USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II > Part 29
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The son, Nicholas Peter, who was born in the year 1869, was edueated in the primary schools of Savannah. His first position as a wage earner was as a messenger for the Western Union Telegraph Company in Savannah, and after a few years. when he had gained in knowledge and wisdom, he beeame identified with the real estate business and was thus oeeupied for a number of years. In January, 1907, Mr. Corish was elected to the office of clerk of the eity eouneil, coming into the offiee with the administration of George W. Tiedeman, mayor. He was re-elected in January, 1909, and again. succeeded himself in the office in January, 1911. Mr. Corish carried on the duties of his office with eonspieuons efficiency and his management of this important depart- ment of the mmicipal government has met with the endorsement of all elasses, as was loudly attested by his third consecutive election to the offiee.
Mr. Corish enlisted as a private in his father's old company. the Irish Jasper Greens, and after serving for some time as a private was Vol. II-13
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promoted from the ranks to the position of quarter-master-sergeant of the First Regiment of Infantry, National Guard of Georgia, under Colonel Mercer. He is a member of the Catholic church and is affil- iated with the local lodge of the Knights of Columbus, of which he was financial secretary for a number of years. In the fall of 1911 Mr. Corish was elected president of the South Atlantic League of base ball clubs, composed of six teams, including Savannah.
Mr. Corish married Miss Mary Ellen Reynolds, daughter of Judge Samuel Reynolds on January 21, 1896, who was born and reared in Savannah, and they are the parents of six children: Eleanor Lucile; Mary Josepha; Julian Francis; Nicholas Peter, Jr .; Gertrude Rey- nolds and John Herbert, Julian Franeis and Nicholas Peter, Jr., are twins.
ROBERT H. KNOX. Among the many progressive men who are mak- ing the city of Savannah, Georgia, a modern and up-to-date business center Robert H. Knox holds a prominent place. He belongs to that latest type of business men which believes a man should interest him- self in affairs other than those pertaining to his own business in order to broaden his outlook and fit him for whatever responsibilities it may fall to his lot to shoulder. Therefore Mr. Knox has always taken a keen interest in politics, and before coming to Savannah was mayor of Darien, Georgia. His ability as a business man is unquestioned for he has attained his present high position by slow degrees, achieving success not through the fortunes of environment and good luck but by hard and conscientious work.
He is a prominent figure in the social world; is a member of the Oglethorpe Club of Savannah, the Savannah Yacht Club, and St. An- drews Society.
For a number of years Mr. Knox was prominently connected with the military organizations of the state. He was captain of the Mc- Intosh Light Dragoons, which afterward became Troop "G," one of the companies of the First Regiment of Cavalry. Resigning this cap- taincy he became a member of the staff of Gov. W. Y. Atkinson, and was also on the staff of Gov. A. D. Candler. He is now on the retired list, holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
Fraternally Mr. Knox confines his interests to that oldest of orders, the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, being an affiliated past mas- ter of Solomon's Lodge, No. 1, the oldest Masonic lodge in the state.
Robert II. Knox was born in Savannah in 1862 while his mother was living temporarily in this city. His parents were Walter and Ellen (Hilton) Knox. His father was born in Charles county, Maryland, where his family had lived for several generations. His mother was born in England and came with her parents to Georgia in 1852. In 1817 his father came to Georgia and located in Wilkes county. Subse- quent to this move the family lived for a time in Houston and Talbot counties in Georgia.
Robert H. Knox lived in the central part of Georgia until he was fourteen years of age when his parents moved to the southern part of the state and settled in Darien, McIntosh county.
On April 21, 1892, he married Miss Eloise M. Bennett, who was born in Walterboro, South Carolina. They have five children, namely : Eloise Bennett, Valencia Fraysse, Ellen Hilton, Robert Hilton and Janet Elizabeth.
Mr. Knox became connected with the lumber business of Hilton and Foster at the age of fifteen, and since that time has been associated more or less prominently with the lumber industries of the state. The
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Hilton sawmill business was originally started at Darien before the war, having been founded by Mr. Knox's grandfather, Thomas Hilton, who took into partnership his two sons, Thomas and Joseph Hilton, under the firm name of Thomas Hilton & Sons.
After the war when Thomas Hilton. Sr., retired from the business James L. Foster entered the firm which then became known as Hilton & Foster. Subsequently the business of this firm and that of Hilton, Foster & Gilson, and also that of R. Lachlison & Son, were merged into the Hilton Timber and Lumber Company. The new company then owned and operated four lumber mills.
In 1889 the lumber business of Norman W. Dodge, who owned two mills on St. Simon's island, was consolidated with the Hilton inter- ests, and the corporation then became known as Hilton & Dodge Lumber Company. At the same time a mill owned by Hilton & Foster on the Satilla river was taken in. Later the Altamalia mills near Bruns- wick were bought.
In 1901 the Hilton & Dodge Lumber Company purchased the mill of the Vale Royal Manufacturing Company in Savannah, and in 1906 came into control of the Mill Haven Company. In addition to these two mills the company at that time owned and operated four other plants, namely : a large band mill at Belfast, Georgia ; a mill at Darien; one near Brunswick, and another on the Satilla river. The general headquarters of the company have been in Savannah since 1905, at which time Mr. Knox moved to Savannah.
In the fall of 1911 all of the interests of the company were con- solidated with the Paschall and Gresham interests under the name of . The Hilton-Dodge Lumber Company with a capital stock of $7,500,000. A large amount of capital was added for the purpose of enlarging the business and for carrying on more extensively such subsidiary enter- prises as the handling of timber lands, agricultural lands, general mer- chandise, machinery and live stock.
The Hilton-Dodge Lumber Company, of which Robert H. Knox became president, is one of the largest lumber concerns in the South. It has seven large sawmills in Georgia and South Carolina and branch : offices in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Portland, Maine, and Richmond, Virginia. It has agencies in Atlanta and New Haven, Con- necticut. Also in Liverpool, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Spain, covering eastern Europe, to which it does a large export business. It is now engaged in building a transportation line consisting of a powerful sea-going towboat and eight sea-going barges of large capacity. The tug is one of the largest on the Atlantic coast.
In addition to his connection with the Hilton-Dodge Lumber Com- pany, Mr. Knox is president of the Savannah Timber Company, and is one of the directors of the Savannah Bank and Trust Company. He is also president of the Pulaski Realty Company, owning the Pulaski House property, and is largely interested in other real esate in Savannah.
GEORGE B. DAVIS. Let the man who is discouraged or feels that things are going hard with him and that luck is against him listen to the story of courage and steadfast determination as revealed in the life of George B. Davis, at present one of the ablest attorneys in Dublin, Geor- gia, and county solicitor. The same determination to succeed which showed itself in so marked a degree in his efforts to obtain an educa- tion, has been one of the characteristic elements in his success in the legal profession. Gifted with the power of clear and logical reasoning, and spendthrift as to the time and energy which he expends in working
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up a case to his satisfaction, his success has not been a surprise to those who know him best. IIe has been in practice in Dublin for only eight years and this is scarcely long enough to judge a man, but according to all who know him and particularly according to his brother lawyers, he is a man from whom great things are to be expected, not only in his own profession but in the political field.
George B. Davis was born in Montgomery county, Georgia, on the 19th day of March, 1881. his parents being Isham J. and Delilah Davis. His father was born in 1841 in Montgomery county and his mother was a native of Laurens county, Georgia. His father was a veteran of the Civil war, having served in Company F of the Forty-eighth Georgia Regiment throughout the whole of the war. He was not a wealthy man and was unable to give his son much of an education, partly on account of his poverty and party because of the scarcity of good schools in this section during the years when the lad was growing up. However, George Davis had made up his mind that he would become a lawyer, and when his mind has once been made up to a thing nothing less than a stick of dynamite would turn him from his purpose. Undaunted. therefore, by the discouragement he met from his family, he determined to consult a man whom he considered an authority, and coming to Savannah, Georgia, unfolded his plan to Donald Clark, only to be laughed at for his pains. Mr. Clark told him he could do nothing with- out an education and that the best thing for him to do was to go back to the woods and spend the rest of his life cutting trees and boxing them for turpentine. Indignant at the way his confidence had been received he turned away, saying nothing but making up his mind then and there that he would succeed in spite of everything. He therefore stopped on his way home and purchased a Blackstone and returned to the farm, apparently carrying out Mr. Clark's advice, for he set to work cutting trees the next day. At night after his work was done, however, he spent many a weary hour poring over his law books and by 1903. when he was twenty-two years of age, he had saved up enough money to enter Mercer University, at Macon, Georgia. That he had prepared himself very thoroughly and that he was a really brilliant student, is shown by the fact that he was graduated from this institution in a year. He was admitted to the bar on the 9th of June, 1904, and commenced prac- tice on the 1st of September. 1904, locating at Dublin, Georgia, where he opened an office. His sole capital for this venture was a dollar and a half in cash and one shirt and two collars. He did not starve before he had his first client but he was not far from it. After the struggle of the first few months his ability began to be commented upon and he was presently on the high road to success, he being employed in and con- ducting some of the most important cases, criminal and civil, in that section of the state. He practiced until 1910, when he determined to enter the political field, and as a candidate for county solicitor con- ducted a personal campaign such as had not been seen in years, so ener- getic and earnest was the young politician. He won the coveted honor and is serving at present. his term expiring in 1914.
Mr. Davis is keenly interested in fraternal orders. believing that they are enabled to accomplish a great deal of good. He is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to the blue lodge and to the Eastern Star. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Wood- men of the World. He is also a member of the Baptist church. When we consider that Mr. Davis is of Welsh and Scotch-Irish descent, we can easier understand some of the strong points of his character, for the Scotch-Irish who settled in the "up-country" of the South Atlantie states, were the very bone and sinew of the country. Much of his per-
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sonal popularity is due to his open-hearted generosity, for every one is "kin" to him and he elings to the old sonthern ideals of hospitality. He is of the same family as the Calhouns and the Wests, who came to this country with Oglethorpe and located in the Carolinas in the early days. They have played an important part in the history of the section from colonial days down to the present.
In 1905, on the 29th of November, Mr. Davis was married to Anna Lizzie Bynum, a daughter of John L. Bynum, a prominent citizen of Columbia county, Georgia, well known there in business, as well as in other lines of endeavor. Mrs. Davis is a graduate of La Grange Female College at La Grange, Georgia. One daughter and one son have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Davis, Elizabeth and George Bynum by name, and their births oceurred in Dublin in 1906 and 1912, respectively.
G. L. JOHNSON, general manager of the A. O. Johnson & Company, general mercantile establishment, Vidalia, Georgia, ranks with the rep- resentative citizens of the town.
Mr. Johnson is a native of Georgia. He was born on a farm in Manuel county, September 18. 1876. son of Emanual and Hattie (Oglesby) Johnson, and one of a family of nine children, all living except one. His father still maintains his home at the old farm in Emanuel county. Here G. L. Johnson passed the first twenty years of his life. When he left home to make his own way in the world, he found employment at Millian. Georgia. in the general merchandise store of T. Z. Daniels, where he filled a clerkship for eighteen months. The next eighteen months he was employed in the same capacity by V. L. Bourke, of that place, and then, having clerked for three years, he decided to engage in business on his own account, which he did at Butts, Georgia, and he was in business there five years. Ilis next move was to Vidalia. Here he took charge of the A. O. Jolinson & Company general merehandise store, which was organized in 1907, and which has since conducted a prosperous business.
Mr. Johnson has been twice married. By his first wife, who was Miss Roxie Gay, and whom he married March 8. 1900, he has one child. George Walton. This wife having died, he married Miss Marie IIall, a daughter of L. Hall, a native of this state. The only child by this wife died in infancy.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are members of the Baptist church. IIe has lodge membership in both the I. O. O. F. and the K. of P.
FOY O. POWELL, who is associated with John L. Sneed in the real estate and insurance business at Vidalia, Georgia, is one of the promi- nent and popular young men in both the social and business cireles of the town, where he has resided since December 1, 1909.
Mr. Powell is a native of Alabama. He was born at Eufaula, Jannary 4, 1883, son of F. R. and Carrie May ( Dudley) Powell, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of South Carolina. At Eufaula, Alabama, and at Clayton, Alabama, he received his education, being a graduate of the Clayton schools, with the class of 1903. Following his graduation he was for four years in the employ of his uncle. a turni- ture dealer at Enfanla. The next three years he was in the fire insurance business, for himself. and then he came from Enfanla to Vidalia and associated himself with Mr. Sneed, his present partner, with whom he is successfully engaged in the real estate, loan and insurance business.
Mr. Powell is a Knight of Pythias and a Methodist, and. like his partner, he is as yet unmarried.
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JOHN L. SNEED. Vidalia, Georgia. ineludes among its enterprising, progressive element, a real estate and insurance firm whose members. John L. Sneed and Foy O. Powell, rank high as leading, up-to-date young men, prominent and active in business affairs and popular in the social circles of the town.
While Mr. Powell, as already stated in a personal mention of him on another page of this work, is a native of Georgia. Mr. Sneed hails from Virginia. It was at Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1879, that John L. Sneed was born, one of a family of ten children, all still living, of J. L. and Josephine A. (Moore) Sneed, both natives of the "Old Domin- ion." He received his education in the Virginia Military Institute and at the George Washington University, Washington, D. C., of which latter institution he is a graduate with the class of 1898, and he is a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity. After his graduation he was employed in the engineering department of the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail- road, and by the government as sanitary engineer, later, also, as engi- neer on the Norfolk-Southern. the Carolina, Clinehfield & Ohio, and the Georgia & Florida railroads. Deciding to settle down and establish himself in business, he took up his residence at Vidalia in the early part of 1910, and has sinee been identified with the interests of this place. With Mr. Powell he engaged in a general real estate, loan, and fire insurance business, placing loans for eastern capitalists and dealing in real estate both here and elsewhere, at this writing handling Florida lands. Also he is interested in the Vidalia Furniture Company, of which J. C. May is manager.
As showing his popularity, the second year of his residenee in Vidalia, Mr. Sneed was elected to represent the First ward in the city couneil for a term of two years. Also he is a director in the Bonded Cotton Warehouse.
In Masonry Mr. Sneed has advanced to the higher degrees, including those of the Mystie Shrine, and his religious faith is that of the Epis- copal church. He is unmarried.
ROBERT YOUNG BECKHAM, business manager of the Courier-Herald Publishing Co., has been identified with the printing business all his life. He began at the bottom of the ladder and has made steady prog- ress in practical printing, until he is now filling a position of some importance in the business in this city. The Laurens County Herald was the recognized official organ of legal business for Laurens county and was so appointed on April 1, 1910. which, according to law, was the earliest possible date the company might assume that position after its organization.
Mr. Beckham was born July 30, 1880, in Zebulon, Pike county, Geor- gia, and is the son of R. Y. Beckham, Sr .. and Lanra Jordan. The father was a native son of Pike county and the mother was reared in Monroe county. The senior Beckham was clerk of the superior court of Pike county for twelve years, although his regular vocation is that of a farmer. The son, Robert Y. JJr., was reared on the home farm and educated in the Pike county common schools, after which he pursued a course of study at JJeff Davis Institute at Zebulon. In that place he entered a print shop and gave himself over to the careful study of the business. from the minor details up to the highest post in a newspaper office. He learned the multifarious intricacies of job printing as well as the successful condnet of a newspaper, and his thorough training made it possible for him to assume the complete charge of the establish- ment with which he is now connected. After learning the trade in Zebulon Mr. Beckham went to Atlanta where he was employed by the
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Mutual Printing Company; he then came to Dublin and for two years was with the Mason & Patillo Company and together with them or- ganized the Dublin Printing Company, which at that time published the Dublin Times, a semi-weekly paper, which was sold to A. P. Hilton in October, 1907. Mr. Beckham was thereafter associated for one year with the Courier-Dispatch as advertising manager, after which he pur- chased the Cordele Dispatch. He conducted that paper for a period of eight months, then disposed of it to E. T. Pound, his partner in the busi- ness, and went to Sandersville, where he purchased the Sandersville Herald. After a brief period of three or four months. he then purchased the Tennille Tribune, which he combined with the Herald. Later the Herald-Tribune and the Sandersville Progress were combined, and in that combination Mr. Beckham still retains an interest. It was on July 6, 1910, that Mr. Beckham became connected with the Dublin Printing Company. The Laurens County Herald was one of the popular and progressive papers of the county with a bona fide circulation of about 2,500 copies. They did an extensive job printing business, having a plant fully equipped with all that goes to make up a modern and com- plete job-printing establishment, and which enabled them to make a strong bid for the business of the district in their particular line.
About March 15, 1913, the Dublin Printing Company and the Courier-Dispatch consolidated their interests under the corporation name of the Courier-Herald, for the purpose of issuing a daily news- paper, known as the Courier-Herald, this being the only newspaper pub- lished in Laurens connty. Mr. Beckham is now business manager of the Courier-Herald Publishing Company, which, besides publishing a daily and weekly newspaper, also operates one of the largest printing plants in this entire section of the state, the company being capitalized at $30,000.
Mr. Beckham was married on January 2, 1909, to Miss D'Nena Bridger, the daughter of Dr. Bridger, a well-known practicing physician of Perry, Houston county, Georgia. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Beckham: Robert Young, Jr., born September 17, 1909, and Willa Dixie, born May 27, 1911.
The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Beckham is a member of the board of stewards of that church.
JAMES RUSK GRANT. An eminently useful and highly esteemed citi- zen of Hazlehurst. Jeff Davis county, James Rusk Grant is an able rep- resentative of the legal fraternity, as a lawyer meeting with pronounced success. A native of Georgia, he was born, March 30, 1876, in Clarkes- ville, Habersham county, a son of W. D. and Samantha J. (Holland) Grant, natives of South Carolina. and now residents of Clarkesville. Georgia. His father served throughout the Civil war as a private in the Twenty-fourth Georgia regiment. taking part in many engagements.
Receiving his preliminary education in Clarkesville. James Rusk Grant subsequently continued his studies one term at Clemson College, South Carolina. Beginning then to read law in his native town with Hon. J. C. Edwards. he applied himself diligently to his studies, making such progress that in March. 1898, he was admitted to the bar by JJudge J. J. Kimsey. passing a good examination. AAfter practicing his profes- sion a short time in Clarkesville. Mr. Grant opened a law office at Clay- ton, Georgia, where he remained ten years. building up an excellent practice. In January. 1909, Mr. Grant located at Hazlehurst. and is here meeting with equally as good fortune. his legal skill and ability - being recognized, and that it is appreciated is shown by his large and lucrative clientele. He has a large general practice, and has served
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as solicitor in both the county court and the city court. During the Spanish-American war. Mr. Grant served as a soldier in Company G, Second Georgia Volunteer Infantry. Active and public-spirited, he takes great interest in the affairs of town. county and state, and is ever willing to support all enterprises and projects for the benefit of the public.
Mr. Grant married, February 10. 1901, Mary T. Reynolds, a daughter of John A. Reynolds, editor of the Clayton Tribune. Her mother, whose maiden name was Jane Jackson, is a daughter of Rev. Jasper C. Jack- son, a noted mountain missionary Baptist preacher. who served in the Confederate army during the Civil war. Four children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Grant. namely: Ellen, Willie J., Jesse, and James Rusk. Jr., a bright little fellow, born in 1910.
PETER S. HAGAN. Noteworthy among the valued and esteemed resi- dents of Lyons is Peter S. Hagan, a man of intelligence and ability, now serving as clerk of the superior court. A native of Bulloch county, Georgia, he was born near Statesboro. July 6. 1863.
His father. M. F. Hagan married Elizabeth Sheffield, a daughter of Simeon and Keziah ( Cone) Sheffield, who came from North Carolina to Georgia, locating in Bulloch county. Ten children were born of their union, as follows: W. L .. engaged in agricultural pursuits in Bnl- loch county; J. F., a planter: J. S., a planter: Mary, who died. aged about sixty years. was the wife of the late T. J. Knight. of Bulloch county ; Laura. died, aged about eighteen years; Margaret. who mar- ried first W. B. Williams. and after his death became the wife of H. F. Simmons, a dentist. in Brooklet. Bulloch county: Ella, wife of J. C. Ludlam, of Bulloch county : Lucia V., wife of A. J. Proctor, a planter in Stilson, Bulloch county: Effie, wife of M. R. Smith, also a planter in Bulloch county; and Peter S.
Living on the home farm until attaining his majority, Peter S. Hagan obtained his education in the public schools, in the meantime acquiring a practical knowledge of agriculture. On leaving home, he followed his trade of a carpenter for five years, being employed in Bul- loch and Tattnall counties. Locating then in Montgomery, now Toombs county. he was for five years bookkeeper for Holmes & Lndlam, turpen- tine producers. and during the ensuing twelve years was engaged in mercantile pursnits at Vidalia. Georgia. Mr. Hagan was afterwards salesman for three years in the mercantile establishment of T. G. Poe. In August, 1910, he was elected to his present position as clerk of the superior court, an office which he filled so satisfactorily that he was urged to become a candidate for a second term.
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