Executive Committee. He was elected to the United
States Senate in 1897, and later re-elected in 1903.

Senator Clay has long been a consistent member of the Metho-
dist church. While he is a member of both the Masonic frater-
nity and the Odd Fellows, he has ever been too much of a home
man to find much time for social diversion of anv kind. On

v

the 3rd of November, 1880, he married Miss Fannie White.
Six children have been born to them, all of whom are living.
The Senator frankly attributes much of his success in life to
the sweet companionship of his charming help-meet, who is in-
deed an ideal wife.

Ever since his earliest recollection it has been Senator Clay's

42 MEN OF MARK

literary fad, if it may be called that, to read history and biog-
raphies, especially those telling of the lives of the men who
have accomplished great things. The writer remembers hearing
him tell how his first impulse to be a lawyer came from hearing
the pleadings of men who seemed to him great lawyers, and he
lost no opportunity to listen to these arguments whenever it was
possible for him to do so without interfering with the work he
had to do. The more of lawyers' eloquence he heard, the
stronger became the conviction that this was the profession for
him.

If I were asked to find the key to Senator Clay's success in
life I think I should borrow from that fine old statesman, Hiram
P. Bell, his idea that the two fundamentals of success are integ-
rity and industry, and would add also intelligence ; and then
I would say that in Senator Clay we find these three elements
finely proportioned.

I have had intimate knowledge of Senator Clay's public ca-
reer from the day when he first became a member of the Georgia
legislature. I have seen him rise first to be Speaker pro tern
of the House of Representatives, and then to be Speaker of that
fine bodv, and later I have seen him as President of the State

*/ r

Senate. In these positions he always conducted himself well
and was, I know, always true to his convictions. I have seen
him enter the United States Senate as a new member where, in
his modesty doubting his own ability, he was thrown upon a
plane of equality with men whose names were known to the
nation and to the world. I have seen him guided there by the
supreme desire to shape his every act to conform with what he
conceived to be the best interests of the people of Georgia, of the
South and of the Nation — growing daily stronger and stronger
and rendering every day the best of service to the people
whose commission he holds. The new Senator starts at the foot
of the ladder. Whether he be man of note of mere novice, it

ALEXANDER STEPHENS CLAY 43

is the same. Men of longer service get the positions upon com-
mittees which he would like to have; he must be content with
finding his name at the bottom of the list of the unimportant
ones. His rise depends upon two things. One, the attitude of
his fellow senators toward him, the other, his demonstrated abil-
ity and usefulness. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Senator Clay started like the others; but the fine character
of the man won early recognition at the hand of his associates,
and they were glad when the opportunity came to aid him in
getting on the committees he desired. As a rule, men are not
fooled in their fellows. The Senate leaders on both sides of the
chamber early saw that in Clay of Georgia they had a compa-
triot destined to be a highly useful member of that august body,
and recognition of this ability has come in assignment to mem-
bership upon such great practical and useful committees as that
having supervision of the Post-office Department in all its de-
tails, the Public Buildings Committee, and the Committee on
Commerce which has to do with all river and harbor appropria-
tions and all legislation bearing upon commerce.

Upon each and all of these committees Senator Clay has
served Georgia and the country well. He is a man who is scru-
pulous in attendance upon committee meetings and in attending
to committee work of all kinds. It must be known that the real
work of the United States Senate is done in the committees and
in the floor consideration of their work. To Senator Clay, more
than to any other one man, is due the credit of defeating that
first ship-subsidy bill which contained such glaring provisions
of special favoritism to the shipping trust. It was he who
made the unfavorable minority report upon the bill and who
led the fight against it upon the floor of the Senate which
brought its defeat, even in the face of the earnest and active
support of such Republican leaders as Senator Hanna, of Ohio,
and Senator Frye, of Maine.

41 MEN OF MARK

Senator Clay makes no pretense at eloquence, and yet he is
one of the most forceful debaters in the Senate. He has made
a number of notable speeches during his service in that body,
and has in his every act marked himself as deserving his place
in that galaxy of fine Georgians who have, from the days of the
first Congress, represented this State in the United States
Senate.

JOSEPH OHL.

46 MEN OF MARK

ceived their early education, and which, as it is well known,
developed men of high moral worth and excellent qualities. He
had just reached that age in his teens when he was ready to pass
from the walls of his academy to the larger field of college work
when the War between the States was at its height, and being
fired with a patriotism, which is inherent in southern youth, he
entered the Confederate service, and at the early age of seven-
teen became a volunteer private, and member of the celebrated
Nelson Rangers, an independent cavalry company, which did
valiant service and was honored before the close of the war by
being made escort company to Lieut, Gen. Stephen D. Lee.
On his return from the army in 1865 Mr. Jordan attended
school for a short while at his native home.

In 1866 he was offered a position in the office of a wholesale
mercantile establishment in Columbus, Ga., which he accepted
and where he remained for one year. Here his ability and
worth were speedily recognized and at the close of the year he
was offered an interest in the business. Just at that time, with-
out his knowledge or solicitation, he was elected treasurer of
the Eagle and Phenix Manufacturing Company of Columbus,
the largest cotton and woolen manufacturing establishment in the
Southern States. After some deliberation as to whether he
should select a mercantile pursuit or engage in manufacturing
business he selected the latter course, and in January, 1867,
began his duties as treasurer and credit man of the above named
corporation, with which he remained for twenty years. During
the administration of this office, together with that of president
by the venerable William H. Young, who was the pioneer of cot-
ton manufacturers in western Georgia, the Eagle and Phenix
Manufacturing Company established its reputation as one of the
most successful and extensive institutions of its kind in the
United States.

In 1875 Mr. Jordan was elected cashier of the Eagle and Phe-

GEORGE GUN BY JORDAN 47

nix Savings Bank, a branch of the mill enterprise, which posi-
tion he occupied for thirteen years. Through his financial abil-
ity this institution, during the financial panic of 1873, and sub-
sequent years, proved a great blessing to people in the city of
Columbus and the territory contiguous thereto. At the sug-
gestion of Mr. Jordan and through his instrumentality, this
Savings Bank at that time issued bills of credit as a circulating
medium which for many years locally supplied the great de-
mand for money in the distressing times which followed the
final congestion of that period.

As late as 1886 Mr. Jordan was continuously re-elected to
both of the above named offices in the Eagle and Phenix Manu-
facturing Company, but in order to embark in the more ex-
tensive business of railroad construction he declined further
election in that year. The city of his adoption, which at that
time was demanding an outlet to the east by rail, was sadly in
need of some one to take the lead. The people readily recognized
in Mr. Jordan the man for the occasion. He was made presi-
dent of the Georgia Midland Construction Company, through
which the Georgia Midland and Gulf Railroad was constructed
from Columbus to McDonough, — there connecting with the
East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway, and by that
road with Atlanta.

In 1889 he was made General Manager of the Georgia Mid-
land and Gulf Railroad, and during his incumbency as general
manager he inaugurated the movement, organized the company,
and secured the charter for the Columbus Southern Railroad,
which was speedily built and by which the cities of Columbus
and Brunswick, Ga., via Albany, were connected. These two
railroads have proven to be great factors in the upbuilding of
the city of Columbus and they afford, with the other railroads
centering there, splendid transportation facilities for the numer-
ous articles of manufacture which are now being sent out from
Columbus. Mr. Jordan remained identified with his railroad

48 MEN OF MARK

enterprises until 1894, when they were absorbed by the larger
railroad lines, — the Georgia Midland and Gulf Railroad becom-
ing a part of the Southern Railway system and the Columbus
Southern a part of the Seabord Air Line Railway.

In 1888 Mr. Jordan organized the Third National Bank of
Columbus, and the year following he organized the Columbus
Savings Bank. He was elected president of each of these insti-
tutions, and sustains that relation at the present time. These
banks are among the strongest and most successful in the State
of Georgia.

In July, 1894, having severed his connection with railroad
matters entirely, he accepted the appointment of Railroad Com-
missioner of Georgia, which office was tendered him, unsolicited,
by William J. Xortheii, who was then Governor. His appoint-
ment covered the unexpired term of the late Virgil Powers,
and he was subsequently appointed to the same office for the
full term of six years by Governor Allen D. Candler, but in
August, 1904, he resigned the office of Railroad Commissioner.
His resignation came very unexpectedly to the people of the
State of Georgia, and was accepted by the then Governor,
Joseph M. Terrell, with a great deal of reluctance. From the
organization of the Georgia Railroad Commission in 1879 to
the present time no Commission in the United States has taken
a higher stand for ability and influence than that of the State of
Georgia, and no man among the very many able members of
that Commission has contributed more to the splendid reputa-
tion and high character of this able body than the subject of this
sketch. He was eminently fair in all of his rulings, both in
the railroads and the people, and possessed the confidence of
both. His voluntary retirement from this high public office
was a source of universal regret.

In 1895 the Eagle and Phenix Manufacturing Company was
placed in the hands of receivers by the United States Court.

GEORGE GUNBY JORDAN 49

Mr. Jordan, who had not been in any way connected with the
company for some ten years past, was, without his knowledge,
named as one of the Receivers to take charge and operate this
property, the court having requested him to act because of his
experience as a practical manufacturer. He discharged the du-
ties of Receiver to the satisfaction of all parties at interest and
with so much success that when the company was reorganized,
and the property sold under decree of the court, the purchasers
prevailed upon Mr. Jordan to accept the presidency of the new
company, which took the name of the Eagle and Phenix Mills,
and which, since its organization in 1898, has, under the admin-
istration of Mr. Jordan, been enlarged and so successfully oper-
ated that it easily leads among the greatest of the cotton and wool
manufacturing institutions in this country.

In 1891, by appointment of the Governor, W. J. ISTorthen,
Mr. Jordan was named as a member of the special commission
created by an Act of the Georgia Legislature for the purpose
of determining the noted case of the claim for betterments by
the lessees of the Western and Atlantic Railway against the
State, which commission unanimously and finally settled a case
involving several hundred thousand dollars and in a manner
satisfactory to both the claimants and the State.

In 1895 Mr. Jordan was unanimously elected president of the
Georgia Bankers Association. He has always taken a promi-
nent part in the conventions of this association.

While the foregoing is a resume of some of the larger affairs
in which Mr. Jordan has been engaged, he has by no means
been neglectful of public enterprises affecting the interest of
his adopted home, and there has been no movement of any im-
portance to the city of Columbus during the past thirty years
with which he has not been prominently identified.

He takes a great interest in public education, axid is at present

4

50 MEN OF MARK

President of the Board of Trustees of the Public Schools of the
city of Columbus, but aside from this he devotes much of his
time and private means to the upbuilding of charitable institu-
tions, and is especially interested in kindergarten development,
and the betterment of the many thousands of operatives engaged
in the various manufacturing enterprises of that city. He put
in practice the idea of a mill operative club and established an
institution of this kind in Columbus. Its influence in awaken-
ing a new life in this class has been readily seen among the
thousands of working people of Columbus.

He is a director of the Columbus Electric Company and was
one of the originators and has been a leading factor in the de-
velopment of the splendid water power of the Chattahoochee
River at Columbus. He is also Director in several northern
corporations having for their object the promotion of business
enterprises.

As president of The Jordan Company of Columbus he has
interested himself, as a matter of diversion, in the construc-
tion of mills and a number of homes on the extensive holdings
of that company, — all of which are evidences of the mark of
progress of his home city.

In his personal characteristics Mr. Jordan may be said to
be a man of broad intellect, fine education of the self made type,
(which after all is the best) intense concentration of thought,
wonderful energy, and untiring industry. He is a graceful and
forcible speaker, and in this particular is as much at home in
an after-dinner speech, and in the delivery of prizes to a class
of school girls as he is in the larger work of addressing a Con-
gressional Committee, a State Agricultural Society or Bankers
Convention. A recent public utterance was a most able and
exhaustive speech made before the Georgia Manufacturers' As-
sociation upon the subject of "Southern Immigration," and his
deliverance upon the occasion will do great good in attracting the

GEORGE GUNBY JORDAN 51

attention of the outside world to what is now one of the most
important questions engaging the minds of employers In the
South, — both agricultural and manufacturing. As President
of the Georgia Immigration Association he visited Europe, in
company with other prominent Georgians, and was successful
in establishing direct communication with the port of Savannah ;
so that the State has received during the year 1907 the first
cargo of selected immigrants arriving in Georgia since Colonial
days. The movement is likely to grow, as the character of
people coming to the State was of a higher order and gave entire
satisfaction.

Mr. Jordan is preeminently a business man, but with all of
his devotion in that line and his management of large enter-
prises he is not forgetful of the sentimental and tender side of
life. He is a lover of flowers and music; participates in the
social life of his city and State and is much given, as a recrea-
tion, to riding and driving. He was married in February,
1881, to Miss Lizzie B. Curtis, of Columbus, and there was
born to them in 1882 one son, Ralph Curtis Jordan, at whose
birth the lovely mother was taken away, and there then went
out of the life of the father the beautiful visions of the future
companionship of a loving wife. He has been true to her mem-
ory, never having married, and has devoted the intervening
years to the education and training of his son.

Mr. Jordan stands among the first of that large class of able,
broad minded and untiring characters who have contributed
so much in the upbuilding of the Southern States since the close
of hostilities of the great Civil War. He is a man who would
have been eminently successful in any line of life work which
he might, have chosen to follow. Had he seen proper to have
consecrated his talents to the State, and entered the field of poli-
tics, he would have there contributed in equal measure to the
general prosperity of the people at large and the rapid develop

52 MEN OF MARK

ment of the immediate section of country which he might have
represented, but in that event his work for the direct material
upbuilding of his section along the lines which he has elected to
follow would have been lost. Personally he is universally popu-
lar, but has never sought and on the contrary frequently declined
solicitations to accept office. His ambition seems to be to labor
in and for the good of his adopted city, and the good which he
has already done will live long after he is called to his final
home. HENKY R. GOETCHIUS.

James $ope proton.

THE results of the War between the States were more disas-
trous to the agricultural interests of the South than to
any other one industry. The farms had failed of income
for four successive years. The slaves had become freedmeu
and were taught that liberty meant license. They were unduly
embittered towards their former owners. They were averse to
work, although themselves in absolute poverty. The currency
of the Confederacy was then without value and the South really
had no circulating medium. Farmers were without the means
for personal support and, of course, they had no money with
which to employ labor and no hope for income until crops could
be grown. In this condition labor had to be employed and sup-
plied with all necessities as to clothing, homes, fuel and pro-
visions, upon the bare prospect of possible crops with very un-
certain service.

Few men of that day met the demands of the times with
success. The demoralization of labor that followed has greatly
paralyzed this industry until the present day. Because of that
fact alone, farming, the most profitable industry at the South
before the war, has been the least profitable since that time.

James Pope Brown has been one of the very few men to mas-
Ser the situation and make money upon the farm from the very
beginning of his efforts. This he has done under the adverse
conditions that have confronted this section. Mr. Brown has
wonderful business ability; unusual knowledge of the temper,
character and habits of the negro ; easy methods of control and
a general executive force that brings most pleasing and profitable
results.

54 MEN OF MARK

He was born about six years before the beginning of hostilities
between the States, May 4, 1855. His father, Stephen Wil-
liam Brown, was a man of sturdy qualities. He was absolutely
honest and true. James Pope was born on his grandfather's
farm in Houston county. One year after his birth his father
bought a farm in Pulaski and moved to it, beginning business
for himself.

James Pope attended an excellent primary school, taught in
his neighborhood by Mrs. Oliver. He was later sent to Cave
Spring to find a climate free from malaria and at the same time
have the benefit of instruction from the school taught there at
that time. He completed his academic education at the Mt.
Zion Select School, taught in Hancock county, of which W. J.
Northen was the Eector. He attended Mr. Northen's school
for four years, and, in speaking of the benefits he received from
the instruction given there, he says: "For four years I at-
tended this school, which, it might be said, was the beginning
and ending of my education. I had not learned anything up
to the time I went there, and did not learn anything at school
after I left."

He entered Mercer University upon leaving Mr. Northen's
school and graduated in 1873. Mr. Brown bases his business
success upon a short lecture his uncle, R. H. Brown, gave him
immediately upon his graduation. He quotes the lecture as
follows: "You must understand that you are thoroughly igno-
rant and do not know anything about business. You must go
home and go to work. Do not concern yourself about the kind
of work, so you work faithfully and honestly. Do not ask your
employer what he expects to pay you, as you are not worth any-
thing until you learn to work."

He acted upon the advice given and took a position in a cot-
ton warehouse. He slept in the back room of the warehouse,
not so comfortable a place as he now furnishes his farm hands.

JAMES POPE BROWN 55

He studied business methods very closely and worked "faithfully
and honestly." At the end of the season, the proprietor in-
formed him that he had been allowed forty dollars per month
for his services and that he would be advanced to fifty dollars
the ensuing year.

Mr. Brown was quite anxious to begin farming, but his pa-
rents positively opposed his wishes as the outlook was so unfa-
vorable and the associations so very unpleasant. He insisted,
however, that his preferences were strongly that way, in the
face of all hindrances. His father finally advised him to serve
an apprenticeship of two years upon his farm before beginning
for himself. This he did, accepting stipulated wages for his
services. At the end of the two years he rented a large farm and
began operating on an extensive scale. He bought fifteen mules,
having money enough to pay for only four of them. His
wagons, plows, corn, forage, meat and meal were bought on
credit. The cash price for corn was seventy-five cents. He
paid one dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel on credit. The
cash price for meat was eight cents. He paid twelve and one-
half cents, credit. Other credit prices ranged relatively high.
At the end of the year he paid all of his indebtedness, except
$800.00 and owned his stock and implements. At the end of
his second year he was entirely out of debt.

He began buying lands and extending his operations Jrom
year to year, until he now has one of the largest farm properties
in the State. He buys all the land adjacent to him that is of-
fered for sale, regardless of fertility or the lack of it. He
thinks thin land makes a better neighbor than a troublesome
citizen. It is conceded on all hands, that Mr. Brown now has
the best improved large farm in the State and that his labor is
the most prosperous and the best contented.

In order to reduce farm expenses in the cost of fertilizers, he
organized the Southern Phosphate Company in 1890 with his

56 MEN OF MARK

neighbors as stockholders. He was made president of the
company. The business of this organization was satisfactory
from the start and paid good dividends on the investment

In 1894, Mr. Brown was elected to the Legislature. He
served two years and was re-elected without opposition. He
was made chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. Fully
cognizant of the difficulties that attended efforts at successful
agriculture at the South, he determined that great relief could
be found in some well organized system of education and train-
ing. He believed the one thing the most needed by the agri-
cultural people was knowledge of their business, that is, agricul-
tural education in all its branches as applied to the conditions
at the South. He introduced a bill in the Legislature to estab-
lish an agricultural college in connection with the State Experi-
ment Station. His proposition did not meet favorable consid-
eration on the part of the General Assembly and his measure
failed. Mr. Brown has never yielded his views upon this ques-
tion and he still believes that some such institution as he pro-
posed would greatly help forward the general prosperity of the
State. As he did not find his duties as a legislator at all con-
genial he declined re-election.

In 1896 he was made president of the State Agricultural So-
ciety. He was not in attendance upon the convention at the
time of his election and he had not at all solicited the honor.
After two years service in this position, he desired to withdraw,
but his resignation was not accepted and his continued service
as president covered five years. During the time the interests
of the society, and, thereby, the interests of agriculture in the
State, were greatly advanced, as Mr. Brown injected into the
general system, some of his own practical common sense methods
and business practices.

In 1897 the citizens of Pulaski, Mr. Brown's home county,
in mass meeting assembled, unanimously adopted a resolution

JAMES POPE BROWN 57

requesting Mr. Brown to make the race for Governor of the
state. He was a personal friend of Hon. Allen D. Candler,
who was at the time an announced candidate for the place, and
Mr. Brown declined to antagonize him. Mr. Candler was
elected.

In 1900, Governor Candler appointed Mr. Brown Railroad
Commissioner to fill the unexpired term of Hon. L. 1ST. Tram-
mell, deceased. Upon the retirement of Hon. Spencer R. Atkin-
son, he was made Chairman of the Railroad Commission. Mr.
Brown's policies as a member of the Commission gave him
great favor Avith the people and made him many new friends.
His term expired in October, 1905, and he announced in ad-
vance that he would not be a candidate for re-appointment. He
retired with the grateful appreciation of the public for the ser-
vices rendered and the expressed regret on the part of many
whose favor he won.

After his retirement from the Commission, he was frequently
urged to become a candidate for the governorship of the State.
He gave the matter serious consideration, with an expressed
partial purpose of making the race. After further consider-
ation he finally declined in favor of Hoke Smith, who advocated
views on public questions in harmony with his own. Governor
Smith offered him a place on the Railroad Commission which
he declined.

Mr. Brown is a forceful public speaker. He is always calm
and dignified in bearing and succinct, clear and logical in state-
ment. His strong common sense will always attract the atten-
tion of the people he addresses and his deep convictions and evi-
dent sincerity of purpose largely determine contentions in his
favor. During the time of his public service, he addressed the
people upon many public questions and his views have largely
shaped the policy of the State upon many lines. His most not-
able address among the many that have attracted the attention

58 MEN OF MARK

of the people was delivered before the Southern Cotton Associa-
tion upon its organization in New Orleans, February, 1905.
This address was concluded in the following words : "The great
need of this agricultural country is markets for her products.
We note with pleasure that the cotton question is interesting
some of our representatives in Congress. If pardonable, 1
would suggest a great, broad field for the use of their talents.
Let partisanship rest for a season, give statesmanship a chance ;
let Republicans and Democrats join hands in the effort to find
new and broader fields for the products of our fields. The ener-
gies of the West and the South are hampered for the want of
markets. The South has the land and the labor to produce fif-
teen million bales of cotton, whenever the price will warrant it.
The capacity of the food producing West has not been tested.

"The time for us to act has come. Today we are in better
condition to act than at anv time since the civil strife. We have

«/

emerged, neck deep, from the ashes of our poverty, but to-day we
stand upon a plane of absolute independence, if we will only be
true to ourselves and the resources at our command.

"Let us organize, unawed by threats of spinners to close down,
unaffected by advice of false prophets, undismayed by past fail-
ures. Let us organize our forces, remembering that in unity
there is concord and strength, that in division there is discord
and defeat."

Mr. Brown was married to Miss Annie Righton Miller in
May, 1880. To this union five children have been born. Two
are now living.

Mr. Brown has always been a Democrat. He is a prominent
member of the Baptist church and a member of the Board of
Trustees of Mercer University. His favorite exercise is riding
horseback over his extensive fields.

To the young he commends : "Honest methods ; industrious
habits ; temperance in all things and total abstinence from strong
drink." W. J. NOKTHEN.

;

60 MEN OF MARK

ministry, and turned aside from other inviting lines of activity
to become an itinerant Methodist preacher. Immediately after
his graduation he was appointed to the pastorate of the church
in Sparta, Georgia, the home of Bishop George F. Pierce, where
an attachment sprang up between the young itinerant, only
eighteen years of age, and the venerable Bishop, that increased
till the Bishop fell on sleep. He continued to do the work of
an itinerant preacher, serving on circuits, stations and as Pre-
siding Elder, till 1886. He was appointed as a Presiding Elder
before he was twenty-three years of age, and did valiant service
among the people of the mountains of I^orth Georgia. When
only twenty-eight he was appointed pastor of St. John's Church,
Augusta, one of the strongest and most influential in the State.
In 1886 he was called from this charge to become editor of the
Christian Advocate, the general organ of his Church, published
in Nashville, Tenn., as the associate of Dr. (now Bishop) O. P.
Fitzgerald. His work in this office brought him prominently
before the Church as a writer and preacher. In June, 1888, he
was elected President of Emory College, and at once removed to
Oxford and entered upon the duties of his office. The college
prospered greatly under his administration, the faculty was
strengthened, the patronage increased. By his personal efforts
the sum of one hundred thousand dollars was added to the en-
dowment and the marble library building, known as "Candler
Hall" was erected. Coming into personal contact with hun-
dreds of young men, by his personality and by his instructions,
he has greatly impressed the young manhood of the State.

Having taken rank as a leader in his annual Conference al-
most from the day he became a member of it, he was elected
as one of its representatives to every session of the General Con-
ference from 1886 till 1898. At the session of 1898, held in
the city of Baltimore, he was elected one of the Bishops of his
Church. His firm hand and wise counsels, high purpose and

WARREN AIKEN CANDLER 61

indomitable energy began at once to be felt in the administration
of the affairs of the Church. He became deeply interested in
the work of Protestant Missions in Cuba, and first visited the
island in the fall of 1898. Since that time he has been in charge
of the missionary work of his Church in this important field,
and has made frequent visits to our island neighbor, traveling,
preaching, locating mission stations, organizing churches, and
holding conferences of the missionaries. Beginning with almost
nothing in 1898, he has seen the work grow under his adminis-
tration till, though the youngest, it has become one of the most
flourishing missions of the Church. As an evidence of his in-
terest in and devotion to this, and other missions in Latin Amer-
ica, he has mastered the Spanish language that he might be able
to transact the business of the Church with the natives in their
own tongue.

Residing in Atlanta since 1899, Bishop Candler has been
closely identified with every moral and religious movement in
this city. It is through his statesmanlike perception of need
and opportunities that the "Wesley Memorial Church and Hos-
pital have been established.

As a preacher and platform speaker, Bishop Candler takes
rank with the greatest orators that Georgia has produced.
With a mastery of facts, a logical arrangement of thought, a
majestic sweep of the imagination, with sparkling wit and with-
ering sarcasm, and with a wealth of tenderness and pathos, he
holds the attention of his audience, and moves them before him
as before a blast of a cyclone. With all his active and strenuous
work, he has been an indefatigable student, gathering about him
a great library of books with whose contents he is familiar. He
is a ready writer on most lines, and the columns of the secular
and religious press are often furnished with his strong and lu-
minous contributions. He has also written several books ;
"History of Sunday Schools," published in 1880; "Georgia's

62 MEN OF MARK

Educational Work" in 1893 ; "Christus Auctor" in 1900; "High
Living and High Lives" in 1901, and "Great Revivals and the
Great Republic" in 1904.

Emory College, his Alma Mater, honored him in 1888 by
conferring on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and the
degree of Doctor of Laws in 1897. He is a member of the Kap-
pa Alpha (Southern) College Fraternity and the Victoria Insti-
tute, the Philosophical Society of Great Britain. His great in-
terest in his native state is best expressed in his own words:
"My chief desire for Georgia is that her people may be pious
and enlightened. To this end I have toiled thus far." Still
in the prime of life, with the wisdom of a philosopher, the expe-
rience of a statesman, the enthusiasm of a philanthropist, the
devotion of a Christian, his Church, his state, his nation, and
his race have reason to look for still more distinguished benefit
from his life and service.

Bishop Candler was happily married in 1877 to Miss An-
tionette Curtright, of LaGrange, Georgia. They have three sur-
viving children, Mrs. Andrew Sledd, wife of Dr. Andrew Sledd,
President of the University of Florida, John C. and Samuel
Charles Candler. His brothers, Hon. Milton A., ex-Member
of Congress, Asa G., capitalist and banker, and John S., former
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, are well
known citizens, who have rendered distinguished service to their
state. His other brothers were Ezekiel, W. B. and Samuel
Charles Candler.

C. E. DOWMAN.

Bean Jf reeman.

ALVAN DEAN FREEMAN, of Coweta county, was born
in Elbert county March 15, 1842. He was married
to Miss Ella C. Hall October 28, 1869. After her death
he was married to Mrs. Hattie W. Arnall December 4, 1894.
He has had six children, four of whom are living.

Samuel Freeman, the father of Alvan Dean, was a lawyer of
prominence in Franklin county, having represented his county
in the lower house of the General Assembly in 1847, and also
in Coweta county, where he resided with his family from De-
cember, 1853, to the time of his death. He was a very devout
and consecrated member of the Baptist church and was conspi-
cuous for his fidelity to duty and his love of justice and truth.
He was a man free from guile, whose speech was pure. His
industry, sobriety and piety made his life in the home, in society
and in the church a benediction and an inspiration. John
Johnson, of Massachusetts, the great-grandfather of Alvan Dean,
was an officer in the war of the Revolution. His paternal grand-
father lost an arm in the war of 1812.

Young Freeman received his preliminary and secondary edu-
cation at the Newman Male Seminary, under the direction of
Profs. Wm. H. Davis, Daniel Walker and Joel C. Broadnax.
This school was among the foremost in the State at the time.
He was graduated from Mercer University in 1861. The Civil
War began just as he was prepared to enter upon his business
and professional career.

He joined the Confederate service the year of his graduation
and remained in the army until April 9, 1865. He entered the
service as a private and was promoted sergeant, and subsequently,

64 MEN OF MARK

brevet lieutenant. He served in the First Regiment, Georgia
Volunteers and the Twelfth Battalion.

Immediately upon his surrender at Appomattox in 1865 and
his return home, he studied law in the office of his father and
was admitted to the practice in 1866.

Mr. Freeman is a man of good business abilities, as is attested
by the positions to which he has been called. He was made a
director in the People's Bank of Xewnan, and later, a director
in the Savannah, Griffin and ]STorth Alabama Railroad. His
talents and ability as a lawyer received early recognition, as he
was appointed Solicitor of the Coweta County Court in 1866,
the year in which he entered upon the practice of his profession.

In 1889 he was made Judge of the City Court of ISTewnan,
and has held that position continuously since that date. His
present term extends to 1910. His uninterrupted service in so
responsible a position is strong evidence of his eminent fitness.

Judge Freeman has always been a Democrat, strictly loyal to
party policy, but he is, at the same time, a pronounced Prohibi-
tionist. In vigorous utterance he presents his views upon this
subject whenever he believes the matter needs to be discussed
before the public. He believes the manufacture and sale of in-
toxicating liquors as a beverage are the prolific source of poverty,
destitution, suffering and crime. The sale of whiskey, he be-
lieves, is a high crime against the peace and good order of the
State. He believes, therefore, that the legalized manufacture
and sale of whiskey is a shame upon the civilization of the age.
He constantly urges that a national law prohibiting the manufac-
ture and sale of intoxicating liquors would be the most far-
reaching, helpful and beneficial enactment ever written upon the
statute books of any country or any age. His personal record
is in full accord with his public protestation, as he has been,
during his entire life a "total abstainer."

In accord with these views, it is due to say, Judge Freeman

ALVAN DEAN FREEMAN 65

is a man of large public spirit. He enters with active interest
upon whatever be believes concerns the weal of his immediate
community or the broader interests of the commonwealth. He
is an untiring worker for whatever cause he espouses and never
knows the meaning of defeat. He does not seek office for him-
self, but he is active, always in the support of good measures
and good men. Whilst he is always open to conviction, his
views are intelligently formed and strongly pronounced. He is
outspoken upon all public questions.

Judge Freeman does not devote his time exclusively to the
duties of his profession. He has never been an educator in the
strict sense of the term, but he takes great interest in the educa-
tional problems of the day. He gives much of his time without
charge to the educational institutions of his community, the State
and, indeed, the South. He was for some years a director in the
Georgia Normal and Industrial College.

He is a prominent and useful member of the Baptist church.
The denomination has used his gifts to great advantage in the
direction of denominational schools and colleges. He is a mem-
ber of the Education Commission of the Georgia Baptist Con-
vention. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of
Mercer University since 1881. He has been a member of the
Board of Trustees of the Southern Baptist Theological Semi-
nary since 1892. He has been a member of the State Mission
Board of the Georgia Baptist Convention since 1882. He was
Vice-President of the Georgia Baptist Convention 1891, 1892,
1896 and at other times. He was Moderator of the Western
Baptist Association in 1904 and a member of the Home Mission
Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1897. Soon after
he united with the First Baptist church in Newnan in 1865, in
which he has since retained his membership, he recognized, advo-
cated and practiced the duty of paying to the Lord one-tenth of
his income, and more than that as thank offerings, his idea being

5

66 MEN OF MARK

that the one-tenth was a debt, and until that was fully paid, one
could not make a thank offering.

Judge Freeman never accepts public position simply because
of the distinction it may bring to him. He works because of
his interest in the cause and the results possible to be obtained.
He is at all times and everywhere a very active man. He
accepts place because of the conviction that he can render service
where he has been called.

Judge Freeman will not accept any position, social or politi-
cal, that he believes would interefere with his church or denomi-
national relations. His effort has been to build a life of service
and usefulness to his fellows, and nothing is allowed to contra-
vene this purpose.

He was a member of the Board of Aldermen of the ISTewnan
City Council in 1885. Judge Freeman has high ideals for
American citizenship. When asked for a sentiment that he
would commend as the basis of principles, methods and habits
which will contribute most to sound ideals and success in life,
he replied, "Fear God and keep His commandments. In all thy
ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy steps. Bo only
the things that are honorable, so that life, with all its fruits and
achievements, may be devoted to the service of God."

W. J.

7

68 MEN OF MARK

If there be anything in heredity the strong, brave, devout man
that he is might have been expected from such an ancestry.

He has been thrice married ; first, to Mary Eugenia Speer on
November 14, 1860, by whom four children were born to him;
second, to Lula Lane, October 14, 1879, by whom two children
were born; third, to Elizibeth Thiot (widow of Bailey), who
has borne him one child. Five of his children are living at
this time (1907), all showing themselves worthy descendants of
the noble line from which they are sprung.

Mr. Winship received his education in the village academy
at Clinton, Ga., at which place he lived until he was seventeen
years of age, when he came to Atlanta, and entered the iron
works of his father, where he learned the machinists' trade.
There he fixed those habits of life, as well as acquired the skill,
by which his success in life has been won.

His principal business has been that of manufacturer, mainly
as the manufacturer of cotton ginning machinery in the same
place where he learned the machinists' trade. But besides suc-
cess in this branch of commerce, he has been drawn, by reason of
his great financial ability, into a number of other lines. He
was a director for many years of two Building and Loan Asso-
ciations. He has been also a director of the Atlanta Home In-
surance Company from its organization, of which he is the Vice-
President at this time. When the Trust Company of Georgia
was organized he was made a director, and for many years
served on its Executive Committee and as its Vice-President.
He was also a director of the Merchants Bank of Atlanta, and
when that corporation was liquidated he was one of the receivers
appointed to wind up its affairs. He is the President of the
Atlanta Banking and Savings Company and a director of the
Atlanta Ice and Coal Company.

But while Mr. Winship has been eminently successful as a
business man, he has not limited his efforts to personal and pri-

GEORGE WIN SHIP 69

vate ends. He has served well many public interests, and his
unselfish devotion to the good of others is as marked as the
ability with which he has managed great enterprises and the
modesty with which he has lived a spotless Christian life.

He served gallantly in the Confederate Army, as a member
of Cobb's Legion, from the spring of 1862 to the end of the War
Between the States. He has never sought or accepted political
office, but as Jury Commissioner of Fulton county, for twelve
years, and as Water Commissioner of the City of Atlanta, for
eight years, he rendered most valuable services. He has been a
trustee of Emory College, Oxford, Ga., for many years, and
has made most generous gifts for the betterment of that old and
honored foundation for Christian learning. He is also a trustee

o

of the Georgia State School of Technology, bringing to the ser-
vice of that excellent institution the technical skill acquired in
youth and the financial wisdom and administrative ability of his
maturer years.

Admirable as are his mental characteristics and notable as
have been his successes in matters of a material sort, his highest
traits of excellence are disclosed in his lofty Christian life. He
has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
from his youth, and of the First Methodist church, Atlanta,
which he has long served as Steward and Trustee during the last
fifty-four years. In all these years, stretching over more than
half of a century, no good work of his Church has lacked the
devotion of his great heart, the skill of his wise head, or the help
of his generous hand. Besides the official positions he holds
in the particular church of which he is a member, he is also
a trustee of the Wesley Memorial Church and of the Wesley
Memorial Hospital, being a member of the Executive Committee
of the latter board. These enterprises have been the benefi-
ciaries of his philanthropy while they have been, blessed by the
wise counsel and careful oversight he has given as a trustee of

70 MEN OF MARK

their interests. It is not too much, to say that if Georgia Metho-
dism should project any enterprise for the glory of God and the
blessing of men, George Winship would be unanimously chosen
among the first half-dozen men selected to manage it. His
brethren look to him whenever they set forward any plan of
benevolence, and he never disappoints them.

His moral characteristics are industry, integrity, punctuality,
charity, modesty and serene faith. Asked to say what qualities
he would commend to young people as the basis of true success
in life he replied, "Be truthful, be brave to do right, love God,
and love your neighbor as yourself." He lives up to this ex-
hortation.

The beauty of his character is seen in its perfect symmetry
and balance. His virtues never run to compromise nor fanati-
cism ; they look like they were carefully intended and carried
to perfection with the precision of an artist's hand. It never
seems to strain him to be the good man he is; he has great re-
serves of mental and moral power, against which he draws with
ease and quiet confidence. A more perfectly rounded man it
would be hard to find. His body is robust, a suitable habitation
for the broad mind and strong soul which dwell within it. In
every relation of life, private and public, he is four-square and
faultless. If he has human infirmities, as all men have, they
are so minor when compared with his virtues, that those who
know him best find it hard to see them. The writer of this
sketch has known him many years, and has heard him mentioned
in many circles of men ; but he has never heard an ill word said
of him. Criticizing adversely George Winship would be cer-
tain self-condemnation in the city of Atlanta, where he has lived
more than fifty years. At the sight of him affectionate approval
rises in the heart and terms of eulogy fall from the lips of men
who have eyes to perceive and hearts to love genuine and unos-
tentatious goodness. W. A. CANDLES.

James Cbtoarb Btcfeep,

JAMES EDWARD DICKEY, D.D., son of James Madison
Dickey and Ann Elizabeth Thomas, both of Revolutionary
stock, was born in Jeffersonville, Twiggs county, Georgia,
May 11, 1864. His earliest paternal ancestor in this country
was John Dickey, who coming from Londonderry, Ireland, set-
tled in ]STorth Carolina in 1753 ; while, at a yet earlier date his
maternal ancestor, William Few, coming from England, made
his home in Maryland. We find the name of John Dickey
among the members of the Council of Safety in Rowan county,
North Carolina, 1775-76. Benjamin Few, son of the above-
named William Few, and a Colonel in the patriot army during
the War for Independence, was great-great-grandfather of Dr.
Dickey, while his great-great uncle, William Few, was represen-
tative from Georgia in the Constitutional Convention of 1787,
and after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States
and the organization of the government thereunder, was one of
Georgia's first two Senators.

James Madison Dickey, the father of Dr. Dickey, was an
itinerant preacher of the jSTorth Georgia Conference, Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. Hence young Dickey had during his
boyhood several homes. From his eighth until his thirteenth
year he attended the Atlanta Public Schoools and high schools
at Gainesville, Elberton and Calhoun. His father's health hav-
ing failed, he spent the year 1878 on his grandmother's planta-
tion in Richmond county and worked in the field. Being strong
and healthful, he was fond of hunting, fishing and horseback
riding, and these have continued to be his favorite modes of
relaxation and exercise.

i

MEN OF MARK

In October, 1878, he suffered a severe bereavement in the
death of his father, whose genial good humor, natural eloquence
and fervid piety had won the love of all who knew him. It had
been the purpose of his father to send him to Emory College,
and then to the University of Virginia ; but during his pro-
tracted season of ill health he was forced to spend the amount
accumulated for this purpose.

In January, 18T9, accompanied by his mother and brother,
young Dickey, then nearly fifteen years old, went to Atlanta,
where for nearly nine years as clerk, shipping-clerk and book-
keeper, he worked, never losing hope that he might yet obtain a
college education. The memory of his father's counsels, and
the holy influence of his mother, who kept his home life sweet
and cheerful, enabled him to overcome all obstacles. Since his
thirteenth year he had not attended school. Yet after such
preparation as he could make by studying at home during the
evenings when his engagements permitted, he entered the Fresh-
man class at Emory College at the age of twenty-three, and was
graduated with second honor in the class of 1891. Obeying the
call of God, he resolved to enter the ministry, and was licensed
to preach in May, 1891. In June of the same year he was
elected Adjunct Professor of Mental and Moral Science, and in
June, 1896, was elected to the Chair of Economics and History.

In December, 1899, he was sent as pastor to Grace church,
Atlanta, and in July, 1902, was again called to Emory College —
this time as its President. In 1903 he received from Kentucky
Wesley an College the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Since 1891
he has been a member of the ISTorth Georgia Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is at this time Presi-
dent of the Board of Missions of said Conference.

During his student life he became a member of the Chi Phi
Fraternity, upon which he has ever reflected honor. Being a
minister of the Gospel, he has never taken any public part in
politics, but has always affiliated with the Democratic party.

JAMES EDWARD DICKEY 73

On September 9, 1891, he was married to Miss Jessie Munroe,
a graduate of Wesleyan Female College, and a lady well worthy
of the honored lot of a Methodist preacher's wife. Their union
has been blessed with six children, five of whom are now living.

Dr. Dickey is a good example of what a young man can accom-
plish by diligence and fidelity to duty. He has more than ful-
filled the promise of his energetic boyhood, and no doubt feels
that he has surpassed the ambitions of his youth.

As a public speaker and preacher he is strong and attractive;
while there go along with his utterances that which convinces
men of his sincerity and earnestness. The literary tastes of his
younger life have wrought in his style a classic purity and ele-
gance. The confidence he cherishes in the verities of the Chris-
tian religion is marked in all his public address. These two
properties, together with an ample store of historic information
as the fruit of his work in the professorship of history and econo-
mics, place him among the leaders in the Methodist pulpit,
South.

Not less pronounced and successful has been the later and
present work of Dr. Dickey's course in the presidency of Emory
College. There are reciprocal honors in this relationship ; the
man honors the institution through his personal fitness and
ability ; and the college also honors him by its distinguished his-
tory and usefulness. It has at different periods since its foun-
dation in 1837 been under the presidency of such men as Bishop
George F. Pierce, Dr. A. B. Longstreet, Dr. Alexander Means,
Dr. James B,. Thomas, Bishop Atticus G. Haygood and Bishop
Warren A. Candler. Its records include among its alumni
many names of good and distinguished men, cherished types of
whom are Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, once in the President's cabinet
and late of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Hon. W. A.
Keener, of New York, and Dr. Young J. Allen, patriarchal mis-
sionary to China ; also three Bishops of the M. E. Church, South,

73 MEN OF MARK

Haygood, Key and Gaudier. At the head of the institution,
with such prestige and honorable fame, is the worthy present
incumbent, whose success honors the occasion of his later oppor-
tunity.

In the lecture room, in the faculty, in the responsible tasks of
college administration, in the Board of Trustees with the ac-
counts of his management in hand, and before annual and other
conferences as well as before the general public he has appeared
always a college president, progressive, conservative, practical,
and withal disposed to hold up the highest and most heroic ideals
and hopes that pertain to the education of youth. His adminis-
tration of the affairs of Emory College shows a clear insight into
every real need of the institution, as well the financial as the
intellectual and moral. Never were the business matters of the
college in better form and order than in the hands of the present
executive. At the same time, by a most rare combination of
properties, an admirable culture and scholarhip are exhibited in
the educational and representative labors of its head. The presi-
dent is an exponent of both business ability and intellectual
character. He has thus stood in singularly fortunate relation
between trustees, faculty and students on one side and the people
on the other. His work in this position marks a distinct and
well recognized advance in the history of the college and a great
improvement in her affairs and fortunes.

JOSEPH T. DERBY.

r

76 MEN OF MARK

address of the centennial commencement. His theme was "Rev-
erence," and his address was pronounced by the great audience
present as fully worthy of the historic occasion and of the best
traditions of the University. It was delivered under a bush
arbor in commemoration of the University's first commencement.
Among his classmates were Associate Justice Marcus W. Beck,
of the Supreme Court ; Hon. E. H. Callaway, of Augusta ; Hon.
O. H. B. Bloodworth, of Forsyth, and Prof. C. M. Strahan, of
the University. After leaving college he was successively school
teacher, bookkeeper in his father's store and telegraph operator
at Blackshear. Turning his attention to the bar, he began read-
ing law in the office of Hon. John C. Nichols, who at that time
represented the First Congressional district in Congress. Such
was Mr. Brantley's progress that he was admitted to the bar in
the fall of 1881, just after reaching his majority, and such was
the confidence of his preceptor in his energy and capacity that
he tendered Mr. Brantley a partnership, which was accepted,
They practiced together for two years under the firm name of
Nichols and Brantley, when the partnership was dissolved and
Mr. Brantley began to practice alone. He was successful from
the beginning and soon had a splendid clientage. It was natural
that the popular young attorney should enter politics. Accord-
ingly he was elected a member of the Georgia Legislature for
the sessions of 1884 and 1885 and has held public office con-
tinuously since. At the expiration of his term in the House,
he was elected, in 1886, to the Senate from the Third district,
then composed of Wayne, Pierce and Appling counties. Here
he took an active part in the passage of the telegraph bill of
1887, requiring the prompt delivery of messages under heavy
penalties. He also took a decided stand in opposition to the
effort made at that time to sell the Western and Atlantic Kail-
road. While in the House he was a strong supporter of and
aided materially in the passage of the local option law for
Georgia.

WILLIAM GORDON BRANTLEY 77

Immediately following the expiration of his term as Senator,
he was elected Solicitor General of the Brunswick judicial dis-
trict, composed of Appling, Camden, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee,
Glynn, Pierce, Ware and Wayne counties. In 1889 he removed
to Brunswick and in 1892 was re-elected Solicitor General for
another term of four years. He served this larger constituency
with distinction to himself and credit to his profession, taking
high rank among the best officers of the State. The Judge who
presided in the district during Mr. Brantley's incumbency, says :
"He was a fine, clean man. If after examining all the evi-
dence in a case he thought the prisoner innocent, he had the
moral courage to say so and move for his dismissal. On the
other hand, when convinced that a prisoner was guilty, he prose-
cuted him with all the force and vigor of his nature."

He was urged to apply for the judgeship of the Brunswick
circuit in 1892 upon the resigination of Judge Spencer R.
Atkinson, and was assured of the appointment. He was also
mentioned in connection with the vacancy in the United States
Senate, caused by the death of Senator A. H. Colquitt. Mr.
Brantley declined, however, to ask for either office. On June
18, 1896, while he was still serving as Solicitor General, the
Democratic convention of the Eleventh Congressional district
assembled on St. Simon's Island for the purpose of re-nomi-
nating Hon. Henry G. Turner for Congress. Judge Turner
had no opposition, and it was a great surprise to the conven-
tion and the country when a letter from him, declining a re-
nomination, was presented. The convention, with one accord,
turned to Mr. Brantley as his successor and nominated him by
acclamation. !N"o other name was presented. He has since
been re-nominated five times in the same way, and has never
known Democratic opposition. In several elections following
his nomination, no opposition candidate has appeared, thus giv-
ing him several unanimous elections.

78 MEN OF MARK

Mr. Brantley is a man of intellectual force and moral charac-
ter; of elegant manners and personal magnetism. He is unas-
suming, notwithstanding the many very nattering manifesta-
tions of appreciation he is constantly receiving from his ad-
mirers. He is a great worker and gives close attention to all
matters of interest pertaining not only to his own section but
that of the whole nation. He is not demonstrative, seldom
speaks, but whenever he arises to a question, he commands the
respect and close attention of the whole House. His speeches
against holding the Philippine Islands, against a colonial policy,
against the abolishment by Congress of the compulsory pilotage
system of the State, and in favor of the impeachment of Judge
Swayne, of reciprocity with Cuba and of a national quarantine
law, have been widely read and approved. They show the wide
range of his investigations. Extracts from his Cuban speech
have appeared in books and periodicals as specimens of Ameri-
can oratory deserving to be preserved.

During his long term of office he has seen much service on im-
portant committees, especially the Judiciary and Public Grounds
Committees. His work of securing appropriations for the im-
provement of the Brunswick harbor is of lasting benefit, not
only to the Georgia port, but to the whole South Atlantic coast.

Few men in Georgia are more widely known and few are
more distinguished for valuable services rendered the State than
Mr. Brantley. His public career has been phenomenal. Within
a very short time after attaining his majority he was called to
represent a people who had known him from boyhood and has
successively and honorably represented this very same people in
some public capacity for almost a quarter of a century, and now
representing the Eleventh Congressional district of Georgia, in
which he was born and reared. In point of service among his
Georgia colleagues there are but two of longer service.

Mr. Brantley has been twice married. His first wife was

WILLIAM GORDON BRANTLEY 79

Miss Jessie Kate Westbrook, to whom he was joined in 1883,
and who passed away in 1895. Six years later, in 1901, he
married Miss Mary George Linn, of Birmingham, Ala. He
has four children, William G., Jr., a recent graduate of the
State University ; Jessie, Kate and Marguerite, students at Agnes
Scott College ; and Linn McRae, two years of age.

Mr. Brantley is a secret order man, and is identified with the
Masons, Elks, Odd Fellows and Pythians. He is a member of
the Presbyterian church. Apart from his professional reading
he has found history and biography most helpful. He is a con-
sistent Democrat, and without shirking or evasion meets public
questions as they arise with courage and with fidelity to his
constituents. Whatever may be his motto, his record is one of
success through straightforward, honest, vigorous, persistent
effort. R. J. MASSEY.

lagan Cbtotn

JURIST, philosopher, mathematician, poet; a colossal and
unique figure ; mature in youth ; in old age youthful ; a
born judge, whose first public utterance was a plea for the
creation of the court of which he was to be an illustrious Chief
Justice — all this and more is Logan Edwin Bleckley.

The Constitutional Amendment providing for a Supreme
Court had been duly ratified in 1836, but the determined hos-
tility of those who opposed its organization had prevailed, and,
for several sessions, the General Assembly met and adjourned
without passing the act necessary to make the amendment effec-
tive. Living in the remote mountains of Rabun was a frail and
sickly lad of thirteen, older than his years, and with the judicial
instinct so strongly developed that he recognized the subtle prin-
ciple which made the failure to act a positive wrong, and the pen
which was destined to illustrate the pages of Georgia's judicial
history, began its work with an article in the newspaper of an
adjoining county, in which the boy joined issue with the General
Assembly, and, passing all questions of expediency, maintained
the proposition that the authority to create was, in effect, a com-
mand to organize, and that the Legislature, in its non-action,
was guilty of an active violation of the Constitution of the State.

This was not precocity, but maturity of thought, only equalled
by that freshness of mind which characterizes Judge Bleckley as
a patriarch in years, and which prompted him to master cal-
culus and the higher mathematics after he was three score and
ten. Typical old age lives in the past, but this old man, with the
youthful heart and brain, keenly alive to the present, hopeful of
the future, insisted (7 Ga. Bar Rep., 20), that he "intended

LOGAN EDWIN BLECKLEY 81

always to be one of the young men," acknowledged that he "de-
pended for progress upon posterity," and while conceding that
"conservatism was all well enough in its place, awaited hope-
fully the arrival of posterity to make the needed changes in the
administration of the law."

Of Judge Bleckley's ancestry we know that his father was
English, and his mother was of German descent. His great-
grandfather, George Lutes, a native of Bavaria or Wurtemburg,
came first to Pennsylvania, and afterwards settled in North
Carolina. His paternal grandfather was born in Virginia, and
moved to North Carolina, and then to Georgia. His father,
James Bleckley, married Catherine Lutes in 1823 and lived in
Rabun county, Georgia, where, on July 3, 1827, Logan Edwin
Bleckley was born.

The influence of his German ancestry manifested itself in the
subtlety and acuteness of his mind, the love of mathematics and
metaphysics, and his unsurpassed facility in making clear the
abstruse and the abstract. The character of his father, how-
ever, more profoundly affected the son, who cherished for him
the tenderest affection, and of whom (12 Ga. Bar Rep., 14), he
wrote: "He had great solidity of personal character, and its
basis was Truth. In word and in deed he was a true man.
Such was his estimation of veracity that he taught his children,
as a standing precept, that theft, criminal and degrading as it
is, is less abhorrent than deliberate falsehood. The reason he
gave was that society has more defenses against a violator of
property than it has against a violator of the truth, and that to
reform the tongue is a more hopeless task than to restrain the
hand."

James Bleckley was a farmer, and successful business man of
great influence in his community — successively sheriff, clerk,
ordinary and judge of the county court. The son's mental at-
tainments would have fitted him for either a literary or a sciep:
6

82 MEN OF MARK

tific calling, but the legal environments of the mountain home
naturally impelled him towards the bar, and, at an age when
most of his companions were struggling with the multiplication
table, this boy of eleven had begun the study of law. It is
doubtful if there is to be found in the biographies of lawyers or
judges a parallel case, where one so young began, of his own
accord, a study so abstruse and uninteresting to the youthful
mind. Books were few. It was before the days of the Code
or Cobb's Digest, But it is of the essence of genius not to be
deterred by difficulties. The boy (4 Green Bag, p. 50, 1892),
had contracted a relish for law, and in his father's office became
familiar with legal documents and forms of procedure. The
statutes, strange to say, were pleasant reading, and at intervals
he "read them with assiduity." By the time he was seventeen
he had what he calls a "boy's acquaintance" with many legal
topics. His knowledge was all self-acquired, and that too with-
out even the primer of the law from which to get a clue to the
maze. He constantly attended courts, and J. W. H. Under-
wood, Esq., having expressed the opinion that young Logan,
would make a lawyer, loaned him Blackstone's Commentaries.
Judge Bleckley never forgot this act of kindness, and many
years afterwards, on the occasion of memorial exercises in the
Supreme Court in honor of Judge Underwood, the Chief Justice
said : "On that day I received from him in the town of Clarkes-
ville the two volumes which I now hold in my hand. I put them
in my saddlebags, and rode twenty-five miles to Clayton, and
that evening, as soon as I reached home, I opened the first vol-
ume and read the first line of Blackstone. In April, 1846, less
than two years after commencing the book, he was one of the
three legal gentlemen who certified to the usual legal fiction
that I was well qualified for admission to the bar. I have
here his certificate to that effect." At the same time he pro-
duced and exhibited the two volumes. Those who know his ab-

LOGAN EDWIN BLECKLEY 83

solute honesty, not only of conduct, but of mind, his abhorrence
of debt, or obligation in any form, will not be surprised that, in
the same memorial, he said: "I want to observe, as I have pro-
duced the books, that wishing to keep them, he kindly allowed
me, long afterwards, to purchase and pay for them, and they
thus became my property."

Soon after his admission to the bar he witnessed the imprison-
ment of a woman for debt. This so profoundly moved him that
he prepared a bill to exempt women from arrest for debt, se-
cured its introduction into the General Assembly, and its en-
actment into law, thus making him the Georgia pioneer in the
movement, which gradually expanded until it was declared by
the Constitution of 1868 that there should be no imprisonment
for debt, and this relic of barbarism and inhumanity was en-
tirely blotted from the laws of Georgia.

The young lawyer's success was not immediate. He says
(Green Bag, 4th vol., p. 50) : "Though for the two following
years I had a monopoly of the minor practice, and a fraction of
that which was of some importance, the litigation of one sparsely
settled mountain county which fell to my share was too incon-
siderable to break the continuity of my studies, or rather of my
legal meditations ; * * * my professional income for these two
years, not counting insolvent fees, amounted to between $35
and $50 per annum. Having no means with which to estab-
lish myself elsewhere and wait for a clientage, I determined
to suspend practice and engage in a more lucrative department
of labor until I could accumulate a small capital. I sought
and obtained employment as bookkeeper in the State Railroad
in Atlanta, and remained for three years, my compensation rang-
ing from $40 to $66 per month. In the fourth year I was
transferred to Milledgeville, then the Capital of the State, being
appointed one of the Governor's Secretaries, with a salary of
$1,200. A new incumbent of the executive chair was inaugu-

84 MEN OF MARK

rated in 1851, and both my health and my politics needing re-
pairs, I returned to private life, and opened an office in Atlanta.
Clients gradually ventured within my chambers, and I soon had a
moderate prosperity, due chiefly to acquaintance made in rail-
road circles during my three years service as a railorad clerk."
These business engagements ultimately proved of great value. He
then laid the foundations for that astonishingly broad and accu-
rate knowledge as to business and corporate methods which so
often surprised those who knew him only as the writer of
opinions, so brilliant as to suggest that his talents lay in a
literary rather than in a professional field.

His practice brought him frequently before the Supreme
Court, and he was thrown into intimate association with Lump-
kin, Nisbet, Warner, Thomas R. R. Cobb, and the other giants
who lived in those days. His personal recollections, therefore,
go back to the very beginning of the court, and he is almost the
sole living repository of those unwritten but interesting matters,
biographical and legal, which enter so largely into the history
of a court. The bar has ever hoped that some time he might
put in print his recollections of those early days.

He was appointed Reporter of the Supreme Court in 1864,
which office he resigned in 1867, and again returned to the prac-
tice of law in Atlanta, where he remained until 1875, when he
was apointed one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Geor-
gia, and entered upon the work which made him famous. He
resigned in 1880 on account of overwork — his last deliverance
being a brief, judicial poem, "In the Matter of Rest," which
has become a legal classic, known and read far beyond the con-
fines of the jurisdiction in which it was delivered. In 1887 he
was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia,
and held that office until 1894, when he again resigned, though,
ever since, he has been recognized by the bench, the bar and the
people as Justice Emeritus, and even after his retirement pre-

LOGAN EDWIN BLECKLEY 85

pared, at the request of the court, the notable opinion in the
Green case (97 Ga., 36).

Lord Campbell generally found his material for "The Lives of
the Judges" in what they had done and said in political life
rather than what thev did or said while on the bench or the wool-

«/

sack. But, in view of his constant complaint that most of his
subjects were deficient in literary skill, we can imagine with
what pleasure he would have undertaken to write the life of a
man like Judge Bleckley, whose opinions are the most quotable
extant, and sparkle, not with an occasional, but, with a multitude
of sayings — pithy, humorous, wise ; couched in language so per-
fect that they charm both the layman and the lawyer. It is im-
posible in the space allowed to make any selection out of a mass
so great. They are known to every Georgia practitioner, and
the layman may find many of them collected in a delightful
paper by Albert H. Kussell, Esq., (15 Ga. Bar. Rep., 244-283),
"Wit and Wisdom of Judge Bleckley." This article in pam-
phlet form has been called for by lawyers throughout Canada
and the United States, and the Georgia Judge has thus furnished
the bar of the nation many a pithy clincher to an argument.
But Judge Bleckley 's reputation does not rest upon his brilliant
sentences. They are but the flashes of his genius. His sure
and national reputation as a great judge rests upon the solidity
of his learning, his profound knowledge of the law, and the
value of his opinions contained in the Georgia Reports.

Few men of his generation were so deeply versed in black-
letter lore, or so often sought the fountains and ancient ways of
the law. Yet there is a noticeable lack of anything like pedan-
try in his opinions, and while deeply impressed with the wisdom
of the sages, his decisions are essentially modern in spirit, and
manifest his constant effort to seek what he somewhere calls "the
justice of the justice of the case."

His life is full of encouragement to those beset with difficul-

86 MEN OF MARK

ties. But it must be the despair of all who depend on native
ability for success in the profession. To her greatest favorites
Nature gives not talents alone, but yokes genius with a passion
for work, from which come those products of the brain that
endure. Those decisions of Judge Bleckley which appear like
crystals in clearness and have been made so simple that a tyro
may understand, were not written with ease and facility, but
with travail and pain — what he calls "pain of doubt, fatigue,
despair." With a genius for law never excelled, he was yet the
hardest worker, the most laborious student. Though he had
conquered the physical frailties of youth, his incessant labors
told on the great frame and again and again he broke down from
overwork, although on occasions he "even hired help by the day's
work at an expense of more than half his per diem." He liter-
ally burned the midnight oil. He spared neither mind nor body.
He wrote and revised; revised and re-wrote, and again he re-
vised. And, of course, he wrote great opinions. It is im-
possible to say which was the greatest. The compiler of "Great
Decisions by Great Judges" has sleected 60 Ga., 300, and 63
Ga., 11. The East Eome case, 81 Ga., 359, the Ewing case,
80 Ga., 374, illustrate his technical knowledge and power of
statement. Kinnebrew v. State, 80 Ga., 241, is a model of se-
vere logic. His power as a reasoner is most clearly exhibited in
the Ellison case, 87 Ga., 691. This decision is probably the best
example of the lucidity of his style, not excelled by those who
make literature their calling.

The limitations of this paper prevent any allusions to Judge
Bleckley's poems, which, happily, were collected by Judge Akin
and put in permanent form in a paper read before the Georgia
Bar Asociation. The publisher's restrictions as to space also
forbid reference at length to Judge Bleckley's delicious and bub-
bling wit and humor, of which Chancellor Hill says it "was con-
tinually springing up in his dryest decisions, like a fountain

LO GAN ED WIN BLECKLEY 8Y

leaping from a bed of sawdust." Fortunately, Chancellor Hill
(4 Green Bag, 72), has done this work in his own inimitable
style, and to that article the reader is referred.

Judge Bleckley verified the French maxim that "the style is
the man." The clearness of his style is only equalled by the
openness of his nature. He has the simplicity and frankness of
a child — a frankness that prompts him to admit a fault as soon
as it is committed and ever afterward. He loves the friends of
his youth. He is full of sentiment, and cherishes the certificate
that admitted him to the bar and the two volumes he read as a
youthful student. And yet, deep as is the hold of sentiment on
his nature, he knows that courts are not the proper place for
feeling and emotion. In asserting this important truth, he pre-
pared his paper on "Emotional Justice" (9 Ga. Bar Rep., 54) —
one of the saddest, profoundest and wisest things ever written
on a subject which naturally developed into a discussion of un-
due appeal before juries, and its striking concomitant of mob
law. In this paper, Judge Bleckley exhibits his marvellous
power of analysis. Nothing can be more difficult than to dis-
cuss a truism or to lay bare the foundations of the bed-rock.
This he did with sustained power, and both proved and enforced
that which needed no proof, and ought to have needed no en-
forcement. He says: "The influence of the mob waxes, while
that of the jury wanes. The body which decides between guilt
and innocence ought to be the most influential, the most feared
and respected of any in society. ~No organization in or out of
the court-house should be so terrible to evildoers as a jury of
twelve men. No mob, even if composed of first-class citizens,
ought to compete with the jury for repute in inflicting punish-
ment on offenders. The jury alone should be conspicuous in
the exercise of this high function in behalf of the public. * * *
I exhort and adjure all good citizens to cooperate with the
executive and the judiciary in staying quickly that violent jus-
tice which is administered by a mob — that wild and lawless jus-

88 MEN OF MARK

tice which is rife in our unhappy country. Children already
born may live to see mobs mobbed; large mobs may execute
smaller ones; mobs of one race may rise up against mobs of
another race ; mobs of bad men may become more numerous and
more terrible than mobs of good men."

No sketch of Judge Bleckley's life would be even passably
correct which failed to call attention to his relations to the bar,
by whom he was loved and venerated. He was ever the honored
guest of the Bar Association, and no meeting was complete with-
out his presence. In response to urgent invitations, he pre-
pared for it many papers of permanent interest and value.
These, with his oral addresses, and the " Letter to Posterity,"
published in The Green Bag, not only afford interesting biogra-
phical material, but will be of value to the future student of
Georgia jurisprudence. That same student may find on the
walls of the Supreme Court an excellent portrait of the Chief
Justice, though he will not be able therefrom to fully appreciate
the towering form, the powerful body, the immense brow, nor
the deep sunken eyes, indicative of the spirits of the poet, the
mathematician and jurist — all struggling for preeminence.
Judge Bleckley, in personal appearance, was like an ancient
prophet, but his nature was too kind and his heart too gentle to
rebuke the sins and frailties of his generation.

From eleven years of age to seventy-eight, he has devoted
himself to the study of the law, successively the youngest stu-
dent in the State, Attorney, Reporter, Justice, Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of Georgia — he lives the loved and honored
Nestor of the Georgia Bar as well as of the Georgia Bench.

J. R. LAMAR.

Judge Bleckley requested that Judge Lamar should prepare the sketch of
his life for this volume, and the foregoing was written in 1905, during the
lifetime of Judge Bleckley. He died at Clarkesville, Ga., March 6, 1907.
The funeral services were appropriately held in the Supreme Court room, and
his remains were buried in Atlanta, the Capital of the State. — THE EDITOR.

Jlanston

THOMAS MANSON NORWOOD, jurist and statesman,
was born in Talbot county, Georgia, April 26, 1830, the
child of Caleb Merriman Norwood and Jeannette (Man-
son) Norwood.

His ancestry was English on the father's side and Scotch on
the mother's, and there is a happy blending of the characteris-
tics of both nationalities in the distinguished subject of this
sketch. He was reared on his father's farm and trained in
those habits of industry, sobriety and studiousness that have
marked him throughout life. His early education was obtained
in the academy of the village of Culloden, in Monroe county,
Georgia, which was noted for having numbered among its pupils
many who afterwards became distinguished citizens of the State.
After leaving the Culloden Academy he went to Emory College,
at Oxford, Ga., and graduated there in 1850. He taught school
near Culloden in 1851, and he and Claudius C. Wilson then read
law in Culloden under instructions of James M. Smith, after-
wards Governor of Georgia. In March, 1852, he and Wilson
and Clifford Anderson, who became Attorney-General of Geor-
gia, were admitted to the bar together at Forsyth. He and Wil-
son formed a partnership and began, at once, the practice of their
profession in Savannah, near which city Judge Norwood now
(1907) resides, at Harrock Hall, his country home. Rufus E.
Lester, who was afterwards a representative in Congress for
eighteen years from the first district of Georgia, read law in the
office of Norwood & Wilson and became their partner in 1858.

In 1861 Mr. Norwood was elected to the Legislature, serving
until 1862, when, during his term, he entered the military ser-

90 MEN OF MARK

vice of the Confederate States. An injury in camp disqualified
him for further service in that line.

He has always been a Democrat in politics. He was elected
to the United States Senate by the Democratic Legislature of
1871, and was seated after a contest with Foster Blodgett, who
claimed the office on the ground of previous election by what was
known as the Bulloch or carpet-bag and scalawag Legislature.
At the end of his term, March 4, 1877, he resumed the practice
of his profession in Savannah.

In 1880 the State Democratic Convention in Georgia was un-
able to nominate a candidate for Governor under the two-thirds
rule that had been adopted, and Mr. Norwood was called upon
to make the race against Governor Colquitt, to whom consider-
able opposition had arisen. It was not strong enough, however,
to prevent his re-election. In 1884 Mr. Norwood was elected
to Congress as the representative of the Savannah district and
served in that capacity during the entire period of President
Cleveland's first administration, from March 4, 1885, to March
4, 1889, inclusive, when he again retired to private life and re-
sumed the practice of his profession, which he continued till his
appointment in January, 1896, to the office of Judge of the City
Court of Savannah, which he has held continuously to the
present time, 1907.

Judge Norwood is distinguished for his scholarly attainments
and fine literary taste. He has a style that is both strong and
polished, combining cogency of statement and elegance of ex-
pression with humor, wit and fancy, and often taking the form
of powerful invective or well-aimed, effective and mirth-provok-
ing satire. Among the most notable examples of it is the series
of articles over the signature of "Nemesis," that was published
in The Augusta Chronicle in 1870, dealing with the adminis-
tration of Kufus B. Bulloch as Governor of Georgia; his
speeches in the Senate (1874) on the Civil Eights Bill and the

THOMAS HANSON NORWOOD 91

"Louisiana Question"; an address (1875) before the alumni of
Emory College, and his reply to the Hon. David B. Henderson,
of Iowa, in the House of Representatives (1886). The "Neme-
sis" articles, above referred to, precipitated the flight from Geor-
gia of Bulloch, the scalawag and carpet-bag Republican Gover-
nor, just before the assembling of the Democratic Legislature of
1871, which elected Judge Norwood to the Senate.

The senatorial career of Judge Norwood extended over a great
part of that time when the friends of constitutional liberty were
struggling, against the most desperate odds, to keep it from being
strangled to death by the Republican party, and to rescue the
South from the crushing military despotism and the corrupt and
plundering horde of "carpet-baggers" and "scalawags" which
that party fastened upon this section for many years after the
War between the States was ended, and it was in one of his
speeches during that period that he drew the picture of the "car-
pet-bagger" from which we make the following extract:

"The evil of small men in large places, of chattering apes
who are navigating the ship in a storm, with no capacity but to
climb the rigging and empty the galley ; of burglars set to guard
the treasury, will soon be numbered among our remembered sor-
rows and calamities. Of these there is one class which perhaps
merits special attention because of our unsought but intimate ac-
quaintance with him. I refer to the carpet-bagger. He is a
result — the legitimate offspring — of that illegitimate war. He
is the anomaly not only of that struggle, but of time. He is ab-
solutely sui generis. There have been many wonderful events
which constitute epochs in the history of man, to which the old
world hitherto could point without competition. They have had
the plagues of Egypt, the lean kine which destroyed the fat, the
black plague, and the great fire in London, the massacre of St.
Bartholomew and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius ; but Americans,
in reply to all these, can triumphantly point, in silence, to the

92 MEN OF MARK

carpet-bagger. He has brought upon us worse evils than the
plagues of Egypt ; he was poorer than Pharaoh's lean kine when
he first came among us, and he has devoured until his eyes stick
out with fatness ; he has bred a black infection more deadly than
the black plague ; he has kindled a fire that has burned and con-
sumed for ten years ; the victims of his greed and wrath out-
number the victims in the French massacre ; and on the eve of
an election, in flooding the land with Southern outrages, he
dwarfs the eruptions of Vesuvius. But he is musical, for well I
know that when I strike the crapet bagger I 'wake to ecstacy the
living liar.'

In the same speech (1875), discussing the great war of 1861-
'65, he gave utterance to the following words: "The first in-
quiry of the philosophical historian when, in after and calmer
times, he shall sit down to write the history of that great war,
will be, Why did it occur ? What was the true motive, and in
the absence of which there would have been no war ? With
shame I say it — in view of our boasted civilization — of our re-
ligious professions, of our common treasure, blood and sorrows
in gaining the victory which led to the establishment of the
Union — that gigantic war was waged for mercenary gain. The
material results of that conflict — the destruction of property and
financial distress — are not permanent. Industry, skill and
economy will soon restore the one and bring relief from the
other. These are 'things of the earth — earthy.' Among the
temporary political consequences are sectional animosity and dis-
trust, from which have issued sectional legislation and persecu-
tion of the South ; the control of the government by a low grade
of intellect and a lower order of men; the Fifteenth Amend-
ment; the abandonment of law and constitutional government,
and the consequent tendency to centralization and despotism.
Perhaps the only permanent political issues of the war are the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution."

In his speech in the Senate in the same year on the military

THOMAS HANSON NORWOOD 93

despotism and carpet-bagger government in Louisiana, Judge
Norwood denounced those monstrosities and the Republican
party's policy of so-called reconstruction, in words that should
be read and remembered for their broad statesmanship, their
fervent patriotism, and their absolute truthfulness. He said:
"Then there was enacted a drama which, but for the calamities
with which it was fraught, would rank as the greatest farce
known in history. Then came that grand abortion called recon-
struction. In its train have followed more pangs and woes than
war with all its horrors has. It was a crime, because it was a
wilful trampling of the constitution in the dust. It was a dis-
honor, because it was an insult to a fettered people. It was a
disgrace to American statesmanship. It was a blow at the life
of the republic. It disfranchised the intelligent, the virtuous,
the honorable citizens of the South, and gave power over them to
the ignorant, the licentious and the base. It gave those who had
neither property nor education the power to tax without limit
the owners of the remnant of property left to them by the war.
It bound the hands of the whites and turned them over unpro-
tected to the unbounded rapacity and savage brutality of the
blacks. All this was done by the Republican party only to per-
petuate its own existence and keep control of the government.
Reconstruction will be written down by the philosophical
historian not only as the greatest folly of all time, but as the
worst crime against civilization, human progress and self-govern-
ment, that was ever perpetrated through the cunning or wicked-
ness of man. It has no justification."

These are facts which will never be forgotten by the descend-
ants of those who were forced to endure the horrors of the awful
period so vividly yet faithfully described by one so well qualified
to speak fittingly of them. ISTo one who did not see and feel
them can have an adequate conception of the situation in the
Southern States for ten years after the four years of war that
had devastated and prostrated them, but an approximate com-

94 MEN OF MARK

prehension of it can be had by the reading of these speeches of
Judge Norwood, and the reader will err who suspects that the
language of exaggeration is used in them.

Judge Norwood is the author of three books — "Plutocracy, or
American White Slavery" ; "Mother Goose Carved by a Commen-
tator" ; and a satire in verse, of eight cantos, on the politi-
cal situation under McKinley's and Marcus A. Hanna's admin-
istration. His "Plutocracy, or American White Slavery," was
the first book of fiction based on the peculiar economic and labor
conditions that followed Republican rule after the War between
the States. Since its appearance many books have been written
on that line. It is fitting, too, before concluding this sketch, to
record the following facts :

Judge Norwood was the first Democrat from the South who
was seated in the United States Senate after the War between the
States. He was the first in Congress to attack the Republican
party with burlesque, irony, ridicule and satire. This he did
in his speech on the Civil Rights Bill, which at once gave him a
national reputation. He was the first in Congress to deliver a
set speech on the meaning and scope of the Fourteenth Amend-
ment to the Constitution of the United States, his line of reason-
ing being almost the same as that subsequently taken by the
United States Supreme Court in construing that amendment.
He was the first public writer to express the opinion that the
only effective safeguard against the imminent danger to our gov-
ernment, apparent in the acquirement of unlimited wealth by a
few persons, is to limit by organic law the accumulation to a
fixed sum, and that all increment in excess should go to the
Federal Government to be applied, under equitable distribution,
to the education of the illiterate poor. This was in the last of
his above-named literary productions.

Judge Norwood was married in 1853 to Miss Anna Maria
Hendree, of Richmond, Virginia, who died in 1901. Three
sons and a daughter were born to them, of whom only one son
and the daughter are living. T. K. OGLESBY.

;

96 MEN OF MARK

self as principal cause and source, the college was brought into
such a state of effective life as it had not previously attained.
The interest of alumni and constituency was quickened, the ma-
terial resources of the institution were well nigh doubled, the
faculty rose to greater zeal and enthusiasm, and, most of all, the
student-body was regenerated in ideals and in effort. The very
atmosphere of the college was surcharged with the newly born
"Mercer spirit" ; every student felt it, while those more sensi-
tive to it gained an awakening, a point of view, an attitude which
changed the whole life. To show adequately the measure and
character of this man, to tell how he came to be what he was
and how he accomplished such results is a task impossible, cer-
tainly to this writer.

The fact that the young Pollock, the oldest of eight children,
had to help with the work of the farm and had to earn the
means for his own education, must be considered in estimating
the formative influences of his life. To the definite things of
farm life probably did he owe his appreciation of definiteness
in the planning of his work as president; he was never ready to
commence upon a policy until the details had been carefully
worked out — frequently reduced to writing — and discussed in
all their bearings. To the struggles of his own early life, espe-
cially as interpreted by his own sensitive nature, did he owe
much of his wonderful sympathy for those students who had to
make their own way through college. While Dr. Pollock was
beloved by all the students, he probably meant most to those who
needed the encouragement that he thus knew so well how to give.
His own success, too, in the efforts of his young manhood had
its effect; for he appreciated, as many college presidents have
not done, the value and possibilities of effort on the part of the
student seeking financial aid. Such assistance was given, prefer-
ably as a loan, and the regulations were so drawn as to secure
from the students benefited a maximum of indivdual effort.

PINCKNEY DANIEL POLLOCK 97

Other formative influences must be mentioned. Rev. Dr. A.
A. Marshall it was who prepared the young man for college and
who probably first waked him to his possible self. In college
Dr. J. J. Brantley, by his love of literature and wonderful in-
sight into it, impressed deeply and permanently the sensitive
soul of the growing man. The two years in Europe broadened
and deepened this effect. As old as humanity is the apparent
conflict between justice and mercy, between law and love, be-
tween the group and the individual, between conduct flowing
from external regulation and that coining from within the heart
of the individual. Seldom if ever have these two apparently
contradictory attitudes been so successfully reconciled and united
as in the mind and heart of Dr. Pollock, and equally unique was
the expression of this reconciliation in the life of the student-
body. But an adequate understanding of the "Mercer spirit"
demands the consideration of another element of college life,
fostered and embodied by Dr. Pollock.

In the South during the decades immediately succeeding the
civil war there was, permeating well nigh the whole intellectual
and spiritual life of the people, a certain stagnation of thought,
a disinclination towards change, frequently inducing a feeling
that the golden age lay in the near past and that all ideas and
opinions not held by the South during that golden age were to be
shunned and even fought. The immediate predecessors of Dr.
Pollock had done something to remove this attitude from Mer-
cer University. It was the happy possibility of his administra-
tion to complete the removal and to give something better in its
place. Dr. Pollock himself, and, for the most part, his faculty
stood for the very opposite of this stagnant attitude. From the
buoyancy of their life and thinking came inspiration to the stu-
dents, and this inspiration was the second element in the forma-
tion of that "Mercer spirit" which was to make the life at Mer-
cer under Dr. Pollock so famous.
7

98 MEN OF MARK

This spiritual movement among the Mercer students of the
time is hard to describe ; but we must consider it, for it was Dr.
Pollock's spirit "writ large," the embodiment within the student-
body of his principle of life and action. In his students did he
find a concrete expression of himself ; and there we must look —
in only apparent digression — if we would see in fullness what
he was.

Openmindedness to truth, subordination of self in hearty co-
operation for the common good, a zealous ideality — these are
phrases that may be used in partial description of this move-
ment. The effect was indeed a spiritual renaissance. Instead
of a feeling of opposition between faculty and students, there
was a feeling of community of interests well nigh unique in the
college world. In sympathetic accord, professor and student
worked together on common problems for the attainment of com-
mon ends. Coercive discipline gave place to individual self-
control. Instead of the all too common student pranks, there
was prevalent an interest in thought and study with a strong
wish to utilize proffered opportunity, which gave dignity and
sweet reasonableness to college life. Instead of stagnation, the
student felt a thrill bounding through his veins as the wider life
of present day thought and effort caught him up and carried him
along on its tide.

It was a matter of common remark among those who had op-
portunity to observe that the young man who allowed himself to
receive what the college nominally gave got therein such prac-
tical idealism, such an insight into the true philosophy of life,
such an experience of true religion as differentiated him in
thought and feeling from the students of other times and places.
There was an ideality, a new insight, a spiritual force which
took such strong hold of the student as to make him feel forever
indebted to Mercer for the best single thing in his life.

PINCKNEY DANIEL POLLOCK 99

This spirit included a loyal love of the college such as is sel-
dom seen, much more than that college spirit which spends itself
in loyal college yells on the athletic field. It loved the college
for its own sake, and even more for the ideals that it embodied.
The student zeal was for the preservation of these ideals and to
bring other young men to Mercer to share in them. In the prac-
tical expression of these ideals hazing died, both in name and in
fact ; the first of April passed exactly as did the first of May ; the
paiut pot had no place in the Mercer boy's repertoire, no class
numerals besmirched wall or tower. Common remark of the
neighbors testified to the quiet orderliness of the campus day
and night. The vicious and silly had passed. The energies of
the students had formed higher and more adequate means of
expression.

On another occasion the writer sought to give the key to the
interpretation of this movement : "This spiritual movement, like
all such, had its birth in the tragedy of life sacrificed to an ideal.
A man whose soul was the gentlest, the sweetest, the freest from
envy, and the fullest of love, literally spent out, gave, lost his
own, his individual life that the college might embody an ideal
life ; which, when it was embodied and he had died, proved to
be — unforeseen by him — the very life that he had sacrificed.
Thus, that which is finest — may I say, divinest ? — in the Mercer
spirit is the mind and life that was in President Pollock."

In a more public way President Pollock's success was no less
signal. The college already high in public favor came under
his administration to have a fame greatly superior even to what
it had previously enjoyed. Under his leadership friends ral-
lied to its support as never before ; the endowment was doubled ;
the Alumni Gymnasium, the Wiggs Science Hall, the Selman
Y. M. C. A. Hall were added to the college buildings ; and the
college was given an entirely new place in the love and confi-
dence of its constituency. The "Mercer system" of schools and

p ,7

•••••' 1

100 MEN OF MARK

colleges was formed under the Education Commission of the
Georgia Baptist Convention, Dr. Pollock being the first chair-
man and chief organizer. While it is yet too soon to estimate
the worth of the work of this man, the writer hazards the opinion
that the future historian of Georgia Baptist education will, in
importance of contribution, ascribe to President Pollock credit
second only — if second indeed it be — to the founders. His

«/

vision of the goal, his breadth of view in the planning, his
energy in the prosecution of the work — these only can bring to
the system the full measure of success inherent in it. In our,
the finite, point of view it will ever be a source of greatest regret
that he was taken away at the very time when he had best ar-
ranged for most substantial achievement.

The more personal side of Dr. Pollock's life and character
can probably best be told by excerpts from Professor Moseley's
address at the memorial exercises held September 22, 1905, in
the Mercer chapel :

"He was one of the easiest men to love and one of the most
difficult men to describe and estimate that I have ever known.
That which was finest in him belongs to the world of apprecia-
tion and not to the world of description. While to know Dr.
Pollock was to love him, you had to love him in order to know
him. He gave kindness to all ; he gave himself, without reserve,
to those who appreciated, trusted and loved him. In an atmos-
phere of freedom and sympathy, he was so1 spontaneous and joy-
ous, so much himself, that it seems sometimes a tragedy that he
did not find a riper time for his coming.

"While that which we most admired and loved in Dr. Pollock—
that which makes our estimate of him seem so extravagant to
those who did not know him, and so miserly to those who knew
and loved him best — is in itself indescribable, it is suggested by
the fact that so many of the virtues we most dearly prize were in
him harmoniously blended.

PINCKNEY DANIEL POLLOCK 101

"His was a spirit kind and gentle, yet robust and wise. In
him were combined the hope and enthusiasm of youth and poise
and dignity of age. He was so childlike and simple, 'he seemed
but a child of larger growth.' He was so thoughtful, he seemed
as one much older than his years — a wise old man who had be-
come a little child.

"He was an idealist by temperament, and at the same time he
possessed a large measure of the saving grace of common sense.
He was poetic, imaginative, sensitive to truth, beauty and good-
ness ; he also possessed rare executive ability.

"I am told that this man who so loved the true, the beautiful,
and the good in literature and especially in life, could make a
good trade. But I never knew him as buyer and seller. I only
knew him as one who knew how to give and receive, and who
found it more blessed to give than to receive.

"His love for his family, for his friends, and for his life work,
seemed to have been more perfectly balanced than that of any
other man I have ever known.

"Dr. Pollock had a genius for making and holding friends.
The young and the old, the poor and the rich, and the learned
and ignorant, were his friends. He was so appreciative of every
kindness shown him, so quick to recognize the virtues of others,
so happy where he had an opportunity to serve, so genial, cheer-
ful, and sympathetic, that his friends were all who knew him.

"In his religious life, I should like to say that he had more re-
ligion and fewer theories about religion than almost any other
college man I have ever known. His faith in God and in man
was child-like, yet robust and forever growing.

"Sad to the onlooker was the close of his life ; full strength of
mind to plan but no power of body to execute. A mocking dis-
ease offered hope of life while it threatened death. And the brav-
ery of the struggle against death ! For over two years it lasted.
Not that he feared death, but there was so much, he said, to live

102 MEN OF MARK

for. His planning for the college continued after tie had resign-
ed the presidency, even to the very last. His consideration of
others, his utter unselfishness shone continually brighter and
brighter. Peacefully he passed away."

The inscriptions on his tomb, written by Professor Clarke, tell
the tale of his life.

" A true friend, an inspiring teacher, a Christian gentleman, — a man of
love."

" He made Mercer University his life and his likeness."

W. H. KlLPATBICK.

OTtlltam kartell Jf eitom

YY/ILLIAM HARRELL FELTON, the only child of his
\/\ parents, John and Mary D. Felton, was born in Ogle-
thorpe county, Georgia, June 19, 1823.

His ancestors came to New England, Pennsylvania and North
Carolina. Branches of the three different divisions of the Fel-
ton family are easily traceable at the present time. They emi-
grated to America so early that no date of arrival has been re-
corded or preserved.

John Felton, the father of William Harrell, was a farmer,
although in early manhood he was a captain in the war of
1812-14 against the British and hostile Indians. He served
under General Floyd during the celebrated campaign on the
western frontier, then represented by Fort Hawkins near Macon
and Fort Mitchell, near Columbus, although there was no trace
of either of these cities at the time here mentioned. The cam-
paign closed with the battle of Challibbee and the hostile Upper
Creek Indians were driven across the Chattahooche River, thus
opening the way to settlers in that part of Georgia.

William Harrell inherited the patriotic instincts of his father
and the strong mental characteristics of his mother, as well as
her facial resemblance. His early boyhood was passed on the
Ogiethorpe plantation, but his education being the chief thought
of his parents, they removed to Athens, so that the growing boy
might be prepared for the University in the grammar schools of
the town.

He was graduated at Franklin College in 1842, with a speak-
er's place, and began the study of medicine soon afterwards. He
was graduated in medicine at Augusta, in 1844, being chosen as
the valedictorian of his class, which was a large one.

104 MEN OF MARK

A few years later he moved to Cass, now Bartow county,
where he has continuously resided up to the present, (1907)
having reached the ripe old age of eighty-four, still vigorous in
mind and interested in all public affairs of church and state.

Dr. Felton's first public service came with his election to the
Georgia Legislature in 1851. He also became a local preacher
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, about the same time.
Then followed a considerable period, including the War between
the States, when he devoted himself to the active duties of pri-
vate citizenship, his military service being confined to medical
attention to the sick and wounded in the hospitals of Macon.

After the war, he gave time and attention to his farm and to
the various civic interests which demanded notice during and
after the reconstruction period.

Early in the year 1874, he was continuously urged to come out
as an independent Democratic candidate for Congress. Not
until June of that year did he announce himself as a candidate,
however, when the people of the seventh congressional district
expressed great dissatisfaction, because they claimed that ring-
rule and unfair nominating methods demanded a revolt, and in-
sisted that he was the man who could lead the independent move-
ment for them. The district covered fourteen populous coun-
ties, and much of the country had to be personally canvassed in
private conveyances. The excitement was intense from the
start. Every other district in the State submitted to nominating
conventions, with more or less dissatisfaction, and Felton's he-
roic venture immediately interested the entire State as well as
the politicians.

As the canvass progressed, speeches and newspapers exhibited
intense feeling. Some attacks were violent and generally per-
sonal in a political way. Neighborhoods and church members
were divided ; sometimes families split up on the candidates, and
the approach of the election intensified feeling until the regular
organized Democracy took down its candidate and put a second

WILLIAM HARRELL FELTON 105

man on the track; then, with every force at its command,
opened up afresh on the independent candidate. Every day but
Sunday the candidates were on the stump; sometimes three
times a day. Not until the last vote was cast on election day
was this hard work slackened, nor the strugggle for success
abated on either side. Partisan feeling ran so high, and outside
bets were so many, that the result was held back for three days.
But the final returns gave Dr. Felton a majority of eighty-two
votes in a contest where more than fifteen thousand ballots were
cast and counted. By all odds it was the fiercest political battle
ever known to the State at that time.

For three successive campaigns Dr. Felton won with hand-
some majorities as an independent candidate for Congress. The
tide then turned and the regular organization defeated him three
times. One election he contested, because he felt the methods
used against him were brazen and arbitrary, but he failed in
Washington in his protest against unfairness and injustice. He
always insists, however, that his struggle to restore honesty to
public elections was of great value to the general public, because
thought was awakened, and all reforms must begin in such
awakenings. He was gratified also that these political cam-
paigns, which extended through a dozen years, filled as they were
with vituperation and abuse, yet permitted him to come out of
the scathing ordeal without the smell of fire on his garments.

His congressional career was attended with great honor and
success. He served his State and nation at a time when Hill,
Brown, Stephens, Colquitt and Gordon were also in public ser-
vice ; and it is meet and proper at this writing to say that no man
in public life from Georgia had a fairer record in Washington
than William Harrell Felton, and no member from the State
enjoyed more respect or esteem from members of Congress sent
by other States to the national legislature. While he was fierce-
ly antagonized by the regular Democratic organization in Geor-
gia, Speakers Kerr and Randall were so impressed with his value

106 MEN OF MARK

to the country that they placed him for two terms on the Com-
mittee of Commerce as a Democrat, which committee at that
time controlled the improvement of rivers and harbors, and one
term on Ways and Means, then the ranking committee of the
House with such statesmen as Abram Hewitt, Fernando Wood,
Garfield, Kelley and McKinley for his colleagues. His diligent
attention to the interests of his constituents has always been eulo-
gized for he was sane and sober at all times, always at his post,
and always true to his people, his section and himself.

After he was defeated for Congress, he served three successive
terms in the Georgia Legislature, from 1884 to 1890. This ser-
vice closed his active participation in the public business of the
State. During this time he led in three great movements,
namely : for securing proper scope and authority to the Railroad
Commission of Georgia, for a reformatory for juvenile offend-
ers, and for the second lease of the Western and Atlantic Rail-
way. Until twenty-nine years elapse, the State will continually
receive four hundred and twenty thousand dollars annually as
revenue from her railroad property. The lease act was writ-
ten in Dr. Felton's house and its main features were adopted by
the General Assembly after he devoted the most of two succes-
sive terms to its advocacy and support. As a tangible measure
of success no individual Georgian in public life ever brought so
much actual cash into the Treasury of the State since General
Oglethorpe landed at Savannah.

Dr. Felton has never been a writer of books, but as a logician
and capable public speaker, no man known to Georgia has en-
joyed a finer reputation among his own people. His habit of
mind is analytical, but when he marshalled his facts and
summed up his conclusions, his argument was matchless in
strength and force of reasoning as well as illumined by eloquence
in oratory. As an impromptu debater, he had no superior, for
he enjoyed the gift of thinking on his feet. Some of his de-

WILLIAM HARRELL FELTON 107

bates in Congress and in the State Capitol are still fresh in the
minds of the living, who listened with delight to his ready satire
and scathing denunciation of error and evil.

As a pulpit orator his fame covered all ISTorthwest Georgia.
One of his opponents said : "Dr. Felton would have made a
superb lawyer if he had turned that way for a profession." An-
other remarked, "He could have led his Church if he had turned
that way for a life work." And he would have been one of the
State's most valuable politicians, crowned with success, if he had
been willing to obey the rules and methods of its leading politi-
cal organization. But there was born in him a germ of indepen-
dent thought and purpose of mind which refused to yield to dic-
tation or political subservience. He was, therefore, no match
for political tradesmen, and his politics brought him no reward
in money or continued office holding. He was always jealous of
his good name, and no public speaker or newspaper editor ever
assailed the same who did not regret the effort to defame him,
because all such attacks were promptly challenged and defeated.

To young men Dr. Felton commends an independent, fearless
life as against submission and subservience that might give fame
and wealth on one hand, but which might at the same time jeop-
ardize the things to be better loved — an honest desire to serve
one's country with loyal truth and patriotism, to be useful in
one's day and generation, and to give the people an example of
integrity, honesty and virtue.

Dr. Felton has been twice married and has two surviving chil-
dren. His first wife was Miss Ann Carlton, of Athens. He was
again married in 1853 to his present wife, nee Miss Rebecca
Latimer. They have passed the fifty-year milestone in wedded
life together, and have spent the time in the same locality, Bar-
tow county, where the Doctor is now cultivating his fifty-ninth
crop, during all these history-making years, and where those who
know him best, keep him in kindest remembrance.

MRS. W. H. FELTON.

George &nfcerson jtlercer.

GEOKGE ANDERSON" MERCER, lawyer, was born in
Savannah, February, 1835. He married Miss Nan-
nie Maury Herndon, October 20, 1861. They had
seven children, five of whom are living.

Mr. Mercer is descended from a long line of distinguished
ancestry. Cyrus Griffin, Mr. Mercer's great-grandfather on his
father's side, was born in Virginia in 1749 and educated in
England. Returning to Virginia he became a member of the
Legislature and a delegate to the Continental Congress from
1778 to 1781, and again in 1787 and 1788. He was President
of the Continental Congress in 1788. He was President of the
Supreme Court of Admiralty, Commissioner to the Creek Na-
tion in 1789, Judge of the United States District Court of Vir-
ginia from 1789 until the day of his death, December 14, 1810.

Hugh Mercer, the great-grandfather of George Anderson Mer-
cer on his father's side, was born in Scotland in 1720. He was
graduated in medicine at the University of Aberdeen. He af-
terwards became assistant surgeon in the army and was at the
battle of Culloden. Compelled as a result of that battle to leave
Scotland, he emigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania
in 1747. He served as captain under Washington in the French
and Indian wars. He was in Braddock's expedition to Fort
Duquesne and was seriously wounded in the battle of Monon-
gahela. Because of his gallantry and military skill in this war
he was presented a medal by the corporation of Philadelphia and
promoted Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment in 1758. He
commanded three regiments of minute men in 1775 and became
Colonel of the Third Virginia Regiment in 1776.

GEORGE ANDERSON MERCER 109

At the suggestion of General Washington, Colonel Mercer was
commissioned Brigadier-General in the Continental Army by
Congress in 1776. He commanded the Flying Camp. He ac-
companied Washington in the retreat through ISTew Jersey and
led the attack on Trenton and the night march to Princeton,
where they encountered three British regiments. A fierce and
desperate conflict ensued. General Mercer's horse was shot under
him and he fell wounded within the enemy's line. He was left
for dead on the battlefield, but was removed later and tenderly
nursed until he died. His funeral, held in Philadelphia, was
an occasion of universal sorrow. The St. Andrew's Society of
that city erected a monument to his memory. Mercer county,
Kentucky, and Fort Mercer, on the Jersey side of the Delaware
River below Philadelphia, were named for him.

Hugh Weedon Mercer, the father of George Anderson Mercer,
was allowed to enter West Point under the prescribed age by a
special act of Congress in consideration of his grandfather's
service to the country. He was graduated with high honors in
1828, and assigned to the artillery corps.

General Mercer was an officer in Dade's company of artillery,
which was massacred by the Seminole Indians in Florida while
Lieutenant Mercer was on detached duty, and was afterwards
assigned to duty as aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Winfield
Scott, After resigning from the army he located in Savannah
and took great interest in the local military of the city. During
the Civil War he became Colonel of the First Volunteer Regi-
ment of Georgia. In October, 1861, upon the recommendation
of President Davis, he was commissioned Brigadier-General and
served in this capacity throughout the war.

George Anderson Mercer, the subject of this biography, has
spent his entire life as a citizen of Savannah. He received his
academic education in the private schools of the city, and gradu-
ated from Princeton College in 1856. He was reared in affluent

110 MEN OF MARK

circumstances and he had the very best opportunities for educa-
tional training. These he has used to great advantage, having
been a man of marked intelligence, high culture and strong char-
acter.

Mr. Mercer took the law course at the University of Virginia,
graduating in the class of 1858. He was admitted to the bar in
Savannah in 1859, but did not begin the practice of law for a
year. He entered the Confederate service soon thereafter, and
did not really take up his profession until after the close of the
war.

Upon the reorganization of the Republican Blues, the old com-
pany in the ranks of which he entered the war, he was made cap-
tain and served in that capacity for fifteen years. He was then
elected Colonel of the First Volunteer Regiment of Georgia
Troops, which position he held for nine years, when the con-
dition of his health compelled his retirement. The order ac-
cepting his retirement and testifying to his faithful service and
upbuilding influence did great honor to Colonel Mercer's effi-
ciency and fidelity as a soldier. With the exception of a single
term in the State Legislature, to which he was elected during
his absence from the State, and a later service, under appoint-
ment by Governor Northen, on the commission which investi-
gated and adjusted the controversy between the State and the
lessees of the State Road, with ex-Governor Brown as Presi-
dent, Colonel Mercer never held any public or political position ;
believing that private station offered larger inducements for a
happy, personally independent and truly useful life. He never
allowed to drop out of his mind a fact related of his great-
grandfather, Gen. Hugh Mercer, when at the beginning of the
American Revolution all his contemporaries seemed seeking
places of honor and conspicuous preferment, he modestly wrote
upon a slip of paper, "Hugh Mercer is willing to serve his
country in any capacity."

GEORGE ANDERSON MERCER 111

Colonel Mercer was offered the nomination to Congress when
acceptance would have been equivalent to election. This he de-
clined, as he had no aspiration for political preferment. Presi-
dent Arthur offered him the federal judgeship of Georgia. This
appointment he also declined, although it was in the line of his
chosen profession. He preferred the practice of law and the life
of a private citizen. He had a large law practice which was
quite remunerative.

Colonel Mercer was always willing and ready to accept places
and positions that would give him opportunity to advance the
interest of his community to higher ideals of life and citizen-
ship, regardless of compensation. He was made a member of
the Board of Education of Savannah, December 14, 1876, chosen
president of this Board, March 12, 1883, and held this latter po-
sition till his death. He gave years of careful study and
thorough investigation to the best systems of education, and ad-
vanced his local system to a high order. He was for some time
president of the Savannah Medical College and was also presi-
dent of the Georgia Historical Society for a number of years.

Colonel Mercer was not what is known as a club or society
man. In politics he was always a Jeffersonian Democrat. He
was a member of the Episcopal Church. He was fond of books,
but confined himself mainly to those seeking reasons for condi-
tions and causes for effects, such as Montesquieu's Spirit of
Laws, Edmund Burke's Works, Herbert Spencer's and the like.
In his youth he was very fond of reading suggestive works and
he had special admiration for Montesquieu. His library was
one of the most splendid private collections in the State.

Colonel Mercer acknowledged his indebtedness for much that
he attained to early home influence. He accomplished what he
has sought, a large legal practice and the respect of his fellow-
men.

112 MEN OF MARK

Some years prior to his death a stroke of paralysis deprived
him of the power to walk. Every afternoon when the weather
was good and his health would permit, he might be seen sitting in
front of his place on Whitaker street greeting the children and
his other friends as they passed. He died from congestion of
the brain, October 23, 1907, and was buried in Bonaventure.

W. J. NOKTHEN.

WASHINGTON DESSAU, the youngest child of Abra-
ham and Francesca Dessau, was born in Macon, July
24, 1852. He received his primary and academic edu-
cation in the city schools and later entered the private school of
Mr. Benjamin Polhill, who for many years conducted an acad-
emy of high grade in the city. After the War between the States,
he attended the school under the management of Capt. R. A. Mc-
Clellan, where he remained for several years. In 1867 he went
from this school to the University of Georgia and entered the
Sophomore class. Although he was not of studious habits at col-
lege, he was so gifted by nature with a quick and alert mind that
with very little application and study he was able to master the
tasks assigned him. He was prompt in his attendance upon
other college duties and ready always to discharge them as a
student. From his first entrance into the class it was apparent
that by reason of the high order of his intellectual attainments
he would stand in its front rank. This he did, graduating Au-
gust, 1870, with second honor, and receiving the degree of Bach-
elor of Arts. He returned to the University and entered the law
department, graduating in 1871 with the degree of Bachelor of
Laws, at the same time having conferred upon him by the Uni-
versity the degree of Master of Arts.

After completing his course in law, he returned to Macon and
was there admitted to the bar October 23, 1871. He was the
first lawyer to be admitted in the court-house which had then
just been erected, and from that day he became a conspicuous
figure in many of the cases tried therein. He began the practice
of law in the offices of Nisbet and Jackson. This was a firm of

8

114 MEN OF MARK

distinguished and prominent lawyers composed of James A. and
James G. ]STisbet and James Jackson. Mr. James Jackson was
later the venerated Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Mr. Dessau formed a partnership with Henry F. Strohecker
and continued this relation for several years. Later he was as-
sociated with Hon. Chas. L. Bartlett and they practiced together
until January 1st, 1893, when Mr. Bartlett's appointment to
the judgeship of the Superior Courts of the Macon circuit ren-
dered the dissolution of the firm necessary. Under the firm
name of Dessau, Bartlett and Ellis, Mr. Dessau renewed this re-
lation when Judge Bartlett resumed his practice. He was later
associated with 1ST. E. Harris, Walter A. Harris, Nathaniel E.
Harris, Jr., and Pope S. Hill, under the firm name of Dessau,
Harris and Harris.

Mr. Dessau was admitted to the Supreme Court of Georgia,
September 27, 1877 ; to the United States Court for the South-
ern District of Georgia in 1881, and became a member of the
bar of the United States Supreme Court at its October term,
1888. He was for many years President of the Macon Bar
Association.

On April 7, 1880, Mr. Dessau was married to Miss Fannie
Gilmer. There were born to them four children, two daughters,
Geraldine and Cordelia, and two sons, Gilmer and Washington,
all of whom are living.

In his personal and private life Mr. Dessau was a man of the
very nicest sense of honor, insisting upon the highest standards
of fair dealing, spurning all actions that savored of wrong doing
or dishonor. He observed this same rule in the practice of law,
through his long professional career. His unalterable loyalty to
principle made him impatient in dealing with precedents that
had been established by the courts violative of justice and right.
Gifted with a high order of mind that was acute, logical and
comprehensive in its grasp, and always philosophical and inquis-

WASHINGTON DESSAU 115

itive as to the reason of things, he did not hesitate as to his
rights in the practice of his profession. He was a vigorous
fighter in the court room, but could never be called contentious or
obstinate. Socially he was the delight of the bar. He was a
most interesting talker, full of the sunshine of life, and a lovable
friend.

In his profession, as at college, he did not love to work, and
yet he worked untiringly. He loved his ease and he was natu-
rally averse to the increasing drudgery and labor that a large law
practice imposes, and yet his loyalty to duty held him steadily
to his engagements and his obligations to those whose causes he
represented. His trained and seasoned mind compensated large-
ly for his natural aversion to work. The statute creating the
State Board of Examiners of applicants for admission to the bar
was enacted largely through Mr. Dessau's suggestion and influ-
ence. He was made chairman of the board, and did much in
this way for the improvement of the profession.

He was a member of the Bibb county Board of Education
and filled its most important position, being chairman of the
Committee on Text Books and Course of Study. He was one of
the trustees of the Masonic Home and was connected officially
with other charities and organizations to which he rendered
faithful and efficient service.

He was an active member of the Georgia Bar Association, be-
ing one of its first presidents. He never failed to attend the
annual meetings of the association, always doing more than his
share of the committee work. In recognition of his conspicuous
service in this connection, he was made permanent Chairman of
the State Democratic Convention in 1896, which for the first
time nominated judges of the Supreme Court to be elected by the
people, this reform being one of many in the support of which
he had taken an earnest and controlling part.

116 MEN OF MARK

Without the backing of friends, or the more powerful aid of
family influence ; without money and dependent on himself for
his daily bread, Washington Dessau, single handed and alone, by
the sheer force of his own ability, high character and untiring
labor, wrought out for himself a place in his native city and in
the State which the most successful might be well content to win
and occupy. He so lived his life as to gain for himself the sin-
cere regard and lasting affection of a proud and exacting people.

Mr. Dessau died April 12, 1905. His death was tragic and
startling. While arguing an important case before the Supreme
Court, having just uttered a striking and brilliant sentiment, he
staggered and fell — the victim of heart disease. He died as he
had always prayed to die, "with all his harness on and every

buckle shining bright."

W. J. NORTHEN.

118 MEN OF MARK

gee circuit from 1879 to 1886, inclusive. He was a member of
the Fifty-second, Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth United States
Congresses. He has conducted large agricultural interests for
many years and holds investments in several successful enter-
prises.

He has accumulated considerable property and has held many
public positions, but he has never coveted wealth, office or posi-
tion. Whenever called by the people to public service, he has
had strong ambition to succeed, and the opportunity to be useful
in service has been to him an inspiration. He is not what is
known as a politician. As a State legislator in 1861, and the
years following, he was the acknowledged leader of the party that
struggled for the maintenance of the Confederate administration
from the beginning of the war until the last banner trailed in
the dust. All measures brought before the General Assembly
antagonistic to the peace and the harmony of the Confederate
States and hurtful to our own State were opposed by him in a
manly, patriotic and fearless spirit. In the darkest days of
the Confederacy, he stood more and more determined in the de-
fense of constitutional liberty. He was the acknowledged leader
in all measures that looked to the success of Southern arms and
to the care and support of the families of indigent soldiers.

Judge Lawson's great powers of intellect and his sterling
worth command the attention and the unqualified respect of the
people. He has general and extensive information and large ex-
perience in public matters. His character is irreproachable. He
reasons strongly. He is a deep and practical thinker, a forcible
and eloquent speaker, an able lawyer, and an intellectual and
cultivated gentleman. He is eminently a patriot and a states-
man, worthy of all the honors he has won, and more.

Judge Lawson served nearly two years in the Confederate
Army. For several years he has been a trustee for the State
Sanitarium for the Insane and a member of the executive com-

THOMAS GOODWIN LAW80N 119

mittee, upon which devolves the care and maintenance of the
institution.

As Judge of the Superior Court, Judge Lawson had the full-
est confidence and highest admiration of the bar and the people.
Under his administration the humblest litigant had no fear of
the denial of justice, while the most influential never had reason
to hope for more than justice at his hands. His rare knowledge
of the science of his profession, his acute sense of justice, equal-
ity and right, together with his spotless character, inspired in lit-
igants and the public a respect and veneration for the arbitra-
ment of the law most wholesome to society. Judge Lawson has
always believed that the rights of persons and of property should
be sacredly maintained ; that justice and righteousness should
prevail in all private and public transactions. These views he
maintained and enforced positively during his administration of
the courts and in all his public service as a law-maker.

While in Congress, he stood for Democratic principles, tariff
for revenue only, the independence of the States, the reformation
of the currency and banking laws. His speech before Congress
on the repeal of the ten per cent tax on State bank issues made
a profound impression and marked Judge Lawson as one of the
ablest men in the country. Judge Culberson, himself a distin-
guished lawyer, pronounced the speech the strongest made in
Congress in twenty years.

Judge Lawson is always courteous and kindly considerate.
His manner is unassuming, even deferential, and yet he at once
impresses strangers as a person of great latent force. He needs
only the occasion and the opportunity to demonstrate his strong
intellectuality, his argumentative force and his unusual power in
public debate.

Judge Lawson has always been an earnest supporter of the
common schools. He has given much of his time and wise coun-
sel for the betterment of the State system. His address ad-

120 MEN OF MARK

vocating local taxation to supplement the appropriations by the
State is by far the best deliverance yet given upon this subject,
and his utterances on this line have had much to do with the
favor given the subject in different sections of the State by the
votes of the people. The State is as much indebted to Judge
Lawson for the success of this policy before the people as to any
other one man.

Judge Lawson has been for many years a member of the
Board of Trustees of Mercer University, and his legal learning
as well as wise counsels upon higher education, have had very
much to do in protecting the interests and shaping the general
policy of the University. He is one of the most prominent mem-
bers of the board. He has long been a member of the Baptist
Church. He takes interest in the councils of the denomination
and has served most acceptably as Vice-President of the State
Convention, and frequently on important committees in that
body. He has been generous in his gifts to his Alma Mater,
Mercer University. His bounty has been royal and without
stint.

A.11 his life Judge Lawson has been somewhat averse to severe
labor. He loves his ease. He now thinks if he had his life to
live over again he would be more industrious, courageous, persis-
tent, thorough, unselfish, self-sacrificing, and less self-indulgent.

W. J. NORTHEN.

is; Cfjappell

IN 1889 Hon. W. Y. Atkinson, representing the county of
Coweta in the lower house of the General Assembly, intro-
duce a bill creating the Georgia Normal and Industrial Col-
lege, for the education and training of the young women of the
State. This bill was enacted into law and was approved No-
vember 8, 1889. This marked the first effort on the part of the
State to give aid to the training and education of women.

Joseph Harris Chappell was made the first president of the
institution. For fourteen years he held the position continu-
ously, with distinction to himself and with marked success for
the institution. Because of failing health he resigned all con-
nection with the institution in the summer of 1905, and, with
a view to recovery, sought rest from his arduous labors.

Mr. Chappell was born in Bibb county, October 18, 1849.
He married Miss Carrie Brown in 1883. She died childless in
1886. Afterwards he married Miss Henrietta Kincaid, June
26, 1891. To this marriage there have been born four children,
three of whom are living. Absalom Harris Chappell, whose
sketch appears in another volume of this work, was the father of
Joseph Harris. His mother was Miss Loretto Rebecca Lamar.

Joseph Harris Chappell recalls with peculiar appreciation the
beautiful influence exerted by his mother upon his moral and
spiritual life. His ancestors, on his father's side, came from
England about 1650 and settled in Virginia. The Lamars were
Huguenots from France and settled in Maryland.

As a boy, Joseph Harris was of rather small size, strong and
fairly healthy. He was reared mainly in the city, but spent two
years when a youth in the country on his father's farm. He did
all kinds of work usually done on a cotton plantation, and he
regards these as the most interesting years of his life.

122 MEN OF MARK

He received his primary and academic education in the city
schools of Columbus. He attended the University of Virginia
one year, but never graduated. He was given the degree of
A.M. by Emory College and Ph.D. by the Peabody Normal
College at Nashville.

He began life as a teacher in a country village school at Clin-
ton in 1872, where he remained for eight years. In 1880 he
was made assistant teacher in the Columbus Female College.
This position he held until 1883. He was President of the
State Normal School at Jacksonville, Ala., from 1884 to 1885 ;
President of Chappell College for Women, Columbus, 1886 to
1891; president of the Georgia Normal and Industrial College,
Milledgeville, from 1891 to 1905. Dr. Chappell was Secretary
of the Georgia Teachers' Association for one year, 1876, and was
made President of this Association for the succeeding year.

In the intervals of his busy life Dr. Chappell prepared for the
young men and young women of Georgia a little book, published
by Silver, Burdett and Co., under the title of Georgia History
Stories. The volume is the outgrowth of careful reading,
study and research by the gifted author and is manifestly the
work of a master mind. With striking originality and a sin-
gular felicity, Dr. Chappell presents the volume in twenty chap-
ters, either commemorative of dramatic and critical episodes in
Georgia history, or descriptive of the personal courage and hero-
ism of her defenders, whose illustrious achievements finally re-
sulted in the State's redemption from oppression by a foreign
foe or from the intrigues by domestic traitors.

The baccalaureate addresses delivered by Dr. Chappell to the
graduating classes of the Georgia Normal and Industrial School
from 1891 to 1904, inclusive, have been published in book form
under the auspices of the alumna? of the institution, and they
make most charming and helpful reading for the young women
of the day. Whilst it is hardly possible to make selection from
among these admirable deliverances, it is more than likely the

THOMAS GOODWIN LAWSON 123

address delivered to the class of 1898, "Deep Calls Unto Deep,"
contains the strongest and deepest convictions of his mind and
heart and soul, and, therefore, presents a fair reflex of the char-
acter of the man.

Probably no man has more strongly influenced the character
of the young womanhood of the State than did Dr. Chappell.
For thirty-one years a teacher, he touched hundreds of young
lives, and by his earnest, faithful labors, his sympathetic interest
and his high ideal of womanhood, he exerted a mighty power
for good. In addition to his personal intercourse, he was,
through his lectures and addresses, a source of inspiration to
many who were not brought into intimate relation with him, for
he possessed the rare and beautiful gift of eloquence, and that
grace and charm of manner that carried his audience with him,
making it think as he thought and feel as he felt. And the
thought and the feeling were always noble. He held up before
his pupils examples of right living, not in the passionless outlines
of maxim or precept, but voiced in language so rich, so beautiful,
so persuasive, that the lessons he taught have sunk deep into the
minds and hearts of his hearers to ripen into a rich fruitage and
achievement. Dr. Chappell was a member of the Episcopal
Church and named the following as the books that gave him
most help in fitting him for his work in life : The Bible, Emer-
son, Carlyle, Ruskin and inspiring books as distinguished from
the didactic and the technical.

Dr. Chappell, although a lifelong teacher, was not so by
choice, but because of circumstances over which he had no con-
trol. One of the disappointments of his life, he said, was that
he could not become a lawyer. He attained far greater success
than he anticipated at the beginning. His advice to the young
was: "Whatever falls to your lot to do in this world, do it
to the very best of your ability."

Dr. Chappell died at Columbus, April 7, 1906, and was
buried at Milledgeville two days later. W. J. NORTHEN.

SUtUtam fierce

WILLIAM PIERCE PRICE was born in Dahlonega,
January 29, 1835. The founder of the family in
America was William Price, who came from England
to Virginia in 1707, and in 1711 was associated with DeGraf-
fenried, Lawson and Hancock in ISTorth Carolina against the
Tuscaroras. In 1819 William P. Price, Sr., the father of our
subject, married Sarah Williams, who was born near Crawford-
ville, Georgia, in 1799. Her ancestors were of Welsh and Eng-
lish blood. Soon after their marriage they settled at Dahlonega.
The father became a captain under Gen. Winfield Scott, served
in the Florida (Creek) War, and assisted in the removal of the
Cherokees. He died in 1839 leaving a widow and seven chil-
dren.

Great difficulties beset the mother in her efforts to support
and educate her children. By strict economy she fed them and
paid their teacher, proudly disdaining the aid of the "Poor
School Fund." She also made regular, though small, contribu-
tions to the support of her pastor. The son William, while a
small lad, was sent to the public academy for a few terms, and
at the age of ten was placed at the printer's trade, serving an ap-
prenticeship of five years, although his mother refused to sign
the indenture because it contained the words, "master" and "ser-
vant," In 1847, at twelve years of age, he and the little girl,
who afterwards became his wife, joined the Baptist Church, and
for sixty years worshipped at the same altar.

He went to Greenville, S. C., in December, 1850, and when
he applied for work the printers objected to his receiving full
pay as he was only sixteen years of age. Young Price chal-

V

WILLIAM PIERCE PRICE 125

lenged them to a contest, agreeing in the event of his defeat to
accept such wages as the Union should fix. The contest was
held June 18, 1852, and the young printer won by such long
odds that he was given a certificate, and allowed journeyman's
wages without further question. The certificate, which is still
preserved, shows that 16,016 ems were set up solid in a working
day of ten hours. In less than four years he was able to buy a
printing outfit of his own, and in 1854 established The Southern
Enterprise. He kept up his literary studies under private in-
struction, and attended a term, at Furman University. While
editing his paper, he also read law under Gen. W. K. Easley,
and on his twenty-first birthday was admitted to the bar in
Charleston.

In October, 1856, he married Miss Martha A. Martin, of
French Huguenot descent, a lady of fine educational attainments,
and rare intellectual gifts. Her father was Col. William Mar-
tin. Mrs. Price died in 1907.

Mr. Price formed a law partnership with Congressman James
L. Orr, then Speaker of the House. In 1864 and again in 1865
Mr. Price was elected to the General Assembly of South Caro-
lina. He resigned his seat in October, 1866, to return to Geor-
gia, and dissolved partnership with Mr. Orr, who had been elect-
ed Governor of South Carolina.

At the age of twenty-six he was mustered into the Confederate
service at Fairfax, Va., in Kershaw's Second South Carolina
Volunteers, and was Orderly Sergeant of the Butler Guards.
His regiment was in the first battle of Manassas, and the last
struggle at Bentonville, 1ST. C. A wound received in October,
1861, required his discharge, but he continued on staff duty and
other assignments by Governor 1ST. L. Bonham until the sur-
render.

He returned to Dahlonega in 1866 and devoted himself to
"bringing social and political order out of the chaotic conditions

126 MEN OF MARK

which followed the war as well as to the establishment of schools
and the rebuilding of churches. He became President of the
Conservative Democratic Club of Lumpkin county, and in
1868 was nominated and elected to the State Legislature. He
was chosen Speaker, pro tern., and acted as chairman of the Dem-
ocratic caucus of both houses. He gave much time to the bill
establishing the public school system as required by the new
Constitution. He was responsible for the two provisions "that
the Bible shall not be excluded from the public schools of the
State" and "that children of the white and colored races shall
not be taught together in any sub-district." He was a member
of the committee to investigate the official conduct of Governor
Bullock, and also furnished much evidence to the committee
which investigated the affairs of the W. and A. R. R.

While serving his county in the Legislature, he was nominated
by the Democrats of the Sixth district and elected to the Forty-
first Congress. He was re-elected to the Forty-second Congress,
and was placed on the Committee on Printing, where he sug-
gested many reforms in the public printing. One of these in
regard to indexes to the Congressional Globe meant a saving of
$70,000. The change was ordered, but the publishers, Blair
and Rives declined to perform the work, the Globe ceased to exist,
and the Congressional Record has since been issued by the Gov-
ernment. Through his influence the United States mint build-
ing at Dahlonega, erected at the cost of $70,000, was donated to
Georgia for a college. The North Georgia Agricultural College
was organized, and for more than a third of a century Mr. Price
has been President of the Board of Trustees, and in that time
has not missed an annual commencement. The institution has
no better friend. He has redeemed his promise to Congress that
if the building were given for the benefit of the boys and girls
of Georgia, he would devote the balance of his life to an effort to
remove the dark lines of illiterary from his native State.

WILLIAM PIERCE PRICE 127

While in Congress Mr. Price worked for peace and harmony
between the sections, and was consulted by President Grant
about Southern matters on several occasions. When dying at
Mount Gregor, the President sent his warmest love and friend-
ship to his Georgia friend. During his last term Mr. Price made
but two speeches. The first was on the Ku Klux Bill, and dealt
with the unjust charges against the Southern people. The latter
speech, made on February 13, 1873, was on water transporta-
tion, and was extensively read in the North. It was intended to
open the way for discussing the Atlantic and Great Western
Canal, for the surveying of which Mr. Price procured an appro-
priation of $50,000. He also discussed the Panama Canal,
which, after a lapse of more than thirty years has become as-
sured.

For several years he was a member and President of the Lump-
kin county Board of Education, during which time he personally
superintended the building of about thirty new school houses for
both the whites and blacks. He has frequently represented his
county in the Legislature where he framed and had enacted most
of the mining laws now on the statute books. He was President,
pro tern, of the Senate, in 1872. He has been Mayor of Dah-
lonega for a number of years, and was a leader in the establish-
ment of the graded school system of that city.

He has already passed the age of three score and ten and has
been a useful man in his day and generation.

G. R. GLENN.

William Cfjarle*

WILLIAM CHARLES ADAMSON, of Carrollton, was
born at Bowdon, August 13, 1854. His earliest known
ancestor in America, Basil Adamson, a follower of
William Penn, emigrated from London to Pennsylvania in 1691
or '92. He removed from Pennsylvania to Montgomery county,
Maryland, and married Nancy Spiers, who bore him five sons
and three daughters. One son, Greenbery Adamson, moved to
Washington, Ga. His grandson, John Whitfield Adamson, mar-
ried Mary Ann McDaniel. After a short residence in Clayton
county, they removed to Carroll county, where their son, the
subject of this sketch, was born.

The elder Adamson was both merchant and farmer, so the son
was reared partly in the village and partly in the country.
Guided by a father whose honesty, industry, and good judgment
were reinforced by a mother, whose sweet influence gave direc-
tion to the intellectual and spiritual life of her son, young Adam-
son learned many practical lessons as he went on errands, or
drove a team or worked about home, or field or store.

He received his preparatory training in the schools of his na-
tive village. Entering Bowdon College, he was graduated from
that institution at the age of twenty, with the degree of A.B.,
and later received the honorary degree of A.M.

He yielded to his father's desire that he should become a law-
yer, and, after reading law under Hon. Sampson W. Harris, was
admitted to the bar in October, 1876, and has since resided in
Carrollton. He built up a large practice in the Circuit, Su-
preme, and Federal Courts. He always frankly advised against
litigation, except when he believed his client had a good cause.

From 1885 to '89 he was Judge of the City Court of Carroll-
ton, and City Attorney for a number of years. He was a Pres-

V

/?

WILLIAM CHARLES ADAMSON 129

idential Elector in 1892, and in 1896 was elected to Congress
from the Fourth district, which place he has held without inter-
ruption till the present time (1908.)

On his election to Congress, Judge Adamson gave up the prac-
tice of law entirely, giving his whole time to the public service.
He was assigned to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign
Commerce, and, although a minority member, has aided in shap-
ing important national legislation. He has rendered important
service in resisting and defeating bad measures in committee-
work, while not showing on the floor, has been none the less ef-
fective.

He labored for ten years to secure aid from Congress to pro-
tect our seaboard against yellow fever, without the humiliating
conditions which some people sought to attach to it. He and
his colleagues finally saw their efforts rewarded by the enactment
of a Federal Quarantine law by the Fifty-ninth Congress.

He resisted the extreme features of proposed pure food legis-
lation, and assisted in defeating most of, what he considered,
the obnoxious provisions of the bill, before it became a law. He
has been active in providing light-houses, light ships, revenue cut-
ters, marine hospitals, railroad and highway bridges, and in the
development of water power and navigation, especially in the
South. After eight years, he secured the enactment of a meas-
ure for the development of both the navigation and water power
of the shoal rivers of the South, by permitting the landowners
to develop and utilize the water power, the government reserving
the right to put locks in the dams when built ; so that when the
shoals have all been improved the government can secure slack
water navigation at small cost on all the rivers. He has secured
numerous pensions for Indian and Mexican soldiers and their
widows.

During the Fifty-fifth Congress, he suggested to the author
amendments to the Hepburn Bill which enabled advocates of
canal legislation to unite on and report a satisfactory measure.
9

130 MEN OF MARK

In conference, on committee and in the House he was always a
consistent advocate of canal legislation.

Judge Adamson also championed the present Pacific cable,
making minority reports in three Congresses, once against a sub-
sidy and twice against Government construction and ownership.
The third time the bill came before the House directly, backed
by the administration and the Committee on Rules, Judge Adam-
son, with Mr. Richardson, of Alabama, made the fight resulting
in the construction of the Pacific cable. Judge Adamson's most
effective work, however, has been done in connection with rail-
way rate legislation. His speeches, his labors in committee, and
work on the floor show careful study of the subject.

Mr. Adamson was a member of the sub-committee which pre-
pared the bill creating the Department of Commerce and Labor.
He succeeded in restoring the Labor name and feature after they
had once been eliminated in committee, his party having de-
manded a Department of Labor but not of Commerce. Appro-
priations for the Columbus Post-office building and Chattahoo-
chee River improvements have been secured by him, while his
district has been made a net-work of rural delivery routes since
he went to Congress.

Judge Adamson has retained the physical strength which
marked his boyhood and his favorite exercise, when at home,
is walking about the farm and working with his own hands. He
declares he had better opportunities for general reading when
farming and wagoning than he has ever enjoyed since.

On January 29, 1885, he married Miss Minna Reese, a daugh-
ter of Rev. A. C. Reese. They have three children.

Judge Adamson is a member of the Methodist Protestant
Church. He is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a member of
the Royal Arcanum. His advice to the young is, "Never lose
any time. Read, talk with intelligent people, form no habits
but to work, to pray, to save money, and to respect your fellow
men." JOSEPH T. DEKRY.

•

132 MEN OF MARK

Burgesses, and chairman of the Committee of Safety. John
Esten Cooke made the claim that he (Edmund Pendleton) was
the real author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson
said he was the ablest man he ever met in debate. The Pendle-
tons were connected by blood and marriage to the Washingtons,
the Dandridges and the Lees.

Giving up the publication of The Magnolia, Mr. P. C. Pen-
dleton practiced law for awhile, and then for several years con-
ducted, as editor and proprietor, The Central Georgian, pub-
lished at Sandersville. Removing to South Georgia on account
of his wife's health, he made his home in Ware county, naming
his residence Tebeauville, which has since grown into the enter-
prising town of Waycross. Though not favoring secession, he
volunteered soon after the opening of hostilities, was elected cap-
tain of a company from Ware county, and at the organization
of the Fiftieth Georgia Regiment was elected its Major. After
serving through several campaigns, in Virginia, he retired on
account of failing health and engaged in agricultural pursuits.
Later he purchased a plantation ten miles south of Valdosta,
then the new county seat of Lowndes county, and in 1867, in
addition to his farming operations, began the publication of The
South Georgia Times, which he continued until his death, in
1869, which was caused by his being thrown from a vehicle with
such force as to produce death.

To his son, Philip C., Jr., he left the editing and managing of
The South Georgia Times. Within a year this talented young
man died, and soon the responsible duties which had belonged
to the elder brother devolved upon the subject of this sketch,
Charles R. Pendleton. He was quite a lad when his father
moved to Ware county, and until 1864, when the family moved
to Lowndes county, had only such advantages as were afforded
by the common schools of the country and later, the study of the
classics in a private school. After the close of the war he was

CHARLES RITTENHOUSE PENDLETON 133

compelled by necessity to forego the collegiate education which
his father desired for him, and handled the plow himself,
although at intervals he did attend the Valdosta Institute, at
that time under the management of Mr. S. M. Varnedoe, a
teacher of fine reputation. With a somewhat limited education
and with a mortgage on the plant double the value of The
Times office, he began his career as an editor at the age of
twenty. In 18 74 the mortgage was foreclosed, but by the timely
aid of his brothers, he was enabled to pay it oil. Two years
later, in 1876, the destruction of the office of The Times by
fire left him without a dollar. Friends came to his rescue, how-
ever, and he was soon able to start again the publication of the
paper. On November 26, 1879, he married Miss Sallie Patter-
son Peeples, daughter of Judge R. A. Peeples, of Valdosta. To
them have been born eleven children, eight of whom are living at
this writing. Their names are Charles R., Jr., Luelle, Philola,
W. Edmund, Carita, Vida, Louis and Zera. He has, living,
four brothers. They are William F., Bishop; Alexander S.,
prominent in business; Louis B., author and editor; N. Dan-
dridge, minister. Three brothers, Edward, James and Philip,
are dead. Two single sisters, Emma and Zella, are teachers.
He served as a member of the Georgia Legislature in 1882 and
1883, and voluntarily retired at the end of his term. He has

«/

never been a candidate for any other public office.

In 1896 he became connected with The Macon Telegraph as
editor, and in 1898 was made President and Manager of The
Macon Telegraph Publishing Company, finally purchasing the
property. Under his able direction The Telegraph has pros-
pered, and is counted one of the most influential papers in Geor-
gia. By appointment, he is a life member of the Bibb county
School Board. In 1896 he was a member of the National
Democratic Convention from the Eleventh Georgia district, and
favored the views of the "Gold Bug" Democrats on the money

134 MEN OF MARK

question. His decided dissent from the position taken by his
party on the financial issues, however, did not cause him to for-
sake the Democratic fold, and in 1904 he was again a delegate
from the State at large to the National Convention of the Demo-
cratic party, and served on the committee which notified Judge
Parker of his nomination for the office of President of the
United States.

Mr. Pendleton has always been a man of decided convictions,
and has ever had the courage to stand up bravely for what he
deemed to be right. For ability in his chosen profession, and
for integrity and true worth, Mr. Pendleton ranks among the
first in his native State. It has always been his idea that "suc-
cess is to learn wisdom and follow where the truth leads."

The editor of the Brunswick (Ga.) Journal, comparing Mr.
Pendleton to Henry Watterson, of The Courier- Journal, wrote
of him, in 1905, as follows :

"We have here in Georgia an editor quite as notable in his
State sphere of influence as Watterson has been in the national
field, a man who, if he had owned Watterson's backing and
opportunities in journalism, would have surpassed him in fame
and productive influence. The gentleman we have in mind is
Hon. Charles R. Pendleton, editor of The Macon Telegraph.

"He is one who has come from the people, bringing the
strength that grew with a stressful early life, the high thinking
that belongs with plain living, and those fine ambitions which
spring alone from the heaven-born spirit that is without selfish-
ness and zealous for the good, the true and the beautiful for man
and the State.

"His is a rare and admirable character to his friends and a
trusted standard of honesty and loyalty to the people who are his
clients in the field of opinion, and counsel where the true editor
finds his best functions. He is honest first with his own soul
and can not be false to any man, whether friend or foe. JSToth-

CHARLES RITTENHO USE PENDLETON 135

ing sinister marks his dealings with men or measures. He is
prouder of independence than of fortune gained by fawning,

and he

' Would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Nor Jove for his power to thunder ! '

"If he believes a cause right he will fight for it like a Richard
of the Lion Heart; if he believes it wrong, neither priest, nor
prince, nor stake and faggot could intimidate him from denoun-
cing it.

"In Georgia he is known among his colleagues of the press,
among public men and among the major moiety of the mass as a
virile thinker, a pungent writer and a publicist in whom there
is no guile. What he says goes far and holds weight. !STo edi-
tor in the State has obtained since the war — not even Henry
Grady — the reputation for solid and enduring common sense
and nobly-cast patriotism that is accorded to Colonel Pendleton."

This splendid tribute to his ability and worth as an editor and
man does not go beyond the facts. His fame has grown by
great leaps in the last few years. Not many men in the news-
paper world wield a more vigorous pen, and none can excel him
in the use of pure English — his mother tongue. His editorials
are models of composition, and his statements of his position are
as clear and convincing as logic and common sense can make
them. He has lived a pure and blameless life, believing in and
practicing the old-fashioned methods of honesty in all of his
business. He abhors littleness and demagogy, whether in church
or in state. He has not always followed the popular lead,
but he has frequently found himself for a time in opposi-
tion to the views of his friends and his contemporaries. In all
such instances his advocacy of his positions and his opinions is
strong, trenchant, and, to his admirers, apparently irresistible.
His bent has been rather constructive than destructive ; and in
his work and his editorials he has sought to build up his State,

136 MEN OF MARK.

encourage its enterprises, mould its thought, and direct and lead
its opinions, instead of following the same.

He has given the editorial page of The Telegraph a wide, in
fact, a national reputation. People read and admire his utter-
ances though they may disagree with his position, and give him
credit for honesty of motive, though they differ as to his conclu-
sions. He is regarded as the leading reactionist writer of his
time in Southern journalism.

In his church relations he is a member of the Swedenborgian,
or New Church, and endeavors to conform his life to its teach-
ings. Jos. T. DEEKY.

3*

138 MEN OF MARK

the best womanhood of the South, passed away soon after he
entered the army. On returning home after the war he attended
school for twelve months under great difficulty, first at Summer-
ville and then at Bethel Church. His father, whose health had
been broken by the war, died in 1870, and the support of the
family, of which he was the oldest son, devolved on him. It is
hard to realize what this meant, unless it be remembered how
bare North Georgia had been laid by the invading army. Not
only had farms been devastated, but live stock and even the
domestic fowls had been appropriated to such an extent that the
rehabilitation of the country was greatly retarded. With only
the horse brought with him from the war, Mr. Maddox took up
the struggle, made harder by the reign of the carpet-bagger.
He was very active in his resistance of their measures. This
rendered him popular among his neighbors, and he was ap-
pointed deputy sheriff of his county before he was twenty-one.

He engaged in railroad contracting, but had to suspend opera-
tions on account of the panic of 1873. He was in Alabama two
years — one year at the Round Mountain iron furnace and one
at Stone Hill copper mine.

On August 15, 1872, he married Miss Frances Elizabeth
Edmondsoii, of Chattooga county, Georgia. Eight children
have been born to them, seven of whom are living.

Later Mr. Maddox began the study of law, and, with some
assistance and direction by Judge Taylor, of Summerville, was
admitted to the bar at the September term of court, 1877. He
was mayor of his town when admitted to the bar. This posi-
tion he resigned to accept a place on the Board of County Com-
missioners, which position he resigned to represent his county
in the Legislature. After four years service in the House of
Representatives, he went to the State Senate. In 1886 he was
elected Judge of the Rome circuit, and again resigned as mayor
of Summerville to accept the judgeship. In 1890 he was re-

JOHN W. MADDOX 139

elected for a second term. This year he moved to Rome, where
he has since resided. Two years later he resigned his judge-
ship to accept the nomination for Congress from the Seventh
district to succeed Mr. Everett. He was elected over the Popu-
list candidate, Mr. John Sibley, by a majority of more than
seven thousand. In 1894 he was elected over Dr. Felton, who
contested the election. For each succeeding election till 1904,
when he retired from Congress, of his own accord on account of
his health, he held his place against all comers either from his
own or other parties. Mr. Sibley, Dr. Felton, Judge Milner,
Mr. McGarrity, Mr. Massey, Judge Harris, Mr. McKnight, and
Mr. Austin all measured swords with him. His course in Con-
gress was marked by careful attention to the interests of his
constituents. Fort Oglethorpe and Chickamauga Park were
within his district. He secured regular appropriations for the
Oostanaula and Coosa Rivers. No representative from the South
has given more attention to rural mail delivery than has Judge
Maddox. He vigorously opposed the appropriation for the
gathering of cotton statistics by the government as unnecessary
and expensive, giving information to the consumer without ad-
vantage to the producer. On the great questions of tariff,
finance, colonial possessions, etc., Judge Maddox has always
acted with his party. In 1900 he had passed the bill creating
the Northwestern Division of the United States Court of the
Northern District of Georgia. He also secured the appropria-
tion for the erection of the government building at Rome. He
was a member of the following committees in Congress: Re-
vision of the Laws, Indian Affairs, Banking and Currency,
Labor, and Insular Affairs. His official life is a matter of
public record. He always asked his constituents to compare his
pledges with his actions, and he never appealed to them in vain.
On returning home, Rome demanded his services as Mayor,
and he now (1907) holds that office.

140 MEN OF MARK.

Judge Maddox is a member of the Presbyterian Church and
a Mason of the rank of Knight Templar. He is an earnest
advocate of popular education. To the young he commends a
fixed purpose and energetic action, or, as he tersely expresses it,
"Set a stake and drive to it."

A. B. CALDWELL.

142 MEN OF MARK

uncle of Allen Fort, the subject of this sketch. Dr. Tomlinson
Fort was a distinguished soldier in the Florida Indian wars
and was a member of the United States Congress 1828-1829.
He was a contemporary with Clay and Calhoun, and an intimate
friend of the latter.

Allen Fort attended the schools of his community until pre-
pared for college. He entered the junior class at the State Uni-
versity in 1866 and was graduated the following year, sharing
first honor with Samuel Spencer, the late President of the
Southern Railway. Mr. Fort read law in the office of Willis
A. Hawkins, at Americus, and was admitted to the bar in
May, 1868.

On December 13, 1876, he was married to Miss Floyd Hollis,
of Buena Vista, one of the most beautiful and brilliant women
of the State. To this marriage eight children have been born.
Six are living.

Mr. Fort's first public service was as a member of the Na-
tional Democratic Convention which nominated Tilden and
Hendricks for President and Vice-President in 1876. He
served on the committee of notification, having been appointed
as the member from Georgia. On the resignation of Hon.
W. Y. Atkinson as Chairman of the State Democratic Com-
mittee, Mr. Fort was chosen to succeed him, and he served in
this capacity to the satisfaction of the people and the success
of the party.

Mr. Fort was first elected to the General Assembly of the
State in 1872. He declined to be a candidate for reelection.
In 1876, while absent from home, his friends entered him as a
candidate and he was triumphantly nominated. He served in
the Legislature of 1877 and was again elected and served in
1879-1880. At this session he was Chairman of the House
Committee on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. He intro-
duced and advocated the bill which resulted in the sale of that
road and its extension to Atlanta.

ALLEN FORT 143

It was at this session that Mr. Fort introduced and cham-
pioned, with Hon. W. E. Eankin, of Gordon county, the bill to
create a Railroad Commission in Georgia. This bill, known as
the Fort-Rankin Bill, was stubbornly fought from the beginning
by the railroads. It passed by a bare constitutional majority.
The circumstances of its final passage are worth mentioning.
As already stated, the contest between the opposing forces upon
the passage of this bill was vigorous and long drawn out. By
many the measure was considered violently revolutionary, and
by others as of doubtful precedent. Mrs. Fort became intensely
interested in the efforts of her husband and the general discus-
sion before the House. She looked well to the honors to be won
by Mr. Fort in the public service and she cooperated, in her
way, with his untiring efforts for the passage of the bill. In
this way Mrs. Fort obtained several votes for the measure, and
Mr. Fort always said that it was through her personal influence
alone that the final vote was obtained which secured the consti-
tutional majority necessary for the passage of the bill.

Before the Constitutional Convention, General Toombs, more
than any other single man, had been responsible for the railroad
enactment as a part of our fundamental law. He watched with
intense interest the management of the bill before the House.
During the session he delivered a speech before the General
Assembly, by invitation, that greatly strengthened the sentiment
in favor of the bill. Under date of May 12. 1880, he wrote Mr.
Fort a letter of hearty congratulation, from which the following
extract is taken:

"Our work will not die yet, if ever. The country is greatly
indebted to yourself especially, and other gentlemen of the
House, for the zeal and energy and ability which you displayed
in this great battle for the rights of the people against the pub-
lic plunderers."

144 ALLEN FORT

In 1882 Mr. Fort was elected Judge of the Superior Court
of the Southwestern circuit to fill the unexpired term of Judge
Charles F. Crisp, who had resigned. Judge Fort was twice re-
elected to fill full terms and resigned in 1892 to accept the
appointment of Railroad Commissioner, which had been ten-
dered him by Governor W. J. Northen.

Whilst Judge Fort's retirement from the bench was regretted
by the people of the Southwestern Circuit, the people of the
State received his appointment as Railroad Commissioner with
expressions highly complimentary to Judge Fort's ability and
character. In editorial comment upon the appointment, The
Atlanta Journal said:

"Judge Fort will recognize that the people by common con-
sent regard him as the Moses that led them out of the Egypt of
railroad bondage, and that, therefore, more will be expected of
him than from a man of less conspicuous antecedents. The
people will not be disappointed in the work he will do upon the
Board. The field for good work in behalf of the railroads and
the people may be well worthy of the attention of our most dis-
tinguished statesmen, lawyers and men of affairs.

"Judge Fort's appointment was due not only to his eminent
fitness for the place, but also to the fact that Southwest Georgia,
the cradle of the Commission, is entitled to a greater share of
recognition in the management of the affairs of the State than
have heretofore been accorded. 'The Southwestern Circuit has
lost a good judge and the Railroad Commission has gained a
capable member.'

Mr. Fort was a member of the Railroad Commission for six
years, and devoted his time and study to the intricate question?
involved in the railroad problem.

While on the Railroad Commission, Mr. Fort was elected
President of the National Convention of Railroad Commission-
ers which met in Washington, D. C., in 1895. He served on

ALLEN FORT 145

several of the most important committees of that distinguished
body, at the request of the Convention.

At the expiration of his term of service as a member of the
Commission he was not a candidate for reappointment. Mr.
Fort's retirement from the Commission was a matter of general
regret throughout the State. The following extract from The
Albany Herald is fully representative of the newspaper senti-
ment at the time: ""We should regret very much to see Judge
Fort retire from the Railroad Commission. He is a strong
man and a friend of the people. He perhaps did more than
any other man in Georgia to create the Railroad Commission,
and he is eminently qualified to discharge the duties of a mem-
ber of the Board."

Judge Fort, while a member of the General Assembly, intro-
duced and had passed the bill creating the public school sys-
tem for Americus, his home town, and was elected a member of
the Board of Education under this system and was as useful in
its operation as he was in its creation.

After a most useful life, in which he won for himself the
enviable reputation of having served his country faithfully and
intelligently, of having been a grateful son, a devoted husband,
and a noble father, of having been a true friend and an honest
man, always adhering closely to truth and justice ; Judge Allen
Fort, beloved and respected by all that knew him, was called
to answer the final summons after a two weeks illness with
pneumonia at his home in Americus, April 20, 1907.

Judge Fort was survived by a wife and six children. At
one of the largest funerals ever occurring in South Georgia,
hundreds of those who had known the real worth of his charac-
ter were in attendance to witness the last rites that closed a life
so nobly spent.

W. J. ISTOKTHEN.
10

pefaerlp Baniei

BEVERLY DANIEL EVANS was born in Sandersville,
Ga., May 21, 1865. His father, Col. B. D. Evans, jvas
descended from a distinguished Welsh family that set-
tled in the vicinity of Cat Eish Creek, S. C., about 1736. The
members of the family were Baptists. They came to this
country to avoid persecution inflicted upon lovers of religious
liberty.

A church in the Cat Eish Creek vicinity had, in 1779, two
hundred and twenty male members, but so many of them were
killed in the Revolutionary War that, in 1793, there were only
forty-eight male members. Among these patriots there was evi-
dently a large number of the Evans family.

Colonel Evans was born in Marion, S. C., but moved to Geor-
gia and was admitted to the bar at Dublin in 1854. He served
four years in the Confederate army and was Lieutenant-Colonel
in the Second Georgia Regiment, where he displayed great
courage and valor. During the war he was married to Miss
Sarah Smith of Sandersville, where he resided and practiced
law until his death. Mrs. Evans was one of the women who
have made Southern homes and Southern hospitality famous.
Beautiful, cultured, educated and deeply pious, she was a bless-
ing not only in her home but in her community.

With such parentage to bless him, we need not wonder that
Judge Evans was born to master facts. To this end he gathered
even in childhood information from every available source.

In 1881, at sixteen years of age, he was graduated at Mercer
University. His decided legal talents found an inviting field

-

BEVERLY DANIEL EVANS 147

for usefulness and development in his father's law office. He
finished his law course at Yale in 1884 and was admitted to the
bar before Judge T. J. Simmons, who was presiding tempora-
rily for Judge Carswell. He was in successful law practice
with his father until 1897 ; and after the latter's death, with his
brothers, Messrs. George C. and A. W. Evans, until January 1,
1899.

Honors began to come to him early in life. He was nomi-
nated for the General Assembly before he was twenty-one. His
statesmanship won ready recognition from older and maturer
lawmakers. In 1888 he was a delegate to the National Demo-
cratic Convention that nominated Grover Cleveland for the
presidency. In 1891 he became Solicitor General of the Middle
Circuit and 'for six years served with signal ability and success.
During that time he was connected with almost every large civil
suit in the circuit.

A striking characteristic of the man is shown by a notable act
of his while Solicitor. He prosecuted and convicted a man upon
whom the presiding judge imposed a heavy fine. The criminal's
wife came to Judge Evans, gave him all the money she had and
asked him to credit her for the remainder of the fine. After
hearing of the hardships and trials of this woman and her chil-
dren, Judge Evans gave back her money and paid the fine out of
his own pocket. He loves justice, but a "justice tempered with
mercy."

During his residence in Sandersville as an attorney he was
employed on one side or the other of every important civil case
in the county. In 1898 he became Judge of the Middle Circuit
and presided with such honor and distinction that he was, in
1904, appointed by Governor Terrell Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of Georgia.

The oldest lawyer in Sandersville says: "Judge Evans has
an innate value of character that enables him to exercise his

148 MEN OF MARK

sense of justice in all the relations existing between man and
man. This, coupled with his knowledge of the technicalities of
law rendered him capable of becoming early in life a jurist of
the first rank. It is likewise fortunate for him and the State
that he has been made a Justice of the Supreme Court. His
genial and amiable disposition, his rare graces of culture and
refinement make him pre-eminently companionable among his
friends who abound wherever he is known."

Judge Evans has been for many years a faithful and efficient
trustee of Bessie Tift, formerly Monroe, Female College, at
Forsyth. He was, in 1900, Vice-President of the Georgia Bap-
tist Convention and presided over one session of the convention
with an ease and modesty so becoming that he won the admira-
tion of all who were present.

His wonderful memory enables him to recognize friends or
associates whom he has not seen since boyhood. His kind heart,
his cheerful word for everybody and his superior ability have
enabled him to lead a people who believe him worthy of any
office or any honor within their power to bestow.

His devotion to his mother, who recently passed away, was
beautiful in the extreme. In her last years she was much of
the time in bed, and his daily visits did much to dispel the
gloom produced by her suffering. Unspeakable joy filled her
heart as she realized that though highly distinguished and hon-
ored, he was still her devoted son.

It is with considerable difficulty that we produce a just record
of this useful man ; he has done so many things that can not be
appreciated unless we knew the indescribable circumstances
under which they were done.

Judge Evans is not erratic. He is not a ranting stump-
speaker, but rather a patient marshal who gathers all his re-
sources upon the field ready for action, and being in command
of both himself and his resources, knows his opportunities and
uses them to advantage for the best ends.

BEVERLY DANIEL EVANS 149

Judge Evans has been twice married. His first wife was
Miss Bessie Worthen, of Worthen, Ga. His present wife was
Miss Jennie Irwin, a grand-niece of Governor Jared Irwin.
He has four sons, — two by each marriage, — Thomas W., Julian
R., Beverly D. and George E.

A. CHAMLEE.

OTtlltam Coadjman

WILLIAM COACHMAN VEREEN, of Moultrie, Ga.,
was born in Cheraw, Chesterfield county, S. C., Au-
gust 5, 1859. His father, W. J. Vereen, a merchant in
Cheraw, was a member of the Presbyterian Church and was
evidently a man of mark in his community. His mother,
Eugenia M. (McNair) Vereen, was a woman of exceptional
culture and force, with a deeply religious nature. She was tLe
highest type of the Southern gentlewoman, and throughout her
life her influence was paramount over her son. It would be
impossible to estimate the extent of her influence over him and
over all who knew her.

Mr. Vereen's earliest known ancestors in America were thj
Coachmans, Greers, Magills and Mitchells ; on his father's side
Huguenot and on his mother's Scotch-Irish.

In early life he had regular tasks about the home after school
and play hours. He was educated in private schools during tho
years from 1866 to 1876. In the latter year he began working
in his uncle's store in Cheraw. On October 13, 1880, Mr.
Vereen was married to Miss Mary McNeill, of Cheraw. Ten
children were born to them, seven of whom are still living.
Mrs. Vereen died August 1, 1898. On October 10, 1899, Mr.
Vereen was married to Miss Ellen McISTeill. One child was
born to them, but died in infancy.

Mr. Vereen has been engaged for some years in the manufac-
ture of naval stores and cotton goods. He is a director in the
Downing Company, president and general manager of the Moul-
trie Cotton Mills and president of the Poulan Cotton Mills. He
is interested in numerous other enterprises, however, and is

WILLIAM COACHMAN VEREEN 151

president of the Hays Lumber Company, the Yellow Pine Land
Company, the Natural Bridge Railroad Company and of the
Moultrie Banking Company. He is also Treasurer of the Col-
quitt County Cooperage Company. Mr. Vereen holds and has
held many positions of responsibility and trust. He was county
commissioner for four years, chairman of the Moultrie School
Board for six years, alderman of the city of Moultrie for two
years, and has been and is now a trustee of Young's Female Col-
lege, Thomasville, Ga.

Mr. Vereen is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and has
filled the position with marked ability. Although crowded with
other things, he considers election to this office the highest honor
that has come to him and appreciates its grave responsibility.

Mr. Vereen has been a lifelong Democrat, a loyal member of
the Presbyterian Church, a student of biography, a close, clear
reasoner and a most convincing public speaker with marked
characteristics of the orator. He is a tremendous force in his
community, moral, religious, political and social. He has diplo-
matic, social and intellectual gifts of the highest order. But
the real secret of his influence and position is the unblemished
life, the unquestioned integrity, the fine sense of honor and
honesty and the utter incorruptibility of the man. He is a true
friend and regards no man as his enemy. His advice is often
sought and never in vain. He has very decided opinions. He
believes that honesty, temperance and industry with even moder-
ate gifts will bring success. His advice to young men is, "Select
your occupation carefully and then stick to your bench." He
is a strong Calvinist with a firm belief in the regenerating power
of faith in Christ.

Mr. Vereen is a man of splendid physique and winning per-
sonality. His favorite recreation, if it may be said that he has
a favorite recreation, is driving. He is a man of simple tastes
and almost austere life. Few men have his capacity for work.

152 MEN OF MARK

One other thing there is that may not be written, for it was
said of old time, "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left
hand know what thy right hand doeth." Few men, perhaps,
obey this command of Christ more literally or more often than
William Coachman Vereen. J. C. TIMS.

f ofm CoUter

JOHN COLLIER HART, eminent jurist, and Attorney-Gen-
eral of Georgia, was born July, 1854, on his father's plan-
tation at Union Point, in the good old county of Greene.
He still lives on the old homestead, where as a boy he began to
develop his usefulness on the farm, and where he attended the
common schools of that day.

His paternal grandparents, Thomas and Anna Hart, came to
Georgia from Virginia and settled in Greene county in the
pioneer days of this portion of the State. This was many years
before the days of steam and electricity, and as was the custom
in those primitive times, the family rode the whole distance on
horseback, bringing their household goods and other valuables
in a couple of wagons. Thomas Hart was a patriot soldier in
the Revolution and served as an officer in the \7irginia Conti-
nental Line. Until within recent years, the family preserved
with pardonable pride the epaulettes this good old Major wore
through that great struggle. Unfortunately this much treasured
historic souvenir was burned in a late fire.

Major Hart was an extensive farmer and also a brick mason.
Besides the other buildings erected by him during his period
of usefulness, was the first chapel of Franklin College, now
the University of Georgia. Soon after this he constructed the
court-house at Greensboro in which his grandson, the subject of
this sketch, held court as presiding judge for several years be-
ginning in 1894.

Judge Hart's father, James Hart, was born at the old home-
stead in 1825, and, after passing through the common schools of
that time, by his own unaided efforts, went to a high school until

154 MEN OF MARK

he obtained a good English education. At an early age, he
went to Augusta to begin his business life. Here he clerked
for several vears for Mr. Alfred Baker, a leading merchant of

V

that place. So impressed was the employer with the industrious
habits and strict integrity of young Hart that he offered him an
equal interest in his business. He accepted the proposition, and
the firm became Baker and Hart, and for more than a quarter of
a century did a most prosperous and extensive business in Geor-
gia and adjacent states. As a member of the city council of
Augusta, Mr. Hart inaugurated many important measures for
the good of this beautiful and progressive city. For instance,
the planting of the beautiful trees which now adorn Greene
street was done under his personal supervision. This devel-
oped into a monument of beauty and pleasure that will com-
memorate his name in the grateful hearts of the "city beauti-
ful" for generations to come.

On his maternal side, John Collier Hart descends from the
Collier family, which has been noted in many ways as one of
the most influential in South Carolina. His grandfather, Di.
Collier, was a most noted and skilled physician in his day and
a cousin of the Hon. James L. Pettigrew. His grandmother
was Miss Sarah Germany, a member of a prominent South
Carolina family.

In September, 1872, Judge Hart entered the Sophomore class,
half advanced, at the University of Georgia. Besides taking
the literary course he was graduated in 1875 with the degree
of Bachelor of Laws. At college, he was noted for his gentle-
manly deportment, close attention to the performance of his
duties and for his scholarship. He was editor of the Georgia
University Magazine, junior medalist in the Demosthenian
Society for 1874, one of the champions of debate in 1875 and
Captain of Company C of the University Battalion. He after-
wards commanded a company of State militia in Greene county.

JOHN COLLIER HART 155

Judge Hart took these honorable positions at college in a
class which has seldom, if ever, been surpassed in the history
of the institution for the brilliance and success of its members.
Journalism, the bench, the bar, medicine, the business, profes-
sional and official life of the State have all been enriched by
his class.

Mr. Hart's father died the year of his graduation, leaving1 a
debt of ten thousand dollars upon his estate at twelve per cent
interest. Within a short time the son had paid this debt in full.

He at once adopted the law as his profession and located at
Union Point. He was highly esteemed by all who knew him
and was recognized from the very beginning as an able lawyer,
not only by members of the local bar, but by those of the pro-
fession throughout the whole State.

He was wedded to his profession, for many years strictly
eschewing politics, but in 1884, his fellow-citizens, appreciating
his energy, legal acumen, broad mind and sterling worth, chose
his as Greene county's representative in the Legislature. He
entered public life about the same time as did Governor Terrell,
who preceded him as Attorney-General. In the House of Rep-
resentatives he met many men who have since won distinction.
Among them were W. Y. Atkinson, A. S. Clay, C. L. Byrtletl,
W. G. Brantley, W. A. Little, and others. Mr. Hart wss re-
elected in 1886, and again in 1888. He made an able legisla-
tor, leaving his impress upon the State.

In 1894 Mr. Hart was elected by the Georgia Legisliture 1o
the judgeship of the Ocmulgee Circuit. For two terms, eight
years, he filled this high office with distinguished ability. Iti
rendering many judgments and decisions, he has seldom be'en
reversed by the Supreme Court.

In the early part of 1902, at the solicitation of his friends,
he resigned the judgeship and became a candidate for Attorney-
General of Georgia. Here he has had literally no opposition.

156 MEN OF MARK

His record was before the people; they pronounced it good.
They sealed the verdict by unanimously electing and re-electing
him to this exalted position, for which his natural ability,
acquirements, and long training, had so eminently fitted him.
He has been re-elected to this position the second time.

Judge Hart is a prominent Master Mason and in all party
affiliations has always been a Democrat. In 1887 he was united
in marriage to Miss Irene Horton, of Augusta. They have five
children, three boys and two girls.

As church members Judge Hart and his wife are active Pres-
byterians and have been so for many years. At Union Point,
Judge Hart has so beautified the old homestead that his resi-
dence today is one of the most beautiful in middle Georgia.
Notwithstanding his many arduous duties, he finds much time
to spend at this beautiful home an ideal married life.

R. J. MASSEY.

V

158 MEN OF MARK

was left only a bare support for his mother and the children
after the estate was finally settled up.

A position was offered him as teacher in Alabama, and his
success as a teacher won him reputation elsewhere. After teach-
ing one term in Brooks county, he was tendered and accepted
the position of principal of Piscola Academy, located in Brooks
county, Georgia. Here he lived the remainder of his useful and
honored life.

Early in the summer of 1861, Mr. Turner joined a military
company, organized in Savannah, and entered the Confederate
service as a private. As a member of the "Savannah Volunteer
Guards" he endured with patience and fortitude, the toils and
privations of a common soldier until August, 1862, when he
was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned to the com-
mand of Company H, 23rd Regiment, North Carolina Volun-
teers, which belonged to Garland's Brigade, Army of Northern
Virginia.

It is pleasing to pay a tribute in this place to the conspicu-
ous gallantry of Captain Turner in the various battles of
Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Chancellorsville,
and a score of other bloody engagements besides, up to the time
he received a desperate wound at Gettysburg, on July 1, 1863.
He was taken prisoner and confined alternately in Sandusky
and on Johnson's Island until November, 1864. His physical
condition became so desperate that he was dismissed from prison
and forwarded to the authorities at Richmond. The Federal
surgeons notified the Richmond doctors that Captain Turner was
a "disabled soldier, and incapable of further military ser-

vice.'1

Arriving at Richmond under such conditions, he sought to
make his way back to Georgia, as best he might with danger of
death on the way from further exposure and extreme cold.
When he reached the old home place in Henderson, 1ST. C., he

HENRY GRAY TURNER 159

rested awhile, and recruited his strength sufficiently to start oil
the longer trip. The journey was finally made on horseback,
mostly traveled by night. Enfeebled by his ill-cared for wounds
and infected with the pestilential malaria of those fearful Fed
eral prisons, it is a marvel that Captain Turner's life was pro-
longed for so many years afterward.

His indomitable will and unflagging energy had much to do
with this struggle against disease. The quality of the man was
seen in the fortitude and unexampled patience of the sufferer.
All the honors which were heaped upon his later life wera
worthily won by this heroic soldier in his unflinching devotion
to his beloved State and section.

Soon after he reached Quitman, he took up the burden of life
again and prosecuted his legal studies so persistently that he
was admitted to the bar at Nashville, Ga., in October, 1865.

On the 16th of June preceding his admission to the bar, he
was married to Miss Lavinia C. Morton, daughter of Judge
James O. Morton, also of Brooks county. The loyal lady who
became Judge Turner's wife, after his return from the military
service of his country proved herself to be the worthy helpmeet
this noble man needed. With his life partner, he lived in per-
fect peace and rare enjoyment. She was ever at his hand to
encourage the rising statesman, sincerely rejoicing in his well-
earned fame.

A daughter and two sons also survived the father and hus-
band when Judge Henry G. Turner passed to the Great Beyond.
Henry Turner possessed rare gifts as a successful lawyer. His
industry never slackened in preparing his cases while his readi-
ness was phenomenal. His vas a master mind, endowed with
quick apprehension and application of legal principles in the
court room. His speeches had magnetic influence, before
judges and juries.

There was never anything flashy about the man himself be-
cause he maintained a grave and dignified manner and never

160 MEN OF MARK

became impassioned except upon great occasions. His manner
of delivery was quiet, while his arguments were masterful and
convincing to his listeners. In figure he was about middle
height. His complexion was swarthy and he had no peculiar
graces of carriage or gesture, but he did have an earnestness and
vigor of speech in presenting a case that might always be classed
as superior and eloquent in the best sense of the term used, be-
cause there was entire absence of affectation or meretricious
display in his legal efforts.

Judge Turner, as a lawyer, soon won fame and success as a
capable and trustworthy practitioner. His reputation extended
throughout southern judicial circuits. His work was almost
uniformly sustained by the Supreme Court of his State. But
Judge Turner's fame does not rest upon his superiority as a
lawyer alone. He was elected to the Legislature in the year
1874 and his constituents returned him for three successive
terms. He quickly established a reputation for integrity aim
capability that never waned nor wavered but grew into promi-
nence all the time. He was recognized as a safe leader among
men, a conservative legislator, impressed with his duty to all
concerned, not given to rash experiment or intermeddling with
the best interests of the taxpayers.

This legislative experience fitted him for successful congres-
sional service. For sixteen years he was elected to represent
his district in Washington City, with little or no opposition.
He won the respect, and undying esteem of his colleagues in
Congress. He established' a reputation for integrity in the
House of Representatives that any man might be proud of, and
when he retired from Congress he had also established a claim
to prominence, as among the foremost statesmen of his time that
all Georgians are proud to remember.

Because he was a foe to injustice of every sort, he held the
standard of congressional service very high as a trust confided

HENRY GRAY TURNER 161

by the people. He grew to be a parliamentary debater of great
power and force among the members, regardless of party dis-
tinctions. As a member of the Committee on Elections he won
unstinted praise by his legal learning and judicial fairness.
He examined everything for himself, and this established in the
minds of all concerned a respect for his integrity and capacity,
a just man in a high and responsible position.

After this long term of sixteen years of congressional service
had expired, Judge Turner felt obliged to differ with the major-
ity of his party in Georgia on a vital public question. He
could not surrender principle to party, but he felt he could retire
with dignity and maintain his self-respect. He longed for his
books and the ease and quiet of his Quitman home, and this
well equipped statesman went into retirement with the undimin-
ished regard and confidence of his fellow-men. During eight
years this retirement was maintained, until the Chief Executive
of Georgia invited Henry G. Turner to fill a vacancy caused by
the death of a Justice of the Supreme Court, Public approval
of Judge Turner's selection for the position was everywhere
declared. There was no question as to his qualifications, the
finger of Providence seemed to point to his selection, as the
right man for the right place. When he accepted this unsought
position there seemed to be a prospect of long life and useful-
ness for Judge Turner on the Supreme Bench.

There was general satisfaction, that the State might profit by
his rare legal acquirements, in a needed place, and no man was
ever more heartily welcomed than himself when he accepted the
responsible position at the solicitation of the Governor. But
the old malady, perhaps the dregs of that terrible suffering in a
hard Federal prison, soon made itself apparent. Immediate
relief from the mental strain of judicial labor was demanded.
A surgical operation was determined upon, but when the distin-
guished patient arrived in Baltimore, the wise surgeons decided
11

162 MEN OF MARK

he was too much weakened to bear the knife. Disappointed and
disheartened, Judge Turner started on the return journey to his
beloved home in South Georgia. Halting to rest at the house
of his brother in Raleigh, ^N". C., Dr. Vines E. Turner, death
came suddenly to the stateman and jurist, and took away from
the State of Georgia one of her most useful and capable citi-
zens, one whose name the State will ever delight to honor.

There was universal regret expressed at his sudden and unex-
pected decease. The newspapers were filled with tributes to his
superior excellence in all walks of life. The speeches made by
his legal brethren were full of sincere regard and condolence
with his stricken family.

Judge Turner's marked characteristic was his devotion to
truth. He detested shams, eschewed deceit, and continually
pledged his devotion to the eternal verities. Whatever he be-
lieved to be true, right, just and honest he advocated in spirit
and deed ; and if he had chosen, he might have been a member
of Congress to the day of his death, as he was tendered a re-
nomination after his views were known.

The setting sun of this brave man's life shone unclouded to
the very end, and he left the world with the plaudits of his
countrymen and neighbors, because he died as he lived, a true
man, devoted to justice and right.

" 'Tis not the whole of life to live,
Nor all of death to die."

Judge Turner's memory is kept green in the hearts of his
compatriots in every home of rank in his beloved State. His
example is a blessing and inspiration to young men, and his
work and words will long live after him.

MES. W. H. FELTON.

Hamattme <§riffirr 1

166 MEN OF MARK

Dr. Hardinan was married March 26, 1907, to Miss Emma
Wiley Griffin of \raldosta, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. N.
Griffin.

During the Spanish- American War he was appointed Assi^t-
ant-Surgeon but did not accept, preferring to carry on quietly
and unostentatiously his daily tasks of helping and healing those
around him. In fine, his whole life has been a blessing to the
Commonwealth of which he is a leading citizen. Gifted by na-
ture with brains to plan and with ability to execute, Georgia
proudly claims him, like the mother of the Gracchi, as one of
her most loved jewels. M. L. BBITTAIN.

Joel pranfjam.

JUDGE BEANHAM, like many other distinguished men of
Georgia, was born in that fine middle section that lies mid-
way between the mountains and the sea. He first saT\ the
light at Eatonton, in Putnam county, on August 28, 1835. His
father was a distinguished physician, Dr. Joel Branham, and
his mother was Emily (Cooper) Branham, a lady of rare intel-
ligence and charming social qualities. On both the father's and
the mother's side, Judge Branham is connected with some of the
most distinguished families of Georgia — such, for example, as
the Nisbets, the Coopers, the Boykins, the Turmans, and others.
The only school advantages that Judge Branham ever enjoyed
were obtained in the "old-field" school at Eatonton, where he
studied until his fourteenth year. In his fifteenth year he
moved to Morgan county and began work in a store in the town
of Madison. Three years later he returned to Eatonton and
opened a jewelry house, beginning business with a stock worth
ten thousand dollars.

By 1856 the young merchant decided that he ought to stady
law, and in 1857 he was admitted to the bar by Judge Robert
V. Hardeman, of the Ocmulgee Circuit. Two yeiirs l?ter lie
moved to Macon, where he devoted himself actively to the duties
of his profession. His native ability, his legal learning, and his
genial manners drew to him many friends, and he was success-
ful from the very outset. Honors and responsibilities c.^me to
him quickly. He was admitted to practice in the United States
Circuit Court in 1860, and about the same time Governor
Brown appointed him Solicitor-General of the Macon circuit, to
fill an unexpired term, and subsequently re-appointed him for
the full term.

168 MEN OF MARK

When the War between the States broke out, the brilliant
young Solicitor-General felt it his duty to take up arms for the
South, and, accordingly, on the 20th day of April, 1861, he en-
tered the Confederate ranks, serving as a private in the Macon
Volunteers, Second Georgia Battalion. With reference to his
career as a soldier, it is not too much to say that, from the time
he was mustered in until the time he was honorably discharged,
he never once shirked a duty.

Shortly after the war, Mr. Branham moved to north Georgia
and opened his office in Rome, where he was associated in prac-
tice with the lamented Chas. H. Smith ("Bill Arp"). He en-
joyed a large and profitable practice, a;,-d established himself
firmly in the esteem and affection of his fellow-citizens. In
January, 1880, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme
Court of the United States. In July, 1882, Governor Colquitt
appointed him judge of the Rome circuit ; and in the same
year he was elected for the full term by the Legislature. He
wore the ermine most worthily, and it can be said very confi-
dently that his record while on the bench will compare favora-
bly with that of any man who has preceded or followed him.
So high was the valuation set upon his legal attainments that
he was called, on more than one occasion, to preside in the Su-
preme Court in certain cases in which Justice Jackson was dis-
qualified. His opinions and circuit court charges attracted
wide attention, and established his reputation as one of the
ablest lawyers in the State.

In January, 1887, Judge Branham retired from the bench
and resumed the practice of the law at Rome. That his ser-
vices in a legal capacity were in great demand is shown by
the fact that, before many months had passed, he was employed
as Division Counsel for the Richmond and Danville Railroad,
Division Counsel for the Receivers of the Central of Georgia
Railroad and Banking Company, and Division Counsel for the

JOEL BBANHAM 169

Savannah and Western Railroad. His connection with all rail-
road property ceased in November, 1895, but in March, 1901,
he was prevailed upon to accept his old place as Division Coun-
sel of the Central of Georgia Railroad, which position he still
holds.

Few men in the State take higher rank in the legal profession
than does Judge Branham. It is universally recognized that
his learning is profound and accurate, that his grasp of legal
principles is sure, that his personal integrity is of the most ex-
alted type, and that his courage is as dauntless as his nature is
kindly. His character as a lawyer is so well rounded that it is
not easy to point out his special distinction in the profession,
but he is probably at his best in the management of complicated
equity causes.

Judge Branham was married in 1861 to Miss Georgia C.
Cuyler. Mrs. Branham died on January 13, 1889, leaving two
daughters — Mrs. George H. Peniston, now of Washington, D.
C., and Mrs. D. S. Appleton, now of London, England. Since
the death of his beloved wife, Judge Branham has found such
solace as he could in the society of his friends, and in the ren-
dering of useful service to his neighbors and fellow-citizens.
He leads a serene and contented life, and in his tastes and sym-
pathies he is as young as a man of thirty-five. So far from
withdrawing himself from active life, he is public-spirited in
the highest degree, and is always ready to encourage those move-
ments that are designed to increase the happiness and promote
the culture of his community. He entertains a high respect for
religion, and looks upon it as the very foundation of a healthy
social order.

Judge Branhan, the man, is a striking and interesting per-
sonality. His height is medium, his build is slendor, his bear-
ing is di<rnified, his manners are easy and cordial. He is fas-
tidious in his dress, and has about him a certain air which one

170 MEN OF MARK

would be apt to describe as "patrician." His temperament is
poetic, even romantic, but guarded by fine taste and a keen
sense of the ludicrous.

The high esteem in which Judge Branham is held was brought
out strikingly on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. Many
distinguished men — including governors and United States sen-
ators— came from Georgia and other States to do him honor.
Apropos of this birthday celebration, one of the most eminent
journalists of the South published in the Atlanta News the fol-
lowing tribute to Judge Branham :

"Judge Joel Branham, of Home, whose recent unique and
charming celebration of his seventieth birthday, which was per-
haps one of the most notable social events of the season in North
Georgia, is the rarest and most genial of men. A lawyer of
more than ordinary ability, a judge of high repute, an advocate
of convincing power and a practical politician as well, he is yet
a man of tender and exquisite sense of humor and genial good
fellowship, and a philanthropist of the most effective mould.

"Judge Branham has been mentioned at various times for
Governor of Georgia, for Justice of the Supreme Court, and
for representative of the seventh district in the American Con-
gress, and he would doubtless have graced any one of these po
sitions with great ability. By his own choice he has now settled
voluntarily into< a green and beautiful old age, in which he takes
rank easily as 'The First Citizen of Rome.'

T. J. SIMMONS.

n Wt

.

.
i

.

'

I
•

172 MEN OF MARK

of impending centralizing manifestations of capital, and in it he
advised safeguards and reforms afterwards adopted in political
platforms. As secretary, and, thereafter, president of the Geor-
gia Bar Association, his influence as a jurist became State-wide.
He was Judge of the City Court of Cartersville by the unsolic-
ited appointment of Governor Atkinson, and was successively a
member of the House of Representatives and a Senator of his
native State. Here his gifts and force of character were so
pronounced that he was elected President of the Senate, as well
on the ground of his knowledge of parliamentary law as upon
his incorruptibility and impartiality ; and the eyes of the State
were fixed upon him as a man worthy and sure of the highest
political preferment.

Notwithstanding this busy and successful professional life,
he found time to indulge a taste for general literature and ar-
rived at a degree of culture which marked few men of his genera-
tion. Among his strongest orations and papers of a general
character may be mentioned "The Shackling of Jefferson
Davis," "The Real John Marshall," "Masonry and Immortali-
ty" and "Sidney Lanier."

This outline of labors shows how great a force he was, but the
results of his conspicuous service to his State are the more cred-
itable to him in the light of the frailty of his body, and actual
illness the last three or four years of his life. Never strong,
he yet, by a marvellous diligence and fortitude brought his gen-
eration under obligations which, it is very agreeable to record,
were, in this case, at least, gratefully acknowledged. The va-
rious positions of trust in which he was placed by the people in
life, and the deep and widespread sorrow reflected at his fu-
neral and in the press at his death, evidence the great respect felt
for him and are a solace to his family and friends now that his
earthlv career is closed.

JOHN WESLEY AKIN 173

As a lawyer Judge Akin was thoroughly equipped and alert ;
as a legislator he was a statesman and not a partisan; as a
writer he was clear, beautiful and concise; as an orator direct
and forceful ; and, as a friend, loyal all the time and everywhere.
Having identified himself in early life with the Church, he ac-
tively supported it to the end, and the cause of education re-
ceived at his home and throughout the State his wise and valua-
ble championship.

The qualities which tied men to him personally bound his own
family to him in the sweetest bonds, and perhaps he set no
greater example than in the establishment and maintenance of a
beautiful home, the bedrock of civilization. He was niarried
May 18th, 1882, in Cartersville, Ga., to Miss Frances Johnson,
daughter of Col. Abda Johnson of that city. She and their
three daughters survive him. On October 18th, 1907, he died
at home in Cartersville, just a few hours after the painless and
sudden death of his noble mother, and their bodies were laid
away in the earth on the same day, each of them receiving the
highest honors of burial. Subsequently his wife gave five thou-
sand dollars to the English department of the Emory College
library as a memorial of her husband, and the authorities of the
college have caused to be placed upon the walls of the library a
marble tablet, fittingly inscribed, in commemoration of his dis-
tinguished services to Church and State. The last line en-
graved on this tablet may appropriately close this notice of his
life — "Transeat in exemplum."

R. J. BlGHAM.

^iexanber Hatoton JtltUer.

ALEXANDER LAWTON MILLER is regarded as one
of the State's foremost lawyers. He began the practice
of his profession at Perry. From the very beginning
of his career he had the confidence and patronage of his com-
munity because of his strong character and his devotion to his
profession, coupled with his painstaking investigation and the
successful management of the cases committed to him.

Mr. Miller had most helpful environment during his youth.
He was born November 6, 1848, near Augusta, into a cultured
family. His father, Jonathan M. Miller, was an intelligent
and successful planter.

Mr. Miller spent his early life upon his father's farm and
did all kinds of farm work. His father's means were ample
and he had all the needed advantages for his early training.
He attended the country schools of his neighborhood, and in
1869 he was graduated with distinction from South Carolina
College. He read law at Perry, Ga., with Col. C. C. Duncan,
and was admitted to the bar at the spring term of Houston
Superior Court in 1871. He later took a course at law in tht?
summer law school of the University of Virginia.

He entered upon his professional life fairly well prepared
mentally. The training received during his college course and
his natural fondness for study and investigation soon made
him a reputation in his profession. He was chosen to represent
Houston county in the Legislature from 1876 to 1882 and, as
in his profession, he went at once to prominent leadership in
the House. Mr. Miller did not seek so much to inaugurate
new policies or to enact new laws, but he made it his special

ALEXANDER LAWTON MILLER 175

business to defeat hurtful legislation and to prevent the repeal
of that which was good. This incurred much arduous detail
service not sought by many legislators, as it compels opposition
to many measures that endanger individual popularity. Mr.
Miller did not seek such leadership as is found in the chair-
manship of committees. Indeed he avoided such position so
that he might be left entirely free to advocate or oppose meas-
ures as he saw fit. His attention was given in a general way
more especially to matters considered by the Finance and Ju-
diciary Committees. He was always, by his own choice, a mem-
ber of these two committees. His record for untiring devotion
to duty and intelligent discrimination, won for him as a legis-
lator the general recognition of his powers by his colleagues, as
he won the appreciation of the people through his advocacy of
such measures only as looked to the highest public good.

Mr. Miller has vigorous intellect, clear conception and untir-
ing energy in the prosecution of his purposes. He masters dif-
ficulties with unusual ease and presents his views with distinct-
ness, clearness and force. As an advocate he makes no claims
to oratory. He speaks very deliberately, using the choicest
English without strained effort at rhetorical flourish or useless
ornamentation. He deals in argument, handling logically the
facts in the matters he presents. His success has been largely
built upon his sound common sense. These elements, coupled
with his attractive personality, command attention and secure
conviction in debate, and oftentimes he gains his end because
of his high character and his known loyalty to the truth.

From 1882 to 1887 he was a member of the Capitol Commis-
sion, appointed to erect the new capitol. In this relation he
rendered valuable assistance in the counsels of the commission.

He was appointed by Governor Gordon, Judge of the County
Court of Houston county from 1887 to 1890. Again in 1890
he was appointed by Governor Gordon, Judge of the Superior

176 MEN OF MARK

Courts of the Macon circuit. He resigned this position in
1893 to enter again upon the practice of his profession. He
was the partner of Hon. A. O. Bacon until Mr. Bacon's election
to the United States Senate. Judge Miller's administration of
the business of the courts was characterized by despatch, firm-
ness and absolute impartiality as between both lawyers and liti-
gants. His sense of justice is acute and strong. His jury
charges were masterful presentations of duty and law.

Upon the death of Hon. Washington Dessau, Judge Miller
was unanimously elected to the presidency of the Macon Bar
Association. He does not devote himself exclusively to his pro-
fession, or his personal business, but he takes prominent part in
whatever most concerns the community, the State and the na-
tion. He is always prominent in political conventions called to
shape the public policy, but he seems to have no desire for per-
sonal preferment. Public office comes to him, if at all, through
the insistence and urgency of his constituents, and not because
of his seeking.

Judge Miller is a strong advocate for the education of the
people to the end that they may be better citizens, and the State
and the nation strengthened thereby. He has been a member of
the board of education for Bibb county since 1890. This board
has built up one of the best systems in the State. The methods
pursued and the plans developed have been adopted by other
localities throughout the South.

Judge Miller has always been a Democrat and a strong factor
in the support of the policies of his party.

Judge Miller was made Chairman of the State Democratic
Convention that nominated Hon. Hoke Smith for the office of
Governor of the State and ex-officio Chairman of the State Dem-
ocratic Committee. His splendid executive ability eminently
fitted him for these high places. He has just begun (1908) his
term as Mayor of the city of Macon, strongly endorsed by a

ALEXANDER LAW TON MILLER 177

most gratifying support. His administration promises well for
the betterment of all community interests. Judge Miller has
unusual administrative ability as demonstrated during his terms
as Judge of the Superior Courts of the Macon circuit, and his
remarkable success in this relation made him much in demand
by his fellow citizens where executive control is needed.

He married Miss Katherine H. Hurt, October 26, 1876.
They have had eight children, seven of whom are living.

He believes the best life must be based upon hard work, good
habits and plenty of sleep, and generous consideration for other
people. W. J.

12

OTtiitam

WILLIAM AMBKOSE WEIGHT, for nearly thirty
years intimately connected with the office of Comp-
troller-General of Georgia, was born in the historic
old town of Louisville, Ga., January 19, 1844.

Before the Revolutionary War, Mr. Wright's great-grand-
father, Ambrose Wright, lived in Virginia, removing to Louis-
ville, about the beginning of the 19th century. His grandfather
was also named Ambrose Wright and was born in Virginia, be-
ing brought to Georgia when quite a small boy. He was an
active participant in the Revolutionary War, being a Major
in the Virginia Continental Line.

Mr. Wright was the son of Gen. Ambrose Ransom Wright,
whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. He was edu-
cated at Louisville under the tutelage of Prof. W. S. Lowry,
who had also been his father's teacher. In May, 1861, at the
age of seventeen he enlisted as a private in the Third Georgia
Regiment which was commanded by his father. While the
command was marching from Richmond to Manassas Junction
in August, 1862, young Wright was promoted to First Lieuten-
ant of artillery and ordnance officer of Wright's Brigade. He
served in this position over two years, when in November, 1864,
he was assigned to post duty at Augusta, where he remained till
the close of the war.

Lieutenant Wright had a remarkable military career. He
was in the great Seven Days Battle around Richmond. On
August 30, 1862, he was severely wounded at the second battle
of Manassas, necessitating the amputation of his right leg. Re-
maining in a farmhouse near the battlefield three weeks, he

WILLIAM AMBROSE WRIGHT 179

then went home, where upon leave of absence he stayed from
October, 1862, till April 1863. Maimed as he was, he returned
to duty, rejoining his command at Fredericksburg, and con-
tinued in active service until June 1863. He took an active
part in the battle of Chancellorsville in May of that year. In
June 1863, he was captured at Sharpsburg by some ISTew York
soldiers and taken across the river from Harper's Ferry to the
headquarters of General Tyler. For two weeks he was impris-
oned at Fort McHenry and then transferred to Fort Delaware,
where he remained for nearly a month. From Fort Delaware
he was sent to Johnson's Island, where he was detained about a
year. Then with a band of disabled Confederates, amounting
to several hundred, he was again transferred to Richmond, Va.
The condition of these poor, disabled men can scarcely be real-
ized. Out of this large number Lieutenant Wright was the only
man that could walk. Remaining here a month, he was regu-
larly exchanged and rejoined his command at Petersburg, in
May, 186-i. Although crippled, as he was, he participated in
several hot fights. His last engagement was in the memorable
Battle of the Crater. Soon after this he was detailed to service
at Augusta.

Accepting the situation after the war ended, Mr. Wright
quietly went to work on his farm in Jefferson county. His
health failed, and in 1868, he removed to Columbia county,
where he resided for the next nine years. In 1877 he removed
to Atlanta and accepted a position in the office of Hon. W. L.
Goldsmith, who was Comptroller-General of Georgia at that
time. When impeachment proceedings were instituted against
Comptroller-General Goldsmith, Governor Colquitt appointed
Mr. Wright to fill the vacancy, and at the next regular election
in October, 1880, he was elected to the full term. The position
is an exacting one. The Comptroller-General looks closely af-
ter the finances of the whole State. Even a check drawn by the

180 MEN OF MARK

,
Governor on the Treasury is not valid till countersigned by the

Comptroller. He balances his books with the Treasurer every
day ; he supervises the taxes of the whole State ; the tax collec-
tors of the counties are under his supervision and must report
to him all their collections. He is ex-officio Insurance Commis-
sioner. So onerous are the duties of this department that many
States have created a separate office for this special business.

Comptroller-General Wright has had an experience of thirty
years service in this department, and his books testify that he
has made for himself an honorable and most excellent record.
During this whole time of service there has never been detected
an error in his administration. In fact, so satisfactory has his
administration been that for the past twenty-seven years he has
been continuously re-elected, regardless of changes in other
branches of the State government. General Wright was elected
first President of the Confederate Veterans Association of
Fulton county and after serving one term, declined re-election.

In October, 1871, he married Miss Nellie Carter, daughter
of J. B. Carter, of Augusta. After her death, Mr. Wright
married again on November 19, 1885, Mrs. Mary Sledge, for-
merly Miss Mary Cox, daughter of Judge A. E. Cox, of La-
Grange. His children are Ambrose Ransom, Philip, Misses
Nellie and Annie. General Wright is a member of the First
Methodist Church of Atlanta, with which church he connected
himself in 1880. R. J. MASSET.

.
•

.

.

!

182 MEN OF MARK

thew Rabun removed to Georgia from Halifax, Halifax county,
N". C., about the year 1785. He was long an honored citizen of
Georgia. He was the father of Governor William Rabun of
Georgia, who was the brother of Mr. Walker's great-grandmother.
Matthew Rabun was a member of the Constitutional Convention
of Georgia which convened in the year 1798 and by which a
State constitution was adopted that was in force more than half
a century.

John Veazey was of English origin, and was a freeholder
and planter in Cecil county, Maryland, in 1687. Among his de-
scendants was Thomas Ward Veazey, Governor of Maryland,
1836-38. Mr. Walker's great-grandfather, James Veazey, a
grandson of John Veazey, of Maryland, was living in Georgia
in 1784 and was a soldier of the Revolution from this State.

Of Simpson Neel, Mr. Walker's great-grandfather, it is only
known that he was an honorable citizen of Yorkville, York Dis-
trict, South Carolina.

Mr. Walker's father maintained firm biit loving family gov-
ernment. He taught his children to be industrious, and had
them become personally familiar with manual service as honora-
ble and desirable employment. He reared his boys on the
farm and required each one of them to grow three crops before
going to college. As a result of this training Mr. Walker, at
fifty-three years of age, has never been sick or needed the at-
tention of a physician. He is able to endure an immense strain
from work and resist the demands made upon his strenuous life
as but little more than an entertainment. He attributes his
success largely to the training he received on the farm.

Mr. Walker received his primary education in the common
schools of his community. He afterwards attended the Mount
Zion Select School, of which Hon. W. J. ISTorthen was Rector.
From this school he entered the University of Georgia and grad-
uated in 1872. He read law in his father's office, and began

BILLINGTON SANDERS WALKER 183

the practice at Monroe, his native town. Having inherited fine
business ability and afterwards receiving most excellent business
training from his father, he gave his attention as a lawyer
largely to the business side of his profession.

On October 29th, 1874, Mr. Walker was married to Miss
Alice Mitchell. They have had seven children, five girls and
two boys, all of whom are living.

In 1892 he established the Bank of Monroe and became its
president. In 1896 he built the Monroe Cotton Mills and was
made president of that company. These two institutions, co-
operative in their business under his management, have had
unvarying and most gratifying success.

For three years Mr. Walker was President of the Georgia In-
dustrial Association, composed of the cotton mill companies of
the State. His administration of this office has had much to
do with creating sympathy between the cotton mills and the
banking interests of the State. This has finally resulted in
somewhat of a co-operative action on the part of the banks, the
mills and the cotton producers, bringing about a sympathy of
interest that has largely influenced the greatly improved finan-
cial condition of the State.

Mr. Walker gives his community the benefit of his business
experience. His energy and public spirit have entered into
all of the enterprises of his people. He was largely instru-
mental in the construction of the two railroads that enter his
town. He has actively cooperated in all the improvements
projected by others in his local community. He has never
sought public office, although he takes an active interest in all
public and political matters.

One special feature of Mr. Walker's business management is
found in his thoughtful consideration for his employees. He
believes in diligence and industry and he enforces kindly but
firmly his demands ; but he is generous in compensation, consid-

184 MEN OF MARK

erate in government and open hearted in furnishing such oppor-
tunities as will make his people not only the best for his service,
but good citizens as well. The children of his operatives have
all necessary school facilities, and they, together with their
parents, are furnished all suitable advantages for moral and re-
ligious training.

Mr. Walker believes that "Habits of industry cultivated for
the first fifteen or twenty years will insure an active and suc-
cessful life." W. J. NOK.THEN.

THE Georgia peach, with an aroma that lures, with a lus-
cious flavor that brings the acme of ecstacy to the palate,
attractive to the eye by reason of the sun-kissed blush
that is rivalled only by the one mantling the maiden's cheek, is
famed to the world. The red clay hills and uplands that only
two decades r-ince gave back the angry glare of the sun, non-
producing and profitless, are to-day carpeted with green and
checked with trees that annually bud and blossom and bear
what has become one of Georgia's greatest wealth producing
crops. Within a period of twenty years, the first peaches were
shipped beyond Hie borders of the State and by leaps and
bounds the industry grew until today literally thousands of car-
loads are shipped out annually and bring in return their mil-
lions of wealth.

The pioneer in making a great commercial product of the
peach in north Georgia, the father of the industry in that part
of the State to whom the greatest possible credit is due is
George Henderson Miller, of Koine. Though a native of Ohio,
his services to the State in the evening of his life give him
eminent rank among the men who have led in the industrial
development of Georgia. He is of Scotch-Irish stock. His
grandfathers, George Miller and Frederick Henderson, both
originally Scotchmen, came to America from the North of Ire-
land and settled in Ohio. His father was John Miller and his
mother Martha Henderson. Born April 21, 183T, in Muskin-
gum county, Ohio, he inherited his father's sturdy integrity and
determination, and in his early youth received the strictest mor-
al and religious training. Reared on a farm, he was fond of

186 MEN OF MARK

reading and study and had advanced to the Junior year in
Muskingum College when the death of his father compelled
him, when only sixteen years of age, to take charge of the farm
aiid support his mother and younger sister, whose only depen-
dence he was. His education was rounded out through his
own efforts, and though farmer, fruit grower, nurseryman and
orchardist, he was also a teacher for awhile. He was married
to Miss Clarissa Cooper in 1859 and they have one child. He
was a member of the board of trustees of Muskingum College
for a number of years and held various positions in the Ohio
HoMicultural Society and in farmers' institutes. Always
strongly religious, he was made an elder in the Northern Pres-
byterian Church in 1865, and, since 1886, has held a like office
in the Southern Presbyterian Church. He has written a book for
girls, "The Beautiful Life," which was published in 1904 by
the Winona Publishing Company, of Chicago. Since coming to
Georgia, Mr. Miller has devoted his time to the introduction and
development of commercial fruit growing in north Georgia and
the beautifying of homes and surroundings. For some years he
was secretary of the Georgia State Horticultural Society, presi-
dent of the North Georgia Fruit Growers' Institute and has
held similar positions of honor and trust in kindred organiza-
tions. In politics he is a Democrat. He is fond of travel, but
is always interested in good books, private study having given
him his splendid mental training and equipment. To attain
success in life he believes the requisites are to "avoid idleness.
Keep the faculty of effort alive by exercise. Inure yourselves
to habits of concentrated attention and energetic purpose. Have
for your principle eternal truth and sterling integrity. Avoid
dissipation of every kind, practice self-denial in unnecessary
tlrJpgs and live a full and abundant and an unincumbered Chris-
tian life."

GEORGE HENDERSON MILLER 187

The vision of an orchard of peaches in the glory of bloom has
been described as "like billows of roses rolling over a sea of
green." The existence of such scenes in Georgia is due to the
prophetic vision of men like Mr. Miller. Upon coming to
Georgia, he recognized the possibilities for the development of
peach growing on a commercial scale through adaptable soil
and favorable climate. He went into the work heart and soul,
and by success convinced others with most marvelous results.
From nothing the industry grew, enhancing the value of lands,
giving thousands employment, and bringing in handsome in-
comes to growers everywhere. Mr. Miller has accomplished a
great work in Georgia. G. T. HALLEY.

H>f)otoalter,

ANTHONY JOHNSON SHOW ALTER, teacher, au-
thor, editor, and publisher, was born at Cherry Grove,
Buckingham county, Va., May 1, 1853. His child-
hood and young manhood were spent in that most beautiful
part of the Old Dominion, the Shenandoah Valley. Through
his father, John A. Showalter, who was a native Virginian,
and his mother, Susannah (Miller) Showalter, he traces his
ancestry back to Germany. These ancestors include the Sho-
walters, Funks, Millers and Sengers, who first settled in Penn-
sylvania. One line of his ancestry, represented by the Shulls,
came from England and first settled in Virginia. So it will be
seen that Professor Showalter is descended on the one side
from sturdy German-American stock, whose industry and in-
tegrity are proverbial. His musical talents are doubtless in-
herited from these music loving German ancestors. His father,
in addition to being a school teacher, was also a singing teacher.
He is spoken o£ as a man of earnest Christian character and
strong religious convictions, to which he held tenaciously. On
the other side, Professor Showalter inherits the traditions of
the Old Dominion, stretching back through several generations
to England.

Young Showalter, as a boy on his father's farm, was taught
to take his place in the field, where he engaged in all sorts of
manual labor. At an early age he developed a decided taste
for books and music. The War between the States found him
at the age when most boys are in school. His early training
was received in private schools taught by his father, his uncle,
C. C. Shoemaker, and a kinsman, Rev. Timothy Funk. Later

ANTHONY JOHNSON SHOW ALTER 189

he entered the public schools, and, after a course at the county
normal, taught in the public schools of his native county one
year.

His natural talent for music was early cultivated and devel-
oped under his father. The impulse to do his best and make
the most of his life kept pace with his physical and mental
growth. Determined to reach the top, he took a course at the
Virginia Normal School, at New Market. This was followed
by alternate teaching and courses at the National Normal at
Erie, Pa., the International Normal at Meadville, Pa., and the
Boston Normal, where he studied the theory and science of
music and the methods of those institutions. In 1886, he was
able, for the first time, to attend the Cincinnati May Festival
with its splendid chorus, famous Thomas Orchestra, and fine
soloists. In 1895, he went abroad and studied the methods of
the music teachers and schools of England, France and Germany.
So he brings to his work the approved methods of the popular
music schools of two continents.

When only fourteen years old he began his career as a teacher
by assisting his father. Previous to his majority he had taught
many singing schools in Augusta, Rockingham, Shenandoah
and Greene counties, Va., and Hardy county, W. Va. In
1880, he began his normal work at Dayton, Va., where he
taught rudiments, sight singing, ear training, voice culture,
harmony and composition. Finding himself at home in this
field, he extended the work to Mississippi, Alabama and Texas,
and, in 1882, to South Carolina and Georgia.

His reputation as a teacher grew with the years, and his
work spread to Arkansas, North Carolina and Missouri. Since
1880 he has held nearly two hundred sessions of his Southern
Normal Musical Institute in various parts of the South, and
numbers among his pupils thousands of prominent singers,
players, teachers and composers.

190 MEN OF MARK

While he excels in teaching, he is no less distinguished as an
author and composer. His first book, Singing School Tribute,
was published in 1880. Since then he has brought out sixty-
eight others, or an average of nearly three a year. These have
reached an aggregate sale of nearly two million copies. They
are as follows: Singing School Tribute; Hours of Singing;
Showalter's Harmony and Composition ; Temple of Song ; Good
Tidings ; Good Tidings, No. 2 ; Good Tidings, Combined ; Na-
tional Singer ; Work and Worship ; Glad Evangel ; Showalter's
New Method; Rudiments of Music; Class, Choir and Congre-
gation ; Showalter's Theory of Music ; True Method for the
Reed Organ ; Hymns, Tunes and Gospel Songs ; New Voice of
Praise ; Showalter's Select Songs ; Glad Evangel, No. 2 ; Peo-
ple's Anthems; The Singer's Ideal; Perennial Songs; New
Rudiments of Music; Practical Voice Culture, (Associate Au-
thor) ; Blessing and Glory; Blossoms of Song; Revival Choir,
Rudiments and Notation ; Song Land Messenger, (Associate
Author) ; Harp of the South ; Showalter's Quartet and Chorus
Book for Men's Voices ; Showalter's New Harmony and
Composition, Part One; Showalter's New Harmony and Com-
position, Part Second ; Showalter's New Harmony and Com-
position, Complete ; Showalter's Normal Chorus Book ; Class,
Choir and Congregation, No. 2 ; Sunlight Songs ; Complete Ru-
diments ; Revival Choir, No. 2 ; Coronation Songs ; Bright
Beams ; Lamp and Light ; Song-Land Messenger, No. 2 ; Sho-
walter's Gospel Songs, No. 1 ; Highway to Heaven ; Songs and
Hymns of the Sanctuary; Our Thankful Songs; Gospel Praise;
Showalter's Gospel Songs, No. 2 ; Standard Church Music ;
Singing for Joy ; Men's Treasury of Song ; Showalter's New
Songs, No. 1 ; Hymns of Glory ; Showalter's Anthems, Vol. I ;
Glad News; Salvation's River; Praise and Rejoicing; Best
Gospel Songs ; Soul Stirring Melodies ; Peans of Praise ; Songs
of Light; The Feast of Song; The Song Temple; Church Re-

ANTHONY JOHNSON SHOWALTER 191

vival Songs; Showalter's Practical Harmony; Showalter's Prac-
tical Harmony Tablet ; Selected Songs and Anthems ; and Sweet-
est Praise.

ISTo other musician in America of Professor Showalter's age
has composed so many separate works, while in the South he
holds the record regardless of age.

In 1887 and 1888 he wrote and published eight books, the
sales of which reached nearly a million copies, and that without
the backing of any great evangelist or denominational publish-
ing house. The music and the refrain of the great gospel song
"Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" are from his pen — a song
which has been translated into many languages, published in
hundreds of books, and sung in every country of the world
where the story of Jesus has been told.

In 1905, Professor Showalter was called on to direct the
"all day singing," a feature of the State Fair held at Atlanta
on October 13th. A chorus of four thousand voices responded
to his call, and the day was made memorable by the effective
rendering of the old gospel songs.

While writing and teaching music might be called the life
work of Professor Showalter, he is also a successful business
man with diversified interests.

In 1884, he moved to Dalton. Realizing the advantages of
being able to publish his own productions, he established what
has developed into The A. J. Showalter Company, the largest
music publishing house south of Cincinnati. He is also editor
and publisher of The Music Teacher and Home Magazine,
which has a circulation of many thousands. Professor Showal-
ter is also President of The Showalter-Patton Company, a simi-
lar establishment at Dallas, Tex., and Vice-President of the
Cherokee Lumber Company, of Dalton.

He finds recreation in and secures profit from his farm and
extensive peach and apple orchards near Dalton.

192 MEN OF MARK

He carries into his religious life the same enthusiasm which
characterizes his professional and business life. He is an elder
in the Presbyterian Church, and stands high in the councils of
his denomination. He was the first ruling elder to act as Mod-
erator of the Cherokee Presbytery, and the first President of
the Y. M. C. A. at Dalton.

He is a Mason. In politics he has been a lifelong Demo-
crat. Apart from his professional and scientific reading, he
prefers history and biography, and considers his private study
of these two branches of literature, especially biography, as the
strongest influence upon his own success. Another important
factor has been contact with the foremost men of the day at
home and abroad.

To the young, he says : "Make the most of opportunities for
a general education, choose a calling or profession in which you
can work with the heartiest pleasure, seek to learn all that may
be learned of that calling or profession and then stick to it, do-
ing your best always, ever remembering that he who is most
useful in his day and generation is most successful."

Professor Showalter was married to Miss Callie Walser, of
Texas, on November 13, 1881. Seven children have been born
to them, all of whom are living. A. B. CALDWEI/L.

Jfflarton Hutfjer prittatnu

MARION LUTHER BRITTAIN was born in Ogle-
thorpe county, Ga., on November 11, 1865, near the
town, of Lexington. His father, Dr. J. M. Brittain,
is a minister of the Baptist denomination and has held success-
ful pastorates in Covington, Barnesville, Eatonton, and other
cities of the State. His mother, Ida Callaway, is from the well
known Wilkes county family of that name, and she was born
on land which has been in possession of her people for more
than a hundred years — ever since it was settled by her ancestor,
Col. John S. Callaway, to whom it was granted for services
rendered during the Revolution.

The two families are English and Welsh and first settled in
Virginia, but near the close of the eighteenth century joined
several others wrho left the Old Dominion for the pioneer re-
gions of Georgia. One of the Callaway brothers left the rest
of the party in North Carolina and accompanied Daniel Boone
to the still more unsettled lands of Kentucky, where, as the
early chronicles of the country show, he did good service in the
wars with the Indians.

M. L., or Luther as he is widely known, like most preachers'
sons, was brought up all over the State, obtaining his early edu-
cation in various towns where his father was stationed during
his youth. He worked one year on the farm and one in a store,
his parents taking this means of delaying his entrance into col-
lege for which he was prepared at the age of fourteen.

He entered the Freshman class at Emory College and four
years later graduated from this institution with the Greek medal

13

194 MEN OF MARK

and the English Professor's testimonial that he was "the best stu-
dent in that department Emory College has had in ten years."

Later he did graduate work at the University of Chicago and,
after a year's work in order to secure the necessary funds,
rounded up his career as a student by a trip to Europe, where
he spent several months during the year 1888.

His life-work has been teaching, and he began in the coun-
try school, at "the Byals Institute," Gordon county. After one
year's labor in the mountains school he was elected to a position
in the Atlanta system. He taught two years as principal of the
Crew Street grammar school and was then transferred to the
Boys' High School. He was promoted from grade to grade
until he was made head of the Department of Languages, in-
cluding Greek, Latin, and Spanish. After thirteen years of
service in the city system he was, through the advice of Gov-
ernor ISTorthen, elected Superintendent of the Fulton county
schools which position he now holds. For several years past in
connection with this work he has been one of the lecturers at
Cox College, having in charge the work in Pedagogy.

His work in Fulton county has been particularly fruitful.
When he assumed charge the free school term lasted only five
months in the year and the entire amount annually paid to the
teachers was less than eleven thousand dollars. He conducted
two campaigns to remedy this by local taxation. Alone and
practically unaided he went to every school house and church in
the county to arouse the people on this subject and was fortunate
enough to secure a complete victory. To-day as a consequence
every child in Fulton county may have nine months of public
school training and the teachers' pay roll has more than trebled
in amount, being thirty -two thousand dollars for 1907.

In addition he has initiated and superintended the erection
of twelve new school houses, costing thirty thousand dollars,

MARION LUTHER BRITTAIN 195

during his term of office, and the larger amount of this money
was raised under his supervision and in response to his appeals
to the people, the county being able to appropriate less than half
of this sum for new buildings.

Mr. Brittain has earned some reputation as a writer during
his career. His first book, "Introduction to Caesar," published
by the American Book Company, has had a sale of fourteen
thousand copies and is used in more than a dozen States. Be-
sides this he has published a small volume on "Sunday School
Methods" and a "History of the Second Baptist Church of At-
lanta." For the last seven years he has been one of the regular
writers of the Sunday School lessons published by the Sunday
School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, and a con-
tributor to The World's Work and other magazines.

In the line of his profession he has been signally honored by
his fellow-workers. For three years he was President of the
Atlanta Teachers Association and during 1905-6 was at the
head of the State organization. For three years the Baptist
Young Peoples Union of Georgia elected him as their leader
and he is a member of the Home Mission, the State and the
Baptist Education Boards, besides being a director of the At-
lanta Y. M. C. A. and a member of the "Ten" club. In addi-
tion he has been offered the presidency of Cox College and twice
urged to accept a professorship in Mercer University.

In 1889 he was united in marriage to Miss Lettie McDonald,
the daughter of Dr. Henry McDonald, for twenty years the dis-
tinguished pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Atlanta.
Three children have been born of the union, McDonald, Marion
L., Jr., and Ida Louise. The family home is on Capitol Ave-
nue in Atlanta.

ISTo sketch of Mr. Brittain would be complete, however, with-
out at least a passing reference to an incident in his career
which caused much comment at the time of its occurrence. In

196 MEN OF MARK

the Summer of 1897 The Atlanta Constitution inaugurated
a "Missing Word" contest in which that periodical agreed to
give one thousand dollars to the one of its readers who could
supply a certain word which was omitted from a sentence printed
in that paper. The sentence was taken from a rare old book on
English literature. There were only one or two copies in the
State and the managers of the contest took the only volume
about Atlanta — which was in the public library — and locked it
up in their safe. Some months previous in making a study of
literature Mr. Brittain had read thirty or forty books on this
subject and among them this very text. When the contest was
announced he was the only one among sixteen thousand contest-
ants who could supply the word, and not only so but told the
manager the very chapter — the last in the book — from which
he had obtained the sentence. Accordingly, a committee com-
posed of Chief Justice Simmons, Comptroller-General Wright,
and Paul Romare awarded him the check for $1,000, the only
"easy" money the subject of our sketch thinks he has made in
all his rather arduous career. W. W. LANDRTJM.

Robert €morp

ROBERT EMORY PARK, State Treasurer of Georgia,
was born in LaGrange, Troup county, Ga. He re-
ceived his academic education at Greenville Academy
and at Brownwood Institute, LaGrange. He entered Emory
College in 1860. In 1861 he was a student in the Junior class
in Auburn, Ala., from which place he joined the Macon Con-
federates, a military company organized at Tuskegee, Macon
county, Ala. The company was composed of one hundred and
six men, about thirty of whom became commissioned officers.
This company reached Manassas July 22, 1861, the day after
the bloody battle, and assisted in burying several hundred Fed-
eral soldiers.

When the company was re-organized at Yorktown the subject
of this sketch was unanimously elected Second Lieutenant.
His captain, R, H. Keeling, was killed at the battle of Seven
Pines, and Lieutenant Park commanded the company during
the remainder of the engagement. The regiment lost two hun-
dred and five killed and wounded out of four hundred and eight
present for duty. This battle occurred May 31, 1862, and two
days afterwards he was promoted First Lieutenant. As First
Lieutenant he participated in the seven days battle around Rich-
mond, the first Maryland campaign, the battle of Fredericksburg,
and the series of battles near Spottsylvania Court House. He
took part in the valley campaign under General Early, and was
present when Washington City was threatened. He commanded
his company after Captain McNeely was desperately wounded
and retired at Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, and was promoted

198 MEN OF MARK

Captain after Captain MclSTeely's retirement, remaining in com-
mand until lie was severely wounded, September 19, 1864, in
the battle of Winchester, and left in the enemy's hands. He
was confined at West's Prison Hospital, Baltimore, then at
Point Lookout, Md., then at Old Capitol Prison, and lastly at
Fort Delaware, from which place he was released June 14,
1865, and left for his home in Georgia the same day. For
eight months he was compelled to use crutches, and during the
time employed himself studying law.

He accepted a place in the Tuskegee High School with his
brother, James F. Park, Ph.D., LL.D., where he taught one
year. Then he was elected principal of Lucas Institute, Mount
Meigs, Ala., and two years later Principal of La Grange High
School, where he taught for two years. His health became im-
paired and he resigned and moved in 1ST2 to Macon, and be-
came Southern Agent of a large publishing house.

Mr. Park was married while at LaGrange to Miss Stella
Swanson. She lived only five months, dying at the early age of
eighteen years. Four years later he married Miss Ella H. Holt,
daughter of Gen. William S. Holt, of Macon. Mrs. Park died,
leaving two children, William Holt and Ella Henrietta.

On April 27, 1892, Mr. Park was married to Mrs. Emily
Hendree Stewart, of Atlanta.

Major Park, the 'father of Robert Emory, was a distinguished
scholar and eloquent speaker. He was devoutly religious and
a strong temperance advocate. His efforts in the temperance
agitation in the earlier days had much to do with the favorable
adjustment of this important question as a State issue.

Major Park graduated at the State University and became a
most successful teacher and planter. He was founder and the
first president of the La Grange Seminary for women. He was
a charter trustee for Emory College, and remained in that rela-

ROBERT EMORY PARK 199

tion until his death. Major Park died when the subject of this
sketch was about five years of age.

Robert Emory was left in tender years to the care and train-
ing off his mother. The strong- character and manly bearing to
which he has attained in his maturer years pay marked tribute
to the helpful influence of his early home life. The worthiness
of all her sons attests most beautifully the mother's Christian
service and the efficiency of her loving care, and to his early
home life Captain Park attributes whatever he has become as
a citizen and a man of affairs.

Arthur and Mary Park are the earliest known ancestors of
Robert Emory Park. They came from Ireland and settled at
Parksburg, Chester county, Pa., in 1720. Joseph Park, son
of Arthur and Mary, was an Ensign in the Colonial War, and
his son, John Park, was a Lieutenant in the Pennsylvania Con-
tinentals during the War of the Revolution.

Robert Emory Park is a consistent member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. He is useful in the councils of his
denomination and exemplary in his life. He has been a trustee
of Emory College since 1886. He has also been a trustee of
Wesleyan Female College — the mother of female colleges — lo-
cated at Macon, for many years. Emory and Auburn both con-
ferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.

Captain Park has been a lifelong Democrat and active in the ,
service of his party, but he has never sought political prefer-
ment, except for the place he now holds as State Treasurer, to
which he was elected October 1, 1900, without opposition. On
the corresponding dates 1902, 1904, and 1906, he was re-elected
and eiach time wiflhout opposition. He is now serving his
fourth term in the capacity of State Treasurer.

In the announcement issued by his friends advocating his
election, the following highly complimentary expressions are
found :

200 MEN OF MARK

"Born in Troup and reared in Meriwether, and for twenty-
eight years a citizen of this county (Bibb), he is widely known
as a gentleman of unimpeachable integrity, and of the highest
mental and moral worth, and possessing a broad and liberal
knowledge of men and affairs. His training in matters of
finance makes him peculiarly and eminently fitted for the ex-
alted station to which his friends would now call him.

"In the bloom of his early manhood, he followed the 'Stars
and Bars' of the 'Lost Cause.' In the sulphur smoke of bat-
tle, he was one of those who grandly and gloriously illustrated
the chivalry of the South, and in the time of peace, no less, has
he been found at the post of duty.

"Thoroughly identified with the agricultural and educational
interests of his native State, his service for sixteen years as a
member of the State Agricultural Society, and in later years
as editor and publisher of The Farmer and Dairyman, has been
intensely devoted to that which makes for the uplifting and
upbuilding of his beloved State.

"Without stint of words we do unhesitatingly and most ear-
nestly commend to the Democratic party throughout the State
the candidacy of our distinguished fellow citizen, Capt. Rob-
ert E. Park.

"In the rank and file of the party, he has been a consistent co-
laborer since earliest manhood. Such a man deserves well of
his party and country. When we honor him with the office he
is now seeking, we feel that we shall in turn be honored by his
faithful discharge of duty. So exalted a trust calls for our
truest and best men. Therefore, with a confidence born of a
knowledge of an intimate acquaintance with our friend and
neighbor, who for a generation of years has gone in and out
before us, we most cordially commend him as worthy of all
esteem."

ROBERT EMORY PARK 201

During Captain Park's first administration an incident oc-
curred that not only established his eminent fitness for the of-
fice he holds, but it became an event in the history of the State
that will fix permanently the financial policy to be pursued. In
March, 1901, it was ascertained that, the teachers in the public
schools of the State could not be paid in full for their services
without the use of what was generally known as the Public
Property Fund, amounting to four hundred and thirty-two
thousand, seven hundred dollars. This fund was, according to
the Constitution of the State, pledged for the payment of the
bonded debt of the State, and the Treasurer believed could not
be used for any other purpose whatever. He regarded this
feature of the Constitution as one of the many safeguards of
the Treasury, the purpose of which is to protect the honor and
credit of the State. His opinion was that if this fund could
be used for the pay of the public school teachers, then the
Governor would have the power to draw on it for any other
purpose ; and thus the money set aside to pay the debts and
protect the credit of the State could be squandered at the pleas-
ure of any reckless and extravagant administration, that might
chance to be installed in power through a political upheaval
or the caprice of voters.

The preceding Legislature, and others before, had recognized
the danger of establishing such a precedent, although it had the
legal right to authorize the use 'for the pay of the teachers by
providing for the return of the same. The Legislature left the
fund sacred, declining to make it available for the pay of teach-
ers. In the opinion of the State Treasurer, the demand was
now made upon him by the Governor to do illegally a thing
that the State Legislature refused to do when it could have
done so according to law. After deliberately making up his
mind on the subject, Treasurer Park, before refusing the war-
rants issued by the Governor and Comptroller-General upon

202 MEN OF MARK

that fund for the pay of the teachers, secured the opinion of
several eminent lawyers, all strongly favoring the course upon
which he had determined.

Governor Candler did not accept these opinions as a satisfac-
tory conclusion and directed that mandamus proceedings be in-
stituted.

Without making an elaborate statement of this very famous
trial, it is only necessary to say that the Treasurer was repre-
sented before the Courts in argument by Messrs. Dessau and
Guerry, and his nephew, O. A. Park, while the Attorney-Gen-
eral, Joseph M. Terrell, represented the Governor.

The argument was begun Thursday, May 23, 1901. The
final result of the case was announced by the Supreme Court
June 12, 1901, and thousands of extra papers were published
and circulated throughout the city of Atlanta and on the out-
going trains to adjacent towns and cities. The decision as
published in the extras said : "The Courts decide that State
Treasurer Park has no right to use the Public Property Fund
to pay the school teachers of Georgia, or for any other purpose
except the bonded debt of the State." The ten contentions
made by the Attorney-General were overruled.

The case is one of the most celebrated in the annals of the
State. The decision of the Supreme Court was most important
for many reasons. The authority of the State Treasurer has
been plainly defined and the inviolability of the clause of the
Constitution relating to the Public Property Fund has been so
established as to leave no room for further controversy. Again,
the decision brought the State face to face with a problem which
had been troubling the lawmakers for several years. It demon-
strated that the Legislature should make direct and liberal ap-
propriations for schools, pensions, and like purposes, and put
the Treasury in condition to meet these demands without embar-

ROBERT EMORY PARK 203

rassment, or cut down their appropriations and raise by taxa-
tion sums sufficient to pay them.

In a public statement made through the city papers, Treas-
urer Park generously resented the intimation that the decision
of the Supreme Court was in any sense a personal victory. He
was not seeking a personal victory. He only desired informa-
tion on a point that had caused much discussion and annoyance
and one that might result in serious complications. It was
generally agreed that it was wise that the question had been
raised and finally determined.

Captain Park had five brothers and two sisters. They were
Rev. William Park, D.D., editor of The Sandersville Herald
and Georgian for twenty-five years ; Maj. John W. Park, of
Greenville, Ga., late president of the Georgia Bar Association;
Hon. James F. Park, Ph.D., LL.D., late mayor of LaGrange;
Howard P. Park, A.M., who died a highly esteemed planter,
Mt. Meigs, Ala. ; Lemuel M. Park, Esq., late president Park
Cotton Mills, LaGrange; Mrs. M. C. Huntley, of LaGrange;
Mrs. V. V. Blalock, of Greenville, Ga., two ladies of great
accomplishments and loveliness of character.

W. J. NOBTHEN.

Herbert

INSPIRATION for the rising generation is given in the life-
story of Dr. Henry Herbert Johnson, a Georgia country
boy, who, unaided, has gained a high place in his profes-
sion. His grandfather was Richard Johnson, of an old Virginia
family. Needham Thomas Johnson, his father, was a planter
in Houston county, Ga. With a few negroes, a good home and
simple living, no family was more independent and contented
up to the Civil War. When the war ended all except the home
was gone, and the father's health was wrecked.

Henry Herbert Johnson was born just as the war was at its
height — in November, 1861. His first memories were closely
associated with the struggle of parents, who had known better
times, to overcome the difficulties of adverse conditions.

When Henry Herbert was old enough to go to school, he was
old enough to do the farm work, and, anxious as his parents
were to give him an education, it was only with great difficulty
and sacrifice that they could spare him for even a part of the
time for school attendance. He, however, was very studious,
diligent and ambitious, and bore off the prizes offered at the
country schools in every case but one, when he and his closest
opponent had a tie. His parents managed to give him a short
term in the Hawkinsville High School ; after this he was com-
pelled to give up all hope of a higher education. He was not
willing to be a farmer all his life, and he resolved to become a
dentist. To make the money to pay his way, he joined a young
friend, who had credit, in buying a traveling threshing machine.
A country doctor, who was his friend, loaned him a treatise on
Anatomy, another on Physiology, and a United States Medical

HENRY HERBERT JOHNSON 205

Dispensatory. While lie was itinerating with his thresher, he
spent all his leisure in reading these preparatory books. He
had made some money, and after selling his interest in the ma-
chine, he had enough to begin a course in the Baltimore College
of Dental Surgery. He was twenty-five years old when he
graduated from that College in 1886. He had been forced to
borrow some money to finish his course, and he had none with
which to buy his outfit. He returned to his home without a
cent and opened his office in Hawkinsville. He had many
friends there and soon built up a profitable practice.

Dr. Johnson joined the Georgia State Dental Association and
won recognition by an essay which he read, and further fame
by a useful invention for the aid of dentists. He was then
invited by a firm of dentists in London, England, to take a part-
nership in their office, and he did so. After two years, finding
his father's health was giving way, he came back to America
and settled in Atlanta as a partner of Dr. Holliday.

In 1891 he opened an office in Macon and is still a resident
of that city. He was elected Professor of Prosthetic Dentistry
and Metallurgy in the Southern Dental College of Atlanta, and
goes there each week to lecture and hold a clinic.

Dr. Johnson also assumed the editorship of The Southern
Dental Journal., and afterwards the editorship of The Dental
World and The American Dental Weekly. He has been a fre-
quent contributor to the dental journals throughout the country.
He was made a member of the Committee on Essays for the
World's Dental Congress at the Chicago Exposition, and for
the Third International Congress in Paris, France, he was se-
lected for a delegate and invited to write an essay. He could
not attend, but at the Fourth International Convention, which
met in St. Louis, he was Chairman of the committee on Organi-
zation for the State of Georgia. He has made several inven-
tions which are very valuable to the profession.

206 MEN OF MARK

Dr. Johnson has been for years a member of the Baptist
Church, and a Mason of high degree, a Knight Templar and a
Shriiier. He has filled the highest office in all these bodies
except the latter, thereby becoming a Past Master, Past High
Priest and Past Eminent Commander. He was for five years
a member of the Board of Dental Examiners of Georgia, and is
a member of the National, Southern and Georgia Dental As-
sociations, of the last two of which he is an ex-president. He
is a man of position in his community and a director in the
Commercial Bank.

Dr. Johnson's most beneficent work, taking it all in all, was
the securing of the appointment of a dentist to the State Lunatic
Asylum. He found that the suffering among the unfortunate
inmates resulting from defective teeth, aggravated their troubles
and interfered with treatment, especially convalescents, and that
only a specialist could properly care for them. He not only
succeeded in having the appointment made in Georgia, but his
papers on the subject have been read even in Nova Scotia, and
a committee was named to secure the appointment oi such
an officer to the hospital there.

Dr. Johnson was happily married to Miss Wilhelmina Wheel-
er, February 9, 1897, and they have two children.

He is enthusiastically devoted to his profession and he has
a. fame wider than his own State. Starting as a farmer boy
who lived twelve miles from a town, working a large part of his
time at heavy farm work until he was almost of age, snatching
his chances to secure mental culture, and finally his profession,
and reaching by his unaided efforts the high position he now
holds, he may well be regarded as one of the "Men of Mark in
Georgia." He shows, by the success he has achieved, the possi-
bilities of overcoming almost insurmountable obstacles.

Dr. Johnson is but a representative of the best of our rural
people. His family, while plain and reduced in circumstances,

HENRY HERBERT JOHNSON 207

were among the best in the land. The Johnsons were repre-
sented by Richard Johnson, grocer in the London Company in
1620. liichard, Thomas and William Johnson were gentlemen
in Virginia as early as 1637.

The Holmes family had long been in Virginia and North
Carolina, and is one of the best of the families in that section.
'Squire Johnson, as JSTeedham Johnson was called, was an in-
fluential citizen of his community. Isaac Holmes, the father
of Dr. Johnson's mother, was a member of the Legislature from
Houston county, Ga., and a man of independent property.
While the surroundings of the country home were very plain,
the people in it were the equals by birth and position of any in
the land.

Dr. Johnson is a living example of the rule which he laid
down in an interview. When asked what is the best method to
secure success in life, he said : "Systematic living, regular and
prudent hours for the rest of mind and body. Avoid stimulat-
ing and intoxicating drinks. Cultivate habits of industry."

GEORGE G. SMITH.

Jf rancte

FRANCIS HENRY GAINES, minister and college presi-
dent, came to Georgia from Virginia, though a native of
Tennessee, and has become a strong and active force in
the religious and educational interests of the State.

He was born at Tellico Plains, Monroe county, Tenn., July
25, 1852. His father, John R. Gaines, was a successful farmer
in that section and especially fond of his home life. Whilst he
was a man of mental vigor and strong character, he never al-
lowed himself drawn into what is called public life. He was
active in the support of all worthy public interests and he dis-
played a most worthy citizenship in the advocacy of high ideals
in home and community life.

The mother of Francis Henry Gaines was Sarah Rice, before
marriage. She died during the early childhood of the son
and he was thrown entirely upon the care of the father and the
older members of the family.

As a boy he had a vigorous constitution and he inherited from
his father great energy of spirit and activity. He did all kinds
of farm work and so laid the foundation for a strong and health-
ful manhood that has greatly aided his life-work.

His early physical training, he regards, as possibly the best
part of his education. He was apt at school and made good
progress in books from the start. He received his primary and
secondary education at Croton Academy, Tennessee, and, later,
at Hiwassee College. He was graduated from Cumberland
University, at Lebanon, Tenn., in 1870. His theological course
was taken at Union Theological Seminary, Virginia. He was
graduated from this institution in 1876.

FRANCIS HENRY GAINES 209

He began the active work of life as a Presbyterian minister
as pastor of the Hopewell and Clintonville churches, Kentucky,
where he remained until May, 1878. He was pastor of He-
bron church, in Virginia, from May, 1878, until November,
1883. He was then elected pastor of Falling Spring church,
Virginia, where he served for five years.

The Presbyterian church at Decatur, Ga., called him to its
pastorate in 1888. On July 17, 1889, at his suggestion a
meeting of citizens was held at his residence to consider "the
need and the feasability of establishing in Decatur a school for
young ladies and girls, to be of high order and under Presbyte-
rian control and influence."

Because of his previously expressed interest, Dr. Gaines was
called to preside over the meeting. After free and ifull discus-
sion, Col. George W. Scott offered the following resolution :

"Resolved, That we determine to establish at once, a school
of high grade."

A committee, with Dr. Gaines as chairman, was appointed to
prepare, and report at a subsequent meeting, a plan of organi-
zation. It was he who suggested the ideal of the institution
and has nominated nearly all the officers and teachers from its
beginning to the present.

The school was started, as the Decatur Female Seminary.
About one year after the organization Colonel Scott contributed
forty thousand dollars to the endowment, and the name of the
institution was then changed to Agnes Scott Institute, in mem-
ory of the mother of Colonel Scott. This amount was promptly
supplemented by other generous Christian people. Later,
Colonel Scott added to his donation sufficient funds to make his
entire contribution for the support of the College amount to
$170,000. In 1906, having attained to the grade of a col-
lege, the institution became Agnes Scott College by charter
amendment.

14

210 MEN OF MARK

In 1895, Dr. Gaines resigned the pastorate at the Decatur
Church to accept the presidency of this most promising institu-
tion, established for the education of young women. Dr.
Gaines had lived in the service of the people of Decatur for seven
years, and his fitness for such executive position was fully ap-
preciated and his service, as the head of the institution for eigh-
teen successive years, has demonstrated the wisdom of the
choice of the board of management. The school has prospered
and grown uninterruptedly, under Dr. Gaines's executive con-
trol. Whilst his discipline is positive and firm, his kindly na-
ture and very attractive manner give him rather the parental
relation to the young women under his care, so that he manages
the large student body without friction or jar. The school
commands patronage from a very extended territory, having
had students from other States, both North and South.

Dr. Gaines has calm, dignified manner, but is easily accessi-
ble, though sometimes he appears reserved. He is deeply
thoughtful, always conservative and never extreme. He is a
most mild mannered man and of most lovable nature, a most
diligent student of nature, of books and of men. He is slow to
form and express an opinion. This makes him unusually ac-
curate. He is a thinker above the average, especially in the
realm of philosophy and theology. He does not love books be-
cause they are books; he loves them for the truths they teach
and the great principles they expound. He has no patience with
trash, whether in books or among men.

In 1894, the year before he was called to the presidency of
Agnes Scott, Davidson College, North Carolina, conferred upon
him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. As a minister
Dr. Gaines is always instructive. While he does not now have
any pastoral connection, his services are frequently solicited by
the ministers of his denomination. His pulpit style is always
didactic and expository. His book, "Bible Course: Outline and

FRANCIS HENRY GAINES 211

Notes," published by the Franklin Printing and Publishing
Company, Atlanta, has been widely used by the members of his
denomination. His main study is the Bible and standard works
on philosophy and theology.

Recalling the past of his own life and feeling an abiding in-
terest in the young about him, his constant exhortation is :
"Make God first in all things. Do your best and trust Him.
God helps those who help themselves."

Dr. Gaines was married to Miss Mary Louise Lewis, of Vir-
ginia, May 17, 1877. They have had only one child — a son—
Dr. Lewis M. Gaines, who is now professor in the Medical De-
partment of Wake Forest College, North Carolina.

W. J. ISTOETHEN.

Bafofo talker.

AMONG the leading young business men of the State is
John David Walker of Sparta. Mr. Walker was born
in Augusta, January 6, 1871. He has an illustrious
ancestry. His Walker ancestors were among the earliest set-
tlers in Virginia. They can be traced without a break to
David Walker, who was born before the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century, and who had high place in Virginia in the
middle of the same century.

By the records of Bristol Parish, Va., Freeman, son of
David, was born in 1734. The family records begin with this
Freeman Walker, who married a daughter of John Minge, in
Charles City county. One of his sons, whose name was also
Freeman, was the distinguished Freeman Walker, a leading
lawyer and prominent politician in Augusta, who was at one
time Mayor of the city of Augusta and afterward United States
Senator. Hon. Freeman Walker married Mary Garlington
Cresswell, daughter of Col. David Cresswell and Phosbe Talbot.
One of his sons was George A. Beverly Walker, who married
Miss Lucy Pearson. Mr. George A. Beverly Walker was the
father of Miss Lucy Walker, who married Col. Clarence V.
Walker, and who was the mother of John David Walker. By
the marriage of Col. Clarence V. Walker, who, while bearing
the same surname was not a kinsman of his wife, he became
closely connected with the Talbots, Conways, the Garlingtons
and the Cresswells, all historic families in eastern Virginia.

Colonel Walker, the father of John David Walker, was one of
the most genial and popular men of the city of Augusta, as well
as one of the most prominent. The celebrated Gen. William H.

JOHN DAVID WALKER 213

Talbot Walker was the great-uncle of Mr. Walker. The Walk-
ers were more distinguished socially than rich financially, and
young Walker had his own way to make in the world. While
it was the desire of his friends that he complete his education
by taking a full university course, he preferred to enter the com-
mercial world at the early age of thirteen. He began business
life as a clerk of the Southern Telegraph Company. In one
year he was promoted to the position of bookkeeper for the com-
pany, then for several years was bookkeeper for large mer-
cantile houses, and when a youth of nineteen, he went to Sparta,
Ga., to take the responsible position of cashier in the private
bank of R. A. Graves. He was careful, competent and reliable
and did much to build up the business, and at the time of the
death of Mr. Graves in 1902 he was shown the distinguished
honor of being appointed sole executor of Mr. Graves's large
estate.

In 1893, when 22 years of age, Mr. Walker was married to
Miss Christine Berry, of Sparta. At this time he was Cashier
of the Bank of R. A. Graves, Treasurer of Hancock county,
Treasurer of the town of Sparta, President and General Mana-
ger df the Sparta Brick Company, and also conducted a large
insurance business.

After Mr. Graves's death, Mr. Walker continued to operate
the Bank of R. A. Graves, serving in the capacity of President,
and the business still prospered under his capable management ;
but deeming it best, in view of the large interests entrusted to
him, Mr. Walker organized the First National Bank of Sparta
as successor to the Bank of R. A. Graves, and was elected its
President. He is also President of the Bank of White Plains ;
Jones County Bank; Bank of Gray; Bank of Mineral Bluff;
Bank of Hiram ; Citizens Bank, Reidsville ; Jefferson County
Bank, Wadley, Ga. ; President of Hancock County Land Co.,
The Union Store, Sparta Realty and Improvement Co. ; Vice-

214 MEN OF MARK

President of The Georgia Fire Insurance Co., Cedartown;
Sparta Cotton Mill; and Treasurer Cotton Journal Publishing-
Co., Atlanta. He conducts a large vehicle business in Sparta
and also runs a country store at his large 8,000-acre farm. He
has the largest insurance and real estate business in Hancock
county and is an extensive property owner.

When the effort was made by combinations to so depress the
price of cotton as to threaten the planters with ruin, Mr. Walker
promptly united with the Southern Cotton Association and
through his efforts among the banks of the South, raised $10,000
with which to carry on the work. As an evidence of the appre-
ciation of the service rendered, he was presented with a hand-
some silver service by the southern bankers at New Orleans
April, 1905.

The foundation stone of Mr. Walker's remarkable success
has been integrity. He has been an active but unpretending
Christian. He is a leading member of the Methodist Church,
and has been a lay delegate to its highest legislative body, the
General Conference.

Mr. Walker's ancestors, to whom a mere allusion has beeu
made, have been famous in the history of America. His
grandfather four times removed was for twenty years a mem-
ber of the House of Burgesses in Virginia and a member of the
Georgia Conventions and the Georgia Legislature. His ances-
tor, Rev. James Cresswell, was one of the most distinguished
Presbyterian ministers of his time. James Creswell's wife was
a first cousin of Mary Ball, the mother of Washington.

Mr. Walker, by his energy, capacity and integrity, has won
for himself a high place, and has reflected honor on the illus-
trious family from which he springs. His rule in life has been
to do the right thing in the right way and at the right time, and
hustle continually.

The Atlanta News on October 26, 1905, says concerning Mr.
Walker : "One of the strong and vital factors in the movement

JOHN DAVID WALKER 215

which has resulted in giving us something like adequate prices
for our staple crop is John D. Walker, of Sparta, Ga. It
would be difficult to overestimate the value of the work he has
accomplished in behalf of the farmers of the South.

"That the Southern Cotton Association has done good work
is no longer a matter of debate. The fact is thoroughly estab-
lished. And in connection with his work, too much can not be
said in praise of Mr. Walker, who succeeded in raising $10,000
from among the banks of the South for the purpose of carrying
on the work.

"As a result of his work for the Southern Cotton Associa-
tion, Mr. Walker is known throughout the South. Thousands
of farmers and cotton dealers know him, not personally, but by
reputation for what he has accomplished for them. Hon. Har-
vie Jordan, president of this gigantic organization, has pro-
nounced words of praise on Mr. Walker's work which would
serve well as a memoriam, and would not be out of place if
framed in a wreath of gold. He said: The work you have
done in behalf of the Southern Cotton Association has not been
surpassed or equalled by any other man in the South, and the
fund which you have so unselfishly sought to raise has enabled
the Southern Cotton Association to accomplish a work that
could not have been accomplished without the funds raised
by you.' \

"He has the honor of being Treasurer of the Georgia division
of the Southern Cotton Association, and President of his countv

V

division. Governor Smith made him a member of his military
staff with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

"He has been a County Commissioner and has twice success-
fully led the slogan against the whiskey sale in Hancock county.
This young man of intellect and Christian character is an ex-
ample in Georgia history of what a boy without means can
accomplish. Quiet in manner and attending strictly to business,

he has a bright future before him." ~

GEOKGE G. SMITH.

. Jletoman.

WILLIAM T. NEWMAN was born in Knoxville, Tenn.,
Jnne 23, 1843. He belonged to a family noted for
patriotism and fearless independence. His father,
Henry B. Newman, distinguished himself as a gallant Captain
in the Mexican War.

William Truslow attended the schools of his native city and
received good academic education, but was not graduated at
college, as he entered the Civil War at seventeen years of age.
He was mustered in as a private in the Lookout Eangers at
Chattanooga, Tenn., under the command of Capt. W. F. Rags-
dale. This company subsequently became Company H in the
Second Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry.

The modest spirit and manly bearing of the young cavalry-
man attracted attention and he was soon promoted to the rank
of Lieutenant. He made a good record as a soldier. He was
in the engagement of Fishing Creek, Ky., in which General
Zollicoffer was killed. He took part in the fights attending the
occupation of Cumberland Gap by the Federal forces under
General Morgan of Ohio. He was also in the battle at Perry-
ville and the other engagements resulting from General Bragg's
invasion of Kentucky and was later in the battle of Murfrees-

«/

boro. He then served for several months in the cavalry bri-
gade commanded by Gen. John Pegram.

Lieutenant Newman received a severe wound in the leg and
was captured at Somerset, Ky., and sent to Lexington, and from
there to Camp Chase, at Columbus, O., and finally to Johnson's
Island, where he remained a prisoner until August, 1863. He
was exchanged at City Point and rejoined his command at

WILLIAM TRUSLOW NEWMAN 217

Knoxville. With his regiment he participated in all the en-
gagements leading up to the battle of Chickamauga. He ac-
companied Gen. Joe Wheeler on his famous raid through Ten-
nessee and was in engagements with the enemy almost every
day. During the spring of 1864, he was in the fights at Dalton,
Kesaca, Adairsville, New Hope Church, and the battle around
Atlanta.

July 30, 1864, his company, while attached to General Jack-
son's brigade, came upon the Federal cavalry near Jonesboro
tearing up the track of what is now the Central of Georgia Kail-
way. A serious engagement resulted, in which Lieutenant
Newman led his company and received a wound which caused
the loss of his right arm. He was on his way to rejoin his
command when the armies of Lee and Johnston surrendered.

He came to Atlanta soon after the war and studied law in
the office of Judge John L. Hopkins. He was admitted to the
bar in 1867 and at once began an active practice. His remark-
able aptitude for the law, his industry and personal popularity
very soon enabled him to draw around him a good clientage, and
his practice rapidly increased. During the war he believed that
it was the duty of every young man to rally to the defense of his
country, and at this time when Republican institutions were
menaced, and his own section oppressed as the result of the
reconstruction measures, the young lawyer believed it to be the
duty of good citizenship to take an active interest in public af-
fairs. He became the leader of the young men of Atlanta in
the patriotic work of restoring the government of the State to
its own people. While absolutely fearless, he was at all times
cool and clear headed, and became distinguished for tact and
political judgment, He became the intimate friend and com-
panion of the leading men of the State, who placed great value
not only upon his intrepid spirit and patriotic views, but who
also relied upon his prudent and wise counsel. No young man

218 MEN OF MARK

during those dark days deserves higher credit for his tireless
efforts in behalf of the rights of the people.

In 1871 he was elected City Attorney for the city of Atlanta.
At that time municipal affairs were in a somewhat chaotic con-
dition. In the conduct of the legal business of the city, he was
remarkably successful, and during the twelve years in which he
held this important office very few judgments were had against
the city, and the vast majority of cases were dismissed by the
court on points raised by the legal acumen and research of the
City Attorney. His services as a city official became almost
invaluable, and even after he left the office he was retained as
special counsel in all important cases in which the municipality
was interested.

After leaving his official position he formed a copartnership
with Capt. W. D. Ellis, and the firm of Newman and Ellis was
rapidly acquiring reputation and a large practice when the
senior member was elevated to the Federal Bench.

In 1886, that splendid jurist, Judge McCay, United States
District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, after a
life of usefulness and distinction, was called to his reward.
Senator Alfred H. Colquitt, United States Attorney B. H. Hill
and the lamented Henry W. Grady personally presented to
President Grover Cleveland the name of William T. Newman,
endorsed by the bar of the district for this exalted position.
The President promptly made the appointment, and the Senate
unanimously confirmed it.

Judge Newman was one of the first Democratic appointees
to the Federal Bench in the South after the war. When he
took his seat the United States Court was regarded by our peo-
ple generally as a foreign tribunal, and comparatively little civil
business was brought in it, as the lawyers felt more at home in
the State courts. From the day Judge Newman held his first
term the court began to grow in popularity and importance. Its

WILLIAM TRUSLOW NEWMAN 219

business rapidly increased, and the people soon commenced to
regard the court as a part of their own judicial system, and the
lawyers filed in this court all the cases over which it had juris-
diction. Under Judge Newman's administration, many impor-
tant cases, involving great principles both of law and equity,
have been decided. It has been very rare that the Judge has
been reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals, and in several
instances where he has been reversed, the Supreme Court of the
United States on appeal or writ of error, has sustained Judge
Newman's decision. This marked growth of the court has been
largely due to two causes, — Judge Newman's personal popular-
ity, and the perfect confidence of the bar in his ability, impar-
tiality and integrity. The lawyers not only admire and respect
him as a Judge, but they feel for him genuine affection as a
man. In the nearly twenty years of his service there has never
been an unpleasant or adverse criticism of his judicial conduct.
No litigant has ever left his court room feeling that he had been
unjustly treated, and no lawyer has ever left his presence at the
conclusion of his case without realizing that he had been fully
and fairly heard and his cause impartially considered. His
intellectual qualities are solid, rather than of a shining order.
He combines in a remarkable degree the judicial temperament
with the legal intellect, He is, therefore, at all times calm,
patient, courteous, impartial, just and able.

Judge Newman on all occasions maintains the dignity and
respect due the august tribunal over which he presides, but he
does this, not by the adventitious aid of bailiffs and batons, or
the petty ways of small men in high position. He holds the
court up to the respect of all men by his official and personal
conduct, always characterized by courtesy, kindness and firm-
ness.

In his administration of the criminal laws of the United
States, while his sympathies are always quick and strong, and
his heart ever open to the "genial impulses of nature and truth,"

220 MEN OF MARK

yet lie does not permit his sensibilities to overcome, but only to
temper justice and judgment. Judge Newman is a man of the
simplest habits, perfectly unostentatious and the most approach-
able of men. His judicial opinions are remarkable for terse-
ness and lucidity. He makes little use of ornamentation in
diction, but goes to the truth and justice of the case with clear-
ness and directness. So satisfactory has been his work while
presiding in the Circuit Court that Judge Pardee practically
leaves to him the disposition of all business of the Circuit Court.
He is also frequently called upon to preside in the Circuit Court
of Appeals where his learning and wisdom are highly valued
by his distinguished associates. His career on the bench has
been one of steady and substantial growth, and in the opinion
of the members of the bar (who can always be depended upon
for truthful and just criticism), no Judge on the Federal Bench
stands higher as a jurist.

Judge Newman's personal appearance is remarkable for its
strength and dignity. He is unusually tall and erect, with a
face indicative of great strength and thought, courage, will-
power and endurance.

He was married in 1871 to Miss Fanny Percy Alexander,
the daughter of Hon. Ebenezer Alexander, for many years the
Judge of the Kuoxville Circuit Court of Tennessee, and one of
the most honored Judges of that State. It has been in every
respect a happy and fortunate marriage for him. His wife
has, at all times, been the mainspring of every useful endeavor
and the inspiration to every high and noble achievement. They
have been "blest with sons and daughters," and his family is a
charmed circle into which it is a privilege and a pleasure to
enter. In the beneficent serenity of this happy home, Judge
Newman has at all times found comfort, confidence and peace,
and here those flowers of head and heart, which have drawn to
him affection and admiration, have come to fragrant and abun-
dant fruitage. B. H. HILL.

5

.

.

222 MEN OF MARK

fishing and riding. Early in life he developed "bookish" ten-
dencies, especially along the line of historical literature.

At fourteen years of age his budding ambition led him to
essay original composition, poetry, prose, speeches and sketches.
His early schooling was obtained in a local school conducted by
a teacher employed by his father and several neighbors. Later
on he entered the Thomson High School, walking the three miles
morning and evening. This was the pivot on which his life
turned. The teacher in charge was the Rev. E. A. Steed, who
is the young preacher in Mr. Watson's story of "Bethany," and
according to Mr. Watson's own testimony, was not only an extra-
ordinary man from an intellectual standpoint, but was a most
potent factor in shaping Watson's future life.

He evidently became greatly attached to the promising youth
as he took special pains in instructing him how to analyze and
discuss questions and constantly urged him on to strenuous ef-
fort. That a strong tie bound teacher and pupil is proven by
the fact that when Mr. Steed was elected Professor of Latin in
Mercer University, Macon, Ga., he prevailed upon the elder
Watson to permit the youth to go with him, so that October,
1872, found young Watson entered as a Freshman at Mercer
on the endowment privilege, which had been established for the
benefit of "young men of decided promise," and which relieved
them of the payment of tuition fees.

John S. Watson's fortunes were then decaying and the panic
of 1873 gave him such a crushing blow that he could no longer
maintain his son at Mercer. Driven by this condition, the am-
bitious youth spent the three months vacation teaching school
in the Big Warrior district of Bibb county. He earned $150,
which enabled him to complete the fall term. He left the col-
lege at the end of the Sophomore year, June, 1874, and then
went to Screven county, and, as he puts it, "taught school for
a living."

THOMAS EDWARD WATSON 223

In November, 1876, being then in his twenty-first year, he
returned to Thomson to practice law. During a vacation visit
home the opportunity had been seized upon to read law under
Judge William R. McLaws, of the Augusta bar, and he was ad-
mitted to practice by the Superior Court of Richmond county.
He tells the story that his poverty was so great he could not
pay the admission fee of ten dollars, and Judge William Gib-
son instructed the clerk, Samuel H. Crump, to credit him for
the amount. He further adds that it was paid at the earliest
possible moment.

From 1876 to 1891, fifteen years, was a period of marvelous
success for the young lawyer, both in winning cases and mak-
ing money. He acknowledges that his constant opponent at
the Thomson bar, Col. W. D. Tutt, an unusually strong lawyer,
was of great help to him inasmuch as Colonel Tutt's able
opposition made it absolutely essential for him to thoroughly
prepare himself before going into trial. Mr. Watson's prac
tice carried him all over the State and his income was proba-
bly larger than any other country lawyer in the State, with
the exception of General Toombs and Benjamin H. Hill.

He gained a place at the bar so promptly that on October 9,
1878, when just entering his twenty-third year he married Miss
Georgia Durham, who has since shared his struggles and tri-
umphs. To them have been born three children, of whom two
survive.

Innumerable stories are told of Mr. Watson's methods and
his great success at the bar, but the space allotted to this sketch
will not permit their repetition. The substantial fact is that his
success was such by 1890 that he felt he could afford to gratify
a lifelong desire and serve the people in public office. Selling
some of his law books and giving the others away, he abandoned
the law and entered the political arena.

224 MEN OF MARK

Stripped of all impediments, with comfortable means, in the
prime of life, being only thirty-five years old, with a burning
zeal for the welfare of the people, thoroughly equipped for the
work with a large stock of historical, economic and legal lore
and a brain of the first order, he entered upon his public career.

There had been some preliminary training. In 1880 he had
been a delegate to the State Democratic Convention, which nomi-
nated Governor Colquitt. In 1882-3 he was a member of the
Georgia Legislature and in that body gave strong support to the
local option law, and was active in the passage of the bill which
subjected railroad property to county and State taxation in each
county through which the roadbeds ran. This, while valuable
experience, was only an incident in the life of a busy lawyer.
His real public career began with his entrance into Congress
in 1892. In those brief two years, 1892-3, he grew into a na-
tional figure, and has steadily grown larger in the years which
have since elapsed.

In Congress he supported the eight-hour bill and led the fight
in an all-night session which defeated certain corporate inter-
ests and passed the law requiring the railroads to equip their
freight cars with automatic car couplers. He made a point of
order and a speech which drew the Democrats to his support
and was thus enabled to defeat what was then known as the
"Cutting" bill. In later years this measure, now known as the
"Dick" bill, has become law, and Mr. Watson regards it as a
very dangerous measure, as it will operate to take away from
the States the control of the militia and to Germanize our mili-
tary system.

His great work in Congress was in giving a start to the rural
free delivery of mail. On February 17, 1893, he secured an
amendment to the Post Office Appropriation bill requiring the
Post Master General to use $10,000 of the appropriation carried

THOMAS EDWARD WATSON 225

by the bill to experiment with the free delivery of mail to coun-
try people.

Previous to that time, Mr. Wanamaker as Post Master Gen-
eral, had instituted what he called a rural free delivery of mail,
but Mr. Wanamaker's system confined the free delivery of mail
to incorporated towns and villages of not less than 1,500 inhabi-
tants. Therefore it was not a rural free delivery system at all.
Mr. Watson's amendment specifically required the Post Master
General to experiment with the free delivery of mail to people
living outside the limits of incorporated towns and cities. Mr.
Bissell, then Post Master General, declined to take notice of the
law.

After he went out and Mr. Wm. L. Wilson, of West Virginia,
became Post Master General, Congress in the meanwhile having
renewed the appropriation, Mr. Wilson obeyed the law and
made the experiment of delivering mail free to the people living
along a certain route in West Virginia. The experiment proved
a perfect success, and the Rural Free Delivery System gained so
rapidly in popularity and the size of its appropriation that to-
day more than 35,000 rural carriers are making their daily
rounds in every part of the United States.

Mr. Watson had been elected on the Farmers' Alliance plat-
form. His State was controlled by the Democratic party
through a machine as perfectly appointed, in its way, as the
Republican machine in Pennsylvania. Mr. Watson had become
a national figure, his ability was of the first order and his fight-
ing qualities second to none.

His continuance in office boded ill for the supremacy of the
Democratic party in Georgia and the interests allied with it,
for he had followed his Alliance principles into the People's
Party. So the fiat went forth that Watson must be defeated.
It could not be done honestly so it was done through crooked

15

226 MEN OF MARK

methods. It was charged that stuffed ballot boxes and fraud-
ulent counting were equal to the task of thwarting the will of
the people and throwing out of office their great Tribune.

He has never re-entered public life as an office holder, and
has resisted numerous efforts of his friends to draw him again
into active political life.

While in office his work as an author had its beginning in the
shape of a political textbook for the People's Party issued in
1892. It had a large sale, but is now out of print. About that
time he wrote "Sketches from Roman History." This, too, had
a large sale, but is also out of print. His first really ambitious
effort in authorship, "The Story of France," followed in two
large volumes. It met with success and has only recently gone
through another and revised edition. Its sales are on the in-
crease. It was first published in 1898 by the Macmillan Com-
pany. In 1900 came his "Napoleon" in one large volume
which has gone through six editions. In 1902 came "The Life
and Times of Thomas Jefferson." This has had good sale and
has been profitable to the author. In 1903 he wrote a histori-
cal novel called "Bethany" dealing with conditions in the South
just prior to and during the war. He says: "This book was
probably not well named" for at first it did not take, but recent-
ly its sales have shown a decided increase and it seems to please
those who read it.

He now has ready for the press the "Waterloo Campaign"
which will beyond question prove of most dramatic interest.

He is running "The Life and Times of Andrew Jackson" in
serial form through his monthly magazine at this time. He is
also conducting as owner and editor the Weekly Jeffersonian,
and the monthly Watson's Jeffersonian Magazine.

In 1896 Mr. Watson was the candidate of the Peoples' Party
for Vice-President, and in 1904 was named by the same party
its candidate for President. With no hope of success, but from

THOMAS EDWARD WATSON 227

a sense of duty lie toured the country and did a greatly needed
educational work. Such in brief outline is the record up to
date.

Now in his fifty-second year, with his genius ripened, his
powers unabated, his capacity for work prodigious, he sits in
his study, at his comfortable country home in the suburbs of
the little town of Thomson and puts into enduring print the
fruits of his labors. This brief sketch will not permit quota-
tions from his speeches or writings, but two or three recent
statements can not be left out. He says : "Am now and have
always been a devoted disciple of the school of Thomas Jeffer-
son. While I was born into the Democratic party and have
since been training with the People's Party, I hold party alle-
giance in subordination to my adherence to the principles of
what I understand to be Jeffersonian Democracy."

This is literally true. Mr. Watson has ever stood for "con-
victions," "principles" and not for mere party shibboleths. He
is a Radical Democrat of the constructive type, just as Thomas
Jefferson was a Radical Democrat of the constructive type. At
first almost alone, he has lived to see a great and growing army
of men who believe in principles first and party afterwards and
wrho are in the future to save Democratic institutions, if salva-
tion be possible. Again he says: "In one sense my life has
been a complete failure. I have not been able to do that which
I set out to do. My dream was to be useful to the country in
the public service. Perhaps, in a dim way, I even hoped to
emulate the example of such men as Stephens and Toombs.
Providence ruled it otherwise, and only a very few years of my
life have been spent in office. The force of circumstances at
last led me into the literary life. At my age one no longer
has illusions on the subject of holding office, therefore, it is
certain that I will never hold another. Perhaps my best work
has been done with the pen." There is almost a note of regret

228 MEN OF MARK

here, but his last conclusion is sound, his best work has been
done with the pen. Our children know Dickens, the writer,
but not Palmerston, the statesman. Macaulay, the historian,
all of us know, but who thinks of the contemporary statesman
of his time ?

The Providence which "shapes our ends" simply ruled him
out of the field where he thought he could do the most good and
placed him in the field where he could really do the greater
service.

In his chosen field there would have been more noise, more
vexation of spirit and less real service. As an educational force
he has accomplished much, multitudes of his countrymen are
better citizens and have a clearer sense of their rights and duties
because of his work. He says: "No man is conquered until
he himself hauls down his flag." There we have the keynote
of his character. Cheated of his rights, thwarted in a laudable
ambition, he turns to another field and wins worthily and well
an enduring fame. It is very hard to measure accurately a liv-
ing man, especially a many-sided man like Thomas E. Watson.
Lawyer, orator, statesman, author, good business man, it is hard
to measure him impartially when we are so near.

In getting a correct idea of a mighty mountain it is necessary
to have the perspective which only distance gives, so in measur-
ing men we must have the perspective which time only gives.
If one gazes at Chimborazo from a distance, its massive bulk,
its towering height, its symmetry of outline impress the eye
and mind as perfect in proportion, but go closer and defects
appear, its vast expanse is seamed and scarred with great gulches
worn by torrential rains of the ages, huge boulders disfigure its
rugged face, and one loses sight of the symmetry and strength
so captivating when at a distance. Watson has so many angles
that one seeing him from one angle only and at too close range
may get an entirely erroneous conception of the real man.

THOMAS EDWARD WATSON 229

His magazine well illustrates his character. For public and
private wrong-doing he has the bitter hatred of a strong and
honest man who wants nothing but his undoubted rights. For
the public wrong-doers and exploiters he has a store of vitriolic
and biting English equalled by no man of his day. But how-
ever bitter the arraignment, however impassioned the appeal,
his arguments and statements are always so cogent, lucid, and
logical that few men who have any prestige to lose, care to take
up the foils with him. After reading one of these scathing in-
dictments, one is amazed to find the next article of such tender
pathos and poetic beauty of imagery that it stirs long slumber-
ing chords of memory and makes us thankful that in the desert
of life are restful oases where may be found living springs of
peace and contentment.

A great man in everything he has undertaken, his enduring
fame will rest on his literary work and with our chcilclren his
historical and biographical work will be as classic as Macaulay's
or Dickens's England, or Carlyle's French Revolution are with
us. When the record of the men of our time in Georgia comes
to be made up in the future, in that small class which includes
Eobt. Toombs, Alexander Stephens and Benjamin Hill, will be
found of equal dignity the name of Thomas E. Watson.

BERNARD SUTTLER.

Malfeer $attergon Snman.

THE life of Walker Patterson Inman was typical of the
American citizen — quiet, useful and devoted to his fami-
ly, his friends, his church and his country. Of rather
a retiring disposition, and living in the quietude of his home,
he did not make much of a stir in the world, but those who knew
him best remember his integrity, his kindness of heart and his
true worth.

Born near Huntsville, Ala., June 18, 1828, of parents de-
scended from Revolutionary ancestors, he was left a penniless
orphan as a young boy. Moving to Tennessee, he lived in the
family and on the farm of his oldest brother, S. W. Inman.
After a short time he was given employment in the village store
of this same brother, and from this beginning gradually rose to
a partnership, developing habits of good business judgment,
integrity and industry, until he became one of the leading busi-
ness men of the community.

He married Miss Cordelia Dick, and soon afterward moved
to Ringgold, Ga., where he and his brother, Win. H. Inman,
engaged in banking. In 1859 he removed to Atlanta and con-
tinued the banking business during the early part of the war.
At the same time he was partner in the wholesale house of In-
man, Cole and Company. When Atlanta fell, he moved to
Augusta, where he lived from 1864 until 1869. Returning to
Atlanta, he entered the cotton firm of S. M. Inman and Com-
pany, which in a few years built up, perhaps, the largest cotton
business at that time in the world. He retired from business
several years before his death.

In November, 1892, his wife died and he married Miss Fran-
ces Jones, who survives him. By the first marriage there were

WALKER PATTERSON INMAN 231

four children : William H. Inman, John Walter Inman, Mrs.
James R. Gray and Mrs. Morris Brandon.

A candid estimate of the life and character of Mr. Inman
has, by common consent, placed him high among the citizens of
Georgia who, without aspiring to public station, have exerted
a powerful influence upon their epoch and environment. His
philosophy of life and conduct were marked by a wholesome
sanity, cheerfulness and sincerity. There was a directness in
his manner and in the processes of his mind, born of rugged
honesty and clear vision, which bespoke the confidence of wis-
dom and experience and inspired confidence in others. He ap-
plied to business affairs the business principles which are the
very logic of success, and yet where his personal interests alone
were concerned his warm humanity suffused and colored even
these material relations. The prudence and systematized in-
dustry of the man of affairs went hand in hand with an unfail-
ing kindliness of heart and the highest sense of fairness. In a
man whose success in life inevitably made him a notable char-
acter in spite of his retiring nature, these distinguishing attri-
butes exerted a strong influence upon the younger generation of
the business world.

His equable temper was not that of a man of negative emo-
tions, but of one whose stronger passions were kept in orderly
subjection by the dominance of his will, so while his convictions
were pronounced, he was tolerant of the opinions of others.

In the sheltered relations of the home circle, the fine qualities
of his mind and heart flowered in full perfection. The tender-
ness and solicitude which found so many forms of expression
reached their climax in his love of children, which increased, if
possible with his advancing years.

It is safe to say that outside of these immediate circles, The
Atlanta Journal, of which he was the president, claimed his
warmest devotion. He fully realized the power and influence

232 MEN OF MARK

for good which a public medium of wide circulation exerted on
the life of the people and the welfare of the State. The ma-
ture judgment and long experience he had acquired as a citizen
interested in every phase of civic life gave him a keen insight
into the needs of the people, not only in the larger outlines, but
in the infinite details which are relatively more important, and
his wise counsels were always on the side of good citizenship
and the public welfare. Many of his policies, unaggressively
suggested and finally crystallized into practice, prevail in Geor-
gia to-day, as a result of his timely counsels, with which his
name has never been publicly associated.

His interest in the practical affairs of the people was illus-
trated by his long and valuable services as one of the commis-
sioners of roads and revenues of Fulton county.

His personal affairs were so largely bound up with those of
the business community in which he lived that his business
sagacity was a well diffused benefaction. For many years he
was vice-president of the Fourth National Bank, of Atlanta,
and his knowledge of banking and credits rendered his services
invaluable.

His religious life was exemplary and consistent. He was a
member and Ruling Elder of the First Presbyterian Church,
and at the time of his death was the senior officer. His was
the cheerful piety which could see no reason why the Christian's
hope of Heaven should be shadowed with the sombre formalism
which may easily degenerate into cant, nor yet was it a detached
abstraction, for he carried his religious convictions into the
practice of daily life. It was as unostentatious as his charity,
of which many kindly deeds bore silent witness. Devotion it-
self could have asked nothing gentler than the manner of his
death. Midway of his eightieth year he passed, painlessly and
unaware, from quiet sleep into the long silence.

S. M. INMAN.

(/.

•

'
1

,

'

234 MEN OF MARK

S. C., the old home of his mother, Julia Erwin, where she was a
refugee while her gallant husband, whose sketch appears in an-
other part of this work, was at the front.

Clark received a thorough rudimentary education in the
grammar and high schools of the city, entering the University
of Georgia in the fall of 1880. He was known throughout his
school and college days as an apt student, with a fondness for
debating and the faculty of making and keeping friends. Upon
his graduation in 1883, he went directly to New York where
he took his first steps in his chosen profession on The New
York Times. Later he was at work on The Philadelphia Press.
On both of these papers he displayed the qualities which have
since distinguished his course. It was while on The Press that
he secured the famous interview with Samuel J. Tilden that
silenced the national Democratic demand for the re-nomination
of the "old ticket." Tilden had refused to make utterance on
the subject and public opinion conceded him the nomination
if he would consent. He broke his long silence by a definite
interview with the young reporter, positively withdrawing his
name from consideration. The interview was published next
morning in every daily newspaper in the country.

Captain Howell had, since 1877, been editor-in-chief of The
Atlanta Constitution. When Clark returned to Atlanta from
New York in 1884, he was assigned to the night-desk on that
paper. In 1885 he became night editor of The Constitution.
It was in this capacity that he came into contact with the bril-
liant Grady, who at this time, as managing editor of The Con-
stitution and as an orator of national fame, was writing his
name in indelible characters in the history of his country. For
a little more than three eventful years Mr. Howell was first
lieutenant and trusted friend and associate of this remarkable
man. It is not strange that under such virile and inspiring
tutelage the development of the broader qualities of his nature
should have undergone an infinite quickening.

CLARK HOWELL 235

When Grady was in demand for speeches throughout the
country, as happened in his later years, young Clark Howell
was left in practically full control of the news end of the lead-
ing paper in the South. It was then that he was laying the
generous foundations for the executive ability, the thorough
knowledge and the wide sympathies imperative to the man in
his position.

Another element had, meanwhile, entered into the molding
of his career. In 1886 he was nominated by one of two local
factions for the Legislature without his knowledge that his
name was even under consideration, and he led the ticket.

His university training, his newspaper experience and his
close association with his father, Grady and other prominent
men of the day, had given him the preliminary equipment for
this broader phase of his life. He met its exacting duties with
ease and competence. For three consecutive terms he served
Fulton county in the Legislature, the last one in the capacity
of Speaker of the House. It speaks significantly of the hold
he had on the hearts and the confidence of the people of Geor-
gia, that the General Assembly which conferred this last honor
upon him was known as the "Farmers' Alliance Legislature."
Its members had come directly from the masses of the largest
producing element in the State's population.

In 1889 Grady died and Clark Howell succeeded him as man-
aging editor. He served out his elective term in the Legisla-
ture of 1889-90 and refused election, feeling that his enlarged
editorial duties required his undivided attention until he could
master the last detail of directing the tremendous machinery
of a national newspaper.

In 1897 Captain Howell sold out his stock in The Constitu-
tion and retired from business. Although at that time, Clark
owned but few shares in the corporation, he had shown such
ability and attained such prominence that the new owners

236 MEN OF MARK

elected him to succeed his father as editor-in-chief. It is one
of the few instances in American journalism, where so young
a man has been given undisputed control of the policies and
direction of a journal of the importance of The Constitution.

In 1901 Mr. Ho well bought back the shares his father had
sold and subsequently in connection with Mr. Roby Robinson,
acquired the stock of the then largest stockholder, Col. W.
A. Hemphill. In the reorganization, Mr. Howell was made
president of the corporation and editor-in-chief of The Consti-
tution with Mr. Robinson as business manager.

Prior to this in 1896 he was elected as Democratic national
committeeman from Georgia, and has served on that highly im-
portant executive body for twelve years. With the passage of
the old United Press and the ascendancy of the Associated
Press, Mr. Howell was elected a director of the latter, a posi-
tion he still holds. He has been for many years a member of
the board of trustees of the University of Georgia.

Under the rotation plan of electing State senators the right
in 1900 fell to Fulton county. Mr. Howell was tendered the
nomination and was elected without opposition, becoming Pres-
ident of the Senate through unanimous choice of its members.
At the expiration of his term, the designation of a senator for
this district would naturally have £allen to Clayton county.
This county established a new precedent in Georgia politics by
voluntarily abrogating its right in favor of Fulton. Mr. How-
ell was again elected and again chosen President, his collective
terms aggregating five years.

At the close of his last term in the Senate Mr. Howell offered
as Democratic candidate for Governor of Georgia to succeed
Governor Joseph M. Terrell. The native energy of the man is
shown in one of the most remarkable and aggressive canvasses
in the history of southern politics. He spoke in nearly all of
the 145 counties in Georgia ; in some of them twice.

CLARK HOWELL 237

The vacillating and insecure arbitrament of politics decreed
that he should not attain this logical promotion in the line of
his public service. Stripped of all extraneous and meretricious
issues, the campaign had resolved itself into the historic diver-
gence between progressive-conservatism and ultra-radicalism.
Mr. Howell felt that he could not conscientiously subscribe to
policies which, in their extreme interpretation, he believed to be
unproved, superfluous and experimental. His position on these
policies cost him the governorship. His editorial affirming his
submission to the popular will and summarizing the convictions
the Creator gives all men the right to hold inviolate, stands as
one of the most manly, incisive and straightforward utterances
in Georgia journalism.

The key to Mr. Howell's success in professional and public
life may largely be found in the broad, constructive policies
exemplified by the man and through him in The Constitution.
Under his administration, that newspaper has a record for ag-
gression in industrial development, for devotion to the cause
of the people, and a political stability and sanity that has no
parallel in post-bellum journalism. Kecognition of this fact
is seen in the public honors bestowed upon Mr. Howell and in
the prestige and influence of The Constitution.

Mr. Howell has been twice married; in 1887 to Miss Harriet
Barret, of Augusta, by whom he had a son and a daughter ; and
in 1900 to Miss Annie Comer, of Savannah, two boys being
born of his second marriage.

An analysis of his career and the influences bearing upon it
disclose a man who has realized energetically upon his opportu-
nities; who has coerced opportunity when it was dilatory, but
who has sacrificed none of his manhood in the process.

S. W. DIBBLE.

George l^asrtnngton Cooper*

RICHAKD COOPER, of English parentage, came from
Orange county, !N". C., and settled in Montgomery
county, Ga., near the old Dead River Church, about the
year 1800. His children were George, William, David, Jane
and Rachel. William and David were bachelors, Jane mar-
ried James Middleton, and Rachel became Mrs. Rev. Win. Par-
ker. George married Nancy Conner, daughter of Rev. Wilson
Conner, one of the most prominent and forceful Baptist preach-
ers of Georgia. He was of Irish parentage, and came to Mont-
gomery county from South Carolina about 1799.

George Washington Cooper, inventor and patentee of the
"Cooper Plows," was one of the twelve children of George and
Nancy (Conner) Cooper. His parents were in many respects
an exceptional couple. His father was energetic, moral, mild
in disposition but firm in action and management; his mother
one of the noblest of women, intelligent, motherly, neighborly
and godly. They were of a class of farmers, in those days com-
mon in the prosperous sections of Georgia, who with their de-
scendants have made the State rich in sturdy, industrious and
fearless manhood and womanhood.

Young George was described in his youth as a "leader in all
boyish sports ; could run the fastest, jump the farthest and sel-
dom failed to take off the head of a turkey or squirrel with his
rifle." In temperament he was robust and energetic ; quick
witted, but mildly disposed and retiring; in action firm and
fearless.

In the winter of 1840-41 the young inventor moved to Screv-
en county with his father, who, though owning considerable

GEORGE WASHINGTON COOPER 239

property in Montgomery county, disposed of it in order to take
charge of the large estate of his bachelor brother William, who
had just died. He settled in what became known as Cooper-
ville, near Dover, on the Central Railroad.

In those days farm implements were crude, scarce and ex-
pensive ; farming was consequently arduous. Considerable
work was necessary to prepare ground, and the yield was cur-
tailed by insufficient breaking and culture. When just enter-
ing manhood, George realized this condition, and determined
to devote himself to the relief of the farmer, through the im-
provement of his implements. His father always had a black-
smith shop in which he made and repaired his own plows, vehi-
cles, etc., where George learned the use of tools, and the working
of iron.

He perfected a drawing-knife in 1850, and exhibited it at
the fair of the South Carolina Institute in Charleston that year,
and was awarded a diploma. This was the first exhibition of
any of his work, and he was very much encouraged by its re-
ception. He was at this time giving almost undivided atten-
tion to improvements in plows and plow-stocks. An adjustable
plow-stock was evolved in 1855, and patented January 1, 1856,
upon which he subsequently received first premium in every con-
test entered. It was exhibited in almost every agricultural fair
held between 1856 and 1873 in Georgia, South Carolina and
Alabama. In Louisville, Ky., in 1857, The United States Ag-
ricultural Society awarded him first premium (Gold Medal)
for the "best universal plow-stock" and "best subsoil plow."
Again, in 1860, in Charleston, he was given first premium for
best plow-stock, shovel and sweep. In 1859 at the Georgia
State Fair, Macon, he was awarded first premium for best one
and two-horse plows. Mr. Brinley, plow manufacturer of
Louisville, Ky., was dissatisfied with the award, and claimed
that Mr. Cooper received the consideration because he was a

240 MEN OF MARK

Georgian. He was immediately challenged for contest at the
Montgomery, Ala., Fair to be held the following week. He
accepted, with the result that Mr. Cooper was given first awards
by the unanimous decision of the judges.

In 1871, at the Industrial Exposition, in Savannah, Mr.
Cooper was awarded first premium on best one-horse mould-
board plow, best turning plow on rooter stock, iron standard
plow, and whiffle tree.

Doubtless the most notable contest in which the Cooper Plows
ever entered was in Atlanta in 1869. All of the principal plow
manufacturers in the United States were present, including
Brinley, of Louisville, South Bend Plow Works, of Indiana,
Peekskill Plow Company, of JSTew York, Avery, of Boston, and
Watt, of Kichmond. Mr. Cooper was awarded premiums for
best plowman, best one and two-horse turn plows, shovels, sweeps
and adjustable plow-stock.

In 1867 he perfected and patented an adjustable Rice Culti-
vator, on the priciples of which the improved cultivators of the
present day are made. Numerous agricultural societies and
kindred organizations awarded him prizes and gave him testi-
monials of the practical utility of his inventions.

Mr. Cooper's inventions include, drawing-knife, cultivator,
plow-stock, turn plows in eight shapes — numbers one, two, three
and four; and A, B, C, and D; sweeps, whiffle tree, and heel.
The last named was a very important, yet simple improvement.
Previous to the invention of the heel, there was no way to guide
the plow and regulate its depth except by "main strength and
awkardness." The best turn-plows of the present day are mod-
eled almost exactly upon the lines of the old Cooper plows and
the "Georgia" stock of to-day, used extensively by the farmers
throughout the State, is about the same as the old "Cooper
Cricket" stock of years ago.

Unfortunately for himself and fellow-farmers, Mr. Cooper's
health failed about 1875, and his death followed shortly after.

GEORGE WASHINGTON COOPER 241

At that time he was engaged in some of the most important im-
provements he had ever undertaken. An additional misfortune
to his family was, that his patent rights were disposed of for a
mere pittance, when they should have returned a handsome
royalty. A great benefactor to the agricultural class, he se-
cured very little to himself and family, financially. The idea
of money-making concerned him very little; his one absorbing
idea being an improved plow. There is no question that he
contributed more to the improvement of agricultural imple-
ments than any other man of his time.

In the early part of the war between the States he remained
at home, making and repairing plows for the farmers in the
surrounding country. When the danger of invasion of the
State by Sherman became imminent, he left the shop, and
joined Johnston's army above Atlanta. He was in a number
of the battles above Atlanta, and also the great battle of Atlanta.
His oldest son, George M., though a mere boy, was also in John-
ston's army, having joined early in the conflict, and remaining
to the end.

George W. Cooper was born in Montgomery county, April
21, 1821. He died in Screven county on August 9, 1877, and
is buried at Wade's Church burying ground. On May 26,
1843, he married Miss Sarah Lucretia Evans, daughter of Heze-
kiah Evans, of Screven county, and was survived by wife and
thirteen children. They were George M., Wilson H., Thomas
R, James H., John E., Charles M., and Robert L., Emma,
Laura, Sarah, Mary, Martha and Rossie.

A multitude of descendants and family connections are scat-
tered throughout this and adjoining States. Mr. Cooper's
mother was one of twelve children ; he was one of twelve, and
was the father of thirteen. Large families have been the rule
with this people. ROBT. L. COOPER.

16

Harrabee

JUDSON LABRABEE HAND, merchant, planter, manu-
facturer, banker, and legislator, of Pelharn, Ga., was born
on his father's plantation near Perry, Houston county,
Ga., March 20, 1851. When he was five years old the family
moved to Sumter county. His boyhood days were spent on
the farm. He was prepared for college at Pleasant Grove
Academy, Sumter county, where, in 1864, he was Captain of
the Pleasant Grove Guards, a military company composed of
students of the school. He entered the University of Georgia
in 1868. While there he became a member of the Kappa Al-
pha fraternity, and was editor and business manager of the col-
lege paper. He graduated in 1871 at the age of twenty.

Mr. Hand began the active work of life in 1872 by engaging
in agriculture and the lumber business at Pelham. He was at
this time well equipped for the labors of life. He was strong
in body and mind. He had learned to do his own thinking,
and to look at more than one side of a business enterprise before
engaging in it. His father, Columbus W. Hand, was a man
of strong character and deep convictions, who believed that no
greater misfortune could befall a young man than that he should
he allowed to grow up in idleness. Judson was put to work on
the farm when quite young. He was a robust, industrious, and
self-reliant boy, and after a few years was able to do with ease
every kind of farm work. As he grew older, he assisted his
father in the management of the plantation.

In 1863, the father joined the Confederate Army, leaving
the farm to the care of the mother and children. He partici-
pated in several important engagements, and attained the rank

JUDSON LARRABEE HAND 243

of First Lieutenant. He was wounded in one of the battles
around Macon.

It was wThile his father was absent with the army that young
Judson Hand first saw the serious side of life. Tongue nor pen
can describe the privations suffered by the families of the south-
ern soldiers during those trying times. Nor has the world
known a nobler type of womanhood than that developed in the
South during the Civil War. The heat of the conflict consumed
the dross as in a crucible and left only the pure and shining
gold.

Before her marriage, Mrs. Hand was Miss Columbia A.
Bower, whose ancestors emigrated from Flanders to Rhode Is-
land, and later in the eighteenth -century, moved to Georgia.
One of them was renowned as a painter. Mrs. Hand was anx-
ious that her own son should become a great and useful man.
She had unbounded confidence in him. When he was but a
school boy she would encourage him to read the biographies of
successful men, and would often assure him that he could ac-
complish just as much as they if he would properly equip him-
self for the task. Mr. Hand attributes to his early home train-
ing, more than to anything else, the success which has come to
him in life. He encountered many obstacles in his efforts to
obtain an education. He was but fourteen years old when the
slaves were freed. The whole section was in an unsettled and
chaotic condition, and continued so during the period of "re-
construction." Scores of other young men, less strong in body,
mind and character, and less fortunately situated in their home
lives, allowed their environment and the condition of the coun-
try to interfere with their educational training. Mr. Hand
not only secured a good common school education but was able
to graduate with honor from the university of his State.

He was just twenty-one when he entered upon his life-work.
He was prosperous almost from the beginning. He at one time

244 MEN OF MARK

owned more than 30,000 acres of land, 27,000 of which was
in virgin forest and 3,000 under cultivation. In 1894 he had
six hundred acres in watermelons. In 1891 he prepared and
published "Hand's Melon Code," a telegraphic cipher code.
At one time he was the largest melon grower in the world.

In 1876 he commenced a general merchandise business on a
small scale. This enterprise has prospered so well that now
the Hand Trading Company, of which he is the president, is
the largest dealer in plantation supplies in southern Georgia.
From 1878 to 1888 he was extensively engaged in the turpen-
tine business. In 1883 he was the largest naval stores opera-
tor in the South.

Mr. Hand is now president of the Hand Trading Company,
the Farmer's Bank, the Pelham Oil and Fertilizer Company,
the Pelham Manufacturing Company, the Abingdon Cotton
Mills, of Huntsville, Ala. and the Flint Eiver and Northeastern
Railroad. He is vice-president of the Albany Phosphate Com-
pany, and a director in many other corporations.

Mr. Hand served as mayor of Pelham in 1882-3 and has
served as councilman ever since. He represented his county
two years in the House of Representatives and his senatorial
district six years in the State Senate. He is a strong and ac-
tive Democrat and has never changed his politics. He is also
a Mason and a member of half a dozen commercial organi-
zations.

Mr. Hand's father was a planter. He died in 1880, at the
age of fifty-seven years. His most marked characteristics were
love of family and loyalty to friends. His people came from
North Carolina and settled in Georgia in the eighteenth cen-
tury. Branches of the family are said to have come originally
from Holland and settled in New York, Connecticut and Vir-
ginia. He married Miss Columbia A. Bower, and of the chil-
dren born to them five are now living, namely: Mrs. Emma

JUD80N LARRABEE HAND 245

Stewart, living on the old homestead ; Judson L., the subject
of this sketch ; Mrs. Ella McKellar, residing on a part of the
old homestead ; Mrs. Ida Scarborough, of Surnter county, and
Mrs. Alice Barrow, widow of Rev. T. A. Barrow. The mother
is still living and makes her home with her son at Pelham.

Judson Larrabee Hand has been twice married ; first, on Oc-
tober IT, 1877, to Miss Emma Collinsworth, to which union
three children were born; and, on March 1, 1898, to Miss Flor-
ence Hollis, by whom he has had four children.

As a boy and young man, Mr. Hand enjoyed reading books
on military matters and mechanics. He now reads history and
books on engineering, in addition to the daily papers and a few
high class periodicals. He loves his home and family, and his
principal recreations are playing with his children and riding
over his farms. His palatial home, "Highland Villa," with its
conservatory and artistic grounds is one of the noted places in
South Georgia.

Evidences of Mr. Hand's business enterprise and sagacity
are seen in the development and prosperity of the country every-
where around him. A few years ago he introduced into his
section the culture of Sea Island cotton by planting it on his
own farm, and it is now one of the most important crops in
south Georgia. He has always relied on his own judgment
in business matters. He says he has accomplished much more
than he ever hoped to accomplish, and that the obstacles that
he has encountered and overcome have contributed more than
everything else to his success. The advice he would give to
the young men of Georgia is that "temperate habits, fixedness
of purpose, perseverance, untiring energy, and ceaseless vigi-
lance, will give capacity for effective work, which, coupled with
an honest purpose to make one's success contribute to the wel-
fare of mankind, will yield true success."

D. A. TEDDER.

THE Aliens settled in Virginia in the early history of that
colony. As early as 1760 representatives of the family
came to the new colony of Georgia and settled in the par-
ish of St. George or the adjoining parish of St. Paul. In addi-
tion to the Aliens, the names Young, Murphey, Inman and
Jones were found among these early pioneers who settled on
Briar Creek and the Ogeechee River. They were all devoted
Whigs during the Revolution. From John Allen, wyho came
with this colony, sprang a second John who probably mar-
ried a Miss Young, as he named his son Young Allen.
This Young Allen married Miss Jane Wooten, a young woman
of considerable wealth, and being himself a man of means,
the young people were, for those days, wealthy. Before
the birth of their first child, who is to be the subject
of this sketch, the father died, and in two weeks the mother
followed. The boy was born February 3, 1836. Mrs. Al-
len had a young sister, Nancy, who had married a sturdy
planter named Hutchins. A child of hers had just died and
she adopted the little orphan and brought him up as her
own. He bore the name of Young Hutchins, and was fifteen
years old before he knew his name was Allen. His foster pa-
rents had removed from Burke county, where he was born, to
Merriwether, while he was an infant In a most excellent com-
munity in which were other kindred, who had removed from
Burke, in the healthy atmosphere of a rural community where
there was abundance, and yet where there was sweet simplicity,
the child grew to boyhood.

His aunt's husband was a plain, well-to-do farmer, and his
aunt was to him a true mother. He was sent to the country

YOUNG J. ALLEN 247

schools, and spent his Saturdays hunting rabbits or squirrels.
The little rifle his uncle bought for him is now the cherished
property of Dr. Yarbrough, to whom Dr. Allen gave it. He
was a hearty, healthy country boy, who was allowed great lib-
erty and yet kept from vicious temptations.

Dr. Otis Smith had a country school near LaGrange, known
as Brownwood — a Georgia "Rugby." Young Hutchins was
sent to this school to begin his classical studies. Here he met
a number of kinsfolk from Burke, and they told him, to his
astonishment, that his name was Allen, and not Hutchins. His
foster parents confirmed the story, and sent him on a visit to
his ancestral acres, and to see his Burke kindred. Mr. and
Mrs. Hutchins were good people, but they were not church
members. They went to meetings at the Prospect Methodist
Church, and although not professing Christians were God fear-
ing and strictly upright. They did not believe in modern meth-
ods. They were Baptists of the old order in their belief. The
Carters were Methodists and active workers, and especially were
Young Allen's lady cousins anxious about him.

A protracted meeting and revival was held yearly at Pros-
pect, and the young fellow, who had no desire to be a Metho-
dist, or a Christian, attended the services with his cousins.
When things became too lively, and there was much noise and
confusion, as was usual in big meetings, and especially when
he saw his cousins about to seek him, he made a timely retreat,
jumping one time from a near-by window. He was quite
wealthy for a country boy, and full of life and jollity, and he
was in a fair way to ruin, but these meetings deeply impressed
him. He had a friend who was going to a famous teacher, a
Mr. Looney, at a country school near Starrsville. The school
was near a Methodist church, and there was a religious revival
soon after the session began; he had been so restless and un-
happy that he sought religion, and was happily converted. He

248 MEN OF MARK

then went for a year to Emory and Henry College in Virginia,
and after his Freshman term he came to Emory College in Geor-
gia to complete his course. Although only nineteen years old,
he was engaged to be married, to a beautiful girl, Miss Mary
Houston, of his neighborhood, who was only fifteen. He was
a very handsome, dignified, steady-going young fellow, not spe-
cially brilliant, but remarkable for his persistence, his good sense,
and his thoroughness. He had resolved to be a missionary,
but at what time he did not know. His purpose was well
known to his future bride, and she was willing to go with him
anywhere. They were married as soon as he was graduated,
and as the board accepted him, and appointed him to China,
the young folks made their preparations to make the then long
and weary voyage.

In 1859 they left New York for Shanghai in a sailing ship.
They were seven months on the voyage. He at once began his
studies and devoted himself assiduously, not only to the clas-
sical tongue, but to the Shanghai dialect. Rev. Marquis L.
Wood, of North Carolina, accompanied him, while Rev. I. W.
Lambuth, of Mississippi, and Dr. J. W. Cunningham, were al-
ready in Shanghai. These constituted the mission force in
that great city. He had only begun work when the War Be-
tween the States began. The little band was entirely and sud-
denly cut off from home, and from their American resources.
They had received their support by selling bills of exchange in
Shanghai, drawn through the Methodist Book Concern in New
York to which the remittances from this side were made. This
resource was now cut off. Dr. Cunningham and Dr. Lambuth
returned to America, and Dr. Allen and Mr. Wood were left
alone. They had to depend upon themselves, and the small
property of the Mission in China. Dr. Allen was invited to
take work with other boards, but refused to leave the charge
to which he had been assigned. He continued his studies and
waited for a change in affairs.

YOUNG J. ALLEN 249

Dr. Allen soon saw he must do something for maintenance.
He was unwilling to go into secular business, although he could
easily have secured a position in a commercial house with bright
prospects of winning success, but God in His providence opened
the way to agreeable work. The Chinese government, under
the influence of some of the older missionaries, had decided to
establish certain Anglo-Chinese schools, and a university in
Pekin. It was necessary to have English books translated into
Chinese; Dr. Allen was selected as head of the Anglo-Chinese
School in Shanghai, and as translator. The position was high-
ly honorable and brought him into communication with the
highest officials. He did his work so well and so satisfactorily,
that the Government not only compensated him liberally, but
conferred upon him an honorary degree in literature, with the
rank of Mandarin. He saw the need of a periodical which
would give a review of the times ; and at his own instance and
expense, originated one which soon secured a large circulation.

For five long years the Georgia exile heard no word from
home. When the news came it was doleful enough. His coun-
try's government had been overthrown, his own estate despoiled,
and stocks, which cost him a hundred dollars a share had no
market value ; the Mission Board had a great debt, and no re-
sources but a church which had been desolated. The board told
him to hold his place with the Government, and hold things to-
gether as best he could. After weary years things began to
brighten, and reinforcements came. He resigned from Govern-
ment service and again entered the mission work, determined to
reach the upper classes as well as the lower. Accordingly he
projected the Anglo-Chinese College, and associate schools.

The Chinese are a reading people, but they had no books save
their antiquated classics. To get them to see what else there
was in literature, Dr. Allen and some other missionaries formed
a society for the "diffusion of literature."

250 MEN OF MARK

The organization was taken up by the Scotch and English
missionaries and backed by their home Churches. Dr. Allen
was made editor of the books and periodicals. Later he was
chosen by the women of the Missionary Society to superintend
their work, and was their adviser till his death.

Realizing the helpless condition of the Chinese women, Dr.
Allen planned wisely for their education and amelioration as
well as their spiritual redemption. He led the way in estab-
lishing the McTyere Institution under the direction of Miss
Haygood. The wisdom of his plans was accepted by others and
colleges such as had been established in Shanghai were founded
in various sections. Then came the university with its full
corps of professors and the hospital with its staff, so that the
mission he had so tenderly cared for in its darkest hours became
well equipped in every way.

In the meantime his pen was busy. He wrote, "China and
Her Neighbors," "Women In All Lands," "The Making of a
Man," and more than a score of other books besides giving con-
tinually through his Review those advanced counsels which he
thought the new era demanded.

As he came over the sea in 1906 on his last visit to the home
land he kept in constant communication with the commissioners
sent from China to America to examine into new systems of
government, and his counsels were highly appreciated. He
went to Washington on the invitation of President Roosevelt,
and had a most satisfactory interview with him.

Dr. Allen died after a short illness May 30, 1907. He re-
mained in the harness to the end. For nearly half a century
he gave himself unstintedly to China. His work was construc-
tive, and will not die. The Chinese trusted him, and he held
an honorable place among the missionaries of all denominations
in China.

YOUNG J. ALLEN 251

His wife survives him. One of his sons, Edgar H. Allen,
is a leading lawyer in Tien Tsin, and professor in the Chinese
law school, and the legal adviser of the English in Tien Tsin.
His son Arthur is in the Government postal service. One
daughter married Mr. Loehr, a missionary; another is married
to Mr. Turner, in Savannah, and two single daughters are in
Shanghai. GEORGE G. SMITH.

irebell

JOHN IREDELL HALL was bom in Jackson, Butts coun-
ty, February 20, 1841. His ancestors came from Eng-
land and settled first in Virginia, and later removed to
New Jersey. His father, John Hall, was a farmer and a man
of deep convictions and rugged honesty.

John Iredell was reared upon the farm and was required to
do all kinds of farm work This he regards as the best tuition
he ever had, as from it he learned to be industrious and self-
reliant. He attended the common schools of his community
and received his higher education at Baily Institute in his home
county. Later he entered Erskine College, in south Georgia,
and withdrew in 1860, while a member of the Sophomore class.
He never graduated.

He enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861 as a private
in Company I, Fourteenth Georgia Regiment. He was elected
a Lieutenant and served as such in the western part of Vir-
ginia (now West Virginia), until the fall of 1861. Because
of serious and long-continued illness he resigned and returned
to his home in November of that year.

In February, 1862, he assisted in raising another company,
which became Company I of the Forty-Fifth Georgia Regiment.
He was elected First Lieutenant of that company, and subse-
quently became Captain. He was in three engagements in
front of Richmond. In the battle of Frazier's Farm he was
severely wounded and compelled to return to his home again.
In the winter of that year he rejoined his company, but found
himself unable to do active service, and he was forced to retire
finally from the service.

JOHN IREDELL HALL 253

In 1863 Captain Hall was elected to the lower house of the
General Assembly from the county of Butts. He began the
practice of law in 1865. In 1869 he moved to Thomaston and
continued the practice of his profession with gratifying success.

In 1870 he was again elected to the House of Representa-
tives,— this time from Upson county.

When the Legislature assembled in the winter of 1871 it was
found that Governor Bulloch had resigned and Mr. Benjamin
Connally, President of the Senate, at once assumed the duties
of Governor. The Constitution of 1868 provided that the Sena-
tors should be elected for four years, except the first election,
in which one-half of the Senators should be elected for two
years and one-half for four years, and thereafter all elections
should be for four years. Hon. L. 1ST. Trammell, of the Forty-
Fourth Senatorial District, was elected in 1870 and he was
subsequently elected President of the Senate. Mr. Connally
claimed that he had the right to discharge the duties of President
of the Senate until the election of Governor at the next general
election in 1872. It was claimed by the friends of Colonel
Trammell that in-as-much as he had been elected President of
the Senate he was entitled to exercise and discharge the duties
of the office of Governor, although he was not in commission
when Governor Bulloch resigned. This brought about quite a
complicated state of affairs, and Captain Hall conceived the
idea that a special election should be called to elect a Governor
as early as possible. He, therefore, introduced a bill providing
for a special election for Governor, which passed both houses,
but which was vetoed by acting Governor Connally. It was
passed over his veto. An election was held, at which James
Smith, Speaker of the House of Representatives, was elected
Governor.

In 1873 Captain Hall was made Judge of the Superior Courts
of the Flint circuit. In this position he served with eminent
satisfaction to the people in the administration of the law.

254 MEN OF MARK

In 1875 he moved from Thomaston to Griffin. In 1878 he
was again elected a member of the House of Representatives, —
this time from the county of Spalding. He resigned the judge-
ship of the circuit to accept this position in the Legislature.

In 1888 Judge Hall was elected to the State Senate, repre-
senting the Twenty-Sixth District. During this session he ad-
vocated earnestly and successfully the passage of the first appro-
priation bill by the Legislature, giving funds direct from the
State treasury for the support of public schools. This appro-
priation has been enlarged from time to time until the amount
has become quite creditable to the State and greatly helpful to
educational interests. Prior to this legislation, the public
schools had been supported by income derived from different
sources that was by no means adequate to the demands.

Judge Hall is the author of the Act of 1889, prescribing the
method of carrying cases to the Supreme Court and requiring a
brief to be made of the documentary as well as the oral evi-
dence submitted. This bill curtailed very largely the size of the
records and the expense of carrying cases to the Supreme Court.
The bill provides also how assignments of error shall be made
in bills of exception. Judge Hall was chairman of the Judi-
ciary Committee during this session of the Senate.

During this term of the Senate he was an advocate of the
lease of the Western and Atlantic Railroad at a minimum ot
$35,000 per month. It was claimed by a great many that the
price fixed was in excess of the value of the property for rentals,
and that it could not be rented at all at that figure. The prop-
erty was rented for thirty years and brought $35,001 per month.
There came before that Senate propositions to reimburse the old
lessees of the Western and Atlantic Railroad for betterments.
This Judge Hall opposed.

In 1890 a. bill passed the Legislature authorizing the Gov-
ernor to appoint a commission to hear and determine the claims

JOHN IREDELL HALL 255

of the old lessees of the Western and Atlantic Railroad for bet-
terments. After the appointment of the commission, Governor
Northen selected Judge Hall, together with Honorables Clifford
Anderson and W. Y. Atkinson, as the attorneys to represent the
State in that litigation. It is sufficient to say the eiforts made
by Judge Hall and his associates were quite satisfactory in re-
sults to the State. The lessees were claiming $711,890.87.
The commission awarded as the amount due $99,644.04.

In 1892 Judge Hall was elected to the House of Representa-
tives, this time again from Spalding county. He served as
chairman of the Finance Committee during this session.

In 1893 he resigned his seat in the Legislature to accept ap-
pointment as Assistant Attorney-General for the United States
with duties in connection with the Department of the Interior.

After Judge Hall's resignation from the bench of the Supe-
rior Courts until his appointment to the office just named, he
was connected with almost every important case tried in the
Flint circuit and many important cases in other circuits, and
also important cases in the Supreme Court of Georgia.

Judge Hall is a lawyer of unusual ability, a speaker of great
force and power, clear and analytical in his representation and
convincing in argument. He has had marked and distinguished
success in the practice of his profession. He has been Division
Counsel of the Central Railroad and Banking Company of
Georgia, and of the Central of Georgia Railway Company since
January, 1879, and General Counsel of the Georgia Southern
and Florida Railway since May, 1896.

While Judge Hall has not agreed in all respects with party
leaders, he has been constantly a Democrat and loyal to the
party.

He is not a member of any church, but is a Methodist in sym-
pathy. He names among the books of his preference, — the
Bible, Shakespeare, History of the United States and the His-
tory of England.

256 MEN OF MARK

His mother died when he was seven years old, yet he recalls
with loving appreciation her influence for good in shaping his
life. In summing up the influences which have helped to shape
his life, Judge Hall emphasizes "contact with older men whose
example was worth following."

To the young he commends — "Manliness in all things, so-
briety and industry."

Judge Hall was married to Miss E. A. McMichael on March
7, 1864. They have had five children, four of whom are living.

W. J. ISTORTHEN.

258 MEN OF MARK

Mr. Branson has had large and varied experience in school
work. He is an incessant and tireless worker, and while per-
forming his duties as teacher, superintendent, professor, and
president, he has found time to do much Summer institute and
campaign work and to write and edit a number of valuable text-
books. Among these may be named, "Methods of Teaching
Reading and Spelling;" ''Methods in Arithmetic;" "Branson's
Common School Spellers." He edited "Johnson's Readers;"
revised "Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching;" "Georgia
Edition Arnold's Waymarks for Teachers;" and "Georgia Edi-
tion Shaw's School Hygiene."

Mr. Branson's quick intelligence, tender sympathy for chil-
dren and his love for the common people, his unflagging zeal and
indomitable energy have given him a rare understanding of the
most essential features of the great problem of education and
made him a leader in Georgia and the South.

Mr. Branson's greatest opportunity came to him when he was
elected President of the State Normal School of Georgia, located
at Athens, and organized as part of the University of Georgia.
Instead of trying to make the school a college, to duplicate the
academic work done in many colleges of the State, his efforts are
to make it a real normal school, in which the common-school
teachers of the State may get such education as will enable them
to do the work so much needed in the country districts, villages,
and small towns. He is teaching these coming teachers in such
a way as will help them to be most helpful to the pupils they
must have, in the homes and the conditions that await them.

Mr. Branson believes that Southern civilization will need to
be built around the school-house, and that we shall need to start
clear, if possible, of the mistakes of other sections of the country.
"If we can gradually set up in every farm community a well-
ordered school, where ordinary academic instruction is intelli-
gently given, and where at the same time some of the long hours

EUGENE CUNNINGHAM BRANSON 259

of the school day are given to such forms of handicraft as can
easily be transferred to the homes of the community and become
a source of occupation and income; and if, in addition, nature
studies, school libraries, mothers' clubs, and village industries of
all sorts come into existence, then we shall have a different kind
of country village in the South. The future of our country,"
he says, "must be built upon a fundamental belief in the home
and the school, as primary agencies in national progress, na-
tional sanity, and national greatness."

To young people who may read this biography Mr. Branson
would commend, "Loving acquaintance with the Bible; rigid
self-discipline in logical analysis of some great book, as, for in-
stance, Calhoun's Disquisition on Government ; the habit of lit-
erary interpretation of great masterpieces, and personal contact
with noble workers in the world's service."

Since 1900, there has been secured by the management of the
State Normal the sum of $118,000 for buildings, apparatus and
equipment, from the generous friends of the institution, outside
of State appropriations. At present the school is perhaps the
best equipped of its kind in the South, although less than
$15,000 have been spent for equipment out of the State treas-
ury. During this period the course of study has been doubled,
the faculty has been trebled, and the stability of the student
body multiplied twelve-fold, growing from six per cent in 1900
to seventy-five per cent in 1904. Within the last two years two
new buildings have been erected at a total cost of $42,000, only
$6,000 of which was appropriated by the State. Two other
new buildings now under way will cost $50,000, half coming
from the State treasury and half from outside donations. The
Daughters of the Confederacy have erected an everlasting me-
morial in the Winnie Davis Memorial Hall, which they have
also furnished. The Woman's Press Club, various woman's
clubs and numerous chapters of the Daughters of the Confeder-

260 MEN OF MARK

acy have been induced by the present management to maintain
a number of scholarships at the State Normal, thus making it
possible for an increased number of teachers to better fit them-
selves for their life work.

Mr. Branson was married to Miss Lottie Lanier, West Point,
Ga., Sept. 27, 1888. They have had four children, all of whom
are living. W. J. NORTHEN.

-

262 MEN OF MARK

a family conference and he promptly answered in favor of edu-
cation. Though a lad, with him, learning was more to be de-
sired than land, and culture than crops. One is never higher
than his own standard, and this may be measured by the esti-
mate he places on the things of life. His choice as a boy
showed the bent of the twig, and so the tree has ever been in-
clined.

At the age of thirteen he entered the village school, and af-
terwards Emory College and the Law School of the University
of Georgia, where he was graduated in 1875. In that year he
commenced the practice of his profession at Augusta, Ga.,
without the adventitious aids that help to success, and to-day is
recognized among the foremost members of a bar whose history
is adorned by the names of Gould, and Jenkins, and Gumming,
and Miller, and Holt, and Hull, and others who have shed lustre
on the profession, the State and the country.

On February 17, 1885, he was married to Margaret Constance
Cabell, of Richmond, Va. In her home — a realm where the
aristocracy of true womanhood reigns — brightened and blessed
by three children of rare attractions, she dignifies the place of
wife and mother. In a community long and widely distin-
guished for the beauty and culture of its women, she adorns the
best social life.

Her family name is woven into the very warp and woof of
Virginia history and united by historic association and kinship
with those of Breckenridge, Preston, Carrington, Harrison, and
others who have adorned and distinguished the social and politi-
cal life of that and other States.

She is the daughter of Robert Gamble Cabell, a distinguished
physician and citizen of Richmond, Va., and Margaret Sophia
Caskie, daughter of James Caskie, a native of Scotland, and an
eminent financier of Richmond, and for many years president
of the Bank of Virginia, and Elizabeth Pankey Caskie. Her

BOYKIN WRIGHT 263

grandfather, William H. Cabell, was a member of the Assembly,
Judge of the General Court, Governor of the State of Virginia ;
appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor Monroe and the
Privy Council; elected by the Legislature to the same judgeship
and afterwards elected President of that Court in 1842, and
continued in this position until he retired from the bench in
1851. He was a member of that high tribunal for forty years,
and was a master builder in erecting the judicial system of the
State.

Her grandfather's brother, Joseph Carrington Cabell, was
offered positions in the diplomatic service abroad, and repeatedly
solicited to become a candidate for the United States Congress ;
was a member of the State Legislature for about thirty years;
was a helpful coadjutor of Jefferson in founding the University
of Virginia ; was its Rector for many years ; was the chief pro-
moter of the James River and Kanawha Canal ; was the first
president of that company, in which he took an active interest
until his death. He was an intimate friend of William Wirt
and Jefferson.

For twelve years Mr. Wright was Solicitor-General of the
Augusta circuit, and filled this high and important station with
distinguished fidelity and ability. In this office he displayed
not only the knowledge required for the proper discharge of its
important duties, but the courage that is unawed by place or
power and the sense of duty that can resist popular clamor. He
never swerved from prosecuting the high, if guilty, and never
prostituted his power by prosecuting the lowly, if innocent.

In 1896, if he had been willing to accept the nomination, he
would have gone to the United States House of Representatives.
He was a delegate from the State at large and Chairman of the
delegation to the National Democratic Convention in 1900. In
1902 he was appointed by Governor Candler, Attorney-General
of the State, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon.

264 MEN OF MARK

Joseph M. Terrell. His incumbency of this office was brief, but
long enough to demonstrate his eminent qualifications for the
place.

In 1904 the suggestion of his name for Governor was re-
ceived with widespread and enthusiastic favor and universal
recognition of his qualifications and merit. The condition of
his health prohibited him from entering the race. In the same
year, yielding to a sense of public duty and at the sacrifice of
personal interest and pleasure, he was a member of the General
Assembly of the State, and was made Chairman of the General
Judiciary Committee of the House. He was re-elected in 1905.
He is the author of the law to purify elections. He has served
as a director in some of the large business corporations of the
city of Augusta, and that he might be unembarrassed in his
support of the child labor bill, in the Legislature, resigned some
of these positions.

In a busy life entrusted with large and complicated interests
he has found time to give his wise counsel and helpful service to
educational and charitable institutions. He is the liberal patron
of every enterprise to promote the public good, and no man,
woman or child in distress ever went from his presence empty-
handed.

From the time he left the office of Solicitor-General he has
enjoyed an extensive practice, civil and criminal, and repre-
sented large interests, individual and corporate.

As a counselor he is judicious and wise, as a student thorough
and discriminating, as an advocate earnest and eloquent. With
clear comprehension he grasps great controlling principles, but
no detail escapes his notice. In the preparation of pleadings,
in the examination and cross-examination of witnesses, in the
presentation of law to the court, and the discussion of evidence
before the jury — in a case ab initio ad finem, he displays ability
of the highest order with a vigilance that never sleeps, and an

BOY KIN WRIGHT 265

energy that never tires. In his addresses at the forum, or before
popular assemblies, he does not freely use the metaphorical or
ornamental or poetical. While not regardless of the highest
sentiment, he moves the feelings rather by convincing the reason.
In ability to marshal facts in powerful array and hurl them
with destructive force against his adversary, he is masterful.

Had he been a soldier, as he would have been, if old enough
during the War Between the States, he would not have been long
in the ranks, for he has the highest qualities of leadership, and
his sword would have flashed in the thickest of the fight, and his
victories been achieved with the shout of triumph and the re-
sistless charge. He enters the arena with shield and sword and
never doffs the one nor sheathes the other. He is resolute, dex-
terous and unyielding in defense — in attack he is bold, daring
and aggressive. He is neither too distrustful nor too confident
as to his own power — not so distrustful as to discourage hope or
impair strength, but sufficiently so to call for thought, reason
and research — not so bold as to make him reckless or careless,
but sufficiently so to inspire the daring which is always cau-
tious, but never afraid.

He is clear in perception, cogent in reasoning, sound in judg-
ment. His rich and varied resources promptly and fully re-
spond to any emergency, however great, and any surprise, how-
ever sudden. Mentally and morally, as well as physically, he is
a man of courage. He is ambitious. The disappointed Cardi-
nal's admonition, "Cromwell, I charge thee fling away ambi-
tion," taken without qualification, is bad advice. This, like
every virtue, if perverted and abused, becomes a vice but prop-
erly directed is among the highest excellencies of human char-
acter. The desire to excel, by honorable ways and for good
purposes, quickens impulses that are both prophecy and pledge
of that success which is alike the most healthy diet and the
most delicious luxury on which mind and spirit feed.

266 MEN OF MARK

While a young man, he was employed as one of the counsel in
the case of the lessees of the Western and Atlantic Kailroad —
claims against the State for betterments put upon the road dur-
ing the lease, and taxes paid on the property in Tennessee. By
resolution of the General Assembly, December 22, 1890, the
claims were referred to a special commission, of which Hon. N.
J. Hammond was chairman. The resolution under which the
commission was appointed recited that the claims aggregated
$550,000. The claims submitted to the commission amounted,
in the aggregate, to something over $700,000.

The State was represented by Clifford Anderson, then Attor-
ney-General, John I. Hall and William Y. Atkinson; the les-
sees by Joseph B. Gumming, Boykin Wright and Julius L.
Brown. His employment in this case was a high tribute to his
character and ability, and that it was deserved, was amply
demonstrated.

His crowning achievement in the profession, and one which
would insure enduring distinction to any lawyer, rests upon
the case of the State against the Georgia Railroad and Banking
Company to recover taxes on 15,000 shares of stock held in
the Western Railway of Alabama. The Central of Georgia
Railway Company was interested and afterwards came into the
litigation. The case was pending when he became Attorney-
General and upon his retirement from that office he was retained
as special counsel for the State in the case against the Georgia
Railroad and Banking Company.

The case was decided in favor of the Railroad Company in
the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of
Georgia, and this decision was affirmed by the United States
Circuit Court of Appeals. By certiorari it was taken to the
United States Supreme Court, which, by a decision reported in
195 U. S., 219, reversed the lower Courts. The litigation was

BOY KIN WRIGHT 267

renewed in the State courts, and a decision in favor of the State
rendered by the Supreme Court and reported in 124 Ga., 596.
The case has again been carried to the Supreme Court of the
United States.

Growing; out of these cases litigation ensued as to whether the

O O

local tax should be paid to the county of Richmond and city of
Augusta or be distributed among the counties through which the
Georgia Railroad runs, and in this litigation he represented the
county and city. The case involved many important and far-
reaching questions, among them, the status of stock in a foreign
corporation, — the doctrine of res adjudicate — the whole system
of taxation in Georgia under the statutes and Constitution of the
State, and what is due process of law.

The railroads were represented by Joseph B. and Bryan
Gumming, King, Spalding and Little, and Lawton and Cun-
ningham, and after his retirement from the Supreme Court of
the State, Hon. Joseph R. Lamar. The Bar of the State — no
Bar — could have presented an array more formidable. The
fight by the railroads was long and stubborn and the ripest expe-
rience and most extensive learning, combined with the power to
use these resources most skillfully, were employed.

It is no injustice to Hon. Joseph M. Terrell, who preceded
him as Attorney-General of the State and commenced the suit,
and Hon. John C. Hart, who succeeded him in that office, to say
that the burden of the case was borne by Mr. Wright. What-
ever may be the result of this litigation, the arduous effort he
bestowed, the extensive and accurate research he employed, the
use his richly endowed native powers made of the material thus
gathered, will stand as a splendid and enduring memorial of
professional ability and skill, justly regarded by his contem-
poraries at the bar and those who come after him with admira-
tion and pride.

His achievements are heightened by the fact that all through

268 MEN OF MARK

life his health has been delicate. His physical infirmities
would have disheartened a less brave and determined will. It
is a great and noble thing to do life's work well, whatever it is,
when the body assists the mind and the spirit. It is a greater
and nobler thing when physical infirmities must be overcome.
He who climbs over the rugged paths to the heights where honor-
able distinction dwells, attains higher eminence than he wrho
comes by easier ways. The scars of desperate conflict are in-
signia of honor. Every man is his own worst enemy, and mas-
tery of one's infirmities is the highest achievement mortals can
attain. There is no life in its highest form without effort, and
the best effort is called forth by hindrance. Ruskin says:
"Imperfections are divinely appointed that the law of human
life may be effort and the law of human judgment mercy."

The boy who can not endure scratches will not gather many
berries. The man who is afraid of being stung is not apt to get
much honey out of the hive. The juice of the grape comes
through the wine press. There is bread in the wheat, but it
must pass through the winnowing fan and the upper and nether
millstone and the heated oven. It takes fire to prepare gold for
the stamp that, gives it value and currency. The bush that
burns and is not consumed and the revelation it brings is found
in a desert, not a garden. A vision of the ladder on which we
are to climb heavenward comes while the head is pillowed on
stones. Costly gems lie in the depths, and he who falters on
the brink will never find them. The greatest greatness is the
child of difficulty.

*/

Obstacles do not deter brave souls ; thev incite to nobler ef-

t/

fort. Prescott lost one eye at college and the other became
almost useless, but this did not prevent him from spending ten
years in preparing his "Ferdinand and Isabella," and writing
the "Conquest of Mexico." Pebbles in his mouth unloosed the
stammering tongue of Demosthenes and helped to give him

BOYKIN WRIGHT 269

high place among the most famous orators of the world. Blind-
ness did not prevent Milton from giving to Poetry one of its
greatest epics, nor Henry Fawcett from becoming Postmaster
General of Great Britain by appointment of Gladstone, nor
Fanny Crosby from writing hymns that voice the prayers and
praises of millions. Helen Keller is deaf and dumb and blind,
but she hears and walks and sees. Music fills her soul with
rapture. She speaks the language of more than one tongue,
and beauties that never appear to common minds, delight her.
Alexander Stephens went to Congress and the Executive Man-
sion of the State in a rolling chair. The great Apostle to the
Gentiles was grievously afflicted by a bodily infirmity but his
writings have permeated the religious and theological thought
of Christendom through centuries, during long ages of oppres-
sion his example animated the persecuted Church, and to-day
stimulates its missionary spirit to press on through every land
and the darkness of every heathen system to the universal and
final triumph of the cross for which he died.

For years Mr. Wright has been under the treatment of a
physician. Often after the night had brought neither sleep nor
rest he has gone to the office where important interests awaited
him, or the court-house where liberty and life were involved,
and endured physical and mental effort and strain which would
have overtaxed most men in vigorous health. Often he has
given himself with fervent interest and well ordered effort to
the cause of client or friend, or the public, forgetful of the
scorching fever and disordered nerves that were preying upon his
own vital forces. He is never half-hearted in anything. What-
ever enlists him, enlists all of him. Nature sometimes places
her priceless jewels in a frail casket to teach us that mind may
be superior to matter and the spirit stronger than the flesh.
His life teaches this lesson to any who are embarrassed by
physical infirmities, and inspires with the hope and pledge that
they do not bar success.

270 MEN OF MARK

As a friend he is loyal and generous, and no man is entitled
to the confidence of the public who has forfeited that of his
friends. With propriety it may be said, as husband and father
he is devoted and provident. This is not without interest to the
public, for no bad husband and father can be a good citizen.

In the knowledge of his profession he is learned and pro-
found, for its practice fully equipped for attack or defense in
any case, — as a legislator broad and philosophical — as a citizen,
patriotic and progressive.

By character and attainment, by what he is, and has accom-
plished, he is entitled to a permanent place in the galaxy of
Georgia's distinguished sons, who at the bar and on the bench,
in the pulpit and on the battle-field, in the halls of legislation
and the school, in every station of useful, honorable life, have
made illustrious the history of the Commonwealth.

J. C. C. BLACK.

MEN OF MARK

bench in 1873 Mr. Hill became a partner with his friend and
classmate, Hon. N. E. Harris, with whom he was associated
until his election to the chancellorship on July 13, 1899.

Comradeship at the university brought to Mr. Hill helpful
stimulus from fellow students who became famous. In the
classes just ahead of him were Henry W. Grady, Hon. Albert H.
Cox, Hon. Peter W. Meldrina, Judge S. F. Wilson, Judge W.
R. Hammond, Judge Emory Speer, Judge A. Pratt Adams,
Judge Howard Van Epps, Hon. J. W. Walters, Hon. Benj. H.
Hill, Jr., and Hon. B. M. Davis. In his class were Hon. Chas.
L. Bartlett, Judge Walter C. Beeks, Hon. Washington Dessau,
Hon. Dudley M. Hughes, Judge Henry C. Honey, Hon. W. A.
Broughton, Gen. E. D. Huguenin, Rev. J. D. Hammond, Hon.
A. M. Hodgson, Rev. I. W. Waddell, Col. Marion Verdery,
President George Summey, President G. R. Glenn, Hon. D. B.
Eitzgerald, Hon. N. E. Harris and others.

All of these recognized Walter Hill as a young man of unusual
mental vigor and capacity as well as positive Christian char-
acter, and were prepared to predict for him success in any line
of work he might undertake. The boy proved to be the father
of the man.

From the first, Mr. Hill took a high place in his profession.
A "Revised" Code published in 1873 known as "Erwin, Lester
and Hill's Code," was, in part, the result of his labors. He
undertook the task of annotating this code, using for the purpose
authorities derived from the Supreme Court decisions of the
State as well as from the text-writers and reports of other
States. The work required extensive research, careful analysis
and discriminating and accurate legal judgment. "The result,"
says the Hon. N. E. Harris, "was in fact one of the best and
most complete specimens of code annotation to be found in the
history of code expansion." Again in 1882 Mr. Hill revised
the code and brought it up to date. Because of his extraordi-

WALTER BARNARD HILL 273

nary legal attainment, he was chosen president of the bar asso-
ciation of the State.

Judge Andrew J. Cobb, Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court of Georgia, says of Mr. Hill : "He was a scholarly law-
yer, not only a student of the principles of law, but a close
reader of the literature of the law. The biographies of eminent
lawyers and judges interested him. He was a man of books,
but not merely a man of law-books. His information was wide,
his culture was broad. As a lawyer," continues Judge Cobb,
"Mr. Hill" was truthful, realizing that the whole fabric of the
law was laid on truth as a foundation; he was industrious, for
though frail in body his capability for work was great and his
willingness to work was greater. He was cautious, arriving at
conclusions deliberately and expressing them in measured words.
There was no haste in the one nor careless utterance in the other.
He was bold and aggressive when duty and occasion required,
but he did not seek out responsibility in order to make a display
of courage, neither did he flee from peril when duty required
him to face it. He was faithful. His best efforts were at the
service of every client whose cause he could conscientiously ad-
vocate. The cause of the humblest negro, involving his smal]
estate or humble home, insignificant though it be in value, oncti
undertaken by him, would receive the same earnest and carelul
attention that he would have bestowed upon the matters of the
most influential and wealthy client he ever represented."

Though regarded by many in the last years of his life as the
first citizen of the State in patriotic, ethical, reformatory and
philanthropic ideals, Mr. Hill never held any political office.
He towered among his fellows as a personal force for civic
righteousness. He was ever to the front in the advocacy of
all measures that related to good government and the moral wel-
fare of the people, desiring for himself only such reward as
righteousness brings to all who love it. Dr. Albert Shaw, edi-
18

274 MEN OF MARK

tor of the Review of Reviews said of him : "Not a few of us in
the North were always ready to say, with respect to a given
question of opinion or a problem of policy, that it was quite
sufficient to ascertain what Dr. Hill thought would be right with
respect to matters concerning his own region, and then to accept
his views as the basis for a working policy. Mr. Hill was a calm,
but sane and brave leader of the public conscience. He was an
interpreter to the North of the ideals of the South, a happy and
energetic contributor to the pacific process by which the nation
has been finding itself one people with one destiny. In a word,
Mr. Hill was a national character uniting in himself and ex-
pressing those forces and qualities which mark the highest
American manhood."

The subject of this sketch, if not an orator, in the same class
with Ben. Hill and Henry Grady, was a pleasing speaker. One
who heard him most frequently, and a competent judge, de-
clared : "He was never known to make a failure in a speech or
essay." His utterances, delivered in the court-room or the
class room or before literary, political or religious audiences
were carefully thought out and presented in a style distin-
guished for clearness and force. Permeating through his dis-
courses like beams of sunlight was a delicious humor always apt
and delicate and not out of harmony with the seriousness of the
problems he sought to solve. He was never flippant, and though
once he laughed an adversary out of court he effected his pur-
pose without leaving a sting behind.

When the Supreme Court of the United States celebrated its
centennial in 1890, Dr. Hill was honored with a place on the
program, being invited to make an address on the subject of
the "Common Law." Among those who spoke on that occasion
were Justice Harlan, Senator Evarts, Chief Justice Paxson, of
Pennsylvania, and Joseph H. Choate. The only Southerner
in that illustrious group acquitted himself to the praise of all.

WALTER BARNARD HILL 275

Before a large convention of educators in Richmond, Va.,
Chancellor Hill so accurately, fairly, comprehensively and al-
truistically presented in a memorable oration the elements in
the race problem of the South as to leave nothing to be desired,
disarming all hostile criticism and aligning all true men under
his leadership.

Chancellor Hill was a voluminous writer. During his
crowded professional career he found time to make contribu-
tions to magazines and literary periodicals. He was a tireless
intellectual worker. JSTo one ever saw him idle a moment. He
slept less than most men. Often his mental powers outran his
physical frame, for his body was too weak to support his pon-
derous mentality. He was methodical to a degree. It is said
he so well systematized his work that he never lost or mislaid a
paper, never forgot an engagement, never neglected to utilize
odd moments. Industry was a passion with him and idleness a
disgrace.

Some of his publications attracted widespread attention.
Among these may be mentioned his articles on "Wit and
Humor," published in the Methodist Review and his "Uncle
Tom without a Cabin," in which he illustrated his views of the
South's obligations to the negro.

Chancellor Hill was for many years the central figure in the
temperance movement. To this reform he devoted his best
energies, spending his money and using his pen and voice in
aid or advocacy of its principles. Probably he did more than
any man to make Georgia a prohibition State. He was staunch
and steadfast in pressing his favorite reform when such a course
meant unpopularity and defeat, Mrs. W. H. Felton writing
to the Atlanta Journal, says: "It was my privilege to listen
to his addresses in behalf of prohibition. His noble, calm, placid
features were never distorted by heat or anger against the oppo-
sition, and yet he pleaded as if pleading for the life of an im-

276 MEN OF MARK

mortal soul before the bar of justice in his loving earnestness
for the protection of the home life of the innocent and helpless
among us. I cherish profoundest respect and undying esteem
for Mr. Hill's great work everywhere for God and humanity."

The crown and culmination of the career of Walter Barnard
Hill was what he achieved as Chancellor of the University of
Georgia. At the very beginning of his administration, on ac-
count of his sane and catholic temper, he reconciled the foes of
the institution and reunited its friends. As no other man could
have done he carried to the support of the university the two
great denominations of the State, the Baptists and the Metho-
dists. As a Methodist he had lived in close contact with Emory
College, and in connection with the Baptists had occupied a
chair in the law department of Mercer University and so both
denominations accredited him.

He reconciled the General Assembly of Georgia to the Uni-
versity. Before his election the State had treated its greatest
school with a parsimony scarcely equaled in the history of edu-
cational institutions. Says Hon. 1ST. E. Harris: "The few ap-
propriations that had been made to it were secured after almost
superhuman efforts on the part of its friends. They were small
in amount as if the State were doling out its charity to an un-
grateful child, but no sooner had Mr. Hill taken the reins than
the entire policy was changed. More money has been received
by the institution from the State and from individuals during
Mr. Hill's incumbency than in all the pervious years of the
university together, if only the appropriations from the United
States government are not counted. During Chancellor Hill's
administration the university received from the Legislature and
from private persons the sum of $308,500, nearly three times
what had come into its treasury before his election. Besides he
induced the State to grant annually a maintenance fund of
$22,500, which no doubt will continue for all time.

WALTER BARNARD HILL 277

Mr. George Foster Peabody, a Georgian residing in New
York, donated $50,000 to the university for the erection of the
Peabody library. This magnificent donation was tendered be-
cause of the warm friendship entertained by Mr. Peabody for
Chancellor Hill.

The attractive personality of Dr. Hill doubled the attendance
at the university while his stainless character raised the moral
tone of the student body.

As an educational statesman the great chancellor brought the
university into vital touch with all the leaders of thought
throughout the nation. He visited the great universities of all
sections ; he studied the public school systems of various States
with a view to promoting every department of educational work
in his own Commonwealth. He took a leading part in the
movement for improving rural common schools and extending
to localities the power to tax themselves for the support of such
schools ; he also took a prominent part in the defeat of the un-
patriotic suggestion of a division of school funds between the
two races in the proportion of the amounts contributed in taxes
by each. In fine, he stood forth high above all temptations to
partiality or partizanship and gave his rare talent and perse-
verance to the harmonizing as well as the development of the
educational life and work of the State of Georgia.

Chancellor Hill was happily married. His wife, who was
Miss Sallie Barker, of Macon, is a first honor graduate of Wes-
leyan College. She was always a friend and companion to him
in the highest intellectual sense, sharing all his ideals and sup-
plementing his own brilliant mind with her native good sense
and well trained powers. Two daughters and two sons survive
him.

A life like that of Walter Barnard Hill is a model to all the
youth of Georgia. John Temple Graves characterizes him in
these words : "Fifty-four years of life have been lived without

278 MEN OF MARK

a stain along every high and noble line of brave endeavor.
Courage and gentleness have typed the union of his convictions
with his manner. With gentleness of speech and softness of
manner there has ever been a lion's courage in the mind of
Walter Hill that sent him swiftly and unfearingly to his brave
conclusions upon every theme that touched his church, his State
and his fellow-men. He has not, at any time, followed truck-
ling or time-serving in the wake of public opinion. But, with-
out bravado and without defiance, has followed the ranks simply,
resolutely and fearlessly, behind his convictions and followed
wherever they led. He furnished to the youth of Georgia an
object lesson of the beauty and the integrity and dignity of his
pure and honest life."

Mr. Hill was for three years a director of the Southern Edu-
cation Board, a position he enjoyed because of the close contact
it gave with his coworkers in other Southern States. His fight
for such an Agricultural College as Georgia needed is a part
of the educational history of the State. It was made against
opposition and criticism and doubtless shortened his life, but
the farmers now know he was their friend.

Hill the man was more than the lawyer, the orator, the author,
the educational leader, the reformer, the patriot, the lover of
his fellows. The good of any country or time would have
recognized him as a child of the highest, brother to humanity,
a citizen of the world. Nor could there be a tenderer or truer
tribute than that of his successor in office, Chancellor Barrow:
"After all has been said that may be said, he did great deeds
because he was great, he did lovely deeds because he was kind,
he did good deeds because he was pure in heart and could see
God." W. W. LANDKUM.

THOMAS JEFFEKSON SIMMONS practically built Ms
own life and died the Nestor of the bar in Georgia, hav-
ing been for many years the maker and the interpreter
of the laws that governed his State. His service in these two
relations was rendered with a clearness of vision that went
straight to the point of his aim, and a soundness of judgment
that commanded the attention of those learned in the law, as
well as the average citizen, who honored the justice of its ad-
ministration and the righteous results of its impartial judgment.
His life, though self-wrought, was full of honors, richly deserved
and successes, the people were glad to crown with proud ac-
claim. He belonged to a generation the like of which can never
appear again, because the conditions which gave it shape and
direction can never be repeated in the life-work of the Ameri-
can people. Out of his early struggles, through strongly op-
posing conditions, he wrought his later success, true to himself,
true to his State and true to the obligations imposed by the
confidence and admiration of a long continued constituency, for
the exalted positions to which the people elevated him.

This inherent, basic integrity, combined with a clear, strong
intellect and untiring devotion to duty, is the explanation of
his rise from the service of a farmer's plowboy to the highest
judicial position in the gift of the people of the State. It is
only under our democratic system of government that such op-
portunities come, and that such distinctions are possible for an
humble life.

Judge Simmons was born at Hickory Grove, Crawford
county, June 21, 1837. As there were no public schools at that

280 MEN OF MARK

day, it was not possible for the boy to receive his preliminary
education without the payment of the usual fee for tuition.
This, his father was not able to do because of the lack of the
necessary funds. Not to be defeated in his laudable ambitions,
young Simmons borrowed the money required for one year's
tuition in the Brownwood School, near LaGrange. After this
limited opportunity for preparation for his life-work, he went
to Forsyth and studied law in the offices of Hon. A. D. Ham-
mond, and was, later, admitted to the practice at the session of
the Superior Court of Monroe county, Hon. E. G. Cabaniss
presiding, in 1857. He began the practice at Knoxville, in his
home county.

Having hardly entered upon the practice of his profession,
and just as he was upon the threshold of young manhood, the
first shot of the Civil War was fired, and young Simmons made
ready, at once, to abandon all the ambitions, that, in his poverty,
he had struggled to achieve, and enter upon the higher duty, as
he saw it, in the service of his State and his section.

He was among the first to volunteer. He joined the Craw-
ford Grays as a private. The Company was early in the field
and served throughout the entire war. The Company was a
part of the Sixth Regiment, commanded by Colonel Alfred H.
Colquitt.

Shortly after the campaign opened, young Simmons was elect-
ed First Lieutenant, because of conspicuous braveiy in battle.

In 1862 the Forty-Fifth Georgia was organized and he was
promoted from the Lieutenancy of the Company to the position
of Lieutenant-Colonel of the new regiment. He was afterward
promoted Colonel of the regiment. He surrendered at the close
of the war holding this rank.

Colonel Simmons served with the army at Chancellorsville,
Spottsylvania Court House, the Wilderness and other battles.
He was with the army in Maryland and Pennsylvania. His
gallantry was marked in many hard fought battles and, just be-

THOMAS JEFFERSON SIMMONS 281

fore the surrender, he was recommended by Generals Thomas
Wilcox, A. P. Hill and General Lee for promotion to Brigadier-
General for distinguished gallantry on the field. The fall of
Richmond soon afterward prevented the issuance of the commis-
sion. He was wounded at the battles around Richmond and
surrendered with Lee at Appomattox.

Crushed by the defeat of the great cause he loved so well and
for which he sacrificed his young ambitions and the hopes of
his future life, he returned to Georgia, like thousands of others,
broken-hearted, absolutely stripped of all money resources, and
with far less hope and prospect than when he left for the war.
He returned to Crawford county in 1865 to take up his inter-
rupted life-work and begin again the practice of law.

When the time came for the selection of delegates to attend
the Constitutional Convention, held immediately after the war,
in 1866, Colonel Simmons was elected to represent his county.
Although without experience in State affairs, and in public de-
bate, and with educational training painfully deficient, he ven-
tured his opinions in the formative policies of a new system of
government, under the strange and strained conditions that
confronted the people of the South. He made so remarkable
a record that he was elected to the succeeding Legislature, as
the Senator from his district, composed of the counties of Tay-
lor, Crawford and Houston. At the conclusion of this term of
sendee, he moved to Macon to attempt a wider field of profes-
sional activity.

The splendid success that attended his efforts at the bar and
his special success as a prosecuting officer won for him the posi-
tion of Solicitor-General of his circuit. This office he held for
one year, and he was then displaced by Governor Bullock.

In 1872 he was returned to the Senate, this time representing
the counties of Bibb, Monroe and Pike. His public sendee in
all these several relations made for him character over the

282 MEN OF MARK

State and gave him distinct and prominent standing with pub-
lic men. He was elected president of the Senate. In every
new place to which he was successively called, he developed new
adaptation and new faculties for service. His ardent devotion
to duty, his close study of men and conditions and his deter-
mined purpose, all entered into the make-up of the man and
made him sure in his aim and steadfast in his purpose to suc-
ceed. All the time struggling against the hindrances that came
into his early life, and handicapped by all the disadvantages of
an unprepared beginning, he worked through honest, untiring
effort with his face steadily to the front and a heart as brave as
though misfortune had never come and obstacles had never
encumbered the way.

It really seems remarkable that a lad grown up without the
possession or the knowledge of the use of money, should be se-
lected, so early thereafter to adjust the finances of a great State,
involving the intricacies of all the details of financial policies
in the difficult problem of currency, banks and bonds. Yet so it
was that Mr. Simmons had worked himself from scant prepara-
tion at the beginning, to eminent fitness to handle, successfully,
the finances of a great Commonwealth.

It was while President of the Senate and just at the time of
the days of reconstruction, when much unwise and hurtful leg-
islation had been enacted, and some wild and unwarranted poli-
cies had been adopted, threatening great damage to the financial
interests of the State, that Mr. Simmons was made a member
of the famous Bond Committee to investigate the bonds sup-
posed to be illegally issued during the earlier days after the
war. He went to New York and spent some days making in-
vestigations as to the issue of what was known as the Bullock
bonds, that involved the State in an indebtedness of more than
$12,000,000. His report to the General Assembly was the
basis of the action repudiating the alleged obligation of the

THOMAS JEFFERSON SIMMONS 283

State, eliminating such bonds as had been illegally issued and
reporting favorably upon others.

In 1877 he was made a member of the convention called for
the revision of the Constitution. He was made chairman of the
committee on finance. He was also a member of the committee
appointed to revise the work of the convention and put the or-
dinance in proper shape for adoption by the people.

In 1879 he was elected Judge of the Superior Courts of the
Macon circuit. From that date until the day of his death, he
never left the bench. He was re-elected Judge of the Superior
Courts of his circuit at each recurring election until he was pro-
moted to the Supreme Bench. In 1887 he was elected by the
General Assembly, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to
succeed Judge Samuel A. Hall. He served for seven years in
this capacity. Chief Justice Logan E. Bleckley resigned in
1894, and Judge Simmons was elected to succeed him. He was
twice re-elected to succeed himself to this high place. He be-
gan his third term of service for six years in January, 1905.

He became a Master Mason in the Macon Lodge in 1868.
In 1875 he was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Odd Fel-
lows of Georgia. He was also a member of the Capital City
Lodge Knights of Pythias in Atlanta.

Judge Simmons's father, Allen G. Simmons, was a native of
Franklin county, this State. He served in the Creek War in
1836 and died in 1858, at the age of fifty years.

Judge Simmons's grandfather, William Simmons, was a na-
tive of North Carolina, and a veteran of the war of 1812.
Judge Simmons's mother was Mary Cleveland, daughter of
William Cleveland, who was a native of Jasper county. She
was a niece of Col. Ben. Cleveland, who is famous in history
as the hero of the battle of the Cowpens in the War of the
Revolution.

Judge Simmons preeminently filled his place in life as a pa-

281 MEN OF MARK

triot and a statesman. The people called him to many offices of
trust, of trial and of distinction.

It is, doubtless, true that his greatest single service for the
State was his adjustment of financial troubles during the days
of reconstruction and soon thereafter. As chairman of the
finance committee in the Constitutional Convention and chair-
man of the bond committee of the Senate, he displayed wonder-
ful business acumen and discernment that saved the State mil-
lions of dollars. No man can overestimate the value of Judge
Simmons's service during that period of the State's history. It
required not only ability, but courage and skill of the highest
order. The journal of the Senate of that time records one of
the greatest tributes to his honesty, fidelity and sound business
sense.

Judge Simmons had a distinctly judicial mind, coupled with
the clear discrimination of the legal analyst. His judicial
habit and his fidelity to his oath of office made the prominent
element of his life, conspicuously lived before the eyes of all
men. He was a. just Judge. His personal integrity was known
by all men who knew him at all. His friendships were deep
and true and his attachments, when formed, were abiding. His
personal living made him worthy of all the distinctions that
came to him and his strong character established the unvarying
confidence of the people.

Judge Simmons was three times married. He died Sept.
12, 1905, and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon.

W. J.

-

286 MEN OF MARK

and personal friends urged him not to do anything that would
injure his own prospects; but mindful of the fact that his action
was to be that of the Governor of the people, he laid aside am-
bition, submerged self and wired the appointment to Hon.
Charles E. Crisp and pledged him his support in the regular
election. Mr. Crisp felt that party exigencies forbade his
acceptance of the desired honor and declined. Thereupon Mr.
Patrick Walsh of Augusta was appointed and the Governor's
support pledged to Crisp for the long term in the event Walsh
did not offer.

Governor ISforthen's first known ancestor in America was
John Northen, who seems to have come from London. He set-
tled in eastern Virginia as early as 1635. His son, Edmund,
and Edmund's son, William, remained in Virginia, but in the
fourth generation William ISTorthen, the grandfather of our
subject, settled in eastern North Carolina, presumably in what
is now Edgecombe county. He married Margaret Dicken of
that State, who was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Their son, Peter,
was born April 7, 1794. About the year 1800, they moved to
Powellton, which was then on the frontier of Georgia. Here
Peter grew to manhood. His educational advantages were
limited, but being of vigorous mentality and fond of study, by
his own efforts, he acquired a thorough education.

On Jan. 16, 1817, he married Miss Louisa Maria Davis.
They reared a family of eleven children of whom William
J. was the ninth. They resided in Jones county until 1840
when they removed to Penfield, Mr. JSTorthen becoming superin-
tendent of the Manual Labor Department of Mercer Institute,
later Mercer University. Through all the succeeding years he
gave hearty support to Mercer, contributing largely of both his
time and his means. Uniting with the Baptist church in 1821,
he was always active in Christian work and was for many years
treasurer of the Georgia Baptist Convention. He served two

WILLIAM JONATHAN NORTHEN 287

terms in the Georgia Legislature in 1828 and 1830, but retired
from politics because it interfered with his Christian life. He
was a veteran of two wars, that of 1812, in which he was a
private, and in 1861 he raised a company of infantry, Stocks
Volunteers, of which he was Captain, until his death in 1863,

William Jonathan Northen was born on his father's planta-
tion in Jones county, July 9, 1835. When five years old his
father moved to Penfield, in Greene county, and from his early
childhood until eighteen years old, when he was graduated from
Mercer University, he was a regular attendant at school or col-
lege. Impaired health compelled six months rest after his
graduation, but in December, 1854, he went to Mt. Zion, then an
educational center and surrounded by a population of wealth
and culture. Here he opened a school and entered upon a
trying struggle in which he won both experience and reputa-
tion, so that in less than two years he was offered and accepted
the position of assistant to Dr. Carlisle P. Beman in the latter's
noted High School. Dr. Beman retired a year later, and
Governor Northen succeeded to the management of the school,
and under his administration the standard of efficiency was
further raised and the reputation of the school extended until
students came not only from all over Georgia, but from every
Southern State. In the meantime Governor ISTorthen was mar-
ried December 19, 1860, to Martha Moss ISTeel, daughter of
Thomas Neel with whom he had boarded during his early
struggles as a teacher. A consecrated Christian woman of rare
culture, a refreshing humor and withal a large fund of prac-
tical common sense, she has been always and everywhere a true
helpmeet. Their home, whether crowded by students, or on
the farm, or at the executive mansion or the hotel, has always
been a center of gentle Christian influence. Two children were
born to them, Thomas H. and Annie Belle. The son, a sub-
stantial business man, died in 1904; the daughter resides with
her parents in Atlanta.

288 MEN OF MARK

Governor Northerns career as a teacher was interrupted by
the war, as he enlisted as a private in a company organized and
commanded by his father, Peter Northen, who, at the time, was
nearly seventy years of age. Governor Northen served until
early in 1862, when he was exempted on account of being a
teacher. In the winter of 1863, however, he re-enlisted, but his
health was such that surgeons pronounced him unfit for field
service, and until the end of the war most of his time was de-
voted to hospital service in Atlanta and Milledgeville.

When the war ended he resumed his work at Mount Zion
and made his school famous through his success in preparing
boys for college or university. His methods and results were
far-reaching and his influence on mind and morals is attested
by the lives of many prominent and influential men who had
the advantage of his early training.

Governor ]STorthen's first appearance in politics was as a dele-
gate to the State Democratic convention of 1867, the first politi-
cal convention held in Georgia after the war. In 1871 he
moved his school to Kirkwood, four miles from Atlanta, and
here, with the assistance of his wife's brother, Prof. Chas. M.
Neel, the high standard and success of the school was main-
tained. After two years, however, broken health compelled a
change from the confining duties of the school and Governor
Northen sought recuperation on the farm.

There is not in all Georgia a higher authority on questions
concerning the farm than Governor ISTorthen, and he owes his
experience in agriculture to the fact that failing health in 1874
drove him from the school-room. Retiring to his plantation
in Hancock county he gave the same intelligent effort to the
farm that distinguished his career as an educator. He turned
his attention largely to improving the methods of butter-making
and the breeding of fine cattle. Thoroughness and intelligence
led to success and he became one of the most prosperous and

WILLIAM JONATHAN NOETHEN 289

advanced farmers in the South. Studying the nature of the
soil, the best methods of agriculture and other farm conditions,
he was soon recognized as an authority in every branch of agri-
culture. The leaven of the teacher was not dormant, however,
and he was influential in organizing the Hancock County
Farmers' Club and was its president from its origin. He was
elected vice-president of the State Agricultural Society, and
then president of that body, serving in the latter position in
1886-"7 and '8. He has ever been ready to lend his services
to the improvement and progress of the agricultural classes and
his labors have had a wide and beneficial effect, extending
throughout the State and even the South, his work and influence
having been recognized in his election to the presidency of the
Young Farmers' Club of the Southern States. Governor Nor-
then has for many years advocated a policy which in recent
years has been largely followed, the attraction of the desirable
class of immigrants. He has been actively engaged in this
work since 1894 and largely through his efforts was the colony
located in Wilcox county, which in 1895 founded the town of
Fitzgerald, which now has something over 8,000 inhabitants.

Governor ISTorthen's first public service was in the Legislature
in 1877-78. He was re-elected for the term of 1880-81. In
1880 he was a member of the committee which investigated the
bonds of the Northeastern Railroad. In 1884-85 he was a mem-
ber of the State Senate and as chairman of the educational
committee was enabled to render splendid service to the cause
of education.

Governor Northen is an ardent prohibitionist. He is the
author of the local option law that enabled 117 counties out of
137 to prohibit the sale of whiskey. This led, finally, to statu-
tory prohibition for the State — enacted in 1907.

In 1890 the people of Georgia honored Governor ISTorthen by

calling him to the highest office within their gift, and not until
19

290 MEN OF MARK

it was apparent that the call did come from the people did he
consent to make the race. His final announcement was fol-
lowed by the manifestation of such an overwhelming sentiment
in his favor that he had no opponent before the nominating con-
vention. He was re-nominated in 1892 and re-elected for a
second term by a majority of 71,809 over Mr. W. L. Peek, his
Populist opponent. Governor jSTorthen's two terms as Govern-
or embraced the period between November 8, 1890, and October
27, 1894. His administration was marked by enterprise and
progress. He took the initiative in all movements advocated,
and his State papers are sincere, straightforward and wholly
lacking in equivocation, evasion and temporizing. He was in
all suggestions practical and to the point. Opposing the bur-
dening of the statutes with unnecessary laws, he at the same
time urged the enacting of such laws as tended to ameliorate the
condition of the people. One sentiment expressed was that:

"Whatever encourages general industry in the State marks
the State's progress in power and wealth. Whatever makes
fertile its fields, prosperous its manufactories, thrifty its busi-
ness and secure its capital, advances the enlightenment of its
people and makes the stability of their institutions."

Under Governor Northen's administration the betterment
claim of the lessees of the State railroad for $711,890 was com-
promised for $99,664. He realized the importance of the geo-
logical survey and his strong advocacy of that work led to the
completion of the survey and the permanence of the bureau.
His efforts to establish a State Board of Health, for road better-
ment, for a reform school, etc., were without immediate result
in legislation, but set in motion forces which in subsequent years
resulted in the enactment of many of the measures he advocated.
In prison management he secured the separation of the sexes,
and better food for and treatment of prisoners. The peniten-
tiary was visited in person and the law with reference to escap-
ing convicts rigidly enforced. Governor ^Torthen was strenuous

WILLIAM JONATHAN NORTHEN 291

in his opposition to mob violence and not only secured needed
legislation along this line, but on occasion furnished every civil
and military protection to prisoners. Because of his interest
and encouragement the State military reached a high degree of
efficiency and organization. But his greatest interest was in
his life-work — education. The common schools were improved,
and to secure more efficient teachers he urged the establishing
of normal schools. Two such institutions were established,
the Georgia Normal and Industrial College at Milledgeville
and the Normal School at Athens, the latter's creation being
largely due to Governor Northen's efforts. The school term
was extended nearly 100 per cent and the industrial college for
negroes established near Savannah. The number of schools
was increased until they are now accessible to nearly every home
in the State. Education may be called his life-work, for, as
teacher, legislator, Governor and private citizen he has striven
to extend the school term and render the system more efficient.
His alma mater, Mercer University, recognized his services in
1892 by conferring upon him the degree of LL.D. The same
degree was conferred by Richmond College, of \7irginia, in
1894, and by Baylor University, of Texas, in 1900.

Governor jSTorthen was converted in 1853 and united with
the Baptist church at Penfield. Three years later he was made
a deacon in the Mt. Zion Baptist church, and for over fifty
years he has served as deacon in the churches where he has
from time to time held his membership. He has always been
an active, earnest church worker and pages might be written
of the prominent part he has taken in advancing the causes and
fostering the interests advocated by his church. He has held
many positions of honor and prominence in his denomination.
For six years he occupied the presidency of the trustees of
Washington Institute, and was moderator of the Washington
Baptist Association for eight years.

Since 1895 he has been president of the Georgia Baptist
Convention, and was president of the Georgia Baptist Educa-

292 MEN OF MARK

tional Society in 1894. He was vice-president of the Southern
Baptist Convention for several years and in 1899 was elected
president, the highest position in the gift of Southern Baptists.
He was re-elected in 1900 and 1901, all three elections having
been unanimous. He was elected president of the National
Baptist Congress at the Augusta session in 1893, and was presi-
dent of the Baptist Educational Society when it met in Wash-
ington in 1894. For several years he has been vice-president
of the American Bible Society and one of the vice-presidents
of the American Sunday School Union. In 1907 he was elected
one of the vice-presidents of the Laymen's Missionary Move-
ment. For more than forty years he has been a trustee of Mer-
cer University. He has been actively interested in the Young
Men's Christian Association since 1890. He was a charter
member of, and has been chairman of the Board of Deacons and
teacher of the adult Bible class of the Ponce de Leon Avenue
Baptist church since its organization, in 1904. He has been
chairman of the Business Men's Gospel Union of Atlanta since
its organization in 1904, under whose auspices two great revival
campaigns, led by Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman and Eev. R. A,
Torrey, have been conducted.

Though out of politics, he keeps in touch with public affairs
and expresses himself vigorously on great public and moral
questions. When past three score and ten he made a remarka-
ble canvass of the State, appealing alike to white men and black
to uphold the majesty of the law as the only solution of the
race problem. On May 22, 1898, he made an address before the
Congregational Club of Boston on the white man's view of the
race question. It has become a part of the permanent literature
on the attitude of the ruling class in the South on this impor-
tant question.

Governor Northen is genial and interesting in conversation,
direct and forceful in public speech. The accompanying por-
trait represents him at the age of sixty-seven.

A. B. CALDWELL.

3feaac

ISAAC HARDEMAN was born in Clinton, Ga., August 29,
1834. On November 5, 1856, he married Miss Marietta
T. Pitts, who died in 1866. He married Mrs. Lucia Gris-
wold Conn, March 5, 1867. He has had eight children, seven
of whom are living. His father was Robert Vines Hardeman,
and his mother Miss Elizabeth C. Henderson.

Robert Vines Hardeman was a lawyer of prominence. He
was a Colonel in the Creek War. He was at different times a
member of both branches of the General Assembly. He was
for a term of years Judge of the Superior Courts of the Ocmul-
gee circuit,

Isaac Hardeman's earliest known ancestor was Thomas Har-
deman, whose son John married Miss Dorothy Edwards. The
seventh child of this couple, named John, moved from Virginia
to Georgia and settled in Wilkes county. He had six children,
Elizabeth, Thomas, John, Benjamin Eranklin, Robert Vines
and Isaac.

Thomas Hardeman, first above mentioned, emigrated from
England or Wales to the colony of Virginia. Robert Vines
Hardeman was educated at Lexington at one of the first en-
dowed schools of the State. He studied law under Stephen
TJpson. He settled in Jones county as a young attorney and
married Miss Elizabeth Carter Henderson.

In the middle of the Eighteenth century there came a large
family of Hendersons to Virginia. Some of these moved to
the new province of South Carolina, and afterwards into the
newly settled parts of Georgia. They were originally Presby-
terians, but became Baptists and were noted for their deep piety.

294 MEN OF MARK

Mrs. Elizabeth Henderson Hardeman, the mother of Isaac Har-
deman, was a most saintly woman, — a model wife and mother.
Hers was an active piety and fully illustrative of practical
Christianity. At one time in the history of Baptist interests
of Clinton, the membership of the local church was reduced to
less than half a dozen. All these were women. Mrs. Harde-
man kept the organization alive and active until the member-
ship increased sufficiently to allow her to withdraw from ardu-
ous effort, as her increasing years demanded.

Robert Vines Hardeman was a lawyer of great dignity and
impressiveness. After he had been elevated to the judgeship,
and while comparatively a young man, he was stricken with
paralysis, and suffered several subsequent attacks, from which
he died in 1871.

Isaac Hardeman, named in memory of his father's youngest
brother, was robust and vigorous as a youth, fond of field sports,
hunting and fishing. He lived in the country until his majori-
ty. He attended school in Clinton, walking daily from home,
a distance of two and a half miles. He was required to work
on the farm a part of each Saturday. After gaining sufficient
knowledge of the cultivation of crops, he was given an acre for
his own planting and cultivation. On this he raised a crop of
cotton, from which he realized his first money, — about thirty
dollars, — while he acquired some knowledge of business and a
good degree of self-reliance. He was inspired with a desire
to succeed as he realized for the first time the fruits of his
personal efforts.

He entered the State University in 1850 and graduated in
1853. He read law in his father's office and entered upon the
practice at Clinton in the winter of 1855, having been admitted
to the bar at Macon in November of that year.

Mr. Hardeman always takes active part in all matters that
concern the betterment of his community. He was a member

ISAAC HARDEMAN 295

of the board of education in Jones county during his residence
there. He became a member of the board of education for
Bibb county upon his removal to Macon. He has been a mem-
ber of the board of trustees for Wesleyan Female College for
some years, and is now president of that board. He has been
three times a member of the General Conference of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church South. He was for a long term of years
the Superintendent of Mulberry Street Sunday School in his
city, and a member of the board of stewards, and chairman of
the board during the later years of his connection with the
church. He is now a member of the board of stewards for the
Vineville church, and chairman of the board. He was also
Superintendent of the Sunday School for this church. Mr.
Hardeman is trustee of both the Mulberry and Vineville
churches. He has been repeatedly a member of the South Geor-
gia Annual Conference. Pie is a member of the board of trus-
tees of the Orphans' Home of the South Georgia Conference,
the Macon Hospital Association and the State Sanitarium.

Holding such positions is sufficient evidence of the confidence
of the people in his strong Christian character and superior
worth as a leading factor in religious interests. It is not usual
that a man so prominent in his profession, and so taxed by pub-
lic and business interests, finds himself so much in demand for
religious service. Mr. Hardeman accepted the places assigned
him and discharged the duties made incumbent because his spirit
was in full consonance with the work required, and his ambi-
tions were along the line of service he had the opportunity to
render. He has attained to great growth in Christian character
and special usefulness in religious service.

Mr. Hardeman is now seventy-four years of age. He has been
connected with the Sunday School as a pupil or teacher or super-
intendent since he was six years of age, — even during the most
active period of his professional engagements. During his su-

296 MEN OF MARK

perintendency he made it a point always to be on time. He was
never once tardy during fifteen years of such service. He was
never absent, except for providential causes or absence from
home on proper grounds.

Mr. Hardeman has had a large and lucrative practice in his
profession, and yet he has found time for all his religious duties.
He has been attorney and director in several corporations. He
was a director for the Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad.
He was for four years in the Confederate service in the Army
of Northern Virginia as Orderly Sergeant, First Lieutenant,
Captain, Major, and finally Lieutenant-Colonel of the Twelfth
Georgia Regiment. He was captured at Spottsylvania Court
House and carried to Fort Delaware, where he was kept until
discharged in July, 1865.

After the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, all of the
prisoners of war at Fort Delaware were discharged, except about
forty, among whom were Generals Barringer and Page, Col.
Charlton Morgan, the brother of Gen. John H. Morgan, Barn-
well Rhett, Thomas W. Hooper, Harrell, Hinton, Col. Isaac
Hardeman, and others.

In reply to a letter written by Colonel Hardeman to Hon.
Montgomery Blair, at the suggestion of Hon. Joshua Hill, ask-
ing him to aid the prisoners in being discharged, Mr. Blair re-
plied that there were extremists in Washington who insisted that
some who had engaged in "the rebellion" should be made to pay
the penalty of their "treason," and as Lee and Johnston with
their commands in the fields had been permitted under the terms
of the surrender to escape, the Fort Delaware prisoners, with
others, were to be held for a time to await the determination of
the authorities at Washington as to final disposition. This re-
ply quite awakened the apprehensions of the prisoners in whose
interests the letter had been written, and they awaited with a

«/

degree of anxiety further news from Washington. It was later

ISAAC HARDEMAN 297

concluded to allow the prisoners to return to their homes, and
Colonel Hardeman reached Macon on his final discharge from
service and from prison on August 1, 1865.

While Colonel Hardeman is a Democrat, he has not always
assented to all the policies advocated by the party. This was
notably true in the campaign advocating the free coinage of
silver. This was the only time he did not vote a straight Demo-
cratic ticket, he voting for Palmer and Buckner. Colonel Har-
deman is a Master Mason.

W. J.

imon arrett

TO have been for three terms, by unanimous election, the
president and potential force in the greatest organization
of farmers now in existence — and the greatest that ever
existed — to have conducted its vast affairs with infinite tact,
conspicuous ability, rare judgment, and wonderful success, and
to have retired at the close of his official life with the devoted
love and confidence of nearly two million American farmers —
surely this is a career to fill the measure of any man of noble
ambition — and a record large enough for a place of honor in this
volume. The history of this great farmers' movement, and the
history of Chas. S. Barrett are well nigh one and inseparable.

The organization of the Farmers' Educational and Co-opera-
tive Union of America, in October, 1902, marks an epoch in the
forward movement of the agricultural classes of the South and
West.

The organization had its beginning in Texas, whence it spread
throughout the United States and Canada and numbers (March
4, 1907) one million nine hundred thousand members. There
was at the time of its birth no thought of an extensive move-
ment looking to the universal organization of the farmers of the
country, but the principles outlined and the declaration of rights
published to the world by the handful of farmers who styled
themselves "The Farmers' Union" were so just, so reasonable
and so conservative that others began to investigate with the re-
sult that local organizations were founded in all the near-by
counties.

From Texas the organization spread into the Indian Territory
and Oklahoma. Early in the spring of 1903, K. F. Duckworth,
of Texas, came to Georgia to begin the work of organizing the

CHARLES SIMON BARRETT 299

State. The work at first was opposed by many, and the progress
made was slow. Troup, Meriwether and Upson counties were
first visited and a few struggling local lodges were organized.
For some time it seemed doubtful if Georgia would ever be or-
ganized. The people were afraid to join in the movement, and
those who did so were but half-hearted in their devotion to the
cause.

When Duckworth visited Upson county, he met a country
school teacher and farmer by the name of Charles Simon Bar-
rett, then unknown, but later destined to play the leading role in
the development of the organization.

Charles Simon Barrett is descended from families on both his
father's and mothers's side, who have always been prominent
factors in the advancement of their section of the country. He
was born in Pike county, Ga., January 28, 1866, and is of Eng-
lish descent. His earlier ancestors settled in Virginia and
North Carolina where they were noted for their thrift and fru-
gality, and for their love of liberty — a gallant, brave and loyal
race of men and women.

The great grandfather of Charles S. Barrett was a Revolu-
tionary soldier who did effective service with the Continental
Army in both Virginia and North Carolina. His great grand-
father died from natural causes about the time of the close of
the war, and shortly after this his great grandmother, together
with the other members, moved to Pike county, Ga.

His grandfather, William Barrett, was a young man when
this move was made. He immediately began the building of a
home and here as a farmer he took a prominent part in all things
that pertained to the welfare of the community.

The father of Charles Simon Barrett was Thomas J. Barrett,
son of William Barrett, and was born in Pike county, Ga., in
the year 1832. Thomas J. Barrett was a prominent farmer of
Middle Georgia and held a number of offices of honor and trust.

300 MEN OF MARK

He had pronounced convictions on all public questions, which he
never failed to express when occasion required. He was noted
for his strong convictions, his unswerving principles, and an un-
wavering loyalty to his friends — qualities which his distin-
guished son inherits to a marked degree. For fifty years
Thomas J. Barrett was a prominent figure in public life in Pike
county. He was a member of the Legislature from this county,
and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 18 77 which
gave to Georgia the present State Constitution. As a factor in
that convention he was instrumental in shaping some of the pol-
icies of the Constitution that have been of great value to the
State.

Mrs. Minerva Barrett, the mother of Charles S. Barrett, was
a woman of sterling qualities, held in high esteem by her neigh-
bors and relatives. She is referred to by the people of Pike
county as an evangel of mercy.

The early childhood of Charles S. Barrett was spent on a
farm in Pike county, Ga. He attended the country schools dar-
ing the winter months, and worked on the farm in the spring and
summer. He had an especial fondness for history, and his
teacher said of him that he was the best historian in school.
Under circumstances like that of other country boys in Pike
county he grew to young manhood, but he was not satisfied with
the educational advantages which he had. His study of history
had awakened a thirst for knowledge. He left home at the age
of twenty-one and attended the colleges of Kentucky, Ohio and
Indiana where he distinguished himself as a close and thorough
student. After returning from college, Mr. Barrett settled in
Upson county, Ga., where he married Miss Alma Eucker, No-
vember 5, 1891. He devoted a number of years to farming and
teaching in his community. As a teacher he built up the largest
country school in Middle Georgia. During these years Mr. Bar-
rett identified himself with every movement which looked to the

CHARLES SIMON BARRETT 301

advancement of the agricultural interests of his county. It was
his natural bent. As a teacher, his gracious and charming per-
sonality was impressed on the boys and the girls who attended
his school and these qualities have subsequently won him the
love and admiration of his fellows in maturer life.

The introduction of the Farmers' Union into Georgia marked
an era in the life of Mr. Barrett. He was among the first to
join the Farmers' Union in Upson county, and at the organiza-
tion of the Upson county Union, Barrett was the unanimous
choice of the people for their first county president. He served
Upson county in this capacity until the State Union of Georgia
was organized in May, 1905, when he was elected its first presi-
dent. He served two terms as State President of Georgia.

It is only the record of a fact to say that Mr. Barrett's ad-
ministration of the affairs of the Georgia State Union were
effective, strong and productive of great results. In the ad-
ministration of the affairs of the Georgia State Union he proved
himself a master of executive ability. The membership of the
Union in the State grew by leaps and bounds. Its temper was
perfect, its harmony was complete, and under its able president
it never made a mistake in its public utterances or edicts. From
almost nothing Barrett brought forth results that attracted the
attention of the leaders of the Union in all sections of the South.

So widely did the fame of Barrett, as an executive official
spread that when the National Union convened in Texarkana,
Texas, in September, 1906, he was the only one mentioned for
the responsible position of National President. This conven-
tion was composed of the ablest and brainiest men of the South
and West. These delegates were conversant with the conditions
of the producers in every section of the United States and knew
the qualifications requisite for such an important position. In-
tuitively their minds turned as one man to Charles Simon Bar-
rett, of Georgia, for National President, to which position he
was unanimously elected.

302 MEN OF MARK

As National President Barrett abundantly fulfilled the ex-
pectations of his most intimate friends. Under his administra-
tion the membership throughout the United States more than
doubled itself, and the affairs of the National Union moulded
into wonderful shape. The question of finance is one that en-
ters largely into the success or failure of an institution or or-
ganization, and Barrett here, as everywhere else, displayed
marked ability as a financier. He found the National Union in
debt, but by his management all indebtedness was met, and a
surplus left in the treasury to the credit of the organization.

Mr. Barrett resides on a small farm near the little town of
Union City, Gra. In his home life he is genial and happy, and
when he can catch an hour or two from the responsible duties
of his office he spends it in the company of his wife and five
boys. Barrett is a typical and practical farmer, producing on
his farm everything that is necessary for living. He is also a
genial and generous gentleman, gracious in manner, handsome
in person, and possessed of rare qualities of fellowship, fun and
noble loyalty. The home of a man is the place to study him,
and neighbors the best witnesses to give information as to his
every-day life. A visitor to Upson county during Mr. Barrett's
recent illness in the West had this to say of the Union's be-
loved president:

"Upson is the mother county of Unionism in Georgia, and
there it was cheering to note the interest of the people in Hon.
Chas. S. Barrett. It was pleasant to hear the expressions of ten-
der solicitude for the speedy recovery of this much beloved and
highly appreciated fellow-citizen of theirs who had recently been
dangerously ill. These expressions came from men and women,
boys and girls in every walk and profession of life. Even the
negroes eagerly asked, 'how's Marse Charlie ?' :

What a tribute to the nobleness of the man. Fortunate, in-
deed, is he whose intimate neighbors and life-long associates,
irrespective of creed or party affiliation or profession, can to a

CHARLES SIMON BARRETT 303

man, express themselves about their neighbor and friend as the
people of Upson county did about Barrett. It is worth a trip
to the county just to hear the numberless expressions of esteem.

Charles Barrett, as a speaker, never fails to hold his audi-
ence. He always has something to say that interests the people
and attracts the attention. His official addresses to the Far-
mers' National Union, as published in the daily and weekly
newspapers of the time, are models of earnest, fluent, forceful
eloquence, but it is as a presiding officer that Mr. Barrett's abil-
ity shows to best effect. He controls the largest convention with
the ease, grace and dignity of a natural born parliamentarian,
and never under any circumstances does he lose control of him-
self. His fairness is so crystal clear that no ruling of his was
ever questioned or protested.

President Barrett presided over the world's famous co-opera-
tive convention held in Topeka, Kans., October 22-24, 1906,
where he won the admiration of every one present. The Na-
tional Cooperator, of Mineola, Texas, comments as follows:
"Charles S. Barrett, of Georgia, is highly educated, honest and
true. He is peculiarly fitted to lead the Union hosts to victory.
His influence is great among all classes of people in Georgia.
He is at home with every class, as well with the merchant and
banker as with the farmer. His plea never goes unheeded,
The members of the Union honored themselves when they hon-
ored Barrett by electing him National President. Long may
he live to enjoy the love and confidence of the people."

Mr. Barrett has never held any political office. He prefers
not to be charged with the responsibilities of official position, for,
as he says: "I always felt that I could do more good for my
people in the private walks of life than it would be possible for
me to do as a public official."

His record is one of honor, kindliness, usefulness and loyalty.
He will be remembered as one of the distinguished and effective
Georgians of his time. JOHN TEMPLE GEAVES.

temple

TO have attained a recognized position as the foremost ora-
tor of any section of our common country would be an en-
viable distinction. To have worthily won and worn that
distinction in the South, where social traditions and that inde-
finable something in the very atmosphere makes naturally for
the oratorical temperament, is to have secured a permanent place
among the great orators, not only of America, but of the world.

That John Temple Graves occupies the foremost rank among
the orators of his time has long been conceded in every section of
the country. The invitations which come to him from all over
the United States to appear upon public platforms, to speak as
the guest of honor before great political organizations and party
clubs, to deliver the annual address at the great universities of
the country and, what is, perhaps, most gratifying and signifi-
cant of all, the deluge of invitations which pour in upon him
from those who know him best and have heard him most fre-
quently, establish his pre-eminence beyond all doubt.

In estimating Mr. Graves's marvelous gifts and achievements
ments as an orator there has been a distinct tendency to compare
him with the lamented Henry W. Grady. When that distin-
guished orator passed away, it was the spontaneous verdict of
the people of the country that the mantle of the older man had
fallen upon the younger. While this was entirely true, it was
not the entire truth. While Henry Grady was in the zenith of
his glory he recognized and freely conceded the splendid gifts
of John Temple Graves, and the people of the country held the
two jointly in the highest regard. But in estimating the
achievements of the two men there is one important fact which

JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES 305

should not be overlooked, and which history itself will not over-
look. In entire loyalty to Grady it must be said that his course
was ordained to lie along pleasanter and less resistant lines than
that of the subject of this sketch. Possessing a temperament
naturally sunny and optimistic, it has nevertheless been the lot
of Mr. Graves to antagonize many established convictions and
to fight his way to the hearts and minds of the people, cap-
turing their judgment and winning their applause in spite of
many of their preconceived opinions. It has not always been an
agreeable duty, but being a man of convictions and scorning
demagogy, he has never hesitated to speak boldly and frankly on
great political and sociological questions, which are vital to the
the welfare of the people. In presenting his views on these para-
mount questions ahe would not natter Neptune for his trident,
nor Jupiter for the power to thunder." His bold stand on the
negro question at Chautauqua, N. Y., for instance, aroused
fierce denunciation from illiberal critics, but he stood up boldly
before the same audience in the same hour and hurled an extem-
poraneous reply which effectually silenced his adversaries. So
his great speech before the University of Chicago has met with
vigorous attacks, but Colonel Graves has succeeded in establish-
ing his contention to the satisfaction of all who are open to the
truth.

It required no small amount of courage to maintain the posi-
tion, through all these years, that the only basic and permanent
settlement of the negro question, which dominates the South
like the very spirit of evil, lies in the colonization of the negro.
And yet as a result of his long and ardent and eloquent crusade
he has succeeded in bringing many of the greatest thinkers of his
own and the negro race to his point of view and they are earnest
in support of the measure he advocates. So, when his work is
mentioned in connection with the achievements of Grady, it is

20

306 MEN OF MARK

to be borne in mind that a more difficult task has been that of
Colonel Graves and the highway he has trod to equal eminence
has been infinitely more thorny.

ISTo man who has never sat under the spell of John Temple
Graves's oratory can form any conception of the spontaneity,
the grace and captivating charm of an eloquence which liter-
ally "wins where it wanders and dazzles where it dwells."
Said Samuel Rogers of Tom Moore, "Surely, Tom, you must
have been born with a rose on your lips and a nightingale
singing in your jear." Such is the impression which one gathers
from hearing the rhythmic beauty of his style which seems to
be "logic on fire"- —the highest combination of beauty and
strength. To suffuse an oration with that nameless grace which
comes from a perfect mastery of the English language with-
out at the same time sacrificing anything of close and cogent
reasoning is a perfection to which few American orators have
ever attained, and yet such is but the just tribute which the rec-
ord must render to the oratory of this remarkable man. His
versatility, no less than his fluency has been the source of admi-
ration. His retentive memory is stored with a wealth of in-
formation which seems to lie ready for instant use, whenever
the occasion shall bring it into play, and then it leaps forth
without an effort, the happiest and most appropriate thought or
allusion that the occasion could demand. He moves with easy
grace from grave to gay, from lively to severe, and seems equally
at home whatever may be the theme. Nothing trite ever falls
from his lips. The coldest statistics breathe and burn under the
transforming spell of his prismatic mind. Every turn of
thought leads to new and charming surprises and keeps the in-
terest of his hearers keyed to the highest tension until their pent-
up feelings burst into uncontrollable applause.

One of the greatest of his contemporaries has said: "Per-
haps no American of the generation has enjoyed so early in life

JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES 307

and in such sustained connection so many and suck dazzling
triumphs of eloquence as John Temple Graves."

The subject of this sketch was born in Willington district,
Abbeville, S. C., November 9, 1857. His grandfather was a
brother of John C. Calhoun, the patron and the benefactor of
McDuffie, and the intimate friend and associate of Hayne, Pres-
ton and Legare. His grandfather, Col. John Temple Graves,
was a distinguished soldier of the Revolution. His father,
Gen. James Graves, was a distinguished soldier of the Civil
War. Thus the laws of heredity and natural environment
served in this aristocratic atmosphere of genius to transmit to
him that splendid gift of eloquence which is his by divine right.
Moving with his father to Georgia, he was graduated from the
State University in August, 1875, and married Miss Mattie
Gardner Simpson, of Hancock county, Ga., April 17, 1878, who
died without issue. He was editor of the Daily Florida Union
and Daily Florida Herald, Jacksonville, from 1882 to 1887,
was Elector-at-Large on the Florida Democratic ticket in 188-1,
leading the ballot of the State. In 1887 he removed to Georgia
and became the editor-in-chief of The Atlanta Journal, editor
and manager of The Tribune, of Rome, in 1888 ; Elector-at-
Large on the Democratic ticket in the same year, leading the
ballot of the State. In the following year he was the orator
of the Southern Society of New York, where he received a
splendid ovation. In 1890 he was married to his second wife,
Miss Anne E. Cothran, of Rome. The children of this mar-
riage are John Temple, Jr., Laura Cothran, James deGraffen-
ried, Cothran Calhoun and Anne Elizabeth.

Beginning with his triumph before the Southern Society, he
was invited to speak on many notable occasions. In 1889 he
delivered his historic memorial address over Henry W. Grady,
which has become one of the classics of oratorical literature.

308 MEN OF MARK

He was the orator of the New England Society, at Philadelphia,
in 1890 ; orator of the New England Society, of Boston, in 1893.
and again in 1894; orator of the World's Congress of Dentists,
in 1894. At the urgent solicitation of President Cleveland and
Senator David B. Hill he was one of the orators during the cam-
paign of 1892, and received the thanks of Hill and Cleveland
and the National Committee for "brilliant and incomparable
services." He was orator at the University .of Virginia in 1894
and three times orator of the New England Society and the
Merchants' Club, of Boston. Since that time he has been the
special guest of so many distinguished gatherings that it would
be tedious to enumerate them, but among them may be mentioned
the fact that in 1904 he spoke before the World's Press Par-
liament, at St. Louis, on which occasion Sir Hugh Reid, presi-
dent of the International Press Parliament exclaimed, "I would
give a thousand guineas to speak like that." His speech on
the negro question before the University of Chicago, was con-
ceded to be one of the most notable utterances on the subject
ever delivered, and the oration was printed and distributed by
the University throughout the country. His speech before the
Duckworth Club, of Cincinnati, during the spring of 1905, on
"A Definite Democracy," sounded the keynote for the reorgani-
zation of the Democratic party for the next campaign.

He was not without a large following of friends and admirers
long before that time, but when his Grady memorial was read
throughout the country, it was realized that an orator indeed
had arisen who need not shrink from comparison with any man,
North or South, and since that time he has been in constant
demand on the platform and on the hustings. Something of his
popularity may be gathered from the significant fact that during
one summer alone he was forced to decline more than one
hundred formal invitations to deliver commencement addresses.

JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES 309

With a brilliant reputation for college oratory, Graves began
life as a teacher in the public schools of West Point and La-
Grange, making during this time two memorial speeches over
Confederate graves, and by the same attracting much attention.
The routine of life of the school-room was irksome to his
eager ambition, and he sought more congenial employment.
About this time the sensational contest between Joseph E. Brown
and Gen. A. R. Lawton convulsed the State, and the young
orator and journalist caught its graphic points in a ringing
article that went into Avery's "History of Georgia" as "the
finest bit of descriptive writing of that decade." From this he
blossomed easily into newspaper life and went to Florida, where
he rose rapidly from reporter to managing editor of The Union,
the only daily in the State. He afterward established The
Daily Herald, and became, with one exception, the most dis-
tinguished man in the State, at the age of twenty-nine years.
He engaged actively in three political campaigns and with his
eloquence swept the hustings as with a prairie fire. The chroni-
cles of 1882-'T in that State, speak of his campaign speeches as
without a parallel in the history of Florida. It was a common
thins; for his enthusiastic audiences to carry him on their

O */

shoulders from the public platform, and in many instances the
horses were unhitched from his carriage and he wras drawn by
the leading citizens through crowded streets, amid shouting mul-
titudes, pelting him with flowers and adulation. And all this
not as a candidate, for he always ignored and declined office,
but simply as a spontaneous tribute to an eloquence which Henry
W. Grady declared the most phenomenal he had ever listened
to. After having led the Democratic electoral ticket in Florida
in 1884, the health of the young journalist-orator and that of
his W7ife failed in the Florida climate, and he returned to
Georgia. He was immediately offered and accepted the posi-

310 MEN OF MARK

t.ion of editor-in-chief of the reorganized Atlanta Journal, in
1887. But the desire for absolute freedom and independence
of utterance led him to resign this responsible position and its
brilliant prospects and to accept the editorship and absolute
control of The Tribune, of Rome, which was established under
him and recorded three phenomenally brilliant and successful
years under his management, until he voluntarily resigned the
editorship, in loyalty to a political conviction which differed
from the views and interests of all its other owners. During

*j

this period, and within a year after his return to Georgia, Graves
was chosen, without an effort, to lead the Democratic electoral
ticket of Georgia in 1888, and thus presented the only instance
in the political history of the South of a young man, under
thirty-two, who had in two successive presidential campaigns
been chosen as a Democratic elector-at-large in two great States
and led the ballot in both of them.

About this time Henry W. Grady died. Graves and Grady
had been bosom friends, and the former had a letter from the
latter saying that no man ever understood him as did the friend
who survived him, and was destined to complete his work.
Graves's oration over Grady's dead body has gone into all lan-
guages, been published in all countries, is spoken to-day by
American youths in all the great American colleges, and is fixed
in literature as one of the few classics in American oratory.
One sentence of this oration, "And when he died he was literally
loving a nation into peace," is graven upon Grady's monument
in Atlanta, and will live as long as the story of the life it com-
memorates. From the day of the Grady memorial John Tem-
ple Graves was in demand all over the country. Every plat-
form was open to him. He could choose his audience anywhere
in the republic, and in the measure of his strength he met the
obligations of his genius and opportunity.

JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES 311

He has filled nineteen hundred lecture platforms in the cities
and towns of America. Mr. Graves was the pioneer advocate
upon most of these occasions of the separation of the white and
black races, and his fame is inseparably linked to that advocacy
and to the advocacy of a definite and progressive democracy
as opposed to the ultra-conservative type. It is needless in an
abridged and circumscribed compilation of this order to enter
into details as to the notable places to which and the distinguish-
ed assemblies before which Mr. Graves has been called as an
orator, for his fame rests not only on the pages of history, but
in the hearts and minds of countless people. His influence has
penetrated the national life in no uncertain way, and his im-
passioned utterances, bearing ever the mark of sincerity, have
swayed thousands. Even the wings of Jove's bird sometimes
grow weary, but not so the gifted voice and mind of John Tem-
ple Graves. Can a better estimate of the man be offered than
that given in his own response to a public tribute: "I have
never felt that I had any greater gifts than others. I believe
if there be any merit in my work it is in its sincerity. I have
never in one conscious moment of my public life said one word
I did not believe to be true. I have never with pen or tongue
championed an unworthy cause. I have never used position,
power or opportunity to gratify a private grudge or prosecute a
private gain. I have loved my country, loved humanity and
reverenced God, and in the greater honors than I have deserved,
which have come to me so lavishly, I have always felt the pain
of my own unworthiness and offered to myself and to the world
no other explanation than that I was sincere."

The good and great of the land have united in plaudits to the
oratory, the sincerity and to the essential manliness of this
famous Georgian, and no blot mars the fair escucheon which is
hie to protect and honor. From 1902 to 1906 Mr. Graves was

312 MEN OF MARK

editor of The Atlanta News, whose repute was won by his edi-
torial work. In the spring of 1906 he became editor of The
Atlanta Georgian, which paper was founded and builded with
phenomenal rapidity around his name and talents. He is staunch
in his allegiance to Jeffersonian principles of government, and
in 1906 he became, for the only time in his life, a candidate for
the United States Senate, finally withdrawing from the race
when his prospects were of the brightest and most assured, on
account of his failing health. He is an elder in the Presbyte-
rian church.

April 10, 1907, was the occasion of the most famous speech
of our brilliant Georgian's life. The Democrats, after various
defeats, were demoralized and discouraged. Theodore Roose-
velt, the Republican President, had become a convert to the
cause of the people against selfish corporations and predatory
wealth, and was making a heroic and successful fight along that
line. About this time the Tennessee Democrats held a great
national banquet at Chattanooga, at which Wm. J. Bryan was
the principal guest. At this feast Mr. Graves, with surpassing
eloquence and courage, urged in his speech that the Democrats
should rise above selfish party success, vindicate their real love
for the people, continue the President in the position in which
he was doing such splendid service, and that Mr. Bryan himself
should inaugurate another "moral era of good feeling," by put-
ting in nomination Theodore Roosevelt for another term in office.
The speech created a national furor, and evoked more universal
comment than any political utterance of the decade. It fixed
the orator's fame as a potent factor in national politics, and
changed in a notable measure the entire sentiment of the Demo-
cratic party.

In October of 1907, Mr. Graves's splendid editorial talents

JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES 313

received a brilliant recognition in a call to be editor-in-chief of
The New York Daily American, perhaps the most influential
daily newspaper in the world, which position of larger useful-
ness he accepted after due deliberation.

Upon his leaving Georgia he was tendered on November 9.
1907, a remarkable farewell banquet in Atlanta, at which the
tributes of love, admiration and affection showered upon him
by hundreds of distinguished and representative men of Geor-
gia and surrounding States, governors, senators, congressmen,
judges, editors and ministers, made up a scene without a parallel
in the personal history of the South. One of the great men
present afterwards said, "It is worth a thousand years of noble
living to have had one night of love and honor like that,"

Among the Georgians whose gifts and graces have been linked
with love and laurels and nation-wide laudations, there is no
more shining figure than John Temple Graves.

CHAS. J. BATISTE.

J^atfwmel C&toin

NATHANIEL EDWIN HARRIS is a native of Tennessee.
He was born in Washington county, Tennessee, January
21, 1846. He has been twice married; first, to Miss
Fannie T. Burke, February 12, 1875, and afterwards to Miss
Hattie G. Jobe, July, 6, 1899. He has had seven children, five
of whom are living. His father, Dr. Alexander Nelson Harris,
was a minister and a physician. Dr. Harris was a man of great
personal magnetism and a most forceful speaker. He was a
surgeon in the Confederate army.

Mr. Harris's earliest known ancestor on his father's side, was
Captain Thomas Harris, who came to America in 1611-; on his
paternal grandmother's side was Christopher Reagan, from
whom was descended Hon. John H. Reagan, late of Texas. Mr.
Harris's mother, who was Miss Edna Haynes, had great influ-
ence in moulding his intellectual, moral and spiritual life. The
Haynes family was distinguished in the history of Massachu-
setts and Connecticut, and also of Tennessee.

As a boy Mr. Harris was not physically strong, and his father
kept him quite regularly at work upon the farm. After the
war this service became a necessity for the family support, as
his father shared in the general desolation that followed. This
service was not an unmixed evil, as the boy had now become a
most vigorous, robust man, and quite equal to any demands that
may be made upon his physical strength.

Mr. Harris attended the common schools of his neighborhood,
and received his academic training at Jonesboro and Boone's
Creek, Tenn. He graduated at the University of Georgia in

NATHANIEL EDWIN HARRIS 315

1870. He was a close and diligent student and improved all
the opportunities that came to him. His application and
marked talent gave him distinction in the University, and high
rank and honor at his graduation. He led all his classes from
the beginning in the common schools to the close of his course
at the University, taking the first honor at that institution.

Mr. Harris began the study of law at the University and
completed the course at Sparta, under the Hon. Linton Stephens
and Judge F. L. Little. For lack of funds he did not begin
the practice of law until after he had accumulated some little
means by teaching at Sparta. He taught the children of Judge
Stephens while he studied law. He was admitted to the bar
in 1872, and has now attained to eminent distinction as a law-
yer. He has a large and remunerative practice.

Mr. Harris, in connection with Walter B. Hill, late Chancel-
lor of the University of Georgia, with whom he was in partner-
ship for twenty-seven years, was City Attorney for Macon from
1874 to 1883 ; General Counsel for the Covington and Macon
Railroad Company, and held a similar position with the Macon
and Northern Railway. He was also General Counsel for the
Middle Georgia and Atlantic Railway in 1890; General Counsel
for the Tifton, Thomasville and Gulf Railroad from 1899 to
1904; Division Counsel for the East Tennessee, Virginia and
Georgia Railroad from 1891 to 1894; Assistant Division Coun-
sel for the Southern Railway from 1894 to this date, and he ha=?
sustained the same relations with the Central of Georgia Rail-
way for the same time. The general employment given Mr.
Harris in important matters gives evidence of his great ability
and masterly management-
He prepared and had issued by J. W. Burke and Company,
in 1876, "Digest of Georgia Reports," vols. 41 to 51 inclusive;
two supplements to the Code 1878-1881, and "Index-Digest to

316 MEN OF MARK

Georgia Reports/' vols. 41 to 61 inclusive, published by J. W.
Burke and Company, 1882.

.Mr. Harris was president of the Macon and ]N"orthern Rail-
road in 1892 ; receiver for the same 1893-'95 ; president of the
Macon and jSTorthern R. R. Co. ; vice-president in charge June,
1895, to December, 1895. He was elected to the lower house
of the General Assembly 1882-'83, 1884-'5, and to the Senate
1894-<95.

To Mr. Harris is due some of the most important legislation
enacted within the past quarter of a century. During the ses-
sion of 1882 he introduced a resolution asking for the appoint-
ment of a committee to gather information, statistics and other
matter looking to the establishment of a school of Technology for
the State. The committee was given power to visit the ISTorth
and examine the great schools in operation in that section. The
resolution was adopted, and Mr. Harris was made chairman of
the committee. The committee made a thorough inspection of
the best schools of the country, and, at the opening of the ses-
sion of 1883, they recommended that the State establish the
school to be modeled upon the Worcester Institute. Accompany-
ing the report, Mr. Harris introduced a bill looking to the estab-
lishment of such school. He earnestly urged the passage of this
bill. It was lost, however, receiving only sixty-five votes.

During the interval before the next session of the Legislature
Mr. Harris pressed the matter before the people, and in some
counties it was made an issue in the election of candidates for
the Legislature.

One of the principal agencies that called attention to the
matter was the State Agricultural Society. Mr. Harris de-
livered an address before the Society at the meeting at Savannah,
setting forth the advantages to come to the State through such
an institution. The Society adopted a resolution strongly en-
dorsing and recommending the passage of a bill making such pro-

NATHANIEL EDWIN HARRIS 317

vision. The press throughout the State, through the influence
of Mr. Harris, took up the matter and urged it upon the at-
tention of the people, so that at the summer session of the next
Legislature the bill, which was again introduced by Mr. Harris,
passed the House. Mr. Harris spoke earnestly in advocacy of
the measure, as did many others — the strongest men in the
House. The bill subsequently passed the Senate, under the
leadership of Hon. John S. Davidson, and was approved by
Governor McDaniel October 16, 1885.

During the following January Governor McDaniel appointed
the first commission for the school, as follows : X. E. Harris,
S. M. Inman, E. R. Hodgson, A. S. Porter and Columbus
Heard. The board organized and elected Mr. Harris chairman,
and Mr. S. M. Inman secretary and treasurer. The Act re-
quired competitive bids for the location of the school. It was
finally decided to place it in Atlanta, and on the land donated
by the city for the purpose. Mr. Harris has been chairman
of the board and directly connected with the school from the
time of his appointment to the present. The school is the
pioneer in technical training of the South, and it is second to
none that has been established since. It has been the model
for most of the other Southern schools of a similar character.
Many State institutions have duplicated its equipment after
an examination of the same. The school has had a large mea-
sure of influence in changing our people from exclusive agricul-
ture to manufacturing industries, and Mr. Harris has won the
lasting gratitude of the people for the conception of and for his
untiring efforts in pressing to passage so helpful a measure.

During the session of 1884, Mr. Harris was chairman of the
finance committee, and aided the Governor in refunding the
State debt, which became necessary at that period. Georgia's
credit, during this time, was exceedingly problematical, and a

318 MEN OF MARK

larger part of her bonded indebtedness falling due, it was feared
by many that her bonds could not be sold on the market to
pay the vast sums then becoming due.

The parties who bid upon the bonds made an unsuccessful
effort to reverse the action of the New York authorities in refus-
ing to allow trust funds to be invested in them. Failing in this,
it became doubtful whether these parties could comply with their
bid. Additional time was asked and Mr. Harris, as chairman
of the finance committee, took the responsibility upon himself
of having introduced and passed a resolution giving this addi-
tional time. The propriety of this course was seriously ques-
tioned then, but it was afterwards conceded, on all hands, that
the action saved the State from great and, possibly, irreparable
financial embarrassment. The bonds sold above par. As an
indication of the high tension which the State authorities had
reached, the following incident may be mentioned :

On the day when the time for complying with the bid had
arrived the Supreme Court was in session, presided over by
Chief Justice James Jackson. About 11 o'clock Mr. Harris
entered the door of the court room, and as he did so, Judge
Jackson's arm was lifted on high in order to stop the attorney
who was then engaged in the argument of a case, and addressing
Mr. Harris from the bench, he said:

"Did the bidders take the bonds and make good?"

To this Mr. Harris replied: "Yes, sir; they complied with
their bid."

Then Judge Jackson's hand came down upon the desk in
front of him accompanied by the words : "Thank God, Georgia
is saved."

There was not a man in authority in the State that did not
know she had passed one of the severest crises in her history.

Mr. Harris has frequently declined to become a candidate

NATHANIEL EDWIN HARRIS 319

for public position. He says the prohibition issue in the State
cut short his political career. He is, by principle, a prohibi-
tionist, but his immediate constituents, possibly from interest
and local surroundings, were on the other side. He would not
surrender all his convictions for office ; and thus a safe and wise
counselor, a strong, aggressive and public spirited citizen was
lost to the counsels of the State and the nation. Mr. Harris
embodies every element of a patriot and statesman. His posi-
tion as chairman of the governing board of the School of Tech-
nology made him ex-officio trustee of the State University — an
office he has held for more than twenty-two years.

Mr. Harris is a Knight Templar in Masonry. He is an active
and consistent member of the Methodist church. He has been
several times in the chief counsels of his denomination. He
was made a member of the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan Fe-
male College, in 1882, and he has continued in this relation to
the present date, except for an interval of one year.

Mr. Harris entered the Confederate service, as a private in an
infantry regiment of Tennessee troops. He was afterwards
transferred to a Virginia regiment and assigned to duty on the
staff. He remained with the Virginia army till the war closed.

He has served some years as Commander of Camp Macon,
Confederate Veterans, and was selected by General Lee to de-
liver the address at Louisville, Ky., at the general reunion in
1905, which duty he performed. He spoke on the "Civil War,
Its Causes and Results." At the general reunion in Nashville,
the year before, he delivered a eulogy on General Gordon, and
by unanimous vote, he was asked to deliver this same address

t/

before the General Assembly of the State. This he did during
the session of 1905.

Mr. Harris's career is the more remarkable because of the
hindrances in his early life. His character is best exemplified
in the beautiful spirit with which he met and overcame obstacles.

320 MEN OF MARK

After his father's death he took charge of his mother and her
family, consisting of eleven children. They were exiled from
East Tennessee because of his own and his father's connection
with the Confederate cause.

Mr. Harris located the family on rented land in Georgia. He
furnished to his mother each month during her entire life
such amounts of money as were necessary for the support of
the family. He sent the children to school, graduating them
from college and preparing them for the active duties of life.
This care and expenditure on his part is the more to be com-
mended when it is known that he borrowed the money for his
own education from Hon. Alexander H. Stephens. This money
he paid back, both principal and interest, and felt that was only
a small portion of his indebtedness to his generous benefactor.
In 1893 Mr. Harris's mother died in his arms, with a mother's
prayer for her son on her lips. A more beautiful and touching
incident does not often occur in the sacred precincts of a Chris-
tian home.

The following tribute from one of his fellow-citizens in
Macon will show the estimate in which he is held by those who
know him best:

"As a lawyer, Hon. !N". E. Harris has few equals, and no
superiors, at the Georgia bar. An advocate possessed of the
rarest endowments, his eloquence is often so irresistible that it
sweeps his opponent's case from the boards like a whirlwind,
while his extensive knowledge of the law insures the strongest
foundations for his appeals in behalf of his client. Many times
in the court-house his burning words have electrified his hearers,
and judge, jury, and spectators listen with amazement, and
often, under the spell of his pathos, with eyes bathed in tears.
At such times, persons who hear him compare his efforts to those
of the greatest of his profession.

NATHANIEL EDWIN HARRIS 321

"No finer compliment can be paid him than to state the fact
that when it is known in his home city that he is going to make
an address to a jury in the court-house, many law offices are
closed and members of his profession gather in a body to listen
to his words. He has seldom been known to lose a case when
he is given the conclusion.

"As a church and educational worker, the deeds of Colonel
Harris are written on the tablets of thousands of hearts, and
the memory of these deeds will live to bless future generations.
Here, in later years, his ambition has found an outlet. At the
head of the great Technological School, trustee of his old Alma
Mater, one of the leaders on the board of the Wesleyan College
for girls, lecturer, Sunday School Superintendent, he has been
brought into contact with the young men and women of Georgia,
and is striving with all his great heart and soul to leave an im-
press for good on the character and destiny of the coming gen-
erations of his adopted State. This is the hope with which he
labors in his later years."

When asked for a statement of principles, methods and habits
that would contribute most to the strengthening of sound ideals
in American life, he said : "I believe a hearty devotion to the
truth for the truth's sake, a steadfast refusal to surrender prin-
ciple for policy, and an aggressive advocacy of one's personal
beliefs, with a due regard to the rights of others is the best
course for every young man to pursue. Energy, honesty and
firmness should form the basis of character for every young
life." W. J.

21

Canbler,

ASA GRIGGS GABBLER was bom in Villa. Rica, De-
cember 30, 1851. His father was Samuel Charles
Candler. His mother was Martha Beall Candler. He
owes much to his home influence for the shaping of his young
life and the later conditions that determined the character of
his manhood and his business career, as well as his moral and
religious living.

Samuel Charles Candler was the father of several sons, all
of whom have steadily maintained the confidence and respect
of their fellows, and attained distinction in their several pur-
suits and professions. He was a merchant and a farmer, having
superior business ability, based upon his honesty of purpose and
promptness of action. He had most positive convictions on all
moral questions. All these things he steadily and successfully
instilled into his sons. He taught them not only business
methods, but honesty of dealing, and diligent and faithful labor.
He allowed them no money for personal use except what they
themselves had earned. He taught them to know that work on
the farm and manual service in any honorable pursuit would
not only command the respect of all worthy people, but would
give vigor of mind and body that would serve in the usefulness
of citizenship and the success of later life. In all these things
his wife joined him most heartily. The results as reached in
the family history, as life has developed, greatly emphasizes the
force of moral and religious influences, as well as business train-
ing in home life. The rule of this family government was to
keep the boys always busy at something useful.

ASA GRIGGS CANDLER 323

Mr. Samuel Charles Candler did not live exclusively for his
personal business and his home. He was a man of broad spirit
and, while in no sense a politician, he felt great interest and took
prominent part in the discussion of all public questions and
such political matters as concerned the interests of the com-
monwealth and the future of our national life.

He represented, at different times, Cherokee and Carroll
counties in the State Legislature. He was first elected in 1835,
to represent Cherokee county. For several terms afterwards;
he represented Carroll county, in which county he spent most
of his life. He was also, for two terms, elected State Senator
from his district. He was a member of the National Demo-
cratic Convention which met at Charleston, S. C., in 1860, and
he was an ardent supporter of Stephen A. Douglas. He served
as a soldier in the war with the Seminole Indians in Florida, in
1836. Mr. Candler's ancestors came from England and Ireland
and settled in Georgia.

Asa Griggs Candler, the subject of this sketch, attended his
first school at six years of age, January, 1857. He continued
at school until 1861, the beginning of the Civil war. As there
were no schools in the community during the war, his education
was stopped until 1867, except such help as came to him from
home reading and home study. This was greatly interrupted by
the constant marauding by the soldiers of one army or the other,
as much time was taken in hiding stock and provisions from
pillaging and pitiless foragers.

In 1867 he attended school at Huntsville, Ala., for one year.
The succeeding year, 1868, he spent as a regular field laborer on
the farm. He then spent one more year at school. July 1,
1870, he apprenticed himself to a druggist until January, 1873.
He was "the boy of all work" during the day. He studied medi-
cal books at night. He slept on a cot in the back room of the

324 MEN OF MARK

drug store in which he was employed in Cartersville. Seven
days after the expiration of his service as an apprentice, Janu-
ary 7, 1873, he left Cartersville to go, he knew not where, in
search of better opportunities to learn more thoroughly to be-
come a druggist. He stopped in Atlanta and began to look for
work. All day and until nine o'clock at night, he walked the
streets, entering each drug store as he came to it, asking for a
chance to make a start. At that hour of the night he found an
opening, but no salary was promised until he could prove him-
self worthy of compensation. He went to work the moment the
agreement was entered upon and worked until midnight, at
which time the proprietor of the store, Mr. George Howard, di-
rected the business closed for the night.

Mr. Candler remained with Mr. Howard until November,
1873, not quite one year, when the death of his father made it
necessary for him to return to the farm to aid his mother in car-
ing for the four brothers that had not yet become self-supporting.
He and his next younger brother took charge of the farm, putting
it in good condition to be sold.

In January, 1875, he returned to his position in the store
of Mr. Howard. The place had been kept open for him as chief
clerk. In this relation he remained until 1877, when he entered
the drug business on his own account, forming a partnership
with M. B. Hallman, under the firm name of Hallman and
Candler. This partnership continued until 1882, when he
bought out Mr. Hallrnan's interest and continued the business
under the name of Asa G. Candler and Company. Mr. Candler
owned the entire interest.

April, 1882, he sold a half interest in his business to his
former employer, Mr. George J. Howard, and it was continued
under the firm name of Howard and Candler, until January,
1886, when he bought Mr. Howard's interest and again conduct-

ASA GRIGGS CANDLER 325

ed the business under the name of Asa G. Candler and Company,
until 1890, when he closed out the stock of drugs, amounting in
value to nearly $50,000. He changed his business for the pur-
pose of manufacturing the then scarcely known soda fountain
beverage, Coca-Cola. In this business he continued alone until
February, 1892, when the Coca-Cola Company was incorporated.
Mr. Candler became president of the company, and he has con-
tinued so until this day.

Mr. Candler's first investment, outside of his immediate busi-
ness, was made in Atlanta real estate in 1878. He bought prop-
erty for $3,000 that paid him handsome profit. From that time
he has been constantly able to make investments on the outside
that have paid him handsomely.

Mr. Candler is known to be one of the most successful busi-
ness men of his day. He is the very embodiment of system in
his planning and management. Everything he does is the expres-
sion of method. He is broad in his conceptions, and whilst he
is a master of detail, he is equal to the solution of the most
comprehensive propositions. He understands thoroughly how
to get his business before the public and how to secure patron-
age. He spends, each year, for the advertisement of Coca-Cola,
an amount of money that most people would be quite willing
to retire upon. His whole being is business. It must be dis-
tinctly understood that Mr. Candler does not conduct his busi-
ness in the narrow spirit of objectionable commercialism. He
does not make money just to hoard money with any narrow
spirit, as his generosity is as broad as the demands that come
to him, and his gifts and his benevolences are as free as his ener-
gies are active to accumulate.

He is an active and devout member of the Methodist church,
having joined the church in 1869, at about eighteen years of age.
In 1874 he was made a Steward in his church and he has held

326 MEN OF MARK

that office until now. In May, 1890, he was elected treasurer
of the Georgia Sunday School Association. The following
year he was elected secretary of the Association, and in 1905 he
was made president.

From 1895 to 1900 he represented Georgia on the Executive
Committee of the International Sunday School Association.
Since 1900 he has been chairman of the Finance Committee
of Emory College. Since 1903 he has been treasurer of the
Board of Missions of the North Georgia Methodist Conference.
All these positions show the confidence of the people in Mr.
Candler's business ability and their appreciation of his devotion
to religious enterprises. He gives to the duties of the positions
he holds the same care and consideration that he does to his
personal investments. Outside of his personal benevolence,
these objects receive the benefit of his splendid business ability
and, thus, his church and the educational institutions he repre-
sents have their business interests greatly enlarged because of his
helpful efforts.

Mr. Candler is a very pronounced Democrat, but he has never
sought or held any public position, except as Lieutenant of
Cavalry in the State Militia.

January 15, 1878, he married Miss Lucy E. Howard, the
daughter of Mr. George J. Howard, the man who first gave
him business employment. To this marriage there have been
born five children, all of whom are living.

To the young, Mr. Candler commends : "Begin early to
look for an ideal Christian character who has lived and is
dead. Study closely the elements of that life. Be punctual,
sober, industrious and studious. Let no present comfort or
convenience deter or deflect you from virtue."

W. J.

n

328 MEN OF MARK

Rowland Bailey. Mrs. Traylor was born in \rirginia, and
sprang from the well-known Hariston family which settled in
Henry county, Virginia, in the early history of the State.
Among her other distinguished relatives was the late Gen. Jubal
A. Early. She was a woman of striking personality, strong
character, and exerted a wide influence for good over all who
came in touch with her — a helpmate in every way for her hon-
ored husband.

Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Traylor. Col.
George M. Traylor, of Atlanta; Jerry R., of Opelika; Hon.
Robert B., of Chipley; Thomas H., of Troup county; Mrs.
T. H. Northen, of Atlanta, and Miss Elizabeth and Marshall
Traylor, survive their father. John C. and Chas. H. have
passed away.

Mr. Traylor joined the Methodist church when quite a boy
and became a devout Christian gentleman. He was always
prominent and helpful in the councils of all good people, upon
matters both religious and secular. His strong native intellect,
guided by unusual common sense and fully developed through
his quick insight and most excellent mental training, made him
a leader among men. A ripe scholar, with lofty ideals and a
brave spirit, purely unselfish and broad in his views of public
policies, he was always in sympathy with and in active and
open service for what he believed best for the public welfare,
regardless of personal sacrifice. Nothing in public life was
more abhorrent to him than the advocacy and the policies of the
self-seeking. He was upright in character, strong in his friend-
ships, and marked and distinct as a most lovable personality.
He was greatly esteemed as an honest man, of strong convic-
tions and the courage always to announce and the ability to
maintain them.

JOHN HUMPHREY TRAYLOR 329

All his life, Colonel Traylor took an active interest in public
affairs. Cultured and courteous, he commanded the greatest re-
spect of his compeers. Clear and outspoken in his public de-
liverances, he received most kindly consideration from men of
opposing political views. His counsel was sought in times of
stress, as his judgment was wise and his sympathy for the needy
or the unfortunate never failing.

These elements of character and sympathies of life led Colonel
Traylor to attach himself to many worthy and charitable enter-
prises. He was a member of the Masonic order and the fol-
lowing extract taken from resolutions adopted by his lodge, after
his death, indicates the measure of the character of the man and
the warm esteem in which he was held.

"While we feel keenly the great loss our sacred order has
sustained in the death of this golden hearted gentleman, we
have only to look back upon his long and useful life, to feel
fully recompensed for our sorrows — a life full of crowning
victories, not only for his fellow-men, but for his country, his
church and for his God, whom he always loved to worship,
victorious even when the sting of death had stilled his great
heart. His death filled with sorrow all the hearts of all the
people whose good fortune it was to know and love him."

Prior to the War Between the States Colonel Traylor was a
Whig, but joined the Democrats when the Whig party was dis-
solved. He never sought office for the sake of office, and never
allowed his name used for political place, except when he be-
lieved he could be of service for the common good.

In 1885 he was elected State Senator and represented, with
distinction, the thirty-seventh district. During this term of ser-
vice he advocated all measures he believed would advance the
permanent interests of the commonwealth. He was especially
prominent in his support of the measures for strengthening the

330 MEN OF MARK

authority of the Georgia Railroad Commission and the bill
enacting local option as applied to the sale of intoxicating
liquors. He gave conspicuous and earnest attention as well as
intelligent and constant advocacy to every measure favoring
what he believed to be the best interests of the people.

He was a pioneer in the reform element of the Democratic
party and took advanced positions and advocated new policies
that were finally embodied in the platform of the People's party.
He strongly allied himself with the advocates of this party, and
soon became one of the party's most trusted and conservative
leaders.

In 1898 he was nominated by the People's party for Gover-
nor of Georgia and made a general canvass of the State. In a
joint discussion in Chattahoochee county, United States Sena-
tor A. S. Clay said "Colonel Traylor would make a splendid
Governor if he were only still a Democrat," He lived to see
many of the measures proposed and advocated by the People's
party adopted by the Democratic party.

Colonel Traylor was one of Georgia's sturdiest and most in-
dependent farmers. He lived all his later life upon his farm,
in a most elegant country home. Always a most hospitable and
courteous gentleman, his home was open at all times to his
friends, who frequently sought his counsel or came to enjoy
his hospitality and his hearty fellowship. He died at the ad-
vanced age of 82 years, February 9, 1907. He was buried
in the family cemetery on his plantation.

The following article is from the pen of John Temple Graves,
editor of The Atlanta Georgian, and was written during Colonel
Traylor's last illness:

"The Georgian regrets to learn that the Hon. John H. Tray-
lor of the county of Troup, who is one of the oldest and most
cherished of its friends, and one of the strongest and noblest
Georgians, is lying quite ill at his home near LaGrange. We

JOHN HUMPHREY TRAYLOR 331

sincerely trust that his recovery may be speedy and that his
years may be long in the land which he has honored and bettered
by his living.

"John H. Tray lor is one of Nature's noblemen. He was
born at Traylorsville, Va., and educated at Emory and Henry
College in that State. He is a ripe scholar, a man of superior
natural gifts, and belongs to the old school of Virginia gentle-
men. Since his life in Georgia he has always been a promin-
ent factor in public affairs. As State Senator he was notable
in his advocacy of the Georgia Railroad Commission and has
been all the years of his life a conspicuous force in every moral
question, and on the honest side of every political question.

"A pioneer among the reform element of the Democratic party,
he went to the People's party and was nominated at one time
by the Populists for Governor.

"Lofty in his ideals, pure in character and strong in person-
ality, he is a leader whose counsels will always be missed as from
a big-hearted, honest, brave and generous gentleman in all
things.

"May the angels of healing touch him with a speedy restora-
tion to usefulness and health."

W. J.

Cltefja $ecfe ^mttlj JSenmarfe,

ELISHA PECK SMITH DENMARK was born in Brooks
county, December 4, 1854. He attended the common
schools of his community in his early boyhood, and at
eighteen years of age entered the Mount Zion High School taught
by W. J. Northen, in Hancock county. He entered Mercer
University soon after leaving Mr. ISTorthen's school, but had to
leave there on account of an epidemic of meningitis. He then
went to the State University and completed the Junior course
in 1874.

He married Miss Mary E. Lane, January 6, 1881. They
have had five children, all of whom are living.

Mr. Denmark's father, Thomas I. Denmark, of Irish descent,
was a man of great energy, unusual benevolence and a devout
Christian. He never sought political prominence or public
place, but made himself eminently useful in his immediate
community. His wife, Amanda (Groover) Denmark, was a
woman of strong character and religious force. These two to-
gether made a home life that gave to the State a family of boys
from sturdy stock, having every element of the highest and
best citizenship known to our people.

The subject of this biography, the sixth son of the family
being reared in the country on a farm, was a robust and hearty
boy. He loved fields and trees and birds and flowers, and these
things strengthened his fondness for the beautiful and the
good, and elevated his thoughts to the spiritual and the true.

Mr. Denmark chose the law as his profession. He entered
the law office of Hon. Henry G. Turner as a student, in 1876,

EL1SHA PECK SMITH DENMARK. 333

and was admitted to the bar and began the practice of his pro-
fession in Quitman in 1878. In 1893 he moved from Quit-
man to Valdosta, his present place of residence.

Before leaving Quitman Mr. Denmark's business ability, as
well as his professional skill, had so impressed the people of
his community that he was made president of the Bank of Quit-
man, which position he held until his removal from the com-
munity. Before leaving Quitman he had been made a director
of the Merchants Bank of Valdosta, which position he still
holds. He is now general counsel for this bank. He is secre-
tary and treasurer and general counsel of the Strickland Cotton
Mills. He was local counsel for the Atlantic Coast Line Rail-
way from 1883, but in 1896 his firm, Denmark & Griffin, was
made division counsel for the same system, which they resigned
recently because it interfered with their general practice. He
is a director in the First National Bank of Valdosta, and attor-
ney for Lowndes county.

Mr. Denmark inherited great energy, strong will-force and
untiring application from his father. He is a most diligent
worker in all his places of service. His great physical vigor
has availed him well in the varied lines of his work. Whilst
fond of recreation and the lighter entertainments of life, he
scarcely relaxes to seek diversion. He is a diligent student
and hard worker, first, because he has much to do, and second,
because he loves his work. Such a man always commands the
respect and patronage of his community.

Fond as he is of his profession, the law, it is not surprising
that he should have some desire to help shape a system of
government and law which would be wisest and best for his
people. With this end in view he has served both his city and
his State as a law-maker. When a resident of Quitman he
was a member of the aldermanic board for three terms. In

334 HEN OF MARK

1880 he was elected to represent the seventh district in the
State Senate. He has been city alderman for Valdosta for
three separate administrations.

Mr. Denmark has been quite as earnest and active in the
educational interests of his community as in his professional
and business career. He has been president of the City Board
of Education since 1893. He is also president of the Board
of Education for his county. He has been a member of this
board since 1893. Mr. Denmark does not confine his interest
in education to his immediate community, nor to the common
schools. At the solicitation of his friends he accepted a place on
the board of trustees of Brenau College for women at Gainesville.

Mr. Denmark is a prominent member of the Baptist church.
He was made vice-president of the Georgia Baptist Convention
at its session in Valdosta in 1901.

Mr. Denmark feels that the success he has attained in life is
quite as much as he has deserved when measured by his en-
vironments.

In early life he determined upon the law as a life profes-
sion. He has not allowed himself to be diverted from the
practice by any tempting invitation for a change. He has
formed manv business connections and held manv official rela-

t/ *J

tions, but they have all been in harmony with his main line
of effort, and he has subjected each and all of them to the con-
trol of his chief life work. What he has lived was his ideal at
the beginning. He finds nothing better at this time of life to
commend to the young who have ambitions for the future than
what he has attempted for himself, namely: "Select at the
commencement of life a business or profession, and direct all
energies of mind, body and heart to attain success without mak-
ing changes, unless it was clearly apparent that a mistake was
made in the selection at the beginning."

W. J.

CbUnn >

'

,

336 MEN OF MARK

ing made a fortune among as sturdy and healthy a body of
citizens as can be found in the whole country, he retired from
the practice of medicine and invested his money in the en-
largement of his mercantile business and in the Habershain
Bank, of which, at its organization, he was made president.
This position he still holds.

The name West is distinguished in the annals of both America
and England. About the year 1750, when John West was
Speaker of the House of Commons in England, three of his
brothers emigrated from that country to America. One of these,
James West, was the great-grandfather of the subject of this
sketch. He settled in the Colony of Virginia, where in 1878
his son, James, was born. The latter became a prominent
Baptist preacher, and in company with Rev. Humphrey Posey,
for whom Dr. West is named, used to travel on horseback in the
States of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. In 1811 Benja-
min West, the father of Dr. West, was born. One year later
Rev. James West permanently located in the State of Georgia,
and lived to the ripe old age of ninety years. His son, Benja-
min, died at the age of sixty-five. The subject of this sketch
has already passed three score and ten, but is active and ener-
getic for a man of his years. On his mother's side, Dr. West is
of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His mother was Miss Thursey Trot-
ter, daughter of Robert Trotter. Dr. West's father was a
farmer, whose marked characteristics were kindness and af-
fection toward his family.

Dr. West is a leader of the Baptist denomination in his
community, a Master Mason and an active member of the
Democratic party. He has delivered a number of addresses be-
fore the county and State medical societies, and has been an
occasional contributor to the newspapers. At a banquet given to
the Mississippi Valley Association on October 9, 1900, at Ashe-

EDWIN POSEY WEST 337

ville, N. C., lie was called on, as one of the delegates from
Georgia, to make a "Cracker" speech, which was reported as
follows :

"I am proud to say that I am a Georgian and a thorough-
bred Cracker. However, I feel somewhat embarrassed to find
myself speaking to gentlemen, as I do not associate with them
at my home. I am the father of eight girls, and am the only
young man at the house. Possibly some of you gentlemen may
be able to imagine what it is to be tied by the apron strings
of eight girls, and live under a petticoat government and have
to go to mill and make fires all your life.

"Gentlemen, I live in Habersham county, which is the healthi-
est county in these United States. Its low death rate is attest-
ed by the fact that the United States health reports put it as
one of the very few white counties on the map. In Habersham
we never get sick or die — had to kill a man to start a grave-
yard. In that county, gentlemen, I practiced medicine twenty
years, made a fortune and retired. I'll tell you how I did it.
Doctored them before they got sick, and kept them well."

Dr. West is a diligent student of the Bible, and says that in his
life-work it has been of far more assistance to him than any
other book. He recommends as essential requisites to the at-
tainment of success, trust, honesty and perseverance.

D. A. TEDDEE.

22

barren Hanbrum.

WILLIAM WAEREN LANDRUM, D.D., LL.D., pas-
tor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Ga., stands
in the very forefront of the Southern Baptist Ministry.
He was born in Macon, Bibb county, Ga., January 18, 1853,
On both sides he comes of distinguished parentage. His father,
Dr. Sylvanus Landrum, occupied pastorates in Macon, Savan-
nah, ISTew Orleans and Memphis. His mother was a daughter
of General Eli Warren, of Perry, and no less fearlessly than
her husband, shared in the danger and suffering which devastated
the city of Memphis during a terrible epidemic of yellow fever.
She ministered day and night to the plague-stricken inhabi-
tants, and lost two sons in that time of sorrow and disaster.

On both sides of the family, the ancestors of Dr. Landrum
came from Virginia, and in the Old Dominion State they were
distinguished for piety and wisdom in the moral and religious
life of the communities they served as well as for patriotism and
braverv on the field of battle.

tj

It is often recorded that the leading men in our country's
history passed their early years on the farm, but the subject of
our sketch forms a notable exception to this rule. The whole
of his boyhood was spent in city life. The curious fact that
the words of our language, which pertain to politeness and cul-
ture are derived from urban life has often been noted by ety-
mologists, and these qualities have always marked the young
Georgian, who was reared in Savannah, Macon and other cities
of the South. In his home and surroundings there were cul-
ture and refinement, and the youth early developed a fondness
for books and intellectual pursuits. There was a healthy desire
for fishing and a love of out-of-door sports, however, which has

WILLIAM WARREN LANDRUM 339

never left him, and it was a subject of much humorous com-
ment at a recent State Convention, when, in spite of his years
and dignity, he left his brethren one evening at the sound of the
hunter's horn, to engage in the pastime of a fox hunt.

His fondness for nature and keen enjoyment of social com-
panionship has, however, always been subordinate to his love for
study. His preparatory school work was done at Chatham
Academy. He entered Mercer University, but did not graduate
from this latter institution. There is a story sometimes whisper-
ed among Dr. Landrum's intimates, as to the reason for this,
which may or may not be true. It was during the dark days
of the Reconstruction Period, and it is said that this young man,
destined for the ministry though he was, could not resist the
fascinations of the Ku Klux Klan, and joined this mysterious
organization, formed to hold the negroes in check just after the
war. His father, becoming apprised of the situation and fear-
ing the possibility of Federal interference with the young man's
studies, decided that a change of scene would be desirable.

Leaving Mercer, he matriculated at the famous Brown Uni-
versity of Providence, R. I., where he graduated in 1872. De-
siring to make as complete and thorough preparation for the
ministry as possible, he entered the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, graduating in nine of its thirteen schools, in the year
1874. In recognition of his scholarship, his Alma Mater, Wash-
ington and Lee, and the University of Georgia, conferred upon
him the degrees of D.D., and LL.D.

He began his life-work as pastor of the First Baptist Church
at Shreveport, La. Since then he has held pastorates in Au-
gusta, Ga. ; Richmond, Va., and Atlanta, Ga. Thus in thirty-
five years he has been pastor of only four churches, and these
among the strongest in the South.

He is president of the Home Mission Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention, president of the board of trustees of

340 MEN OF MARK

Shorter College, president of the Education Board of Georgia
Baptists, and a trustee of Mercer University. He was elected
president of this latter institution, but his church refused to let
him lay down his work, to the great joy of his fellow-citizens
in the Capital city.

There is in Atlanta a unique club called "The Ten," subdivid-
ed into "Saints" and "Sinners." During the twelve years of
its existence it has included some of the leading men of the
State, both laymen and ministers, in its organization. For some
years Dr. Landrum has been Czar of this body and is the life
and soul of the members in their monthly meetings.

Despite his ministerial dignity, military service has always
possessed an attractive glamour for him, and he has been both
Captain and Chaplain of a regiment of cavalry. He is a Mason,
member of the Shrine, and has been Grand Prelate of the
Knights Templar of Georgia, In addition, he is a Son of the
Revolution. He is one of the authors of "History, Prophecy
and Gospel," published by Silver, Burdett and Company, Bos-
ton, Mass., and is constantly called upon for literary work in
the religious and educational press. His taste in literature is
chiefly for philosophy, biography, and history, and the turning
point in his life came from a study of the biography of Adoni-
ram Judson. Prior to reading this book his purpose was to be
a lawyer, but the life of this great missionary carried the con-
viction to his mind that he must preach the gospel. In this
glorious field, he has won deserved fame, and it is but simple
truth to say that in the hearts and minds of thousands, he holds
the largest place in the ministry of the State. In his work as
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, he has been re-
markably successful. ISTor is it admiration alone, which he
inspires; his genial qualities and kindly heart have attracted
a love which is not bounded by denominational or State lines,
and which widens and intensifies his influence with the passing
of the years. M. L. BBITTAIN,

.

342 MEN OF MARK

Mr. Oglesby began the battle of life at an unusually early
age, his father having died when he was less than twelve years
old. It was necessary for him to earn his own living and assist
in the support of others, and in a right manly manner did he
face the issue. His only educational advantages were those
derived from the common schools, but he learned in the school
of life and entered into a man's place in the world's affairs
at an early age, but competent and thoroughly equipped for life's
duties. More than one generation of this branch of the Oglesby
family has engaged in the manufacture of cotton gins. Mr.
Oglesby was associated with his brother in this industry for
several years, and not only made improvements from time to
time, but invented and patented two pieces of cotton machinery.
Mr. Oglesby was married on May 14, 1878, to Miss Bessie Cobb,
daughter of Thomas and Martha Cobb, and they have four sons
whose names are, James, Pope, Wilbur and Hugh.

Mr. Oglesby is a Democrat in politics, and leans toward
the Methodists in religion, though not a member of the church.
The only secret order which claims his membership is that
popular organization of the lumbermen known as the Concate-
nated Order of the Hoo-Hoo, of which the black cat is the
emblem, and in which the number nine plays an important
part,

Mr. Oglesby conceived and constructed the South Georgia
Railway, which was completed from Heartpine to Quitman, a
distance of twenty-eight miles, in 1896, and two years later
extended twenty-three miles to Greenville, Fla. He is presi-
dent and largest stockholder in this line, the building of which
infused new life into the town of Quitman, and largely, as a
result of Mr. Oglesby having invested capital and energy in
this enterprise, the town has almost doubled its population in
the last nine years. The West Coast Eailway, opening up anoth-

JAMES WOOD OGLESBY 343

er rich section, was also built by Mr. Oglesby, he being presi-
dent and the largest stockholder in the corporation. This line
was leased to and is operated by the South Georgia Railway
Company, making the latter's mileage seventy-eight miles. The
fact that this company has never had a complaint filed against
it before the Georgia Railroad Commission is evidence of Mr.
Oglesby's good management and fair dealings with the patrons
of the line.

About two years ago Mr. Oglesby and a few associates or-
ganized the First National Bank of Quitman, with $100,000
capital stock. Mr. Oglesby was chosen president, and another
evidence of his superior business qualifications is given in the
fact of the bank already showing profits of above $14,000. At
an early date in its career the bank was made a State depository
and also designated as a government depository by the Secretary
of the Treasury, and that, too, when older institutions had for
some time had their applications for this honor on file.

Mr. Oglesby is president of the Oglesby Lumber and Manu-
facturing Company, which operates one of the largest and most
successful saw and planing mills in that section with a daily
capacity of 50,000 feet. The company utilizes about twelve
miles of tram road. There is also connected with the mill an
ice manufacturing plant which not only supplies the local de-
mand for domestic use, but ships large quantities to the near-by
towns.

Mr. Oglesby is also president of and a large stockholder in
the Inter-State Lumber Company, which has at Perry, Fla., a
saw mill with a daily capacity of 50,000 feet of lumber. The
company owns thousands of acres of adjacent valuable timber
lands.

Mr. Oglesby is director and a stockholder in the Atlantic and
Gulf Cotton Mills, of Quitman. These mills operate 10,000

344 KEN OF MARK

spindles. He is director and a large stockholder in the Perry
Naval Stores Company, which operates one of the largest turpen-
tine plants in Florida. He is the largest stockholder in the
West Coast Lumber Company, which owns large bodies of
timber land in both Georgia and Florida. Mr. Oglesby is also
a director in the West-Flynn-Harris Company, naval stores
factors of Jacksonville. He is individually the holder of ex-
tensive farm lands in his own section as well as having quite an
interest in real estate in the city of Quitman.

Many of the older citizens of Georgia, as well as adjacent
States, doubtless have pleasant memories of visits to White Sul-
phur Springs in Hall county, and about six miles from Gaines-
ville, Ga. This property had been improved some years ago by
Athens capitalists, but the hotel remained closed and the prop-
erty was badly neglected when it was purchased, three years
ago, by Mr. Oglesby. He has since spent a small fortune im-
proving the buildings and grounds, and to-day it is one of the
most beautiful, healthful and comfortable resorts to be found
anywhere in the South.

Mr. Oglesby's home at Quitman is almost palatial, and archi-
tecturally and in its furnishings would hold its own among the
residences of any of the large cities.

G. T. HALLEY.

.

I

.'

346 MEN OF MARK

George, Thomas, Robert, Lindsay, James and Lusinda, nine
boys and one girl.

Garrett Ogiesby, grandfather of Zenas, moved to Wilkes
county. He was married to Kuth Bradley. He was among
the first manufacturers of cotton gins in the United States, and
this industry has been carried on in the family ever since he
first engaged in it. Garrett Ogiesby reared a family of four-
teen children, eleven boys and three girls, as follows: Urban,
Joseph, George, Garrett, David, Thomas, Shaler, Minor, Zenas,
Junius, William, Martha, Lucy and Mary.

Thomas I. Ogiesby, father of Zenas W., was married to
Elizabeth Johnson Wood, who was born in Virginia. They
removed to Cobb county, and Mr. Ogiesby engaged in the manu-
facture of cotton gins, making a number of important improve-
ments in the machinery from time to time as had his father be-
fore him, and as also have the younger members of the family.
The children of Thomas I. Ogiesby were Garrett, Joseph, Wil-
liam, John, Zenas and James. The subject of this sketch,
Zenas W7., was a hardy youth, with the marked moral and spirit-
ual nature of his mother strongly developed. His only educa-
tion was received in the common schools of Georgia, and on
account of the death of his father he had to go to work for his
living years before most boys left the school-room. But sound
in body and mind, and full of the energy and enterprise that
developed and made possible the accomplishments of later years,
he prospered and grew to manhood. On January 14, 1874,
he was married to Lilla Moselle Leake, and their union has been
blessed with six children, four girls and two boys, viz : Mabel
Clare, Kate, Moselle, Zenas Wise, Jr., Harold and Lewood,
making one of the brightest and happiest homes in Quitman,
where they now live.

From 1879 to 1891 Mr. Ogiesby was associated with his

ZENAS WISE OGLESBY, SB. 347

brother, James, in the manufacturer of cotton gins, on which
they obtained many patents and made many improvements.
Since 1891, they have been largely interested in the manufacture
of lumber, and are closely associated in a number of enterprises,
of which they are the chief promoters, and in all of which they
own equal shares. They built, equipped and now own, a ma-
jority of the stock of the South Georgia and West Coast Kail-
road, of which Zenas W. Ogiesby is superintendent and a mem-
ber of the board of directors. He is president and a member of
the board of directors of the West Coast Lumber Company, and
a member of the board of directors of the following enterprises :
The Ogiesby Lumber and Manufacturing Company, the Inter-
State Lumber Company, the Perry Naval Stores Company, the
First National Bank of Quitman, Ga., and the South Georgia
Grocery Company.

The difficulties which Mr. Ogiesby met with and overcame
in his youth, and in acquiring an education proved a valuable
school and prepared him for the success which he largely at-
tributes to the influence and incentive of home. He is a Demo-
crat in politics, and a consistent member of the Presbyterian
church, and a lover of out-door life, being especially fond of
bird hunting. He is strong, safe, brainy business man who be-
lieves that success may be attained through "sobriety, honesty,
diligence, perseverance, a close application to whatever business
you follow, and a Christian heart."

G. T. HALLEY.

. Cola .

DR. COLA H. PEETE is a son of Dr. John Speed, and
Anna Eliza Whitley Peete. He was born March 22,
1863, in Tipton county, Tenn. He had the misfortune
to lose both parents when quite a boy, his mother dying when
he was but thirteen, and his father when he was only fifteen
years of age. His paternal ancestors came to America from
Wales in 1716.

For many years before his death, his father enjoyed an ex-
tensive general practice of medicine at Mason, Tennessee. Dur-
ing the fateful epidemic of yellow fever, which so sorely
scourged the Mississippi Valley, in the fall of 1878, after many
weeks of hard self-sacrificing service to yellow fever patients,
he finally fell a victim to this dread disease and he himself
died. During the lifetime of his father Dr. Peete was trained
by private teachers at his father's residence, but after the death
of his father and his removal to Humboldt, he finished his
education at the I. O. O. F. College of Humboldt. At this
latter place his education was superintended by his brother.
Very soon after the death of his parents, young Cola removed
from Tipton to Humboldt, where he remained for several years,
engaged in clerking and bookkeeping in a general mercantile
establishment. Here during all his spare moments, he engaged
in studying medicine under an older brother, who was also a
general practitioner at this place. The example of his brother,
together with that of his father, had awakened in his bosom an
unquenchable thirst after knowledge and skill in a profession
which seems to have descended to him by heredity.

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DR. COLA H. PEETE 349

Dr. Peete has indeed proven himself to be a most zealous
and enthusiastic disciple of Hypocrates. Since his graduation
at Vanderbilt University, he has taken several post-graduate
courses at some of the leading institutions of the country. He
commenced the practice of medicine in the special line of
diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Giving much atten-
tion to individual research, he has become a representative physi-
cian and specialist of the period.

Locating in Macon, Ga., in 1892, he continued his profes-
sional work, very soon building a large and lucrative practice.
To-day he commands a large following of patients from all
points in Middle and South Georgia, even extending into Florida
and South Alabama. He is considered an eminent authority in
his department throughout all this territory.

For the last fifteen years Dr. Peete has been an active and
valuable member of the Medical Association of Georgia. The
proceedings of this institution show within that time much
valuable work done by him in his department. He is also a
member of the Southern Medical Association, of the Medical
Society of Bibb county, of the Ocmulgee Medical Association,
of the American Laryngological, Khinological and Otological
Society ; of the State Medical Society, and also of the American
Medical Association. He served very acceptably for two terms
as vice-president of the Tri-State Association. In the Macon
Medical Society he has served respectively as secretary and
treasurer, vice-president and president. He is also a member
of the Georgia Anti-Tuberculosis League. At this time he is
vice-president of this league, and a member of the Georgia
Sociological Society. He is serving the State Academy for the
Blind in the capacity of oculist and aurist, and for the Georgia
Orphans' Home located at Macon.

Throughout his whole career he has been a life-long Demo-

350 MEN OF MARK

crat, but no partisan, giving his individual attention to his
professional duties. He aspires to no office or position apart
from medicine.

The marriage ceremony of Dr. Cola H. Peete and Miss Anna
Dungan, daughter of Dr. David Hamilton Dungan, of Little
Rock, Ark., was duly solemnized in 1887. Miss Dungan's
mother was Miss Alice Thompson, renowned for her heroism in
the battle of Thompson Station, fought March 3, 1863.

Dr. Peete and his wife hold membership in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. He himself was reared in the Epis-
copal Church until he married Miss Dungan. Then he joined
the Methodist Church with his wife, who was already a member.

He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, and local social clubs of Macon, Ga.

Dr. Peete's talents and energy, high cultivation and pre-
eminent success have won for him a gratifying position in his
profession and in society. But the real beauty of his genuine
and natural courtesy is best illustrated in his inner home life.
He seems never to have forgotten that it is here, above all
other places, he cap let his genial, sunny disposition shine most
graciously, and his kindly nature finds its best expression when
surrounded by his own family, composed of his wife and four
children. Their names are David Dungan, John Speed, Mary
Alice, and Annie.

R. J. MASSEY.

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352 MEN OF MARK

he served in like position in Louisville High School for the
years of 1884-'85. In 1886 he was called to the principalship of
the Hephzibah High School and retained this position until 1900,
when he was elected to his present position, — President of Mon-
roe College.

Mr. Jackson was made deacon in Hephzibah Baptist Church
in 1887, and has been constantly active in all church and de-
nominational work. He married Miss Ludie E. Swint, May
2, 1878. They have had four children, all of whom are living.

Mr. Jackson's steady advance towards distinction as an educa-
tor is notable and gratifying. Beginning with a small country
school and limited compensation, he went step by step from the
head of one high school to another, advancing each time to a
higher place of influence and opportunity. The attention of the
general public was more especially called to his efficiency as a
teacher during his fifteen years' administration at the Hephzibah
High School. This institution was founded by the Hephzibah
Baptist Association, and Mr. Jackson was elected to the presi-
dency because of his affiliation with the Baptist denomination
as well as his efficiency as an instructor of youth. The school
was strictly denominational, and because of this fact the atten-
tion of the Baptists of the State was especially called to Mr.
Jackson as an educator.

In the summer of 1900, he was unanimously elected presi-
dent of Monroe College, a college for women, under the direction
and ownership of the Georgia Baptist State Convention. Dr.
Jackson's successful management of this institution is worthy of
record as a part of the history of female education in this State,
as well as the most distinguished feature of his life-work.

Monroe College was founded by the local Baptists in Forsyth,
Monroe county, and is the second oldest college for the educa-
tion of women in this country. The institution had been man-

CHARLES E. 8. JACKSON 353

aged with greatly varying results for many years until it had
largely failed of patronage and influence, and had thereby come
under serious indebtedness. The trustees of the college were
not willing to abandon the institution, and they saw but little
prospect for further development or even continued existence.
In casting about for a solution of the difficulities that con-
fronted them, it was determined to tender the institution to
the Baptists of Georgia through the State Convention, providing
that it should be absolutely unencumbered, and with the sole
restriction that it should be used for school purposes and forever
controlled by the Baptist denomination.

This tender was made in a distinctly stated proposition, sub-
mitted to the State Convention in session at Augusta, March
31, 1898. The property, including the college buildings, cov-
ering seven acres within the corporate limits of Forsyth, was
represented to be worth about $25,000. The tender was not
favorably received by the Convention until after a very ex-
haustive discussion. The proposition was finally accepted, mak-
ing the college the property of the Georgia Baptist Convention
on a vote of sixty-six to twenty. A motion to reconsider was
defeated by a vote of thirty-one to forty-one. The adverse vote
was cast mainly, if not solely, because it was not believed the
institution could be successfully administered, and that it would
become a burden rather than a benefit to the denomination.
The two years of the Convention's management, preceding Dr.
Jackson's administration, were attended with very doubtful
conditions as to final success. The beginning of his administra-
tion inspired confidence, and steady improvement began.

Dr. Jackson has been at the head of the institution for the
past five years, and the property is now estimated to be worth
$125,000. The attendance has been increased from 105 to
425. Buildings costing $75,000 have been erected upon the

23

354 MEN OF MARK

college grounds, and these, together with the other buildings and
lands bought, and the splendid equipment furnished, make a
most imposing presentation, indicating gratifying growth and
development. Much of this came through Dr. Jackson's wise
selection, as the financial agents of the institution, of Mr. W.
D. Upshaw, and seventeen other brethren, residing in the four
quarters of the State. All these brethren did their work as a
gratuity to the college.

President Jackson has great versatility of talent. He is a
master of detail and thereby equal to the solution of great
problems. It would be difficult to decide whether he excels as
a teacher, as an executive, or as a man of affairs. All these
splendid elements he had brought to bear in the most successful
work he had done for Monroe College. His career has marked
a distinct and special era in the history of the education of the
women of the State.

Circumstances and not personal choice fixed Dr. Jackson's
life profession. He has adhered to it with constant and growing
success and personal pleasure. In fitting himself for his life-
work, in addition to the encouragement given by his home life,
he has relied upon the Bible, the classics and standard English
authors.

To the young he commends: "Begin early to read good
books, give obedience to those in authority, and reverence for
home and the house of God."

W. J.

f osepfj It

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Lir

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356 MEN OF MARK

In 1792 John Kincaid, Sr., moved from Lincoln county,
N. C., to Burke county, N. C., and purchased fourteen hundred
acres of land, six miles north of Morganton. Most of this land
is still owned by his descendants, and it was there that the sub-
ject of this sketch was born.

William Joseph Kincaid was reared on a farm in the back
woods where schools were scarce. His early educational oppor-
tunities were very poor, as the schools were limited to two or
three months each winter, and the teachers were ignorant and
incompetent. He left the farm at the age of thirteen, having
managed to acquire a fair knowledge of the three rudimentary
branches. When he was about seventeen years of age, realizing
his lack of book-learning, he gave up his position as clerk in a
store, and, at his own expense, attended a school at Rutherford
Academy, Burke county, N. C., for ten months, after which he
taught a county school five months. Returning to town, he
spent the next two years, until the commencement of the Civil
War, as clerk in a store and hotel.

He served in the War Between the States from beginning to
end, — a period of four years and two months. At the first call
to arms, April 17, 1861, he joined Company G, First North
Carolina Volunteers, which was the first company raised in his
county for the Confederate Army, and, without any solicitation
whatever, was made First Sergeant,

Sergeant Kincaid with his company participated in the first
battle of the war at Big Bethel, June 10, 1861, where he saw
the first Confederate soldier, — private Wyatt, of his regiment,—
killed. He also saw the first Federal officer killed in battle five
minutes after he fell, — Major Winthrop, of New York.

In November of the same year he was appointed by the Gov-
ernor of his State First Lieutenant of Company D, Eleventh
North Carolina Infantry ; and the following year, at the age of

WILLIAM JOSEPH KING AID 357

*

twenty-two, he was promoted to the Captaincy of this company,
and served in this capacity, taking part with his command in
the battles of Big Bethel, White Hall and other small battles,
until July 1, 1863, when he was desperately wounded at Gettys-
burg. He was left on the battle-field when Lee's army retired,
and was captured and detained in the field hospital twenty-one
days. After this he was held in the hospital at David's Island,
]ST. Y., after which he was held prisoner at Bedloe's Island,
Johnson's Island, Point Lookout and Fort Delaware till the
middle of June after the surrender, notwithstanding the fact
he was unable, on account of his wounds, to do military service.

After the war Captain Kincaid found himself in wretched
health, caused by the severe wounds received at Gettysburg and
nearly two years imprisonment. Financially his indebtedness
consisted of $400, borrowed while in prison, and his assets were
$40 and not a garment fit to wear. But his courage was still
dominant, and hope, with radiant smiles, assured him that the
good things of this world belong to him who honestly wins and
dares to take them. He accepted the first employment he could
find; he did not wait for it to come to him, but hunted it up.
This was a position as salesman in a Baltimore jobbing dry goods
and notion house. A year later he secured a silent partner, who
had a little money, and they started a mercantile business in a
small way at Wilson, IsT. C. After five years he and his partner
divided $40,000 profit.

In 1871 Captain Kincaid moved to Griffin, Ga., where he
continued a profitable mercantile business until 1883, when he
retired to engage in cotton manufacturing.

In 1883 he secured subscriptions to stock and organized the
Griffin Manufacturing Company, the first cotton mill built in
Griffin, and one of the first mills built in a small town in Geor-

358 MEN OF MARK

gia, run by steam. This mill has been one of the most profitable
and successful cotton mills in the United States, and the object
lesson it furnishes has caused the building of a large number of
mills all over the South, with millions of capital.

In 1889 Captain Kincaid organized a second company in
Griffin and built the Kincaid mills. In 1900 he built the
Spalding mills. All three of these mills are located at Griffin
and are first-class and prosperous. He has given the best years
of his life to cotton manufacturing, realizing, as he did during
the war, the helplessness of a purely agricultural people, and
feeling it his duty as a Southerner and patriot to divert the
energies of the people into other channels. It has been to him a
labor of love as well as profit. He is president of the Atlanta,
Griffin and Macon Electric Railway Company.

In his earlier days Captain Kincaid was full of energy and
notably ambitious, as he is to-day. Whatever his engagement
or his work, he pursued it with diligence and strong purpose to
accomplish well. He has always given close attention to detail
and accuracy. As a youth he was physically vigorous and
eagerly anxious to succeed. He worked upon the farm as a boy
with quite as much painstaking and attention to detail as he has
given as a mill president to the large industries under his control.
He was never confronted by a task to which he surrendered. He
always prepared himself well for the demands he was expected
to meet, and then met them with determined purpose to succeed.

Captain Kincaid has always been fond of books, but his tastes
have been altogether too practical and his inclinations too much
towards the industrial to give much attention to polite literature
or fiction. He is especially fond of history and biography. He
loves and he studies things and men. He is fond of inquiring
into what has occurred and what brought it to pass. Few men
as busy as he know more of personal, political and general
history. .

WILLIAM JOSEPH KINCAID 359

Captain Kincaid is a most pleasing companion as he is de-
lightfully social. His close attention to business has not made
him brusque or abrupt, but, on the other hand, he has remained
genial and sunny through all the thought and care and study
that have been necessary to build the great industries he has
managed. Possibly the most commendable feature in the life
of this busy man is the beautiful consideration bestowed upon
his employees. He never takes advantage of their ignorance or
their helplessness. It gives him pleasure to see them accumu-
late by husbanding their resources. He counsels them as to in-
dividual and home life, and encourages them to industry and
thrift. He does not work his people as machines for the money
he can get out of them, but deals with them as human beings for
whom he most generously provides, while his intelligence and
humane consideration direct their strength and their effort for
mutual service.

Captain Kincaid has been twice married ; first, to Miss Adda
Vail Blackwell, June 6, 1867, and to Miss Mary Alice Phelps.
October 23, 1872. By the first marriage there were two chil-
dren, and by the second, one — all of whom are now living.

Captain Kincaid is very optimistic in his views, and believes
that human life is easier and man is getting nearer to God than
ever before in the history of the world ; and that all things are
working, howsoever slowly, to the good, so that His kingdom
will eventually come, and His will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.

To the young men Captain Kincaid would say: "In all the
affairs of this life, difficulties become less formidable as you
approach them ; that all things are attainable to him who brings
to bear integrity, tenacity of purpose and courage."

W. J. NORTHEN.

&ucfeer Hamar.

THOMAS LAMAR, a Huguenot, settled in Maryland in
1670. Four of his grandsons, children of his oldest son,
removed to Edgfield county, S. C., in 1755. Their
descendants are to be found all over the South.

The Lamars have not confined themselves to any single phase
of achievement, but have been found in almost every line of use-
ful pursuit. In the commercial world, in agriculture, in the
professions, in literature and in official station, members of this
family have achieved success and established reputation.

The elder L. Q. C. Lamar was a successful lawyer and a judge
of the Superior Court; Mirabeau B. Lamar, a poet and Presi-
dent of the Republic of Texas; the Junior L. Q. C. Lamar, a
lawyer, a teacher of law, legislator, United States Senator, Cabi-
net officer and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States ; Henry G. Lamar, a lawyer and judge of the Superior
Court; James S. Lamar, a minister of the gospel; Zachariah
Lamar, a planter and merchant of ante-bellum days ; Henry J.
Lamar, a merchant of post-bellum days ; Gazaway B. Lamar,
planter and merchant, and John B. Lamar, an author and
planter. The list might be extended indefinitely.

James S. Lamar married Mary Rucker, the daughter of Jo-
seph Rucker, a successful banker and planter of Elbert county,
Ga. Their son, Joseph Rucker Lamar, the subject of this
sketch, was born at the home of his maternal grandfather in
Elbert county, October 14, 1857. He spent his early life in
Augusta, where his father was pastor of the Church of the Dis-
ciples, of which his son is also a member. He attended school

m

JOSEPH RUCKER LAMAR 361

at Richmond Academy and afterwards Martin Institute at Jef-
ferson, Ga., which was then under the presidency of John W.
Glenn, one of the greatest educators of the day, who had a posi-
tive genius for teaching. Subsequently he attended Penn Lucy
School, near Baltimore, which was presided over by the distin-
guished Georgia scholar and author, Col. Eichard Malcom
Johnson.

In 1874, he matriculated at the University of Georgia, but on
account of sickness and the removal of his father to Louisville,
Ky., to take charge of the Fourth and Walnut Street Church, he
was forced to leave the University before graduation. He sub-
sequently graduated from Bethany College in West Virginia.
After his graduation, he was a student in the law department of
Washington and Lee University, and was admitted to the bar
at Augusta, Ga., in April, 1878.

He formed a partnership with Hon. H. Clay Foster, one of
the leading members of the Augusta bar, and they practiced to-
gether until the death of Mr. Foster.

From the time he was admitted to the bar, he devoted himself
to diligent research into the principles and precedents of the
law, and a large practice has been the reward of his laborious
investigations. He has argued in the Supreme Court of Geor-
gia many cases involving intricate questions, and has been on
the prevailing side in quite a number of cases of more than ordi-
nary interest in which the decision was of far-reaching im-
portance. Among the more recent of these may be mentioned
The Summerville Railroad Company case, 100 Ga., 701, in
which he successfully represented the city of Augusta with the
result of enabling it to derive a large revenue for the use of the
streets by railroad companies; and the case of State v. Central
Railroad Company, 109 Ga., 758, in which the competitive
clause of the Constitution was construed.

362 MEN OF MARK

He has also appeared as counsel in the Supreme Court of
the United States, and the decision of that Court in the recent
case of Georgia and Central railroads y. Wright, illustrates the
convincing power of his reasoning. In this case he had to com-
bat the well-known conservatism of that court where an attack
is made upon the system of taxation of a State, as well as the
unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of the State. While
there were other counsel of distinguished ability in the case, they
all concur in crediting to him the preparation of the written ar-
gument on the point upon which the decision is based.

Only once has Mr. Lamar been led awy from the stricter
lines of his profession. From 1886 to 1889 he served in the
General Assembly as a Representative from Richmond county.
This was due, not so much to inclination to enter the field of
politics as to his interest in law reform. He was the author of
some of the more important laws passed at that period and aided
in the preparation and passage of others. He was the author of
the Evidence October of 1889, which he prepared at the request
of the Supreme Court.

Mr. Lamar has shown a peculiar interest in the early history
and development of the law of Georgia, and the result has been
contributions to the legal literature of the State. Among these
may be mentioned "A History of the Organization of the Su-
preme Court," "Life of Judge Nisbet," "Georgia's Contribu-
tion to Law Reforms," and "A Century's Progress in Law."
The last mentioned was his annual address as president of the
Georgia Bar Association in 1900, which in the same year was
read by request before the Tennessee Bar Association. The next
year he delivered the annual address before the Alabama Bar
Association.

In "Georgia's Contribution to Law Reforms," he demonstrates
that the early Acts of 1799 and 1818 places Georgia as the
pioneer in the modern method of procedure, and also the first to

JOSEPH RUCKER LAMAR 363

codify the Common Law. This article appeared in the leading-
law journals and attracted no little attention, because of the in-
teresting facts therein disclosed.

The Act of 1893 imposed upon the Governor and the Jus-
tices of the Supreme Court the duty of selecting three commis-
sioners to make a complete revision of the Code. This board
consisting of Governor Northen, Chief Justice Bleckley and
Associate Justices Simmons and Lumpkin selected Mr. Lamar
as one of the commissioners. This appointment was recognized
as a merited compliment to one of the leading members of the
bar. In the division of labor by the commissioners the prepara-
tion of the text of the Civil Code was assigned to Mr. Lamar.
Following the scheme of the original Civil Code, which was to
embrace therein in concise language the rules of law as an-
nounced by the Supreme Court, Mr. Lamar added many new
sections directly traceable to adjudications made since the adop-
tion of the first Code. The scheme of the original Civil Code
was to state in the form of a statute the principles of the com-
mon law, looking to the then decisions of the Supreme Court, as
to what were such principles in cases where that court had
announced the rule. The plan of the Civil Code of 1895 was to
render complete at that date the original scheme and make a
Civil Code on the lines of the original Code, embracing all ma-
terial derivable from the decisions of the Supreme Court. The
manner in which this work was done, and the approval of the
plan by the bar, places Mr. Lamar as the most capable person
that could have been selected as the reviser of the work of the
author of the original Civil Code. In connection with the work
on the Code, he prepared the following statutes of 1895, the
Eminent Domain Act, the Auditors' Act, the Assignment Act.
and the Practice Act.

The Code of 1895 was adopted by an Act merely referring to
the Code as revised and filed in the office of the Secretary of

364 MEN OF MARK

State. The question arose as to whether a Code could be adopted
in this manner, and at the request of the Supreme Court, he
prepared an able and thorough brief embracing an elaborate
report of the authorities on the effect of the adoption of a Code
in the manner indicated. In the case of State vs. Central Rail-
road Company, 104 Ga., 831, the Supreme Court held that the
Code was legally adopted by the Act of 1895, and that its pro-
visions were effective from the date of that act. In a note at the
conclusion of the opinion, Justice Lewis, in behalf of the court,
expressed the appreciation of the court of the assistance it had
received from the work of Mr. Larnar.

On January 13, 1903, Mr. Lamar was appointed by Governor
Terrell, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to fill the
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Justice Little. This
appointment met with the cordial endorsement of the bar and
the people, and he was without opposition elected by the people
at the succeeding election. His tastes, his talents and his tem-
perament peculiarly fitted him for work upon the bench, but the
mass of work then imposed upon the Supreme Court was such
as to make the labors of a justice of that court who was con-
scientious in the discharge of his duties, wearing and exhausting,
and Justice Lamar, becoming conscious of the effect of the
work upon his health and on the advice of his physician, ten-
dered his resignation, which became effective on April 10, 1905.

In 1898 he was appointed by the Supreme Court one of the
members of the board to examine applicants for admission to
the bar, but resigned when he took his seat upon the Supreme
Bench. Very soon after he retired from the bench, a vacancy
upon the Board of Examiners was occasioned by the death of
Hon. Washington Dessau, the Chairman, and Justice Lamar
was appointed to fill the vacancy and designated as chairman of
the board. He is still serving in that capacity.

His retirement from the bench of the Supreme Court was the

JOSEPH RUCKER LAMAR 365

occasion of the greatest regret on the part of his associates who
had been so much aided by his presence among them and called
forth expressions of the sincerest regret from the members of the
bar. Immediately upon his retirement he returned to Augusta
and formed a partnership with Judge E. H. CallawTay, formerly
the judge of the Superior Courts of the Augusta Circuit, and
since that time his firm has been engaged in an extensive prac-
tice. The opinions of Justice Laniar, more than two hundred
in number, are embraced in six volumes of the Georgia Reports,
volumes 117 to 122 inclusive. The reader of these opinions is
impressed with the learning of the writer and the terse and
striking form of expression, conveying satisfactory and con-
vincing reasoning. Where there is so much to attract attention
and elicit interest it is difficult to select that which is most
interesting. Among the cases, however, where the attainments
and natural powers of Justice Lamar are peculiarly present
may be mentioned Huggins v. Huggins, 117 Ga., 161, where he
deals with the essentials of a partnership under the Code ; Davis
vs. Morgan, 112 Ga., 504, where he discussed the effect of a
mere promise to pay additional compensation to one already
under contract of service for a stated time; Linton vs. Lucy
Cobb Institute, 117 Ga., 879, involving the question of taxation
of the buildings set apart and used for private schools; Oliver
vs. Oliver, 118 Ga., 362, in which is laid down the duties and
obligations of a director of a corporation when purchasing stock
from a member of the company, and Owens vs. Railroad Com-
pany, 119 Ga., 230, discussing the right of a railway company
to refuse to accept a lunatic as a passenger, when his conduct is
such as to affect the safety or comfort of other passengers.

The opinions of Justice Lamar abound in striking expres-
sions, of which the following are examples :

"The great physical laws of the universe are witnesses in
every case and can not be impeached by the feeble voice of man,

366 MEN OF MARK

even though he may be speaking under the sanction of an oath."
Patton vs. The State, 117 Ga., 235.

"The right to be at large without the right to act would be
but to live in a prison of extended bounds. The liberty which
is guaranteed by the Constitution means far more than freedom
from servitude." Bazemore vs. The State, 121 Ga., 620.

"In pleadings, epithets and hard words are not sufficient to
make out a case of fraud when relief is asked because of its
existence." Miller vs. Butler, 121 Ga., 761.

Justice Lamar is a man of marked characteristics ; great origi-
nality, independence of mind and tireless industry.

He is a great reader, a man of books ; and although thoroughly
absorbed in his profession, he is nevertheless a man of affairs
and takes a lively interest in all questions affecting the social
welfare of the people, political and religious. In the prime of
life, well equipped at all points, he has before him years, which
judging by the record of the past will be devoted to the increase
of human knowledge and the advancement of human welfare.

When Mr. Lamar was a student at Bethany College, he be-
came acquainted with Miss Clarinda Pendleton, the daughter
of Dr. W. K. Pendleton, President of the college. They were
married January 30, 1870. Mrs. Lamar is a woman of brilliant
intellect and marked attainments. Their married life has been
one of congenial companionship, really amounting to comrade-
ship. Mrs. Larnar takes a lively interest in every question that
interests her husband, and questions involving the intricacies of
the law, when referred to by him, never bring from her the im-
patient gesture or the repelling frown. Such a companion is
the inspiration of a husband's life, and Mr. Lamar's achieve-
ments, it may not be doubted, are to an extent traceable to his
companion. Justice Lamar has two children, Philip Rucker
Lamar, and William Pendleton Lamar.

ANDKEW J. COBB.

368 MEN OF MARK

perception, were among his characteristics. He saw that the
South needed railroads. His first work was for the Savannah
and Memphis Railroad Company, when he was employed succes-
sively as rodman, leveler, transitman, resident engineer, and
principal assistant engineer. In July, 1872, he accepted a posi-
tion as clerk to the superintendent of the New Jersey Southern
Railroad at Long Branch. His next service was in the trans-
portation department of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with,
which company he remained several years in charge of one of its
divisions. In 1877 he was made superintendent of the Vir-
ginia Midland Railroad, and later general superintendent of the
Long Island Railroad. In 1879, John W. Garrett, President
of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, induced him to return to
his road as his assistant ; when, after filling various responsible
posts, he was made the president of the road in 1887. He held
this position one year.

In March, 1889, he became railroad expert for the banking
house of Drexel, Morgan & Co. (now J. P. Morgan & Co.),
which firm was largely interested in railroad properties.

Mr. Spencer's opportunity came in 1893, when under re-
ceivership proceedings the Richmond and Danville Railroad
Company and the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Rail-
road were put into his hands. Out of these companies was
formed the beginning of the Southern Railway ; which, through
the genius of Mr. Spencer, has become the great railway system
that it is to-day. At the time of his death he was president of
six railway corporations, and a member of the board of direc-
tors of nineteen others.

He was a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce ;
the American Academy of Political and Social Science; the
American Forestry Association; the Metropolitan Museum of
Art; the Municipal Art Society; the American Museum of
Natural History of New York; the New York Botanical Gar-

SAMUEL SPENCER 369

den; the New York Zoological Society; the Association for the
Protection of the Adirondacks; and the American Society of
Civil Engineers. He was at one time a member of the Rapid
Transit Commission, and of the Brooklyn Bridge Commission,
doing signal service in both capacities.

Socially, he was a member of the University and Union Clubs
of New York; the Tuxedo Club; the Metropolitan Club of
Washington; the Jekyl Island Club; the Capital City Club of
Atlanta; the Queen City Club of Cincinnati, and the Chicago
Club.

Mr. Spencer's mind was essentially mathematical, logical and
practical. The creation of a great railway system, and the up-
building of his native South, were his two dearest ambitions.
He delighted in an argument that turned on the relationship of
the railroads to the people, the people to the railroads. In his
address before the Alabama Agricultural Association, at Mont-
gomery, Ala., shortly before his death, he mentioned that "Not
the least of the great problems which confront us as a people at
the dawn of this new century, is the relationship which should
exist between the railroads and the people. The interests of the
railroad and of its patrons are identical," he said. "One can
not prosper without the other. The railroad must do justice to
the people. The people should do justice to the railroad. Their
cordial cooperation in the great field of human industry is esssen-
tial to the public welfare. They must work together in a spirit
of forbearance and mutual consideration and trust, if they are to
accomplish the results for which both are striving, and which are
within their grasp if they work together. The man who could
sow dissension between them and embarrass their cooperation
by misunderstanding, friction and antagonism is a public enemy.
While the railroads may be in a sense at his mercy, he should
not be tolerated by the people, for the oppression he seeks to

24

370 MEN OF MARK

bring upon the railroads must reflect itself upon the fortunes of
the people long after the disturbing cause has been forgotten.
The cardinal point to be appreciated and remembered is that a
railroad will destroy itself unless it fosters traffic, unless it
adopts such a policy toward its patrons as will encourage and
increase permanently the movement of business. On the other
hand, the people will be the first and the greatest sufferers if by
hostile action they limit the capacity of the railroads to serve
them."

Not the least factor that contributed to Mr. Spencer's mar-
velous success in the world of affairs was his habit of abstemious-
ness. When under stress of work, at his desk, it was his wont
to call for a couple of glasses of water morning and afternoon,
which would suffice to refresh him. "He was the most honest
man I ever met, and he was loyal to a degree," said a life-long
friend.

Mr. Spencer met his death on Thanksgiving morning, No-
vember, 1906, by an express train colliding with his private car,
near Lynchburg, Va. He was buried from old St. John's
church, Washington, D. C. Many distinguished people attended
the service, and crowds thronged the streets about the church
edifice. The body bearers were colored porters who had been
long in the employ of the railroad. It was a touching tribute,
that as the funeral march began to play, every train on the sys-
tem of railways over which the dead president had presided,
stopped, and for five minutes every employee ceased work.

Mr. Spencer was married February 6, 1872, to Miss Louise
Vivian Benning, daughter of Gen. Henry L. Benning, whose
biography will be found in another volume of this work. She
was a granddaughter of Hon. Seaborn Jones, former Represen-
tative in Congress from Georgia. He leaves a widow and
three children, Henry Benning, Vernona Mitchell, and Vivian
Spencer. HELEN GRAY.

372 MEN OF MARK

of the Confederacy. Immediately after the war, before his
father returned, the little boy assisted on the farm, hauling all
the wood that was used at the house. After the return of
Colonel Bartlett, he entered the schools of Monticello, where he
was prepared for the University of Georgia. At the age of
seventeen years and six months he was an honor member of the
famous class of 1870, perhaps the most brilliant class that was
ever graduated from the University — a class whose roll con-
tained the names of such men as N. E. Harris, Washington
Dessau, Walter B. Hill, Sibley Campbell, Walter C. Beeks, and
Burgess Smith. He was graduated from the law department
of the University of Virginia in 1872. Returning to the Uni-
versity of Georgia, he was graduated from its law department
in 1873.

During his younger days and until he began the practice of
law, it was Charles L. Bartlett's delight to attend the courts
with his father, to write legal documents at his father's dicta-
tion, and to assist him in arranging his legal papers ; in fact, he
began the study of law under his father's tutelage.

Beginning the practice of his profession in Monticello, he
subsequently moved to Macon, where his firm, Dessau and Bart-
lett, developed perhaps the largest law practice in the city. In
the courts his stern integrity, his forcefulness and his eloquent
pleading won for him a place among the leaders of his pro-
fession.

Mr. Bartlett represented Bibb county in the Georgia House
of Representatives in the sessions of 1882-3, and 1884-5. In
1882 he was the only man in the Georgia Legislature who voted
against Joseph E. Brown when he was a candidate for re-election
to the Senate without opposition ; Mr. Bartlett voted for General
Robert Toombs.

He was State Senator in the session of 1888-9. At this ses-
sion a resolution to endorse the Blair Educational Bill was

CHARLES LAFAYETTE BARTLETT 373

offered. Mr. Bartlett telegraphed to Washington for a copy of
the bill, it was read before the Georgia Senate, and the resolu-
tion was voted down.

From 1877 to 1881 he filled with signal ability the office of
Solicitor-General of the Macon circuit. In 1892, upon the
unanimous endorsement of the Macon bar, he was appointed
Judge of the Superior Courts of the Macon circuit, and served
in this capacity until 1894. The recommendation of Mr. Bart-
lett by the Macon bar was made without his knowledge or con-
sent. On the bench his impartial rulings and his profound
knowledge of the law added to the reputation that he had already
won in his profession.

In 1894 he was urged by the people to retire from the bench
and enter the race for Congress. He was elected from the sixth
district of Georgia to Congress, where he has served contin-
uously to the present date, 1908, having been re-elected in 1906.
In his election he carried every county of the district in which
a primary was held, except one.

When Mr. Bartlett entered Congress there were thirty-two
contested election cases on hand, most of them being cases in
which the Republicans were contesting the election of Demo-
crats from the South. Mr. Crisp, who had been Speaker and
who was then the Democratic leader, stated at a meeting of the
members whose seats were contested, that Mr. Bartlett, although
a new man, could be of great service to them on account of his
persistency, his legal acquirements, and his forcefulness. He
was appointed upon the Contested Elections Committee upon the
request of the Democrats of the House, where he served with
ability for six years. It has been said that in his debates upon
the floor of the House during that period he saved the seats of
more Democrats than had been saved in many years. In the
celebrated cases of Watson v. Black and Felton v. Maddox he

374 MEN OF MARK

made the reports of the committee, which were the unanimous
reports of Democrats and Republicans alike, Black and Maddox
being seated.

In 1903 Mr. Bartlett offered an amendment to the appropria-
tion bill for the Department of Justice, appropriating $500,000
for the prosecution of violations of the anti-trust laws. The
Republicans were panic-stricken when the amendment was of-
fered, but they dared not make the point of order against it.
This was the first money ever directly appropriated for this pur-
pose, and until the last Congress was the only money available
for these prosecutions. It was passed by both Houses, and
thus, for the first time, was an appropriation secured for the
prosecution of the illegal combinations and trusts.

At the request of the Democratic leader, John Sharp Wil-
liams, in the Fifty-ninth Congress, Mr. Bartlett was placed on
the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Mr. Wil-
liams stated that he regarded Mr. Bartlett as one of the ablest
lawyers in the House, and that he desired his services on that
committee in the consideration of the amendment to the Inter-
state Commerce law, which gave to the Interstate Commerce
Commission the right and power to regulate railroad rates.

No Southern member of the House is better known than Mr.
Bartlett, and there is no one more highly respected by both
parties. To one who carefully studies his speeches there is re-
vealed a store of information and a resourcefulness that is as-
tonishing. He is the master of forensic oratory from the cold
logic of conviction to the fiery eloquence that stirs and thrills an
audience. In the House Mr. Bartlett stands the champion of
his section. It has been said that whenever a reflection is cast
upon the South all eyes are turned to Mr. Bartlett ; it is known
that he will repel accusation or insinuation with all the impas-
sioned eloquence of his loyal nature.

CHARLES LAFAYETTE BARTLETT 375

In July, 1907, upon the regisnation of Justice A. J. Cobb
from the Supreme Bench of the State, Governor Smith, unso-
licited by Mr. Bartlett or any one, tendered him the position of
Justice of the Supreme Court, and urged upon him to accept it
In his letter offering him the appointment the Governor said:

SIR: — Just after hearing that Judge Andrew Cobb
intended to resign from the Supreme Court, I indicated to you
that, if he should do so, I contemplated tendering to you the
position which he would vacate.

"While you expressed doubt about the propriety of retiring
from the seat in Congress to which you had been recently elected,
still you stated a purpose to take the subject under serious con-
sideration.

"I have now the formal resignation of Judge Cobb to take
effect October 12th, and it gives me great pleasure to tender
you the position.

"In this connection permit me to say that after thirty years
of intimate acquaintance personally and professionally, my
knowledge of your fearless integrity and great ability as a law-
yer satisfies me that you can make a Supreme Court Judge
of whom every Georgian will be proud.
"Very sincerely yours,

"HOKE SMITH, Governor."

Judge Bartlett declined the appointment because he felt it
to be his duty to the people of his district to remain in Congress.

When the Exchange Bank of Macon failed in July, 1907, the
depositors and stockholders of the Union Savings Bank and
Trust Company, an institution connected with the Exchange
Bank, were panic-stricken. Mr. Bartlett was called to the
presidency of the Union Savings Bank and Trust Company for
the purpose of reorganization, and the excitement died away.

376 MEN OF MARK

This incident is mentioned as a signal mark of the confidence
that the Macon people have in his business integrity and ability.

On December 3, 1873, Mr. Bartlett was married to Miss
Emma Leila Carlton, of Athens, Ga., a lady whose family has
produced men distinguished for professional ability and for
statesmanship. His marriage was most felicitous, there being
nothing else in his life so beautiful as his devotion to his wife.

Mr. Bartlett is a Mason, being a member of the Blue Ridge
Chapter and Knights Templar and the Shrine, a Knight of
Pythias, an Odd Fellow, and an Elk. He has been Worshipful
Master in the Masonic Lodge and Chancellor Commander in the
Knights of Pythias.

Next to his veneration for his father, comes Mr. Bartlett's
devotion to the principles of Democracy and his love for the
South. The tragedy of reconstruction was enacted before his
eyes at an impressionable age, and the horror and outrage of it
all will never fade from his memory. He is a man who for-'
sakes not a friend, who fears not an enemy. His chief charac-
teristics are loyalty and devotion to duty, stern integrity, un-
flinching courage, and a promptness in all things that suggests
the motto of the Bartletts, — "Mature."

C. B. CHAPMAN.

Militant Hates

WILLIAM YATES ATKINSON was born in Oakland,
Meri wether county, Ga., November 11, 1854. His
father was John Pepper Atkinson and his mother was
Theodora Phelps (Ellis) Atkinson. His father was born in
Brunswick county, Va., and was educated at Oxford, N. C.
He was a teacher and planter and was related to the Yates and
Bland families of Virginia. He was a man of strong and posi-
tive convictions on all questions, social, civil and religious, and
was universally loved and respected. His mother was a native
of Putnam county, Ga. She was educated in the best schools
of the time and was a woman of unusual culture and refinement
and was a devoted Christian mother. She was a granddaughter
of the Rev. Davenport Phelps, an Episcopal rector of New York.
The Phelps family furnished many strong men and women,
who became illustrious both in church and State.

In 1853 John P. Atkinson moved with his family to Meri-
wether county, Ga., and settled at Oakland. He had a large
number of slaves and became a very successful planter. Wil-
liam Yates, the sixth of eight children, was born on this planta-
tion and was eleven years of age at the close of the War Between
the States. For the six years succeeding the war, he worked on
the farm, going at intervals, when he could be spared from the
farm work, to the country schools. He was also taught by his
father and mother at home. This hard manual toil developed
his powers of endurance and made him self-reliant and resource-
ful. While he was yet a mere boy his father died, and he was
left to complete his education by his own efforts, and earned
every dollar of the money that he expended for his education.

378 MEN OF MARK

He was prepared for the State University by ids brother-in-law,
Prof. Alex. Mallary, Hon. W. T. Revill and his brother, Prof.
T. E. Atkinson. After taking an elective course in the Literary
Department of the University, he entered the law school and
was graduated in 1877.

He entered upon the practice of his profession without any
influence to help him. He learned what every young man who
succeeds must learn, to rely upon himself. He had faith in his
own power and he worked hard to develop what was in himself.
Faith in one's self is an inspiring and contagious thing. It brings
other people to have faith in us. Young Atkinson believed that
he had only to be true to himself and loyal to the highest ideals
of his profession to command the confidence of the people and
win success. From the very beginning of his career as a lawyer
he paid scrupulous regard to every statute of the ethical code
adopted by the bar. He knew that he could not be profession-
ally clean and morally unclean. He squared his private life
with a high sense of professional honor.

With such an ideal before him to guide his conduct, he began
the practice of law at Newnan, Ga., the year after his gradua-
tion. While a student at the university, he met Miss Susie
Cobb Milton, who was at that time attending the Lucy Cobb
Institute at Athens. Miss Milton was a descendent of famous
Southern stock. Her great-grandfather was a member of the
Continental Congress and received two votes for President at
the time Washington was elected. Her grandfather was Gover-
nor of Florida and her father had been for years a man of
prominence in that State. She was a young woman of charm-
ing personal bearing and had many graces of mind and spirit.
She was just the type of woman to attract a brilliant and ambi-
tious young fellow like William Atkinson. They were soon en-
gaged and as soon as he was settled in his work at Newnan they

WILLIAM YATE8 ATKINSON 379

were married. The marriage occurred February 23, 1880.
From the union six children were born, all of whom are now
living. Mrs. Atkinson, the moment of their union, took an im-
mediate and sympathetic interest in all that affected her hus-
band's career. His rapid advancement at the bar he attributed
largely to her encouragement and aid ; and there is no doubt
that through her counsel and political acumen he won a large
share of his success in after years.

t/

In 1879 Governor Colquitt, recognizing the ability of the
young practitioner, appointed him Solicitor of the county court
of Coweta county, and in this capacity he served with honor for
three years. In 1886 he was overwhelmingly elected as the rep-
resentative of the county to the General Assembly. For four
consecutive terms he was re-elected to the Legislature from his
county, and in 1892 was chosen Speaker of the House. By
common consent it was agreed that he made one of the best pre-
siding officers that body had ever had.

Of his legislative work the following is a fair summary. He
was the author of the bill which took the appointment of the
Commissioner of Agriculture from the Governor and provided
that he be elected by the people ; he introduced and had passed
the bill which limits the pay of inspectors of oil to $1,500 per
annum each, and requires them to pay the excess of fees into the
State Treasury, saving the State annually from $10,000 to
$15,000; a bill to place telegraph and express companies under
the control of the Railroad Commissioners; the substitute for
the Senate bill under which the claim of the Western and Atlan-
tic Railroad lessees against the State for $750,000 betterments,
was finally settled by the State reimbursing the lessees the
$99,999 paid to the State of Tennessee for taxes and paying
nothing for betterments ; the bill creating the Georgia Normal
and Industrial School for girls at Milledgeville. This was per-

380 MEN OF MARK

haps his greatest legislative work. This school where poor and
dependent girls acquire such education as will make them self-
sustaining and independent, will stand for all time an imperish-
able monument to his name. He was president of the board of
trustees of this institution from its beginning until his death.
He aided materially also in the passage of all bills looking to
the development of his Alma Mater, the State University, and
the common schools.

In 1890 Mr. Atkinson was made president of the State Demo-
cratic Convention and chairman of the State Democratic Execu-
tive Committee. He was re-elected to both these positions in
1892 and during that year led his party to a brilliant victory
against the combined forces of the Populist and Republican
parties.

In 1894 he ran for Governor against Gen. Clement A. Evans,
a gallant, ex-Confederate soldier and one of the purest and best
men in the State. He announced his candidacy late, at a time
when General Evans seems to be practically the unanimous
choice of the people. It looked like courting defeat to announce
for governor at such a time. But his brilliant dash, his stirring
eloquence and his rare gifts of political leadership won the day
against seemingly overwhelming odds. Before the end of the
contest General Evans recognized his defeat and retired from
the race.

He was inaugurated Governor at the convening of the Legisla-
ture in October, 1894, in the presence of one of the largest
crowds ever assembled at the Capitol. The presence of the
students of the Georgia Normal and Industrial School added
to the picturesque impressiveness of the occasion.

Few men at the age of forty have climbed to such high offi-
cial position. It ought to be asserted with equal confidence that
few have worn their honors more deservingly. His popularity

WILLIAM YATE8 ATKINSON 381

in the State, though great before his inauguration as Governor,
grew steadily and rapidly during his administration. He was
bold and aggressive always in pressing the policies he thought
to be right; at the same time he was scrupulously just and often
generous to those who opposed him. Among the many graceful
acts that he performed was the appointment of General Evans,
his opponent, on the Prison Commission, a position which the
General still fills to the great satisfaction of the people. In
1896 he was renominated and re-elected Governor without oppo-
sition. After the expiration of his second term as Governor he
returned to Newnan and resumed the practice of law alone,
and was actively engaged in his profession at the time of his
death. He died at his home, August 8, 1899.

He gave the best years of his life to his State. He died
poor. Had he used his powers in business lines, he, no doubt
could and would have amassed a considerable fortune, but his
private interests were uniformly sacrificed for the public ser-
vice. Although there may be some who did not agree with his
politics his honesty of purpose has never been assailed. His
ideals were high and lofty and to attain these was ever his pur-
pose. For those who disagreed with him or opposed him, he
bore no resentment ; to his friends he was faithful and true.

He was a man of decision, nerve and backbone. When his
mind became settled on a given line of action, no power on earth
could swerve him from what he considered to be his line of duty.
Early in life Governor Atkinson united with the Presbyterian
church at Newnan, and was a member in good standing until
his death. Among his fellows in private he was ever the gentle-
man, considerate, courteous, kind. In his family he was a
model husband and a loving, indulgent father. While physically
he was not strong, yet he did a wonderful amount of work and
his power of endurance was remarkable.

382 MEN OF MARK

During his public life but few men, if any, equaled him in
their influence upon legislation and in moulding the policies of
the State. He died at the meridian of life, ere the turn had
been made to the western horizon. His short life was full of
usefulness and honors. He was stricken, when it seemed he
could be most useful to his family, his friends and his country.
Who will say, however, that his death was untimely ? May we
not rather say, "that man should be regarded as happy, even
when death claims him, whose past has been made luminous
by high purposes, by earnest, noble work and by honorable
deeds. A life thus consecrated to the welfare and service of
mankind can not be said to have had an untimely end, come
when it may." G. R. GLENN.

384 MEN OF MARK

was cast in no common mold. In manner lie was somewhat
reserved, but beneath this was the glow of a genuine, tender
sympathy. He had the greatness of simplicity umnarred by
any oddity. He was entirely free from parade or pretense,
though there was apparent the consciousness of power that gave
strength to him and imparted it to others. He was dignified
without coldness; cordial without familiarity; sympathetic
without show.

Some seriously impair, if they do not destroy their useful-
ness, by unwisely choosing their life-work. In this he made no
mistake. He is most successful who chooses that which he can
do better than anything else, and does it better than anybody
else. In his choice to become a physician nature suffered no
disappointment, and in the pursuit of his profession she could
well be proud. He had no disposition to be conspicuous in
medical associations, where, as in other organizations, often,
those who know the least speak the most, those who should be
most retired are most conspicuous. His title to distinction
rested on firmer foundations. Without resorting to such methods,
his ability was recognized by the profession, and he was often
consulted by other physicians who regarded him as eminent
authority.

From the time of his admission until his death, on March
27, 1905, in the city where he was born and reared, he devoted
himself to the practice of his profession. The natural gifts
with which he was so richly endowed were trained and cultivated
by a long and laborious course of study. He was a student
of the productions of the master minds that had spoken and
written on the subjects that engaged his own. He did not
claim to know everything. He put proper estimate on what-
ever of value he could derive from others, but he thought for
himself. He went beyond the surface. He explored the hid-

WILLIAM HENRY DOUGHTY 385

den depths. With close analysis, clear perception, keen dis-
crimination and profound insight, he searched for correct princi-
ples though not inattentive to details. He saw clearly, rea-
soned correctly, and applied wisely.

He was bold, but cautious; discriminating, but practical;
always alert, but never alarmed; in desperate cases, anxious
enough to enlist all his varied powers, but never so anxious as to
lose grasp of every phase of the situation. He had the gift of
doing the right thing at the right time, in the right way — this is
the highest genius.

While not a specialist, his opinion in any case was most
valuable. The human body is wonderfully and fearfully made.
The forces that attack it are so powerful, their operations so
subtle and uncertain, their combinations so complicated, their
ravages so deadly, the highest qualities of the mind must be em-
ployed by the great physician. His mental powers must be
varied. Quick perception, keen penetration, /clear analysis,
correct reasoning, sound judgment, close discrimination must be
ready to be brought into play at once, and so successfully that
the invisible may be seen with the eye of knowledge and the in-
tangible touched with the hand of healing. He must calculate
like a mathematician, reason like a philosopher, determine like
a judge, and manceuver like a general. He must cultivate to a
high degree not only the noblest faculties of the mind, but the
cardinal virtues of the heart — patience, gentleness, sympathy —
have a spirit as brave as ever kindled a warrior's breast, and as
gentle as ever sweetened and sanctified woman's love. In him
were mixed all the elements of a great physician.

Great changes occurred in medical science during his career.
As to these he neither rejected the new nor adhered to the old
without reason, but followed the apostolic injunction, to prove
all things and hold fast to that which is good.
25

386 MEN OF MARK

He served with distinction as a surgeon in the Confederate
Army, first in charge of the Macon Hospital, then with the
Walker Division Hospital at Lauderdale Springs in Mississippi ;
then at the Second Georgia Hospital in Augusta. He was some-
time a member of the Georgia Medical Association; American
Medical Association; Ninth International Medical Congress;
American Public Health Association; Tri-State Medical Asso-
ciation of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee; of the Augusta
Orphan Asylum Society ; the Augusta Library and Medical As-
sociation ; Board of Trustees Wesleyan Female College ; and the
United Confederate Veterans, Camp 435. He assisted largely
in laying the foundation of the Board of Health of the city of
Augusta, having in large part drafted the Act of the Legislature
establishing this body.

For a number of years he was a Professor of Materia Medica
and Therapeutics in the Medical College of Georgia. His con-
tributions to the literature of his profession are found in writ-
ings on the treatment of the following subjects:—

"Adaptation of Climate to the Consumptive for a permanent
.Residence," "A General Comparison of the Eastern and West-
ern Slopes of America with the Southern Slopes of Europe,"
"Special Climate of the Pacific Slope," "Comparison of the En-
tire Pacific Slope with the State of Florida," all of these articles
being mainly on climatic conditions of Southern California.

Other articles of note, are: "The Physical Geography of the
North Pacific Ocean, the Peculiarities of its Circulation, and
Their Eelations to the Climate of the Pacific Coast of the
United States," "Report of Two Cases of Ligature of the Sub-
clavian Artery," "Atmospheric Distention of the Vagina in the
Knee-Chest Posture ; Is it the Real Factor, or simply an Auxili-
ary in the Deduction of Retro-Displacement," "The Primary
Conversion of Occipito-Anterior Positions of the Vertex with

WILLIAM HENRY DOUGHTY 387

cases illustrating the Practice/' "The Therapeutic Effects and
Uses of Mercury as Influenced by the Report of the Edinburg
Committee on the Actions of the Mercury Podophyllin and
Taraxacum on the Biliary Secretion," "True Method of Treat-
ing Dislocations, Upwards and Backwards of the Scapular End
of the Clavicle, with Report of a Case Illustrating the Principle
Employed," and others.

Dr. Doughty was the orginator of the method mentioned
above for the treatment of displacements, which was until 1891
difficult and uncertain.

For weeks and weeks he walked arm in arm with death, but
so strong was the desire for his services and so deep his interest
in many families, that he continued the practice of his profes-
sion until the end came. The announcement of his death was
received with a widespread feeling of distress. His professional
brethren felt that a prince and a great man among them had
fallen. The community recognized that he was the highest type
of its best citizenship, and the pall of a great calamity fell upon
the homes into which he had so long gone, welcomed as friend
and benefactor, bringing brightness for gloom, comfort for dis-
tress, ease for pain, and health for sickness.

He was laid to rest mourned by the poor he had helped with-
out reward, admired and esteemed by the members of the pro-
fession he had adorned, most loved and missed by those who
knew him best, with a sense of loss and sorrow universal, deep
and deserved.

J. C. C. BLACK.

AMONG the successful young men of Georgia who fairly
represent the spirit of the New South, is Dr. Jefferson
Davis of Toccoa. He occupies a place of leadership
in the industrial activities of his section as well as a position of
prominence in the medical profession. A man of broad sympa-
thies, strict integrity and sound judgment, he has won the con-
fidence and esteem of his entire section.

As an index to his character, it may be said that whenever
a thing of importance is to be done in his community, he is
usually asked to lead the way; and his identity with an enter-
prise ordinarily insures its success. When, in 1891, an act
was passed incorporating Toccoa's public school system, he was
made secretary of the Board of Education, and later was elected
president, which position he still holds. He has always taken
a lively interest in the educational progress and development
of his people.

Later when the Baptist congregation at Toccoa decided to
erect a new building to meet their growing needs, a unique
thing was done. Dr. Davis, though not a member of the con-
gregation, was asked to take the chairmanship of the building
committee. He consented to do so, and under his directions, the
building was pushed to completion, and is one of the most at-
tractive houses of worship in that part of the State.

But a service of more general and historic interest, the results
of which have given Dr. Davis and his friends great satisfaction,
was his work in connection with the establishment of Stephens
county. When the creation of a new county in the north-eastern
part of the State was proposed, he was placed at the head of the

DR. JEFFERSON DAVIS 389

committee in charge of the campaign, and was assisted by Hon.
Eernor Barrett, Judge J. B. Jones, D. J. Simpson, and others.

Under his leadership a vigorous and aggressive campaign was
carried on against great opposition. With tireless energy the
committee overcame every obstacle and a county was carved
from the territory of Habersham and Franklin, and named
Stephens, in honor of Georgia's "Great Commoner." Dr. Davis
has in his possession and prizes highly a beautiful gold pen,
en which is inscribed: "Pen used by Gov. Joseph M. Terrell
to sign bill creating Stephens county, August 12, 1905." Other
instances of his public spirit and splendid business ability might
be mentioned, but these will serve to illustrate what he stands
for in the community.

Dr. Davis was born in White county, November 2, 1864.
His father was Young Davis, who spent most of his life in
Habersham county, although he was born in Oconee county,
S. C. Dr. Davis's grandfather was Harvey Davis, who moved
from Middle South Carolina to Oconee county, where he spent
the remainder of his life. His grandmother was Miss Sarah
Barton from the old South Carolina family of this name, and
it is through this branch of the f aimily that he is related to Miss
Clara Barton of Red Cross fame. Both are buried in the
family burying ground in Oconee county, S. C.

The ancestors of Dr. Davis on his mother's side were Swifts,
and were of distinguished lineage. In the genealogical books
of England, this particular family of Swifts can be traced back
to the fourteenth century when Bryan Swift had a grant from
the Lord Bishop of Durham. Burke describes the Swift Arms,
and records the motto as "Make Haste Slowly." Perhaps the
most distinguished member of the family was Dean Jonathan
Swift, the greatest of English satirists, and author of "Gulli-
ver's Travels." The first of the family in America was Will-

€/

iam Swift, who settled in Massachusetts about 1630, and died

390 MEN OF MARK

in 1644. His descendants spread out to the West and the South
and were well represented in the Revolution. After the Revolu-
tion, Thomas, Elias, William and Tyre Swift came to Georgia
from North Carolina, and settled in Morgan county, which was
then frontier territory. They intermarried with the best fami-
lies of the State, including the Talbots, Floyds, Harrises, and
others.

Tyre Swift settled in Franklin county, and had a son named
Dean, and a daughter named Nancy. Nancy Swift married
Young Davis of Habersham county, and became the mother of
the subject of this sketch. Thus, it will be seen that, on both
sides, Dr. Davis comes of sturdy Georgia stock. The other
members of his family are numbered among the most substantial
citizens of Northeast Georgia. His brother, T. S. Davis, who
died in 1907, was elected to the Legislature from Habersham
county, serving two terms from 1880 to '84. In 1870 Young
Davis moved to what is known as the Currahee plantation near
Toccoa, containing 6,000 acres and including Currahee Moun-
tain.

A short distance west from Toccoa, the observant traveler,
looking southward from the Southern Railway, may catch a
glimpse of one of Dame Nature's "beauty spots." In the dis-
tance, nestling among the vines and cedars, stands the old home-
stead, overlooking the broad and fertile valley, while just be-
yond the picturesque Currahee is silhouetted against the south-
ern sky. Ensconced in this enchanting spot, the parents of
Dr. Davis lived for two decades — their home the synonym of
Southern hospitality.

His mother died September 27, 1889, age sixty-five years.
Young Davis died August 18, 1896, age eighty-nine years.
Both are buried in the family burying ground on the Currahee
plantation. It is from such happy homes as theirs, that the
South of to-day has received her richest legacies of citizenship.

DR. JEFFERSON DAVIS 391

Dr. Davis received such education as could be secured from
the public schools of Habersham county during his boyhood,
and was later graduated from the North Georgia Agricultural
College, at Dahlonega. He decided to study medicine, and en-
tered the Atlanta Medical College. After one term there, he
spent one term at the University of Louisville, Ky., after which
he returned to Atlanta and finished his course, graduating in
1884. Among the members of his class were Drs. F. W. Mc-
Rae, J. M. Crawford, M. B. Hutchins, and J. W. Quillian, now
a prominent Methodist minister.

After his graduation Dr. Davis returned to Toccoa, and be-
gan the practice of medicine. He has not specialized, but has
pursued a general practice, which has become large and lucra-
tive. He stands high in his profession, and was the first presi-
dent of the Stephens County Medical Society. For years he
has been zealous and effective in the fight being made on tuber-
culosis, and has given the subject much thought and time, having
spent a year in the West, studying conditions there. He is an
active member of the Anti-tuberculosis League, and has repre-
sented his State in several important conventions. Notwith-
standing the demands of his profession, he has found time to
assist in the industrial development of his section. He is
largely interested in cotton manufacturing, and his efforts and
advice are on all occasions directed to the full development of
this most important industry. He believes that this movement
should not stop until our water powers are developed to their
capacity and every pound of cotton grown in Georgia is spun
within the State. He has for two years been president of the
Georgia Industrial Association, an organization of the manu-
facturers of Georgia.

Among the local institutions, he is president of the Toccoa
Cotton Mills, vice-president of the Habersham Mills, and a di-
rector of the Toccoa Banking Company. He is also engaged

392 MEN OF MARK

in large farming operations in Stephens county, where he owns
several large bodies of valuable farming lands. He enjoys
nothing more than getting into the open fields, and personally
directing improvements and intensive cultivation.

Out of his large experience, and practical knowledge of
Georgia's undeveloped resources., he thinks fair inducement
should be offered outside capital, but that our educational de-
velopment should come from within, rather than from without.
Although he never has been a candidate for political honors, he
has taken an active interest in all elections. He has been a
life long Democrat, of the conservative type.

On January 31, 1899, Dr. Davis was happily married to Miss
Myrtle Yow of Avalon, Franklin county (now Stephens.) She
was the daughter of Richard Dempsey and Mary Aderhold
Yow. The Yows are of German extraction, but came to
Georgia from South Carolina. They have beejn prominent
and influential factors in the political and commercial history
of their section. R. D. Yow was State Senator from the
Thirty-first District in 1882 and '83, and at the time of his
death in 1899, was the wealthiest man in Franklin county.
Mrs. Davis is a graduate of Lucy Cobb Institute, and is a
woman of culture, and rare taste and judgment,' and feels a
laudable pride and interest in her husband's work and success.

Although leading a life of constant activity Dr. Davis never
seems to tire. If things go wrong he never loses hope or cour-
age. The spirit of optimism, which is his by nature, never
forsakes him, and is infused into all his work. Personally he
is one of the most affable of men — a true type of the Southern
gentleman. He is a great lover of home, and his supreme hap-
piness is found in adding to its comforts and joys. He is a
Pythian and also a Mason of high rank.

J. F. COOPER.

-':

c

H

394 MEN OF MARK

diction in civil cases, and the control and management of all
county business. In 1868 Mr. McDaniel was one of the justices
or judges of the inferior court of Fulton county, a position of
responsibility and importance to the people. No man who re-
sided in the metropolitan city of Georgia in its early days did
more than he to bring order out of chaos and preserve good gov-
ernment in municipal affairs.

Henry Dickerson was a delicate child, but afterwards grew
into robust manhood in his comfortable home. With so capable
a father to advise and direct, able to appreciate the value of a
proper education and to foster in the youth's mind a love for
books, the son was fortunately situated. There was enough of
farm life to give the boy a decided taste for the country and
enough hard work to promote physical vigor, but it was in the
High Schools of Atlanta, under the tutelage of Rev. W. M.
Janes, Prof. McGinty, and Dr. E. W. Griggs that young Mc-
Daniel received the inspiration of his collegiate, professional
and literary successes of later years. This trained and disci-
plined pupil graduated from Mercer University in the year
1856, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and the highest
honors of his class.

Henry D. McDaniel was a member of the Secession Con-
vention of the State of Georgia, in the year 1861, and while
still a very young man, was elected to the Georgia State Con-
stitutional Convention of 1865. Being loyal to the Confederate
cause, he was pronounced ineligible to office under the rabid
Reconstruction Act. Until the General Amnesty Act became
operative in 1872, Mr. McDaniel could only act as adviser for
others in the conduct of legislation. Yet it was a time in
Southern history when the best informed and most patriotic
citizenship was urgently in demand. He was elected to the
State Legislature in October, 1872, and served a term of two

HENRY DICKERSON McDANIEL 395

years. In 1874 he became State Senator from the district
composed of Clarke, Newton, Oconee, Rockdale and Walton
counties, for a term of four years. He was re-elected in 1877
for a term of two years, and again in 1880, making ten years of
consecutive service in the Legislature. He was destined to
higher honors still in the service of his native State.

Governor Alexander H. Stephens died March 4, 1883, only a
few months after his inauguration. The people of Georgia de-
cided that the large experience of Henry D. McDaniel would be
valuable to the State in this crisis, and his long legislative career
fitted him to fill the unexpired term of Governor Stephens, as
the people believed. Nor was their confidence misplaced.

He was re-elected in October, 1884, and served till November
11, 1886. His careful oversight of the State's business was
seen in his messages to the Legislature, notably those of July,
'83; November, '84; July, '85, and November, '86. No Gov-
ernor of Georgia ever gave more careful attention to the duties
of his office.

A brief review of the principal legislation approved by Gov-
ernor McDaniel will be accepted as fitting and proper in this
publication of his life and times. It has been intimately con-
nected with subsequent legislation and embraces valuable history
worthy of reference as well as record.

The system which provides for the annual payment of pen-
sions to disabled Confederate soldiers was organized and ap-
proved by Governor McDaniel. He likewise approved the bill
which authorized the first considerable enlargement of the State
Hospital for the Insane at Milledgeville. The act for erecting
Georgia's new capitol was passed during his administration.
As Chairman Ex-Officio of the Capitol Building Commission,
the members of which he selected as Chief Executive, the pro-
gress of the work was so well watched and expenses so well regu-

396 MEN OF MARK

lated that this building has been pronounced by some capable
judges as the best in America for its cost. The million dollar
appropriation not only covered the outlay and expenses general-
ly, but left a considerable sum in the State Treasury to be used
for other purposes.

Another matter of grateful interest to the people of Georgia
circles about the settlement of a controversy over the last pay-
ment of $750,000 in connection with the sale of the Macon and
Brunswick Railroad in February, 1884. The Act of Septem-
ber 3, 1879, authorized the sale, payable in bonds of the State
at par value, but the Act of October 14, 1879, gave the purchaser
the option to pay either in Georgia State bonds, or United
States registered bonds at par value. The purchasing com-
pany offered registered three per cent bonds of the United
States, which bonds being subject to call by the Secretary of the
Treasury were practically at par. Acceptance of three per
cent bonds meant sale under legislative act and appropriation of
the money to payment of interest on the public debt, instead of
reducing the principal, as was clearly contemplated by the Con-
stitution, and the releasing of a like amount in the Treasury,
provided to pay interest on the public debt, to be subject to
legislative appropriations to other purposes. One of these
other purposes would have been the new State capitol, the act
for building which had already provided that it should be built
(except, as to the $55,000, or about that amount, paid by the
City of Atlanta for the old capitol at Milledgeville), only out
of surplus money in the Treasury. As there was a temporary
loan in the spring of 1884, it was evident there was no surplus,
etc., and it was openly said that this $750,000 was to be used
in building the capitol. The dilemma of the Governor did not
change his duty or the law of settlement, which was to require
payment in bonds of the State, or in registered bonds of the

HENRY DICKERSON McDANIEL 397

United States, outstanding or issued under a law in existence
at the time of the sale of the railroad. For the same reason an
offer of $750,000 cash was also rejected.

The premium on United States registered four per cent bonds
being higher than that on Georgia State bonds, the purchasers
brought the latter, delivered them in payment at par, and the
bonds were canceled and reported to the Legislature in the mes-
sage of November, 1884, the session during which the issue of
bonds bearing not more than five per cent interest was author-
ized, to pay about $3,500,000 of maturing bonds, nearly all of
them the Jenkins seven per cent bonds secured by mortgage
on the Western and Atlantic Railroad.

If the State bonds had not been secured and canceled as
above stated, reducing the debt by that amount the new issue
of bonds would probably have been $4,250,000, and four and
one-half per cent bonds could scarcely have been sold above par.

The purchasers afterwards presented a memorial to the Leg-
islature asking that the amount of the premium paid for State
bonds, etc., be refunded, but the claim was not seriously consid-
ered or allowed by that body.

The State's credit was so good during the McDaniel adminis-
tration that four and one-half per cent bonds were readily sold
at a premium and the bonded debt of the State was reduced
considerably more than $1,000,000. Annual interest charges
were reduced by the two foregoing financial transactions about
$135,000 per annum. For this reason it became practicable
to sell future issues of State bonds at a lower rate of interest,
and other bonds at a greatly reduced rate of interest.

The lowest tax rate known to Georgia since 1805 prevailed
during Governor McDaniel's administration. The rate, two
and a half mills was the result of careful attention to the State's
finances. During his administration the average tax rate for
State purposes was about three mills.

398 MEN OF MARK

The School of Technology was created by legislative act in
1885. A majority of the Commissioners appointed by Gover-
nor McDaniel are still in service. Its success has rendered
possible still greater development on similar lines under suc-
ceeding administrations.

Recurring to his legislative career it may be said that as a
member of the House he was chairman of the Committee on
Corporations, a member of the Judiciary Committee, and acting
chairman of the Committee on Finance, which then included
Ways and Means and Appropriations. As Senator he was
chairman of the Finance Committee and of the Judiciary Com-
mittee, committees holding the highest place in all legislative
bodies.

He was author of the Apportionment Act of 1873, based on
the census of 1870, and providing Representatives in the Legis-
lature for the new counties of Dodge, Douglas, McDuffie and
Rockdale; the Railroad Tax Act of 1874; the act of 1875, pro-
viding that the lien of landlords for supplies to tenants shall
arise by operation of law from the relation of landlord and ten-
ant, and if in writing that the lien shall be assignable so as to
form a basis of credit to the landlord; the Act of 1875, for
waiver of right of homestead, afterwards provided in the Con-
stitution of 1877 ; the Act of 1876, for the adjustment of the
rights of parties in cases of sales of homestead property made as
provided in the homestead act of 1868, which provision for sales
was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the State
in 1875 ; an act for amendment of the Constitution in refer-
ence to certain bonds declared invalid by the Legislature of
1872 ; the Act of 1878, for setting apart homestead and ex-
emptions, sale of homesteads and reinvestment, etc., under the
Constitution of 1877 ; the Jury Act of 1878, to carry into effect
provision of the Constitution of 1877 ; the Act of 1879, creating
the Railroad Commission and denning its powers and duties, in

HENRY DICKERSON McDANIEL 399

conjunction with Judge William M. Reese and Hon. Samuel
Barnett, and in consultation with Gen. Robert Toombs, Mr.
G. J. Foreaere, and others ; the Act of 1879, denning lobbying
as a crime.

Ex-Governor McDaniel has the satisfaction of knowing also
that his career as a legislator and as Governor not only stands
approved by a grateful people, but that his public services
have never been discounted or tarnished by insinuation or
charge of graft. And to-day in the remarkable vigor of his ad-
vanced years he is looked upon as one of Georgia's truest and
most capable citizens.

As trustee of the State University, a valued and potent force
always, he has served the State for more than twenty years. He
has been chairman of the board of trustees since 1899. His
methods are marked by care and attention, for while he is gen-
erous and public spirited, he is prudent and conservative in his
regard for the tax-payers' money.

He was trustee from 1883 to 1890 of the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary at Louisville, Ky.

JSTor must his record as a soldier be omitted. He was a
young man, under twenty-five years of age, when he entered the
Confederate Army as First Lieutenant, Company H, Walton
Infantry, a part of the Eleventh Regiment of Georgia Infantry,
and of Bartow's Brigade, later Anderson's Brigade, Army of
Northern Virginia. He became Major of the Regiment in
November, 1862.

In July, 1863, he was wounded in the abdomen from which
he suffered for months. He was captured and confined at
Johnson's Island, Ohio, where he was held till July, 1865.

Reports of Brigade and Regimental Commanders of Ander-
son's Brigade, at the battle of Gettysburg, touch upon events
dear to the heart of Major McDaniel's family and friends, be-

400 MEN OF MARK

cause this heroic soul spared nothing, neither love nor life in
those brave days of old. The story of the second Manassas
battle and the Maryland campaigns would also bring promi-
nently to view the patriotism and fortitude of Major McDaniel,
but this modest veteran of the Confederate struggle has bent
his energies to the service of his people and won laurels in the
victories of peace.

Ex-Governor McDaniel is pre-eminently a lawyer, and the
superior quality of his legal mind has contributed largely to his
usefulness in the various positions held during and since the
war. He has been a director of the Georgia Railroad and
Banking Company since May, 1878 ; a director in the High
Shoals Manufacturing Company since January, 1875 ; director
of the Georgia Railroad Bank, Augusta, since 1893 ; a director
of the Walton Cotton Mill Company since 1900 ; a director of
Monroe Railroad Company since 1904; and a director in the
Monroe Cotton Mills since 1896.

Governor McDaniel married Miss Hester C. Felker, daughter
of Stephen Felker, of Monroe, Ga., December 20, 1865. Two
children were born to them, both of whom are still living. Mrs.
McDaniel has been a loyal, loving helpmate to her distinguished
husband, fitted by nature and culture to grace all the elevated
positions. to which success has led them.

In their elegant home within the town limits of Monroe,
they can look on scenes and places which have been familiar to
both from early childhood, and realize the fact in its fullest
significance that those who have known them longest still love
them best. As wrote wise old William Penn: "He that does
good for good's sake seeks neither praise nor reward, though
sure of both at last."

MRS. W. H. FELTON.

OTtUtam Itenrp Jflemtng,

WILLIAM HENRY FLEMING, son of Porter and
Catharine Moragne Fleming, was born in Augusta,
Ga., October 18, 1856. He married Miss Marie Ce-
leste Ayer, daughter of Maj. W. F. Ayer and Sarah Virginia
Brookes Ayer, August 22, 1900. They have one child.

Mr. Fleming's father, Porter Fleming, was a farmer and a
merchant, a man of untiring energy and devotion to duty. Por-
ter Fleming's father was Robert Fleming, of Lincoln county,
Ga. His mother was Miss Thurza Farrar, and her mother was
Miss Elizabeth Howard, of Virginia, who was a cousin of
Thomas Jefferson.

Mr. William Henry Fleming's grandmother on his mother's
side, was Miss Margaret Blanton Cain, of English ancestry on
her father's side, and her mother was a granddaughter of Mrs.
Margaret Blanton, of Virginia, who was related to John Ran-
dolph, of Roanoke.

Mr. Fleming's great-grandfather, James Fleming, was one of
five brothers who came to this country prior to the Revolution.
The names of three of these brothers appear in the published
rolls of the Continental Army from Georgia. Mr. Fleming's
grandfather on his mother's side was Isaac Moragne. Isaac
Moragne's father and his three older brothers fought under Gen.
Andrew Pickens in the Revolution. His great-grandfather,
Pierre Moragne, — French Huguenot, — headed a party of im-
migrants from France who landed at Charleston and settled
at New Bordeaux, South Carolina, in 1764.

William Henry Fleming, the subject of this sketch, was
reared on his father's farm near Augusta. From twelve to

26

402 MEN OF MARK

fifteen years of age lie did farm work in the fields with the plow
and the hoe. This was after his father's reverses, consequent
upon the war. He attended the common schools of the com-
munity for his primary education, and Richmond Academy
for his higher training. He graduated at the University of
Georgia in 1876, as a civil engineer, and was afterwards awarded
the A.M. Degree. While at the University he received a medal
as the best Junior debater, and while an under graduate, he
took the medal for the best essay open to the University, and
was chosen commencement, orator.

Mr. Fleming had difficulties to overcome in acquiring an
education, as his school days came just in the midst of recon-
struction troubles. He borrowed the money necessary to con-
tinue his college course from Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, and
paid it back with legal interest. He acted as college postmaster
at the University while a student there, and before graduation
was made tutor on a small salary. He was compelled to this
course to complete his college curriculum.

He studied law in the office of Hon. John T. Shewmake, and
was admitted to the bar in 1880. Mr. Fleming began the active
work of life in 1877 as Superintendent of Public Schools in
Richmond county, and the city of Augusta. He resigned this
position to begin the practice of law in 1880. His prominence
as a lawyer and a public man gained for him the presidency of
the Georgia Bar Association in 1894-'95.

He was a member of the State Legislature for eight consecu-
tive years, from 1888 to 1895 inclusive. He was a member of
the United States Congress for six years, from 1897 to 1903,
and served on the Judiciary Committee the last four years.

During his service in the State Legislature he was always
a member of the General Judiciary and the Finance Commit-
tee, except when Speaker of the House. This latter position
he held for the session 1894-'95. He was chairman of the

WILLIAM HENRY FLEMING 403

Finance Committee for two years. It is not undue to say that
Mr. Fleming originated and brought to successful issue quite
as much important legislation in Georgia as any other man of
the present generation. ISTot only has he been the author of
some of our most important laws, but in the consideration of
those introduced by others during his term in the House he
was one of the most influential factors. He had a marked
peculiarity in that he would never cast his vote in favor of any
measure that had in it a germ of unconstitutionality, preferring
always to go counter to the majority and risk his popularity
rather than assist in the passage of an Act that was an infringe*
ment on the fundamental law of the State.

His first valuable work was in originating and pushing
through a bill providing when transfers and liens should take
effect against third parties. Previous to this enactment loans
on realty were exceedingly difficult to obtain from outside com-
panies, and home people as well. It was not easy to determine
when such loans were secure. Mr. Fleming's bill required the
record at the clerk's office to show every fact to indicate a clear
title. This relieved the situation and established confidence
and opened up opportunities that had been to a great extent
closed for the lack of such security.

In 1890 he introduced and had passed a bill reducing the
hours of labor in factories from thirteen to eleven hours per day,
or sixty-six hours per week.

At the session of 1892-93 Mr. Fleming presented a bill that
as a law has been of great value to the State in its application
to the trial of criminals. It provided that criminal cases should
go to the Supreme Court on fast bills of exceptions. By this
method speedy trials were assured, and the operation of the law
has been very beneficial, as now a final judgment can be secured
in a few weeks, whereas, theretofore, it required six to twelve
months.

404 MEN OF MARK

Mr. Fleming was the special champion of the public schools.
It was largely through his position on a measure before the
House in 1892 that the first direct tax for educational purposes
was authorized and levied. He introduced and pressed to pas-
sage the original bill to establish the State Normal School at
Athens, which was afterward followed by substantial appro-
priations through the efforts of others. Quite as important as
either of these school measures was the quarterly payment of the
public school teachers. The scheme was a very difficult one to
accomplish on account of the very large amount of money re-
quired and the arrangement of the income of the State Treasury
so as to meet the proposed demands.

Mr. Fleming was the author of the substitute bill, under
which the Code of 1895 was prepared, — his substitute providing
for a codification instead of a mere revision. He also drew
and secured the passage of the bill to increase the number of
Justices of the Supreme Court, and to have them elected by
the people.

While Speaker of the House, at the request of the committee
appointed to devise a scheme for the registration of voters, he
drew the bill that became the law, and was chiefly instrumental
in its passage.

At the close of his legislative career in 1895, Mr. Fleming
retired from the Speakership of the House with the confidence
and esteem of the entire membership, as expressed in highly
complimentary resolutions unanimously adopted. Only one ap-
peal was ever taken from his decisions on parliamentary ques-
tions, and on that appeal he was sustained.

Within two years after his service in the State Legislature he
was elected to Congress. He entered upon his duties quite well
informed upon all questions of national importance. He has
been especially a student of economics.

WILLIAM HENRY FLEMING 405

Of his speech upon the tariff Mr. Crosby, of New York, a
political economist of high rank, said : "I only wish we had
more men who held such views and could express them so for-
cibly." Of this same speech Hon. William L. Wilson, former
Democratic leader of the House and afterwards a member of
Mr. Cleveland's cabinet, said he was "glad to see young men
coming from the South capable of discussing these great ques-
tions on principle."

Mr. Fleming's speech on civil service reform attracted quite
as much attention. Associate Justice Brown, of the United
States Supreme Court, gave the speech most hearty indorse-
ment; as did Hon. R. H. Dana, President of the Cambridge
Civil Service Reform Association. His speech on the income
tax was declared by Hon. Champ Clark to be "a substantial and
valuable contribution to the philosophic and political literature
of this age." His speech on the tariff was made a campaign
document by the Democratic Campaign Committee, and about
1,000,000 copies were printed for distribution over the country

Mr. Fleming never considers opposition when his convictions
are settled. In his early manhood he recorded this sentiment to
be made the policy of his after life : "I will never use the feeble
powers which God in His mercy has given me to strengthen
falsehood and wrong, or to weaken the everlasting principles of
truth and right," Twice in his public career he has seen defeat
confronting him if he adhered to this policy in his campaign
and refused to buy votes. He deliberately accepted defeat and
preserved the ideal of his early manhood in retirement, where
he is successfully pursuing the practice of his chosen profession,
the law.

In his study of economics and the solution of questions aris-
ing therefrom, Mr. Fleming has given the force of his public
effort, as well as his personal counsel, to the proper adjustment

27

406 MEN OF MARK

of the differences between capital and labor. His position upon
these questions has been concisely stated in one of his public
addresses, as follows:

"To sum up, we may state the case in this way: In the mak-
ing of products there is no conflict of interest between capital
and labor. They must cooperate. But in the division of the
resulting profits there is a conflict between them. It is better
always to face the truth than to dodge it

"In the prosecution of the struggle incident to this indus-
trial conflict, there are certain limitations imposed by the laws
of the State. For example, neither capital nor labor could
afford to raise the black flag against the other and seek its com-
plete destruction, for the simple reason that such a victory for
either side would mean its own defeat, because by itself it could
not make products. Again, neither side can be permitted to
put at defiance the laws of the State, because the preservation
of the State is of higher importance than the interests of any
particular set of capitalists or laborers. When any persons or
organizations strike at the heart of the State by the wanton de-
struction of life or property, they immediately consolidate in
opposition to themselves all the conservative elements of society.
Anarchists and bomb-throwers and dynamite exploders have
never yet advanced the true cause of labor.

"The two chief weapons of labor are the lawful withholding
of its own hands from work and an appeal to public opinion
based on the justice of the cause. The public conscience is the
working man's powerful ally. His interests require that it be
kept alive and delicately sensitive. Any government policy
that tends to dull and deaden it must inevitably react to his
ultimate injury."

Mr. Fleming has very pronounced views upon all matters of
public interest. He expresses them with courtesy, but always

WILLIAM HENRY FLEMING 407

with positiveness and force. His address on the race question,
delivered at the commencement of the University of Georgia in
1906, was widely distributed and well received by careful stu-
dents of that great problem both North and South.

W. J. NOKTHEN.

Cfjrtetopfjer Columbus

COL. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SANDERS, mer-
chant and banker, of Gainesville, was born at Grove
Level, Jackson county, Ga., May 8, 1840. His boy-
hood days were spent on his father's farm. He attended the
country schools and later, in 1861, was graduated from the
Georgia Military Institute, of Marietta. At the outbreak of
the War between the States he was commissioned Lieutenant-
Colonel of the Twenty-fourth Regiment of Georgia Volunteer
Infantry. He served with that regiment throughout the war,
being promoted to the rank of Colonel in 1863. Since the war
he has been extensively engaged in banking and the mercantile
business. For the past eighteen years he has been president of
the State Banking Company, of Gainesville.

On July 25, 1871, Colonel Sanders was married to Miss
Frances Amelia Scarborough. To this union two children were
born, Robert Jackson, of Gainesville, Ga., and Arniintaine, now
Mrs. Hinton, of Athens, Ga.

Colonel Sanders's great-grandfather, Rev. Moses Sanders, was
a Baptist preacher. He emigrated from England in 1765 and
with two younger brothers, David and John, who located in
Tennessee and Alabama while Moses settled at Petersburg, Va.
Later he moved to North Georgia. He was noted for his
energy, ability, strength of character, and benevolence, all of
which qualities he exercised in the upbuilding of the new coun-
try to which he had come. He encouraged education, estab-
lished schools, invited immigration, and planted churches. Two-
of these churches recently celebrated their one hundredth anni-

•

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SANDERS 409

versary. He also surveyed and laid out highways across the
country from the Carolinas to Alabama and to the Indian reser-
vations north of the Chattahoochee river in Georgia. He and
the brothers mentioned above took an active part in the war for
American independence, participating in the battles of Kings
Mountain, the Cowpens, the long campaigns in Virginia and the
fierce guerrilla warfare in the Carolinas. He died in 1817.
His eldest son, Moses Sanders, Jr., an enterprising planter, was
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch.

Colonel Sanders's grandfather on his mother's side was
Thomas Smythe, who, with a party of friends, cam© from Dub-
lin, Ireland, to Charleston, S. C., in 1798. He settled in Jones
county, Ga., where he died a few years later. He was distin-
guished for his great learning and for the beauty and sweetness
of several poems written by him.

The parents of Colonel Sanders were Harris Sanders and
Elizabeth (Smythe) Sanders. The father was a planter of
intelligence, character and hospitality, who always took an ac-
tive interest in public affairs. The mother was a deeply reli-
gious woman, whose influence had much to do with moulding the
moral and spiritual life of her son.

As a boy, Colonel Sanders was strong and sturdy. Besides
being familiar with all the various kinds of manual work done
on a farm at that time, he had a healthy love for study and
travel. Since attaining to manhood, wealth, distinction and
leisure, he has sought to gratify his taste for travel by visiting
most of the important countries of the world.

The physical health acquired by an outdoor life and training
at a military school served him well during the trying struggles
of the great war. As Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel of the
Twenty-fourth Georgia Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, Mc-
Law's division, Longstreet's corps, Army of Northern Virginia,

410 MEN OF MARK

serving from the date of its organization to the surrender at
Appomattox, he took part in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven
Pines, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, Chancel-
lorsville, Harper's Ferry, Crampton's Gap, South Mountain,
Sharpsburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and many
others.

At Sharpsburg, he was temporarily in command of Wofford's
brigade. The Confederate batteries had been destroyed, and
the space in front was swept by deadly minie balls, which
mowed down whole lines of soldiers. The Federals were ad-
vancing with fixed bayonets, and the Confederates sprang for-
ward to meet them. The death grapple took place at a post and
plank fence, which the Confederates held, but at a terrible loss
of forty-eight per cent of the five regiments engaged in the
charge.

At the Wilderness, Colonel Sanders's Regiment, at fearful
loss, aided in driving back the right wing of the Federals com-
manded by Grant. At the critical moment, Lee himself ap-
peared at the head of the Confederate forces, but was borne
back by his soldiers. The First Army Corps succeeded in
hurling Grant's right wing from the field.

At the "Death Angle" at Spottsylvania Court House Colonel
Sanders's command suffered fearfully, and he himself was
wounded. The second battle of Cold Harbor and the fight at
Sailor's Creek were the last in which he took part He was
captured at Sailor's Creek on May 6, 1865, leaving only sixty-
four men to be surrendered at Appomattox under Lieutenant
Jim Hill.

Colonel Sanders was a prisoner in the old Capitol building in
Washington City the night of President Lincoln's assassination.
He was later transferred to Johnson's Island, Ohio, and was
released July 25, 1865, from his fearful sufferings.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SANDERS 411

Colonel Sanders is still interested in the history of the great
war. He was at one time State Vice-President for Georgia of
the American Historical Society. His favorite methods of rec-
reation now are outdoor exercise, travel, and reading. He has
traveled extensively in the Old World as well as America. He
says that the reading which has helped him most has been that
of current events, history and the Bible.

Colonel Sanders is a strong member of the Baptist church.
He says that as a youth his one ambition was to do some good in
the world. His advice to young men is that they ask divine
guidance in all their undertakings. He failed, he says, when-
ever he chose his own course. He urges upon all who wish to
succeed, even in the temporal affairs of this life, the absolute
necessity for temperance, industry, benevolence and integrity.

D. A. TEDDEB,.

&ifreb porter Hamilton.

THE HAMILTON FAMILY in Georgia came from Scot-
land, though originally English, and settled in Maryland
in early Colonial times. Both the paternal and mater-
nal ancestors of the subject of this sketch were distinguished in
the Revolutionary War. His great-grandfather, George Hamil-
ton, married Miss Agnes Cooper. His grandfather, Joseph J.
Hamilton, who was born in Wilkes county, Georgia, married
Miss Sarah Twiggs Blount, daughter of the distinguished
Thomas Blount, of Jones county, who came to Georgia from
Virginia. Joseph Hamilton was first cousin to Hon. Mark A.
Cooper, Pleasant Stovall, of Augusta, and Judge Eugenius A.
ISTesbit. In the early thirties he moved from the town of Hamil-
ton in Harris county, which was named for his family, to Cass
(now Bartow) county. He owned the land where the town of
Cartersville now stands and a plantation on the Etowah river.

His son, David Blount Hamilton, was reared in Carters-
ville, and after his graduation from the University of Georgia
was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law at Rome.
In 1856 he married Miss Martha Harper, a niece and adopted
daughter of Col. Alfred Shorter, of Rome.

The oldest of their six sons was Alfred Shorter Hamilton,
who was born in Rome September 7, 1857. He was a bright,
active boy of fair strength and spent most of his early years at
his father's home in the enterprising little city of Rome. He
saw enough of farm life, however, to learn to do all kinds of
farm work. His early education was secured in the private
schools of Rome. He entered Mercer University, but at the
age of twenty, when in the Junior year, left college to attend
Eastman's Business College in Poughkeepsie, 1ST. Y., to prepare

ALFRED SHORTER HAMILTON 413

himself for a lucrative business position, which had been offered
to him. On the completion of his business course he returned
home, and in 1878 accepted a position with the firm of Berry
and Co., cotton factors. His energy and business aptitude were
soon recognized. Coupled with these, his fine executive ability
and careful preparation won for him an independent place in
the business community. Accordingly, in 1882, he was admitted
to partnership in the firm of Berry and Co. His careful busi-
ness methods and intimate knowledge of local conditions soon
placed him at the head of the firm of Hamilton and Co., doing
a large business as wholesale grocers and cotton factors.

On April 10, 1888, he married Miss Margaret Allgood,
daughter of Judge A. P. Allgood, of Chattooga county, who was
a native of South Carolina, and whose ancestors had been Vir-
ginians. As early as 1846 Judge Allgood established a cotton
mill at Trion, in Chattooga county, thirty miles above Home.

In 1890 Mr. Hamilton was elected President and Treasurer
of this splendid property, a position which he still holds. He
has placed himself among the leading cotton manufacturers of
the State. Under his management, the plant, consisting of
three mammoth mills, has more than doubled the number of
spindles and looms it contained when he assumed the presidency.
It is equipped with the most improved modern machinery and
has all the necessary adjuncts for the successful maintenance and
operation of one of Georgia's largest industries for the manu-
facture of cotton goods.

The hum of 51,200 spindles greets the visitor to Trion Mills.
They consume sixty bales of cotton daily. The 1,440 looms
turn out daily 75,000 yards of sea island sheeting, shirting,
drills, ropes, etc. The goods manufactured by the Trion Mills
always find a ready market in the North and East. Large ship-
ments are also made to China. The yearly business amounts to
about $1,500,000.

414 MEN OF MARK

The splendid water-power afforded by the Chattooga river
has been developed to the extent of 450 horse-power. In addi-
tion to this, two splendid Corliss engines, consuming twenty tons
of coal per day, furnish the necessary power.

Trion was the name given to the factory and town from the
trio of men, Allgood, March and Briers, who were the origina-
tors of this great enterprise, built and operated by Georgia
capital.

The situation is healthful and convenient. Here Mr. Hamil-
tin has surrounded himself by more than 3,000 happy, indus-
trious people. While not a member of any church, he is a
liberal contributor and takes an active interest in the education
of the people by whom he is surrounded. Though a very busy
man, Mr. Hamilton is a great reader and likes the best books.
He enjoys out-door exercises, and is especially fond of horse-
back riding and shooting.

Inclined from boyhood to a business career, Mr. Hamilton
has worked to that end. In early life he was impelled by a
desire to win the respect of his parents and his uncle, Col.
Alfred Shorter, and found the influence of a cultured Christian
home a source of helpful inspiration, not only through school
days, but until the present time.

As guides to usefulness and success, he suggests the follow-
ing : "Faithfulness to your duty, honesty with your trust, kind-
ness and politeness to those you meet, love for country and
for home."

Accomplished in intellect, graceful in manners, the very mir-
ror of honor, always gentle, always considerate of the feelings
of others, generous to a fault, the President of the Trion Manu-
facturing Company invariably impresses those with whom he
comes in contact, in a social or business way, as an elegant and
benevolent gentleman.

A. B. CAI/DWELL.

' cX '

£'Ari fa^1"^

416 MEN OF MARK

Coat of Arms is still preserved by Dr. Mclntosh. The device
is an eagle and is carved on his private seal.

In his boyhood, Dr. Mclntosh was small of stature, but of
athletic frame. Among the special tastes and interests of his
childhood he developed a fondness for books and a love for
horses which he has never outgrown. This fondness for books
has made his professional and scientific reading a pleasure and
has also led him into broader fields of history and philosophy.
His love for horses still finds expression in the trotters he raises
and drives in his professional work. Until he was thirteen, his
time was divided between the country schools and those things
on his father's farm which engaged a farmer-boy's attention
during and after the stirring days of the War Between the
States.

In 1866, he entered Jefferson Academy at Monticello, Florida,
which he attended three years. The failure of his father's
health and the consequent decline in his business interests de-
prived him of the college course which the father had planned
for his son.

Dr. Mclntosh's maternal grandfather and one of his father's
brothers were physicians. His father had another brother, who
was not a professional man, but possessed a scientific and medi-
cal bias of mind. This uncle was very fond of his nephew, and
his influence and persuasion, together with his own natural bent
of mind, induced him to adopt the medical profession as his
life-work. Accordingly he entered the Atlanta Medical Col-
lege, and in 1875 was graduated at the head of his class. He
was invited by Dr. Westmoreland to remain in his office in
Atlanta. This he declined and, returning to Thomasville, be-
gan the practice of medicine among his own people. He was
successful from the beginning. At the time he said to a friend,
"I am going to establish a reputation as a physician if I do

THOMAS MURDOCH McINTOSH 417

not make a cent in ten years." Such faithful, determined effort
has brought both reputation and remuneration. Not a little of
his early work was gratuitous, but even this is bearing fruit in
the grateful patronage of those whose parents Dr. Mclntosh
attended thirty years ago.

From time to time he has added to his knowledge and skill
by attendance at such institutions as the Post Graduate School
in New York and the Polyclinics in Philadelphia. The year
1891 was spent in Europe, largely in the hospitals of Berlin
and Vienna.

Dr. Mclntosh is frequently called into consultation by other
leading physicians of the State and of Florida, especially in
difficult surgical operations, in which he excels. He has been
Vice-President of the Medical Association of Georgia and has
made frequent contributions to medical literature on surgical
subjects. Apart from his professional work his interest in the
progress and development of his own community is attested by
the fact that he is President of the Board of Education of
Thornasville Public Schools, a trustee of the Atlanta School of
Medicine, President of the Board of Trustees of Young's Fe-
male College, and Vice-President of the Citizens Banking and
Trust Company of Thomasville. He has also been President
of the Thomasville Library Association, and during his adminis-
tration relieved that institution of a considerable debt contracted
in the construction of the building, and in 1899 established, at
his own expense, a private surgical hospital at Thomasville,
which is still running.

Governor Atkinson, during his administration, appointed him
Physician to the State Penitentiary. Finding the duties of the
place uncongenial, he resigned after an incumbency of four
months and resumed his practice. Later he was tendered the
position of Surgeon-in-Chief of the First Georgia Regiment in

418 MEN OF MARK

the Spanish-American War. This he declined. Governor At-
kinson was accustomed to confer freely with him about matters
in his part of the State.

At the time when the convict lease system was engaging the
attention of the people of the State, Dr. Mclntosh took a strong
stand in the local and State press in favor of the lease system.

His lodge affiliations are with the Masons and the Elks. He
is not connected with any church. He has never married. It
is his intention to leave Jiis property to a prominent Georgia in-
stitution for orphan children, first giving a life interest to his
only sister and an only brother, who are both unmarried, suffi-
cient to provide for them during their life.

He attributes his success in life to "the literary tastes of his
mother, to the personal example of his father, to the strong love
and ambition of both for their children, to the high standards
they erected for their guidance and which they themselves lived
up to." To the young he says, "Erect lofty ideals; find the
truth and stand by it, never compromise a principle; don't
drink, chew, nor smoke; work hard all the time."

A. B. CALDWELL.