USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II > Part 18
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He owned and resided in a beautiful home, "Melrose," on LaRoche avenue, and the family were prominent in the social life, of the eity. He was a prominent member of the Georgia and the American Medical Associations and he continued actively in the work of his profession in Savannah until 1904, when he retired, his demise oceurring some six years later, as recorded above,
Dr. Raymond B. Harris was a man of great ability and of striking individuality. He was of that type of man who, without effort, makes friends everywhere. In his size, physical make-up, mental qualities and in everything that goes to make a big, strong, broad-minded man of the widest sympathies. Dr. Harris was gifted by nature. Everywhere he inspired confidence, admiration and affection. During his life he was honored by many positions of trust ; he served one year as chief surgeon of the United Confederate Veterans, by election at the annual reunion
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at New Orleans, and served in this position during the same year that Gen. Clement A. Evans was commander-in-chief. He had two brothers who, also were physicians,-Dr. Stephen Harris and Dr. Columbus Har- ris, the former dying from yellow fever contracted in the great epidemic in Savannah in 1859 and the latter's death occurring from the same cause in the epidemic of 1876.
Dr. Harris, in identifying himself with the profession to which he is an ornament. is but following in the footsteps of his forbears, and although his career has as yet been brief, he gives promise of sharing their distinction. He received his professional training in the Uni- versity of Maryland, in Baltimore, and graduated with the class of 1903. He subsequently spent one year in the University of Maryland hospital and practiced for over a year in Baltimore. At his father's request he came back to Savannah in 1907, and began the practice of medicine in this city, having a general practice in medicine and surgery and holding the office of city physician. He is a member of all those organizations having as their object the advancement and unification of the profession, namely: The Chatham County, Georgia State and American Medical Associations, and he is the physician and surgeon for the Savannah base ball club of the South Atlantic League.
Dr. Harris was married on the 6th day of January, 1910, the young woman to become his wife being Miss Flora Middlebrooks, a daughter of Thomas E. Middlebrooks, of Oconee county, Georgia.
WILLIAM B. STILLWELL. A native son of Georgia, and a member of a distinguished Southern family, members of which have won eminence in the various walks of life, William B. Stillwell, son of Savannah, is a worthy representative of the best type of American citizenship, and dur- ing a long and honorable career has been identified with business enter- prises of wide scope and importance, and has lent his influence to various movements in civic and social life. A brief outline of Mr. Stillwell's ancestry seems appropriate in a history of this nature. Nicholas Still- well, the first of the name to land in America, brought to the aid of the infant colonies an iron will and mighty arm, and his descendants, settling North, South, East and West, have won enviable distinction in the pur- suits of peace as well as in the art of war, many today occupying promi- nent positions in the army, in the national guard, and in the great enterprises and industries of the nation.
In direct line of descent from Nicholas Stillwell, his grandson, Maj. Thomas Stillwell. and great-grandson, John Stillwell, who won distinc- tion during the Revolution, came Charles H. Stillwell, who, in addition to the spirit of his forefathers. was fortunate enough to inherit from his mother, a Huguenot of the South Carolina Colony, the spirit which animated the French martyrs. To him. although always beset by diffi- culties and adversity and twice made a cripple, the last time for life, the state of Georgia is indebted for nine sons and one daughter, who have worthily illustrated in their various vocations the indomitable energy, peerless courage and Christian faith which characterized their sire.
William Stillwell. one of the sons thus endowed, though starting with- out a dollar, amid confusion which follows in the wake of civil strife, has won both means and position even in a business which requires as mneh capital and individual effort for its successful prosecution as the lumber trade. He was born in Rome, Georgia, March 11. 1851, and his name is not quite half way down the official register of family births which must have overflowed the record pages in the old family Bible, for there were sixteen children. At the close of the war between the states, ten of these were living. nine boys and one girl, four boys older than William having seen service under the Confederate Hag.
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The family, which had during the war period "refugeed" pretty much all over the state. moved back to Rome at the close of hostilities, and William received his first experience in sawmill operations in an upright sawmill operated by his father, whom he assisted as yard man and general utility man. In February, 1866, he went into the employ of Millen & Wadley, at Savannah, Georgia, which firm afterward became Millen, Wadley & Company, by the admission of D. C. Bacon as junior partner. In 1876 Messrs. Bacon and Stillwell formed the firm of D. C. Bacon & Company, Mr. II. P. Smart being afterward admitted to this firm. The firm formed and operated a number of other companies, including the Vale Royal Manufacturing Company, the Atlanta Lum- ber Company, the Central Georgia Lumber Company. Sereven County Lumber Company, and Amoskeag Lumber Company, Mr. Stillwell being for several years president of the last named company, as well as an officer in all of the others.
Mr. Stillwell was one of the organizers of the Savannah Board of Trade in 1883, and for two years was its vice-president, and later for two years its president; he was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce at its inception. He was one of the organizers and a mem- ber of the first board of directors of the Citizens' Bank, which. being merged with the Southern Bank in 1906, became the Citizens and Sonth- ern Bank. Mr. Stillwell was one of the promoters in the building of the South Bound Railroad and a director of the construction company which built it.
In 1887 the firm of D. C. Bacon & Company was dissolved and the firm of Stillwell, Millen & Company was established. with headquarters at Savannah ; and L. R. Millen & Company of New York City. consist- ing of William B. Stillwell, Loring R. Millen and L. Johnson; R. H. and W. R. Bewick being admitted several years later. The firm owned and operated the Sereven County Lumber Company, the Central Georgia Lumber Company and the Augusta Lumber Company, and also built and operated the Waycross Air Line Railroad and the Millen & Southern Railroad. In all of these companies Mr. Stillwell held official positions and was president of the Waycross Lumber Company.
In 1895 the lumber business of Stillwell, Millen & Company, L. R. Millen & Company. MeDonough & Company, the James K. Clarke Lum- ber Company, Henry P. Talmadge and C. C. Sonthard, was consolidated into the Southern Pine Company of Georgia, and Mr. Stillwell became secretary and treasurer of the company, which position he has held continously since that time. Besides the prominent part taken by Mr. Stillwell in the city and state civie and business organizations, he sug- gested and was the main factor. in the formation of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, of which he is vice-president. By means of his position as a director in the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, and his connection for years and finally serving as the highest official of the National Hoo Hoo organization, Mr. Stillwell has a wide range of influential friends and acquaintances who have served him and the city in good stead when he has been called npon to represent Savannah and work for her interests. He took a prominent part in the seenring of the government appropriation which gave deep water to Savannah- the city's greatest asset.
Mr. Stillwell has also been prominently connected with the military, fraternal and social organizations of the city; in fact in all the com- mendable activities and enterprises of Savannah he has given freely of his time and mmch unselfish personal service. He has always been actively at work for Savannah and South Georgia : he is really one man who seems to think of himself last of all. He is a member of the Baptist
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church and belongs to many social and fraternal orders, among which are the Elks, Masons and the higher degrees of the latter order, being a Knight Templar and a Shriner. He served for twenty years as a member of the historic Chatham artillery, and is now an honorary member of the corps, is also a life member of the Savannah Volunteer Guards and a pay member of the Savannah Cadets.
In 1875, Mr. Stillwell was united in marriage to Miss Mary Reily Royal, of the well known Carolina family of that name. They have three daughters, as follows: Edith, now Mrs. W. F. Train; Mamie R., now Mrs. James Tift Mann, and Laleah P .; and three sons: William II., Herbert L. and Walter B. Stillwell.
JAMES G. THOMAS, M. D. For many years one of the more promi- nent and able physicians of Savannah, the late James G. Thomas, M. D., acquired distinction not only for his superior professional knowledge and skill, but for his publie-spirited. utilitarian and philanthropie bene- factions. He was born June 24, 1835, in Bloomfield, Kentucky, and was there reared. acquiring a part of his early education in a monas- tery near that town. Beginning the study of medicine in Louisville, Kentucky. in the school of which the late Samuel D. Gross was the head, he later matrienlated in the medical department of the University of the City of New York. being there graduated with the class of. 1856.
Dr. Thomas began the practice of his profession at Bloomfield, Kentucky, his birthplace, but subsequently went to Mississippi, loeating near Sardis, where he remained until the outbreak of the Civil war. Entering then the Confederate army as a surgeon, his duties in that capacity brought him to Savannah, Georgia, and here he continued in service until the occupation of the city by Sherman's army, when he left Savannah with the evacuating forces, and was theneeforward sta- tioned in the Carolinas until the close of the confliet.
Returning to Savannah in 1865, Dr. Thomas resumed his labors as a physician and surgeon, attaining in due course of time the highest rank in his profession, and being rewarded by a very large general practice. An industrious worker and a deep student. the doctor kept pace with the latest discoveries in medical science, and had the distinc- tion of being the very first physician in Georgia to make use of the thermometer in fever cases. He was especially active in promoting public hygiene, sanitation and drainage, and the health of the com- munity. Vigilant and self-sacrificing in his services during the yellow fever epidemic of 1876. he contracted the disease himself just as the epidemie was nearing its close.
In 1875 and 1876 Dr. Thomas served through the sessions of the Georgia legislature, this apparent divergence from the line of his chosen voeation having been made by him in obedience to a sense of public duty, and in compliance with the earnest solicitations of emi- nent citizens, who desired to send to the legislature a public-spirited physician who would take the lead in procuring the enaetment of laws relating to hygiene. Ile took an important part in the preparation and passage, in the session of 1875. of the "Act to create a state board of health for the protection of life and health, and to prevent the spread of disease in Georgia." A measure which the doctor there introduced for adopting a system of compiling and recording vital statistics was passed, but through laek of appropriation was never carried into effect.
On December 14, 1881. a Citizens' Sanitary Association, looking to the improvement of public health through the united efforts of private individuals, was organized in Savannah, and Dr. Thomas, who had
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strongly urged its creation, was eleeted its first president, and held the position until his death. He was one of the originators of the interna- tional medieal congress, and was one of the two physicians appointed from the South to attend the conference held in Washington, District of Columbia, in 1884. It was while attending this conference in Wash- ington, that the sudden death of Dr. Thomas ocenrred. December 6, 1884. The passing away of Dr. Thomas. just in the midst of a busy and useful life, was an event of universal regret and mourning in Savannah, his family and friends being deprived of a grand nature, while the city was bereft of a publie benefactor.
Dr. Thomas married, in 1865, in Savannah, Margaret Owens, a daughter of George W. and Sarah ( Wallace) Owens. both representa- tives of old and honored Savannah families. Her father, a native of Savannah, was a son of Owen Owens, who emigrated from Wales to Savannah soon after the elose of the Revolutionary war. Her mother, Sarah Wallaee, was a daughter of John and Mary ( Anderson) Wallace, the said John Wallace, a native of Scotland, having served as British eonsul in Savannah years ago, while the Andersons have lived in the city sinee 1763.
Mrs. Thomas has two daughters, namely: Miss Mary B. Thomas and Miss Margaret G. Thomas.
Dr. Thomas was for some time a prominent member of the American Health Association, and of the National Board of Health. He was ever among the foremost in the establishment of philanthropical move- ments, being always willing to do the work of the humanitarian, and to turn aside even from the most congenial oceupations of home life, and the routine of daily practice, to perform a worthy act of publie duty, being not only a physician, but a patriot.
CHARLES H. DORSETT, engaged in the real estate and auetion busi- ness and president of the Peoples' Savings & Loan Company, is a man whose life has been of unceasing activity and perseverance and the systematie and honorable methods which he has followed have won him the unbounded confidenee of his fellow eitizens in Savannah. In 1876 he became established in his present business, which he has ever since condueted. This is one of the oldest established institutions of its kind in Savannah. Among his other distinctions. Mr. Dorsett is a gallant ex-soldier, and he finds no small amount of pleasure and profit in renew- ing the old eomradeship with those who carried arms with him in the troublous days of the '60s.
Mr. Dorsett is a native son of the city and one of those who have paid it the greatest compliment within their power by electing to remain permanently within its borders. He is the son of John and Sarah R. (Fletcher) Dorsett. His father was born in New York City and eame to Savannah as early as 1839. He was a ship builder by occupation and had a large shipyard on the Savannah river. At the age of eleven months the subject had the misfortune to lose his father, but his mother survived her husband for many years. her summons to the Great Beyond occurring in 1893. Through his mother, Mr. Dor- sett comes of an older Southern family: this admirable lady was born in Georgia and her parents were natives of South Carolina.
Young Charles was reared in Savannah and in its schools received his education. At the outbreak of the war between the states he was only in his teens, but his heart was with the cause of the South, and he believed in the supreme right of the states to sever their connection with the national government. As soon as possible he enlisted and
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during the latter part of the war was a member of Shellman's battalion, which was in service in Savannah and vieinity. For some years after the affair at Appomattox he was engaged in various occupations, but in 1876, as previously mentioned. he inangurated his present real estate and auetion business. Besides the ageney business Mr. Dorsett is the owner of substantial property interests in Savannah and for more than twenty years he has been president of the Peoples' Savings & Loan Society, which makes loans on real estate and is well and favorably known to business men of the Forest city.
Mr. Dorsett is of sufficient social proclivity to find pleasure in his fraternal relations, and he enjoys membership in DeKalb lodge of Odd Fellows and of Landrum lodge of Masons. IIe was for one term a mem- ber of the board of county commissioners of Chatham county. He is intelligent and progressive and has the respect of the community in which he is so well known and in which his interests have always been centered.
Mr. Dorsett laid the foundations of a happy married life by his union in the year 1869, to Miss Josephine Franees Gross, of this city, where their nuptials were celebrated. They have one daughter, Mrs. J. E. D. Baeon, of Savannah.
MONGIN BAKER NICHOLS, auditor of traffic with the Central of Georgia Railway Company, at Savannah, Georgia, has been a resident of this eity since his birth. In his association with business life he has been connected with but the one company with which he now is and he has filled numerous positions in the years that have intervened sinee he first took service with this company in 1892, beginning in the more humble capacity of stenographer and advaneing constantly until he was promoted in 1907 to his present position.
Born in Savannah in 1874, Mongin Baker Niehols is the son of George Nicoll and Minnie ( Mongin) Nichols. The father was born in Savannah and here lived all his life. He was identified with the print- ing and stationery business for a long period of years. He retired from active business in 1898. and died on April 13, 1905. Mr. Niehols was a member of the board of aldermen of Savannah on various occa- sions, serving several years in that eapacity. Left an orphan at an early age, he made the best of every opportunity that presented itself at his door. Ile was the son of Abram Nichols, a native of New Jersey, and who in early life came to the southland and settled in Savannah. Abram Nichols was the first port warden of Savannah, was a member of the first board of fire commissioners, and was the commander of a mos- unito fleet. fitted out in Savannah, and sent to Tybee island during the War of 1812 to protect Savannah from an invasion by the British fleet. He was the father of two sons and one daughter, George Nicoll Nichols, being the eldest son and the younger Edward Tattnall Nichols, who died in 1888, having achieved the rank of rear admiral of the United States navy.
The wife of George Nicoll Nichols and the mother of Mongin Baker Nichols of this review. was born in South Carolina, of Huguenot ances- try. and is still living in Savannah. Her family removed to Savannah in her early life and she was married to Mr. Nichols in 1872. Iler mother was Eliza ( Maner) Mongin, the daughter of Ruth ( Stafford) Maner, who was the danghter of Col. William Stafford. the great- great-grandfather of the subject of this review. William Stafford was lieutenant colonel of a regiment of South Carolina troops in the War of the Revolution, in command at Black Swamp, near the Savannah
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river. The Mongin family, on the paternal side, is related in earlier generations to several famous characters, among them being Jonathan Edwards, an early president of Princeton University, and Phillipo Martin Angelo, an Italian refugee, who had been a soldier in the Vatican Guards. Mongin Baker Nichols is one of the five children of his parents. The others are: William N .; Fenwick T .; Oliver S .; E. MeIntyre, and Minnie S. Nichols.
Mongin Baker Nichols was reared in Savannah and has. lived in this city all his life. He was educated in private schools of the city, and in the old Savannah Academy conducted by Capt. John Taliaferro. After concluding his studies in the best private schools which the city afforded, young Nichols decided upon a business course for himself, and entered a business college, where he completed a thorough course in business training. His first position was in the capacity of stenogra- pher in the office of the comptroller of the Central of Georgia Railway in 1892. In 1899 he was appointed station accountant, which position he occupied until 1907, in that year being promoted to his present posi- tion. IIe occupies the sanie position with the Ocean Steamship Com- pany.
Mr. Nichols was for some years an active member of Company A, Savannah Volunteer Guards, enlisting as a private, and served as cor- poral, sergeant, and seeond lieutenant. He is a member of the Savannahı Golf Club, Savannah Yacht Club, Business, Professional and Transportation Club, Guards Club, and of the Society of Colonial Wars, and is the historian of the Georgia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Since February, 1908, he has been secretary of the South- eastern Accounting Conference, which is composed of the accounting officers of common carriers in the territory south of the Ohio and Poto- mac rivers and east of the Mississippi river. His religious convictions have brought about his membership with the Baptist church.
JOHN HARDY PURVIS. The real estate and collection business of Savannah, Georgia, includes as one of its active, hustling factors the young man whose name introduces this review. John Hardy Purvis.
Mr. Purvis is of southern birth and parentage. He was born in Webster eounty, Georgia, in 1874, son of Edward B. and Welthea Evelyn (Watson) Purvis, both deceased. Edward B. Purvis, also a native of Webster county, was a Confederate soldier in the war between the states, and was in active service up to and including the battle of Gettys- burg, where he was severely wounded, from which he never entirely recovered. His father, John Purvis, was an Englishman who, when a small boy, had come with his parents and several brothers to America. their settlement being in Virginia. Soon after he was grown, John Purvis came to Georgia and took up his residence in Webster county. Here he married Mrs. Mary Ann Askew. She had children by her first husband and also by Mr. Purvis, and altogether the Askews and the Purvises formed a large family, many of whom are still living in Web- ster county and in that section of southern Georgia. Welthea Evelyn ( Watson) Purvis, the mother of John II .. was born in North Carolina, and was a daughter of Hardy Watson of Raleigh, that state.
John Hardy Purvis passed the early years of his boyhood in his native county, attending school there and later in Savannah, to which city he came in 1885, and where he has since lived. About 1897 he engaged in the real-estate and collection business, which he has continued successfully up to the present time, his office being at 301 East Liberty street.
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Politically, Mr. Purvis is a Republican. He takes an active part in local and state polities ; is thoroughly posted on the issues of the day, and in party councils exerts an influence that is felt for good.
On November 13, 1906 Mr. Purvis was married to Mrs. Honora O'Keefe, daughter of Mrs. Margaret Garrity, of Savannah, Georgia.
WILLIAM F. BRUNNER, M. D. Other men's services to the people and state can be measured by definite deeds, by dangers averted, by legisla- tion secured, by institutions built, by commerce promoted. The work of a doctor is entirely estranged from these lines of enterprise, yet with- out his capable, health-giving assistance all other accomplishments would count for naught. Man's greatest prize on earth is physical health and vigor. Nothing deteriorates mental activity as quickly as prolonged sickness-hence the broad field for human helpfulness afforded in the medical profession. The successful doetor requires something more than mere technical training-he must be a man of broad human sym- pathy and genial kindliness, capable of inspiring hope and faith in the heart of his patient. Such a man is Dr. William F. Brunner, city health officer of Savanah, whose successful career has been due to the pos- session of innate talent and acquired ability along the line of one of the most important professions to which a man may devote his energies.
Dr. Brunner was born in Savannah in 1858, the son of C. W. and Frances (Haupt) Brunner, both of whom are now deceased. They were both natives of South Carolina, the father's birthplace having been Beaufort. He was a merchant by occupation and located in Savannah previous to the inception of the Civil war, subsequently taking an active part in the many-sided life of the municipality and enjoying general respect.
Dr. Brunner received an excellent education in private schools in this city and as a student in Locust Dale Academy, Madison county, Virginia. He studied medicine in the medical department of the Uni- versity of Georgia, from which he was graduated with the class of 1877 and then spent the following year in post-graduate work in the medical department of the University of the City of New York. At that time (1878), yellow fever was epidemic in New Orleans, Memphis, Vicksburg, and other seetions of the lower Mississippi valley and Dr. Brunner immediately after discontinuing his studies in New York went to the heart of the yellow fever district and offered his services to the Howard Association. He was immune, having had yellow fever in the Savannah epidemie of 1876. He began active work in Vicksburg, but a short time later went to the town of Lake, Mississippi, and took vigor- ous charge of the situation there, which was very serious, almost every person, including ministers, who was able to travel, having deserted the stricken town. He remained at Lake with a staff of nurses under his charge, doing all he could to alleviate the suffering, curing all cases possible and preventing the spread of the fever as far as possibly conld be done with the means at hand and the panicky state of the populace. His work in this epidemie attracted the attention of the United States health officials, and Dr. Brunner was given a position on the Marine Hospital service of the United States, on the South Atlantic Coast, being engaged in the maritime quarantine service at that time for about four and a half years.
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