A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 68

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

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Joshua Barrow, an only child of his parents, was reared and educated in Thomas county, and a few years after his marriage moved to Florida, where for a time he was engaged in the merchandising business. He then returned to Georgia, bought land in what is now Grady county, about two miles east of Cairo, and lived there until his death on Febru- ary 19, 1910.

Mrs. Barrow, who survives her husband, was before her marriage Emeline E. Ramsey, and was born in Bladen county. North Carolina, January 20, 1830. Her parents were William S. and Flora MePherson Ramsey. Her grandfather was John W. Ramsey, one of the pioneers of southwest Georgia. Flora MePherson, her mother, was a daughter of John and Abigail Milford MePherson. Mr. and Mrs. Barrow reared eight children named Joseph, John, Mary, Thomas, James, William C., Mccullough and Foster.

THOMAS HUTSON HARDEN. Now city engineer of Dawson, Terrell county, Mr. Harden represents the Harden family in a younger genera- tion and his forefathers were among the most prominent citizens of

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south Georgia from the time of the Revolution down. Thomas Hutson Harden was born in Terrell county, was a son of Daniel Me Whir Harden, a native of Bryan county, and a grandson of Thomas Hutson Harden, and a great-grandson of William Harden, the founder of this branch of the family in Georgia.

William Harden was born in South Carolina. He served as captain of the Beauford Artillery from 1743 to 1785. In March. 1786. he was commander at Fort Lyttleton. He was promoted colonel of militia under Gen. Stephen Bull. and in 1779 attacked the British at Wiggins IIill. He served as colonel under Gen. Francis Marion during the campaign of 1780 and 1781. and was in a number of skirmishes with the British and captured Fort Balfour with one hundred prisoners.

Thomas Hutson Harden. grandfather of the city engineer of Dawson. was also prominent in military affairs, and was lieutenant colonel and division inspector with Gen. John MeIntosh. Thomas HI. Harden mar- ried Matilda Baker. She was a daughter of Col. John Baker of Liberty county, Georgia, and in whose honor Baker county, Georgia, was named. He was a colonel in Marion's command during the Revolution, and one of the most prominent of Georgia leaders during that war. Ile served as a member of the committee appointed by the convention at Savannah, on July 20, 1774. to prepare resolutions expressive of the sentiments and determinations of the people of the colony with regard to the Boston port bill. He was a member of the provincial congress from 1775 to 1777, and was on the Georgia council of safety in 1776. He subse- quently was in active service and participated in the capture of Augusta during May and June of 1781.

Daniel Me Whir Harden, the father, was ten months old when his father died, and he then was taken to live in the home of his grand- mother, then the wife of Rev. Daniel Me Whir in Liberty county, where he was reared and educated. He studied medicine, but owing to his deafness he never practiced. He inherited a large amount of land and slaves in Bryant county, and was engaged in farming there for a num- ber of years until his removal to Lee county with his brother. Thomas II. They bought a large tract of land. seven miles southeast of Dawson, and were engaged in operating the plantation with the aid of their numerous slaves. A short time before the war they sold their land and returned to Bryant county, where they bought a plantation called Egypt. Daniel Harden's family remained in Terrell county, and he spent part of his time in each county looking after his interests. During the war his wife was one of a committee appointed to solicit clothing for the soldiers, in May, 1863, and she continued in that charitable undertaking until the fall of 1864. In 1867, Daniel Harden established a mercantile business, which he conducted for a year, and then sold out and moved to Bryant county. Four years later he returned to Ter- rell county, and made his home in Dawson until his death in 1886.

Daniel Harden was married in Columbus on July 18, 1854. to Mary Ann Foster. She also brings some important names into the family. relationship. She was born on a farm five miles south of Dawson, which was then in Lee county, Georgia, on November 11, 1838. Her father was Newit Foster, who was born in South Hampton county. Virginia .. a son of Christopher C. Foster. Christopher C. Foster, the maternal great-grandfather of Thomas H. Harden, of Dawson, was a Revolu- tionary soldier. A remarkable fact of his life was that he was one hun- dred and twelve years of age at his death; which ocenrred in Virginia. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Jordan, was almost equally remarkable for her longevity, since she attained the age of one hundred and eight years. One of the sons of this centenarian, named James.

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went to Ohio, while another son named Moses was a physician and came to Georgia, spending his career in Lee county. Newit Foster came to Georgia with his uncle Benjamin JJordan, being fourteen years old at the time. Benjamin Jordan was quite wealthy, and bought large tracts of land in what is now . Dougherty county. and Newit Foster continued in his employ for about twenty years. He finally settled in that part of Lee county which is now Terrell. and bought large tracts of timbered land on which he built a one-room log honse. It was an exceedingly crude shelter, having a chimney constructed of earth and stieks, and all its furniture and equipment were in accordance with the rude style then prevailing in many homes of south Georgia. Two of his children were born in that log cabin. He worked his land with slave labor, and eleared up a large area to the sunlight, and for many years raised crops and surrounded himself and his family with all the essentials of material prosperity. He later built good frame buildings; and continued to reside there until his death at the age of fifty-nine years.

Newit Foster married Catherine Woolbright. She was born in Wilkes county, a daughter of Daniel Woolbright, who had come to what is now Terrell county, in 1836, and settled seven miles southeast of the present site of Dawson. where he bought large amounts of land, and with his slaves improved a large plantation. That remained his home until his death in 1850. Daniel Woolbright married Mary MeKnight, who died in 1837. The wife of Newit Foster died at the age of seventy- eight years. She was the mother of seven children, whose names are Mary A., Sarah J., Frances, M. William, James, John, and Emma. The son William Foster was a soldier in the Confederate army.

Mary Ann ( Foster) Harden, the mother, is still living, making her home in Dawson. She reared six children, named Catherine, Rosa, Mamie, Neta. Thomas II., and William Edward. Catherine and Wil- liam are now deceased.

Mr. Thomas H. Harden was educated in the South Georgia Male and Female College at Dawson, and remained at home on the farm until he was eighteen years of age. He is a civil engineer by profession and was trained for that work by practical experience. He began as a rodman, and has had a large and successful experience in different departments of the profession. In 1908, he was commissioned to make the surveys for the map of Terrell county, and in the same year was elected to the office of city engineer of Dawson, official responsibilities which he has since discharged most capably. William E. Harden, the youngest son of the family, was educated in the public sehools of Daw- son and, when seventeen years old, was given the responsible task of editing and publishing a newspaper at Newton, known as the Baker County News. William Harden, who was familiarly known as "judge" to his friends, was a humorist and an artist of rare genius. He had high aspirations in his chosen work, and in order to find a larger field moved to Atlanta, where he worked as an engraver and as cartoonist for the Constitution and the Journal of that city. Many of his cartoons and illustrations were as comical as those associated with the Unele Remns pictures, and through his artistic work he represented many of the current events and political and social issues of the times. He pos- sessed a genial nature, and ready wit, and had a host of friends in sonth Georgia. He was a man of fine Christian character, a member of Dr. Broughton's Tabernacle in Atlanta, and also acted as class reporter and as artist for the Baraca Class, of which he was a member. In the summer of 1904 his health failed. and he returned home, where he died, January 28, 1905, at the age of twenty-four years.

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GEORGE W. ARD, whose death in 1904 removed one of the best known and most highly respected citizens of Stewart county, was a Confederate soldier and long identified with the official life of his home county in Georgia.

He was born in Dale county, Alabama, in 1833, was reared on an Alabama farm, and in young manhood came to Georgia, where he was employed for several years as a farm superintendent. At the outbreak of the war between the states he enlisted in Company K of the Second Regiment of Georgian Volunteers, this regiment being attached to Toombs' Brigade, and with that command went into Virginia. He fought in all the battles in which his regiment was engaged, and at the erncial conflict at Antietam, in 1863. he was severely wounded. one ball passing through his elbow and another through his thigh, which caused the loss of his left leg. After the battle he fell into the hands of the Federals. and a member of the Ninth New York Infantry cared for him until he was exchanged. This strange friendship between two soldiers of the opposite armies was continued by correspondence until the death of the Federal soldier. After his exchange Mr. Ard returned home and was soon afterwards elected tax collector of Stewart county. Ile was con- tinued in that office by reelection until his death in 1904.

In 1867, Mr. Ard married Sarah Whitten. who was born in Heard county, Georgia, a daughter of Reverend Arphax and Matilda ( Bennett ) Whitten. The Reverend Whitten was born in the Spartansburg district of South Carolina, and was the son of Rev. James Whitten. a missionary Baptist preacher, who carried the gospel in the early days to the in- habitants of Ilarris and Muskogee counties, and who died in Columbus. Georgia, abont the beginning of the Civil war. Mrs. Ard's father was also a Baptist preacher and held pastorates in both Georgia and Ala- bama, and his death occurred at Smith Station in Lee county, Alabama. Mrs. Ard's mother died in Heard county, Georgia. Mrs. Ard reared eight children, namely: Annie, Clifford, Charles R., Sarah, Mary. Georgia, Arphax, and John.

ROBERT HAMILTON HARRIS, A. M., D. D. With a long and distin- guished career in the law, as an educator and in the ministry, Dr. Harris. who is now residing in Cairo. Georgia, but purposes to return about November 1, 1913, to Columbus, is one of the eminent Georgians whose lives extend over the greatest epochs of the last and present century, and his beneficent activities are a matter of pride to all residents of the state. Both his own career and the record of his family have unusual interest, and the following paragraphs will treat these subiects as fully as possible.

Robert Hamilton Harris was born on the Holly Springs Plantation. the country home of his father, Dr. Bennett Harris, an Angusta physi- cian, in Jefferson county, Georgia. April 19. 1842.

Going back to the founder of the family in America, it is believed. from the best information obtainable. that the first ancestors were natives of either England or Wales, and during. colonial times came and settled in Virginia. In Virginia, was born the head of the next genera- tion. John Harris, who removed from his native state to Sampson county, North Carolina, where he spent the rest of his life. Benjamin Harris, grandfather of Dr. Harris and son of John, was born in Samp- son county, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, enlisting while a lad, and some time after the close of that conflict removed to Sonth Carolina, and later to Georgia, becoming a pioneer settler in Walton county. Ile seenred land there, which was virgin soit. cleared a planta- tion and made his home at Social Cirele until his death. The maiden

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name of his wife was Bethany Odom, who had three brothers, named Elkanah. Halatia and Deldatha. She survived her husband and lived to be about ninety years of age.

Dr. Bennett Harris, father of the Rev. Dr. Harris, was born in Edge- field district, South Carolina, in 1805. Though his early life was spent in a period marked by a dearth of good schools and in a country just emerging from the wilderness state, he made the best use of his seant opportunities to secure a good education and became a student in the state university in Athens, Georgia, where he was contemporary of the Cobbs and Hillyers. He undertook to work his way through the latter institution, by manual service about the buildings and grounds; but his strength failed him, and he was prostrated by fever. He was beginning to despair of completing his education, when Major Walker, a prom- inent citizen of Athens, became interested in him and advanced him the necessary amount of money to carry him through school to graduation. He then became a teacher, and after paying off his indebtedness and accumulating some earnings, entered the Pennsylvania School of Med- icine in Philadelphia. After receiving a full diploma in medicine and surgery from that institution he took a post graduate course in medicine at the Eclectic School. Cincinnati, Ohio. He subsequently went abroad. studied and acquired extensive experience in elinies at the noted medieal institutions of Paris during two years, and later spent one year of like work in London. Returning to America, in 1839, he located in Augusta, Georgia, and was in that city when its first great epidemie of yellow fever occurred. He and Dr. Turpin, with the two Doctors Eve, were the only physicians with such a sense of devotion to duty as to remain in the plague-stricken city. Dr. Harris was, himself, ultimately stricken down with the fever, but recovered and continued in practice until his death in 1845. Dr. Harris was married, in 1840. to Rebekah Ann Baldy, who was born in Beaufort District, South Carolina, a daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth ( Dixon) Baldy.

Many interesting things might be said about the family of Elizabeth Dixon. Her grandfather was James Smithson, one of the first land- graves of the province of South Carolina. It is related that an English sea captain was compelled to put his ship into Port Royal harbor for repairs and, while waiting, was entertained in the home of Governor Smithson. When the captain left he gave the governor a sack of seeds from India. Those seeds were grains of rice in the rough. which were planted by Governor Smithson; and the tradition is that from that little planting originated rice culture in America. The mother of Eliza- beth Dixon was a lineal deseendant of Gilbert Hamilton. of Scotland, a friend of William Wallace and Robert Bruce, whose cause for the liberation of Scotland he espoused, participating, as a soldier and prominent officer, in the great battle of Bannockburn, which resulted in seating Bruce upon the throne. For his distinguished services in that cause, Robert Bruce gave him a patent of nobility, by virtue of which he became progenitor of the noble line of Dukes of Hamilton. The present title-holder of that line is Duke Frederick Hamilton, residing on his Irish estate at Baronconrt.

Dr. Robert Harris has now in his home at Cairo, Georgia, among his family heirlooms. a beautiful collection of solid silver pieces, of inestimable vale, upon all the large pieces of which is engraved the Hamilton "crest "-a saw cutting into an oak, with the word "through." in capitals above. This silver service has been handed down from gen- eration to generation for many centuries, and is one of the rarest and most interesting collections to be found in America. Dr. Harris also possesses the original family coat-of-arms, beautifully hand-painted on

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parchment and containing no bar-sinister -- a fact of which he is justly proud. He also has the little christening stole, with hood and mittens, worn by the Hamilton babies during that church ceremonial for ages in the past. Those heirlooms came down to him through his mother, who in her orphaned girlhood went with her aunt, Miss Elizabeth Hamilton, to reside with a great-aunt, Miss Margaret Hamilton. in Dublin, Ireland, by invitation and until the death of the latter, of whom she became the heir. At the death of Miss Margaret. Miss Baldy re- turned with her aunt, Miss Elizabeth, to America, and the two set up housekeeping in Angusta, Georgia, in 1839, where Miss Elizabeth died of yellow fever and where Miss Baldy met and was married to her first husband, Dr. Harris. In the death of Dr. Harris his wife was left a widow with two little children, Robert and Bennetta, the latter of whom died in 1861. Some years later Mrs. Harris was married the second time, to Rev. Robert Fleming, a distinguished teacher. a noted author and a prominent minister of the Baptist denomination. Her death occurred in Thomasville when she was sixty-one years of age, leav- ing as survivors her husband, Mr. Fleming, and three children, her son and two daughters. Alice and Adela Fleming. Alice and her father died a few years later. Adela. now Mrs. Smith, for the second time a widow, resides in Waco. Texas.

When the Civil war came on, Robert Hamilton Harris was in college at Mercer University, but he left school to join the Newman Guards. Company A, First Georgia Regiment. He was soon transferred, how- ever, to the Thomasville Guards, Company F, Twenty-ninth Georgia, serving with that command twenty months, along the Atlantic coast, at Savannah. Charleston, Wilmington and Jacksonville. In March. 1863, he was promoted to a lieutenaney. in Company A. Fifty-seventh Georgia Regiment. The captain being absent and the first lieutenant hors de combat, he was placed in connand of his company and so continued until the close of the war, the first lieutenant soon dying and the captain being promoted to major. Mr. Harris received in order two more promo- tions-to first lieutenant and brevet captain. In that command. he went through the entire Vicksburg campaign. ending with that dread- ful siege; in Johnston's campaign from Dalton to Atlanta : in Hood's campaign. from Atlanta to Nashville, Tennessee, and back to Corinth, Mississippi. He was under fire on seores of occasions, many of them extremely bloody and sometimes when he lost nearly all of his men; but although bullets frequently pierced his clothing, he never received more than a serateh or two in the nature of wounds. Besides the service mentioned. he fought Stoneman at Macon, commanding a regiment part of that day, and starting that general's defeat by turning his right flank. He was not with his regiment when it surrendered, under Johns- ton, at Bentonville, North Carolina, being on detached service in com- mand of a lunette in defense at Maeon against Wilson. He declined to surrender there, and, breaking through the swarms of Federal cavalry, made his way home to Thomasville, with only two men who escaped with him.

While a paroled prisoner, after the siege of Vieksburg. Dr. Harris, then just twenty-one, was married to Mary Martha, daughter of Hon. Peter E. Love, of Thomasville. On reaching home he read law under his father-in-law, was admitted to the bar and soon seeured a good practice. He was elected mayor of his city, then after serving two or three years became solicitor of the county court. and later was appointed counsel for the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, which extended from Savannah to Bainbridge and Albany. His health having become greatly impaired in that service, he decided to abandon the practice of law and later,

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1. in 1876, entered upon the next important phase of his career, as an .. . educator. He was elected principal of the chief school in Cairo, and . spent six years as a teacher in the local academy. In the meantime he had entered the ministry of the Baptist denomination. In 1882, he was called to the charge of the school at Calvary, and, consolidating four 7 rival schools at that point, established the Calvary High School.

In 1883, he was called to the pastorate of the Baptist church at La Grange, Georgia, where he continued for two years. From that city he was called to the great First Church in Columbus, and during his ministry of eight years there added six hundred members to his charge. His next location was at Troy. Alabama, where he remained for two years, whence he was called to Thomasville. where he served the Baptist church for five years. In the meantime and since, he has received calls and overtures from a number of prominent churches in large cities that he has not felt at a liberty to consider.

While pastor in La Grange, Dr. Harris was elected a member of the faculty of the Southern Female College, an institution which was later removed to College Park, near Atlanta. and became known as Cox Col- lege. Being reelected to a leading chair in Cox College, Dr. Harris resigned his pastorate at Thomasville and went to that institution, where he remained over three years. There his health broke down, and he went to Tampa, Florida. While in Tampa, in 1906, after he had some- what recuperated, he was called to the Baptist church at Cairo, which town has since been his home.

- Soon after taking charge in Cairo, Dr. Harris commenced a cam- r paign, among his own members only, to raise funds for the erection of ¿ a new church building. and the result is the present beautiful edifice in that city: The church is built in the English abbey style of architec- - ture, of the finest pressed briek. the interior being most unique and v-very beautiful, with exceedingly handsome furnishings, and it was i finished and equipped without a dollar of debt.

, Dr. Harris continued his pastorate in Cairo until March, 1912, at w which time he resigned, in order to become apostolic messenger to the ei churches of the Mercer Association.

" The degrees of A. M. and D. D. were conferred upon him years ago 1 .. by Mereer University, and he has been for many years, as he still is. in in great demand as a speaker on various important occasions in many ... sections of the country. In addition to other distinetions, he is also chaplain and major on the staff of the South Georgia Brigade, U. C. V. T: Hon. Peter E. Love. the father of Dr .. Harris' wife, was a lawyer , by profession. ceenpied the superior court bench for many years, was a member of the United States congress at the time of secession and used his influence in vain effort to prevent Civil war. He was the 1. Georgia member of the committee of thirty-three. one from each state of the Union. appointed some time prior to the outbreak of hostilities, en to arrange some compromise which might avert the imminent war. He a died, honored by all who knew him-and there were thousands-in November, 1866.

Mrs. Harris passed away in 1900, leaving. besides her husband, two . sons and one daughter .. Of the sons. James Hamilton Harris is an ex- pert accountant. resident in Texas, and is unmarried. The other, Amos Love Harris, is in the real estate business in Tampa, Florida, and was married in 1902 to Mattie Ward Henderson. a daughter of W. B. Hen- derson. late deceased, and one of the wealthiest and most prominent ,. citizens of that city. They have two children. named Robert Hamilton ; and Caroline Henderson. Mamie Anne: the third child and only danghter, was married hi -1894 to Edgar Duncan Burts, a prominent

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young attorney of Columbus, of brilliant promise, who died in January, 1905, leaving three children, Mamie Love, Edgar Duncan, Jr., and Sarah Caroline. Besides the two sons and daughter named there have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Harris five other children, all boys, and all dead before 1888.

MALCOLM B. COUNCIL. Noteworthy among the energetie and enter- prising men who have contributed largely towards the development and advancement of the agricultural and industrial prosperity of Sumter county is Malcohn B. Council, of Ameriens, a well-known capitalist, and one of the more extensive landholders of southwest Georgia. A son of Solomon B. Council, he was born June 26, 1838, near Fayetteville, Cumberland county, North Carolina.

His paternal grandfather, Michael Couneil, a native of Nansemond county, Virginia, migrated to North Carolina in early life, locating first in what is now Anson county, from there going to Robeson county, and finally settling permanently in Cumberland county, that state, where his death occurred at the venerable age of ninety years. He mar- ried a Miss Barlow, and they reared five sons, Solomon B .. Thomas, Mat- thew, John and Jordan, and three daughters. Nothing definite is known of the Barlow family, to which his wife belonged, but history tells us that one of Sir Walter Raleigh's ships that sailed from England in April, 1584, was commanded by Capt. Arthur Barlow, who landed in North Carolina in that year.

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A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 68

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