A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 13

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1208

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CHARLES P. ROWLAND. Among the representative men of Savannah is Charles P. Rowland, property owner and engaged extensively in real estate business. The family was founded here in 1843 by the subject's father and in the ensuing sixty years the name has been one of the honored ones of the city and identified in praiseworthy fashion with business and municipal life, the attitude of the Rowlands, father and son, to the city, being publie-spirited and altruistic.

Charles P. Rowland was born in Savannah on the 6th of June, 1877, the son of John C. and Mary (Gray) Rowland. The elder gentleman was born in Dutchess county. New York, May 20. 1827. He passed the days of his youth and his early manhood near Rochester, New York, and in 1843 came to Savannah to begin his business life. He embarked in a commercial career. becoming prominent as a cotton warehouseman and shipper. Notwithstanding his northern birth, he readily granted the justice of the southern contention for independence, and as early as January, 1861, enlisted in the Pulaski Guards, with which he served in garrison at Fort Pulaski, In August, 1861. he entered the regular Confederate service as first sergeant of the Washington volunteers, under Capt. John MeMahon, which became a company of the First Regiment of Georgia, commanded by Col. Charles II. Olmstead. In the following winter he was promoted to second lientenant. Lieutenant Rowland was part of the gallant garrison of Fort Pulaski during its bombardment by the Federal fleet and batteries, April 10 and 11, 1862. and which

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Colonel Olmstead was compelled to surrender after all the guns that could be brought to bear on the enemy had been dismounted and the walls of the fort were breached. Following this event Lieutenant Row- land was taken as a prisoner of war by way of Hilton Head and Gov- ernor's Island to Johnson's Island, Ohio, where he was held until the latter part of the sunner of 1862. Then being exchanged he returned to Savannah and rejoined his regiment and was promoted to first lieu- tenant. With this rank he served in Battery Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina, during the great bombardment and assault in July, 1863, and in other operations around Charleston. In the spring of 1864 the regiment joined the Army of Tennessee and Lieutenant Row- land, in command of his company (Company K, First Georgia Regi- ment), participated in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, the battles around Atlanta, Jonesboro, and other engagements of Mereer's Brigade with Hood's Corps in Tennessee. At the last he was a participant in the campaign in the Carolinas and surrendered with the army at Greensboro, North Carolina.

At the close of this worthy and honorable career as a Confederate soldier, John C. Rowland returned to his home in Savannah and re- engaged in business life of the city, in which he remained a potent fac- tor up to the time of his death. He retired from the eotton business in 1880 and thereafter was engaged for the most part in real estate trans- actions, buying and selling his own property for investment, in which business he achieved substantial financial success, becoming one of the wealthy men of the eity. He was one of the first directors and was vice-president of the Savannah Bank & Trust Company. He also served as alderman of the eity of Savannah for one term. His death oceurred on February 1, 1908. He held a place of highest esteem with the people of Savannah, for his usefulness as a eitizen and business man and for his valiant serviee in the supreme struggle between the North and the South, as an upholder of the Confederacy. The subject's mother was born in Savannah and died in this city in 1906. She was the daughter of George S. Gray of this city. In addition to the immediate subject of this review, there was a son and a daughter, namely: Clifford G. and Helen C.

Charles P. Rowland was reared in Savannah and in the city of his birth has spent his entire life with the exeeption of the period of his higher education. He had his first introduction to Minerva in the pub- lic schools of the city and after finishing their curriculum, he entered Bingham Military Institute at Asheville, North Carolina, where he spent four years, and subsequently entered the Georgia Institute of Technology at Atlanta. Ini partnership with his eonsin. John T. Rowland, he be- came established in the real estate and insurance business in Savannah in 1898 and after the retirement of the former, became associated with his brother, C. G. Rowland, and their business is one of the most exten- sive and prosperons in the city. Like his father, Mr. Rowland has been especially successful in the purchase and sale of local real estate for his own investment and he is acknowledged to be one of the best judges of property values in the city.

Mr. Rowland has always been interested in military affairs in Savannah, and for several years he was an active member of the Georgia Hussars, in which historie organization he rose to the rank of first lieutenant. Hle enlisted as a private in the Georgia Hussars on Febru- ary 28, 1898, and receiving various promotions, received the rank above named on October 9, 1905, serving in that capacity until his retirement October 14, 1909. On May 14. 1910, he was appointed on Governor Brown's staff as aide-de-camp with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He

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is a member of the Sons of the Revolution; has taken the Scottish and York degrees in Masonry, and is also a Shriner.

Mr. Rowland was married on the 10th day of July, 1909, the lady to become his wife being Miss Minnie Coney Greenlee, of Asheville, North Carolina. They are prominent in exclusive social circles and maintain one of the attractive and hospitable households of the city.

CHARLES GRANDY BELL. Ranking high among Savannah's active, energetic and progressive citizens, Charles Grandy Bell, of the firm of Butler, Stevens & Company, now of Butler, Stevens & Bell, cotton factors and commission merchants, is widely known as a man of honor and integrity, and as one whose word and ability can always be relied upon in matters of business. A native of Florida, he was born, in 1858, in Madison county, near Greenville, coming from Virginian aneestry.

His father, Charles Grandy Bell, was born and reared in Virginia, being deseended from the Norfolk family of that name. Loeating in Florida in the forties, he was there a resident until his death, which occurred just prior to the outbreak of the Civil war, in which two of his uncles served, being soldiers in the Confederate army. He married Nancy Walker, who was born in Florida, where her parents settled on leaving South Carolina, their native state.

Brought up in Jefferson county, Florida, Charles Grandy Bell acquired his preliminary education in the schools of that county, after which he completed a course of study at Eastman's Business College, in Poughkeepsie, New York, being there graduated with the class of 1879. Following his graduation, he spent a year and a half in New York City, being employed in one of the largest dry goods establishments of that place, that of Lord & Taylor. Coming from there to Savan- nah, Georgia, in 1881, Mr. Bell has since made this city his home. In 1883 he became associated with the eotton industry of the South, in the year 1886 entering the employ of Butler & Stevens as bookkeeper and cashier. Displaying marked business acumen and judgment in that capacity, he was made a partner in the firm in 1891, whose members, Robert M. Butler, Henry D. Stevens, and Charles G. Bell, are of the highest standing in the commercial and financial world. This firm, which deals in cotton productions, is one of the largest and wealthiest firms of cotton factors and dealers in the South, its business being ex- tensive and lucrative.

Prominently identified with many of the leading business organiza- tions of the eity, Mr. Bell is vice-president of the Savannah Bank and Trust Company, and is one of the oldest members of the Sinking Fund Commission of Savannah, of which he was for a number of years the secretary. For two terms, ending in 1910, he was president of the Savannalı Cotton Exchange, to which he still belongs. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Independent Presbyterian church, and is president of the Young Men's Christian Association. Socially he is a member of the Oglethorpe Club.

Mr. Bell married, in Savannah, Miss Kate Maxey, who was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but came with her parents to Savannah in 1881. Four children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bell, namely : Anna, Kate, Charles Grandy, third, and Suzanne.

. MARCUS STEPHEN BAKER. One of the most conspienons figures in the affairs of this section of the state is Mareus Stephen Baker, receiver of tax returns of Chatham county. He has held this responsible office since 1901 and is exceedingly popular and efficient. He was previously engaged in mercantile business and in general collecting and real estate.

Marcus I. Baker

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Mr. Baker is a native Georgian, his birth having occurred at Hinesville. Liberty county, September 16, 1849. He is the son of Richard Fuller and Elizabeth G. (Dowsey) Baker. The father was born in Liberty county and died there in 1852, when Mr. Baker was an infant. Richard F. Baker was a son of Stephen Baker, also a life-long citizen of Liberty county. The former, at the age of eighteen, was orderly sergeant of Liberty Independent Troop, one of the oldest military organizations in Georgia. IIe was a planter by occupation. The Baker family, in truth, is one of the oldest in historie Liberty county, having been established there in 1752 by the subject's great-great-grandfather, Ben- jamin Baker, of Dorchester, South Carolina, who settled in Midway, Liberty county, in that year. The great-grandfather, Jolin Baker, who died in 1792, was a member of the committee appointed by the conven- tion at Savannah, Georgia, July 20, 1774, to prepare resolutions expressive of the sentiments and determination of the people of the province in regard to the Boston Port Bill. He was also a member of the provincial congress of Georgia from 1775 to 1777; he was a member of the Georgia council of safety in 1776; he was colonel commanding a regiment of militia of Liberty county from 1775 to 1783; he was wounded in the skirmish at Bulltown Swamp November 19, 1778; he defeated Captain Goldsmith at White House, Georgia, June 28, 1779, and participated in the capture of Augusta, Georgia, in May and June, 1781. He was lieutenant in the colonial wars. It will be seen that few. citizens took a more active and useful part in the patriotic history of that stirring period.

The subject's mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth G. Dowsey, removed to Savannah from Liberty county in 1854 and her demise occurred in this city in 1882. The children of this brave and admirable lady were reared in this city. One son, Richard F., is now a resident of the Forest city, and another, William E. Q. Baker, lives at Atlanta. Another brother, Robert Wilson Baker, was a Confederate soldier and was killed in the second day's fighting in the battle of Chickamauga. Another brother, M. M. Baker, served in the army of the Confederacy throughout the war and died December 23. 1909.

It has been seen that the early childhood of Mr. Baker was passed in Savannah. In 1859, when a lad of ten years. he returned to Liberty county to attend school under the tutelage of Prof. Moses Way at Taylor's creek, Professor Way being a well-known educator of that day. Afterward Mr. Baker studied under the direction of Prof. S. D. Bradwell, at Hinesville. That gentleman was also prominent in the educational world and had served as school commissioner of Georgia. In the first year of the war the subject went to Walthourville to attend school, and in 1863 he returned to his home in Savannah and finished his education in the public schools. The Baker family have for many generations been advocates of good education and have given their sons the best advantages possible, and it was only through the unsettled conditions of the war that Mr. Baker's education was terminated when it was. In 1866 he went to work as clerk in a wholesale grocery house in Savannah and later became outside salesman for a local hardware firm. Still later he engaged successfully in the general collecting and real estate business. In 1900 he was elected to the office of receiver of the tax returns of Chatham county, and assumed the duties of this office on January 1, 1901. He has been elected at each successive biennial election and is now (1913) serving on his seventh consecutive term in this office, which he has filled with remarkable efficiency and to the entire satisfaction of the public.

Mr. Baker holds the welfare of the city closely at heart and his

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influence and support are given to all beneficent measures. He is a member of Trinity Methodist church. He belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution, to which the patriotie services of his forbears make him eligible. Their even earlier patriotic activities entitle him to membership in the Society of the Colonial Wars. Ile stands high in Masonry, belonging to Landrum Lodge, No. 48. F. & A. M. : to Palestine Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templars; Alee Temple. A. A. O. N. M. S., of Savannah : Savannah Lodge, No. 183, B. P. O. Elks; Calanthe Lodge, No. 28, Knights of Pythias.

On the 5th day of January, 1874. Mr. Baker was married in Savannah, his chosen lady being Miss Fanny A. Krenson, a daughter of this city. Mrs. Baker's parents were Frederick and Sarah E. (Dean) Krenson, the latter descended from the Scoteh family of MacDonalds, who were among the early settlers of MeIntosh county, Georgia. To Mr. and Mrs. Baker have been born three children. Louise Elizabeth is the wife of Capt. Henry Blun, ex-postmaster of Savannah, and president of the Germania Bank: Laura Speneer is the wife of Irvin S. Cobb, formerly of Paducah, Kentucky, now of New York City, the famous feature writer and humorist for the New York Sun. New York World, Saturday Evening Post and various other publications; the third child, Marcus Stephen Baker, Jr., is postmaster at Savannah and one of the city's best known young citizens.

The Bakers are loyal Georgians and are prominent in a praise- worthy manner in the many-sided life of the city, enjoying general confidenee and respect in a community of whose best traits they are typical.

RUFUS E. LESTER. Especially fortunate in the eminenee and char- acter of her citizens. it may be truly said that Savannah has no more honored name enrolled upon her list of representative citizens than that of the late Rufus E. Lester, who won distinetion as a lawyer, and as a congressman, a brilliant and distinguished record. He was born in Burke county, Georgia. December 12, 1837, and died in Washington, District of Columbia. June 16, 1906.

Colonel Lester, as he was familiarly known, received his edueation principally in Mereer University, at Maeon, Georgia, being there gradu- ated in the twentieth year of his age. Subsequently studying law in Savannah, he was admitted to the bar in 1858, and in 1859 began the praetiee of his profession in that city. which continued to be his home as long as he lived.

Enlisting in the Confederate army in the spring of 1861, he remained in serviee throughout the war, going from Savannah to the front as an adjutant in the Twenty-fifth Georgia Regiment. which was first en- camped in the vicinity of Savannah, near Tybee and Avondale. Going with his command from there to Mississippi. the colonel took part in the campaign of that state. afterwards meeting the enemy at the battle of Chickamauga, where he had two horses shot from under him, and was himself slightly wounded. Following this engagement. he was very ill for eighteen months. and remained in such poor health that he was assigned to the duty of inspector general under General Mackal. at Macon, Georgia, where he was stationed when the war closed. He had attained the rank of captain while in service, but after the war was always known as Colonel Lester. The colonel made a splendid record as a soldier, and in the book which he published Gen. N. B. Forrest commended Colonel Lester for extraordinary bravery and gallantry.

Resuming the practice of his profession in Savannah after the close of the conflict. Colonel Lester became active in public affairs, and in

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1870 was elected to the state senate, representing the first senatorial dis- triet. Through successive re-elections, he continued a member of that body until 1879, during the last three years of that time serving as its president. From 1883 until 1888 he rendered excellent service as mayor of Savannah. In 1888 he had the honor of being elected to congress as a representative from the first congressional district of Georgia, which comprised ten counties. namely: Burke, Bulloch, Bryan, Chatham. Emanuel, Effingham, Liberty. MeIntosh, Sereven, and Tattnall. His services as congressman gave such general satisfaction that he was con- tinuously re-elected every succeeding two years up to and including 1906, the year of his death.

Colonel Lester won a splendid record as congressman, and rendered services of great usefulness to his district in particular, and to the entire country in general. Honored by an appointment during his first year in congress npon the important rivers and harbors committee, he remained a member of that committee during his entire period of ser- vice, that comprising his most prominent and valued work. It was through the efforts of the colonel that Savannah received its continuous appropriation for harbor improvements, and this has proved the lead- ing factor in the modern growth and development of the city. Ile also obtained the appropriation for the beautiful marble Federal building in which Savannah's postoffice is housed, and was likewise instrumental in having the Marine Hospital erected in Savannah, and in having the revenue cutter "Yamacraw" assigned for permanent duty in Savan- nah harbor.

Greatly beloved by his home people throughout his district, Colonel Lester was also held in the highest esteem and affection by the leading representatives of every section of the Union in the national congress. He was of large influence in that august body, and in the social and political affairs of Washington achieved, early in his career, a place of the highest rank. In the special proceedings in the house and senate on June 18, 1906, held in commemoration of Colonel Lester, memorial addresses were delivered by more than a score of the most prominent congressmen and senators, all eulogizing him in the most glowing terms. Within the limits of this sketch it would be difficult to condense those . fine addresses, and, indeed, it mayhap will be more appropriate to here quote some excerpts from a tribute paid him by one of his own intimate friends and fellow citizens, Judge Samuel B. Adams, of Savannah, who said in part :

"Rufus E. Lester was admitted to the bar of Savannah when twenty- one years of age, and remained a member until his death. His pro- fessional career was interrupted by the war between the states, in which he was a Confederate soldier of gallantry and devotion from the begin- ning to the end of the struggle. He resumed his practice after the cessation of hostilities, and at onee took a front rank at the bar which had more than its share of able and successful practitioners. Not- withstanding the faet he was often called into publie service, he was always a lawyer, loving his profession and preferring its duties to those of office.

"I was a member of the bar with Colonel Lester for more than thirty years and had abundant opportunity of learning his power as a lawyer at our bar, and certainly no other lawyer lost fewer cases. Ile had a legal mind, one that saw quickly the strong points of his case. separated without delay the weak points, and pressed home those most worthy of consideration. Before a jury, if, under the charge. it was at liberty to find with him, he was almost invincible. He knew the men. knew how to talk with them, possessed their confidence, which he never

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abnsed, and, generally, secured their verdict. Ile was also strong before judges in purely legal arguments. When Mr. Lester urged a conten- tion, judges knew he did it sincerely, and his ability and standing secured for its consideration an attentive and respectful hearing. I have often heard him make legal arguments of a high order of merit.

"He always practiced and illustrated the best ethies of an honorable profession, scorning always the arts and tricks of the shyster and petti- fogger. While he struck hard blows in the courtroom and was a 'foeman worthy of any man's steel,' his blows were fair. never un- worthy or unprofessional. His brethren of the bar trusted him abso- lutely without fear or misgivings, and rested securely upon any agree- ment that he would make. whether binding under the rules of the court or not. I knew him well, was honored with his friendship, and my deliberate conviction is that I never met a more honorable or trust- worthy lawyer, or man, and a comparatively few who equaled him in his absolute sineerity, frankness and manliness.

"Mr. Lester was elected mayor of Savannah for three successive terms, and brought to the discharge of his duties the same efficiency and fidelity which distinguished him in all the relations of life. He was emphatically the mayor. His influence on his board was potential. This was due to his positive and virile eharaeter and the complete eon- fidenee reposed in his judgment and sineerity. He possessed to an extraordinary extent the elements of leadership, and these elements were manifest in the administration of the municipal government.

"An incident in his career as mayor illustrates the man and the offieer. Some negroes were incareerated charged with the murder for robbery of a family of white people living on the outskirts of the city. Feeling ran high. There was talk of lynehing, and we were threatened with this unspeakable disgrace. A crowd gathered at the jail for the pur- pose of lynching. Mr. Lester was notified. He went to the jail imine- diately, personally took charge of the police present, mounted the steps, pointed out to the crowd the 'dead line' in front of the steps, and warned them that if a single member of the mob crossed that line he would order the police to shoot, and to shoot to kill. The crowd knew · that he meant what he said, was utterly fearless, and would die before he would permit a lynehing. The crowd quietly dispersing, it was not necessary to injure anyone, and Savannah's record remained unstained by that crime."

Perhaps Colonel Lester's most notable characteristic was his over- flowing kindness and charity toward every human being, however poor or humble, with whom he came in contact. It was this trait that rounded out a beautiful character. He frequently did acts of thoughtful kind- ness, and did them so unobtrusively that they were never known to others, not even by his own family. It seemed perfectly natural for him to be a good and true man.

Colonel Lester married, in 1859, in Savannah, Miss Laura E. Hines, who was born in Burke county, which was likewise the birthplace of her father, JJames J. Hines, who was for many years a prominent business man of Savannah, where she was reared and educated. Mrs. Lester's mother, whose maiden name was Georgia Bird, was born in Liberty county, Georgia.

CHARLES C. LEBEY. Well and favorably known in connection with the cotton trade of Savannah, where he has charge of the local cotton of the Seaboard Air Line, Charles C. Lebey connts among his ancestors some of the more noteworthy families of the South. He was born in

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Savannah, in 1868, this city having also been the birthplace of his father, David Christian Lebey, and of his grandfather, Christian David Lebey.

Andrew Lebey, the great-grandfather of Charles C. Lebey, was one of six brothers, natives of France, who came with Count d'Estaing's fleet from that country to assist the Continental army in its efforts to take Savannah from the British, whose forces had occupied the city almost from the beginning of the Revolution, the fleet making its appear- ance off the coast of Georgia in September, 1779. The Continentals. aided by Count d'Estaing's men, made an heroic and determined, but unsuccessful, assault on the British at Springfield Redoubt, on the west- ern edge of Savannah. In the confliet that ensued, five of the Lebey brothers, Jerome, Louis, Philip, Augustine and John, were killed, while Andrew, the only surviving brother, was himself badly crippled. Re- maining in this country after the war was over, Andrew Lebey settled on a farm in Ebenezer, Georgia, but afterwards returned to Savannah, where he spent the later years of his life. He married a widow, Mrs. Mary (Hines) Anderson.

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A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 13

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936 Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1208

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1208