USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II > Part 7
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The following memorial of General Lawton, presented February 17, 1897, to the Supreme Court of Georgia by Indge Sammel B. Adams in
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behalf of the bar of Savannah, and ordered to be filed in the archives of the conrt and published, is an eloquent tribute to the subject both as a lawyer and as a man.
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"Gentlemen of the Bar:
"Your committee appointed to submit a report touching upon the death of our late fellow member, Alexander R. Lawton, Esq., realizes fully their inability to do justice either to the subject or to your esteem for him, in a report as brief as this must be.
"Alexander Robert Lawton was born in St. Peter's Parish, Beau- fort District, South Carolina, on the 4th day of November, 1818, and departed this life on the 1st day of July, 1896, having nearly completed his seventy-eighth year. He was the son of Alexander James Lawton and Martha Mosse. He was born upon the plantation purchased by his grandfather, Joseph Lawton, in March, 1776. His lineage was a proud one and he worthily bore his name.
"General Lawton became a member of this bar in 1843 and so con- tinued until his death, although for some time before his decease he had retired from active practice. To the last, however, he was a member of our profession, took a lively interest in all that concerned it, and died the president of the Savannah Bar Association. His professional life in this city may, therefore, be said to have continued (the late war excepted) for more than fifty years. While he served his state and country in the legislature, in the field, as the quartermaster-gen- eral of the Confederacy, in the Constitutional Convention, and as a foreign minister, yet he was always a lawyer and cheerfully gave his full homage to the calling of his choice and affection, recognized al- ways as a 'jealous mistress.'
"It is not in our province to speak of his career in public office, where fidelity to duty, singleness of purpose and intelligent appreciation of re- sponsibility, characterized him; of his career as a soldier, signalized by calm, unflinching courage and devotion to the cause which he had esponsed; but rather to call attention to those traits which dis- tinguished him as a lawyer.
"The first and most important thought in connection with his career is that he illustrated, as so many others have done, that a man can be an eminently successful lawyer and yet a rigidly honest, candid and truthful man. General Lawton met with conspicuous success in his profession. He enjoyed more than a state reputation. He was in the front rank of the South's lawyers. For many years he did a large and lucrative practice, and, tested by any standard, he enjoyed the full measure of success. And yet the most cynical and uncharitable could never question the absolute rectitude and conduet of his speech.
He was always and everywhere the high-minded, dignified, truth-loving gentleman, the soul of honor, despising every form of sham, dishon- esty and deceit. No man, we assert, has ever lived in this community who enjoyed, or deserved, more fully than he did, the confidence of our people. No matter how sharp the difference in opinion and judg- ment, no one who knew him could ever question the honor or jurity of his purpose. With him 'duty' was always the 'sublimest word in the language;' and in every emergency he fully answered its most exacting demands. This was illustrated in his professional life. He was never unmindful of his duty to a client, to the court, or to his fellow lawyers.
"We have never had in Georgia any member of our profession who more carefully or consistently observed and enforced its ethies and its best traditions. He scorned the thought now unhappily finding expres- sion in condnet, if not in spoken avowal, that the law was a mere money-making trade. With him it was always a profession, high and honorable, demanding for its proper pursuit, not only attainments of learning and mind, but also a high sense of honor and propriety, the best qualities. of a gentleman.
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"He practiced only in the courthouse ; he argned his cases there only. He did not diseuss them in the newspapers, or seek their applanse. He never sought, directly or indirectly. newspaper advertisement of his professional achievements, or a newspaper reputation. At the same time he fully appreciated kind and pleasant allusions to him in the press, which were unsought and unsolicited, and came like other recognitions of his merit.
"General Lawton's mental characteristics were strong, clear com- mon sense; the ability to grasp quickly, even intuitively, the salient points of a case, and to press them home with singular clearness and cogeney. His speeches were short, pointed and pithy. He wasted no words, went at once to the heart of his subject, never floundered or wandered, and, when he was through, realized that he was, and sat down. Even in the most important eases, involving large amounts, he never made what may be termed a long speech. He simply could not discuss trifling or immaterial points. and confined his entire thought and effort to the salient and controlling features of his case. He used in his arguments very few law books. This does not mean that he did not consult a great many, if necessary, but that he selected the best and used only them. He loved to argue from reason and principle and was not a slave to mere precedent. He was not a case lawyer, but one well grounded in the fundamental maxims of the law. and he used most those books which dealt in these basie principles. 'In these days of digests and ready-made briefs, when the merest tyro, without any learning or perhaps the capacity to learn, can make a show of erudition by citing innumerable decisions without having read or understood any of them, this plan, so successfully pursued by General Lawton, is worthy of special mention.
"But, gentlemen of the bar. the necessary brevity of this report prevents us from saying much that we would like to say. We think of General Lawton today, not so much as the conspienous citizen. or the eminent lawyer to whom came honors like that of the presidency of the American Bar Association, and a distinguished career: but rather as a member of our own, the Savannah bar, which is indebted to his stainless life in our midst for wholesome and ennobling lessons, for the honor his connection with us has done us, and for the rich legacy of his example. Let us gratefully cherish our proud recollections of him, and let us be stimulated by his career to a truer appreciation of the duties aud dignity of our calling and of our obligation to its demands and responsibilities. Let us never disgrace it by conduct or word, and let ns, as he did, 'magnify our office.'
"We submit the following resolutions :
"1. That this bar recognizes that in the death of General Lawton our profession has lost one of its real ornaments whose long and ilhis- trious career has shed honor upon our profession and made it his grateful debtor.
"2. That a copy of this report and these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of our Superior Court, and another be sent by our secretary to the family of General Lawton.
"3. That the Superior and City courtrooms be draped in mourning for thirty days and that the judge of the Superior Court be requested to adjourn his court in honor of General Lawton's memory.
SAMUEL B. ADAMS, POPE BARROW, WILLIAM GARRARD, WALTER G. CHARLTON.
P. W. MELDRIMI.
Committee."
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COL. ALEXANDER RUDOLF LAWTON. The history of the legal profession in the South presents a chronicle of importance and dis- tinetion and the state of Georgia has assuredly contributed its quota to the whole. In legal annals of the state a name of pre-eminence is that of Lawton, two generations of the family having been lawyers of honor and fame, who have done much to preserve the dignity of their calling and the honor which should be the pride of the profession. The city of Savannah has been the scene of their distinguished careers and the younger of these gentlemen, Col. Alexander Rudolf Lawton. is today one of Savannah's leading citizens. In addition to a large general practice, he is vice-president of the Central of Georgia Railway, and also one of its general counsel, and his remarkable grasp on cor- poration law is known beyond the boundaries of the state. He has been a marvel to the profession in many respects. seeming to leap into the arena fully armed and equipped for the fiercest fight and legal battle with most renowned barristers when a very young man. His reputation has been reinforced with the passing years and he is recognized as one of the masters of the eraft throughout the state. The father of the foregoing. Gen. Alexander Robert Lawton, whose demise occurred July 2, 1896, was one of Georgia's greatest lawyers in any day or generation. He was also a splendid officer and a detailed account of his life and achievements will be given in the article succeeding.
Colonel Lawton is a native son of the Forest city, within whose delightful borders his birth occurred August 9, 1858. He received an unusually brilliant education and early in youth he came to the con- clusion to follow in the paternal footsteps in the matter of a life work. When a lad eight years of age he was taken to Paris and in the French capital pursued his studies during the years 1866 and 1867. Thereupon returning to Savannah, he studied in public and private schools in this city and ultimately entered the University of Georgia, from which in- stitution he was graduated in 1877, at the age of nineteen years, receiv- ing the degree of Bachelor of Arts. During the ensuing summer, he was a student in the Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York, and in the fall entered upon his preparation for the law. He studied law in the law department of the University of Virginia in 1878 and 1879 and in the Harvard Law School in 1879 and 1880. In the year last mentioned he was admitted to the bar and entered upon the practice of the profession in Savannah. From the first his career has been of the most satisfactory character. He has been a member of the firm of Lawton & Cunningham, general counsel for the Central of Georgia Railway since 1887, succeeding General Lawton in this office on his retirement. ITis identification with the firm of Lawton & Cun- ningham, of which his father was at that time senior member, dates from the year 1882.
It is safe to say that probably in all the state there is no one more familiar with certain aspects of railway and maritime affairs than Colonel Lawton. He has been a director of the Central of Georgia Railway since 1896 and since 1904 has held the office of vice-president of the company. Ile is also a director of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad Company, the Western Railway of Alabama, the Ocean Steam- ship Company and the Savannah Trust Company. His position with the great railway mentioned gives an idea of his paliber, and so accept- ably has he advised his clients in all dilemmas that he is regarded by them with admiration and gratitude.
Colonel Lawton is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Historical Association, the Southern Historical Society. the American Academy of Political and Social Science and the National
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Geographic Society. He is president of the Georgia Historical Society, by virtue of which position he also is president of Savannah's notable institution, the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is owned by and under the management of the Historical Society. He is a well- known clubman, his membership extending to some of the most notable organizations in the United States. Only partially to enumerate, these affiliations are with the Oglethorpe Club, of Savannah; the Capital City Club, of Atlanta; the University and City Midday clubs, of New York City; and the Metropolitan Club, of Washington, D. C.
Since youth, Colonel Lawton has been actively identified with things military in Savannah. In 1881, he enlisted as a private in the National Guard of Georgia and was promoted through the various ranks to that of colonel of the First Regiment of Infantry. During the Spanish- American war in 1898, he was colonel of the First Georgia Infantry, United States Volunteers.
Colonel Lawton was married in Atlanta, April 27, 1882, his chosen lady being Miss Ella Stanly Beckwith, daughter of the Rt. Rev. Jolm W. and Ella ( Brockenbrough ) Beckwith. the former being bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church of Georgia. Colonel and Mrs. Law- ton share their home with two sons, Alexander Robert, Jr., and John Beckwith. The family have an assured position in the most exclusive social circles in the city and their household is renowned for its culture and its gracious hospitality, exemplifying the highest social traditions of the South.
JOHN AVERY GERE CARSON. Prominent among the representative citizens of Savannah is John Avery Gere Carson, ex-president of the board of trade; president of the Carson Naval Stores Company : and prominent in commercial and financial affairs of the city. He has resided here for more than forty years and for a great portion of that time has figured conspicuously in the history of the city, to whose institutions he is very loyal and to whose welfare he is ever ready to contribute in any way within his power.
Mr. Carson, by the circumstance of birth, belongs to Baltimore, Maryland, his life record having begun in that eity, February 19, 1856. He is the son of Carvill Hynson and Sarah Frances (Gere) Carson. As his name indicates his ancestry on both sides represents families of dis- tinct prominence in the Colonial history of Maryland. His father was the son of David and Sarah Taylor (Hynson) Carson, the latter being the daughter of Charles and Sarah (Waltham) Carson. On the Hynson side the ancestry rnus back through several generations to Thomas Hynson of England, who came to Maryland in 1650. settled at Kent in the then colony of Maryland, and became one of the commissioners in charge of the government of and holding of elections in Kent county. He also became a member of the Maryland assembly. Ou his moth- er's side Mr. Carson is descended from George Geer (as it was then spelled-now Gere), who with his brother, Thomas Gere. came from Hevitree, Devonshire, England. to America in 1621 and settled in the town of Enfield, Connecticut. Thus the family was founded on these shores only a few months after the arrival of the Pilgrim fathers. The mother of Mr. Carson was born in Baltimore, the daughter of John Avery Gere. This admirable lady is still living in Savannah, the posses- sor of universal respect and esteem. The father, who died on February 18, 1911, in Savannah, was born at Baltimore, November 14, 1830. A man of unblemished record, his memory will long remain green in the hearts of his numerous friends and admirers.
Mr. Carson received his education in the publie schools of Baltimore
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and in the Normal College at Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. He came to Savannah with his parents in 1870 and has resided within the pleasant boundaries of the city ever since that time. On Jannary 1, 1884, he became identified with Mr. J. P. Williams in the latter's busi- ness enterprises, and upon the organization of the J. P. Williams Com- pany (naval stores) in 1897, Mr. Carson became vice-president of the concern. In January, 1910, he organized the Carson Naval Stores Com- pany; which succeeded the J. P. Williams Company and of which he is president. The continual progress and present standing of the company is largely credited to the experience, executive ability, tireless energy, engineering skill and genius in the broad combination of applicable forces possessed by Mr. Carson.
This distinguished gentleman is ex-president of the Savannah Board of Trade, one of the strongest organizations of its kind in the South. He was for nine years. from 1900 to 1909, the president of -the Mer- chants' National Bank of Savannah, and did much to add to the confi- dence felt in this important monetary institution. He was alderman of the city from 1889 to 1893. In 1893 he was elected by the largest vote received by any candidate, as a member of the first board of county commissioners of Chatham under the new law for such boards that went into effeet at that time. He served in that capacity until 1897, with credit to himself and honor and profit to the people. He has always been interested in affairs military and was a lieutenant in the Chatham Artillery in 1895 and 1896. He has been deputy governor- general for Georgia of the Society of the Colonial Wars since its organiza- tion in 1896. Since starting in business as a young man his chief inter- ests have been in grain, cotton and naval stores and he keeps in touch with Georgian resources and development.
Fraternally, Mr. Carson is a Mason and is entitled to the white- plumed helmet of the Knight Templar. He is a member of the Ogle- thorpe Club and a life member of the Savannah Volunteer Guards.
Mr. Carson was happily married January 29, 1879, his chosen lady being Miss Carrie Gordon Cubbedge, daughter of Stephen Jackson Max- well and Caroline Rebecca (Tubbs) Cubbedge. They share their home, one of the most hospitable and delightful in Savannah, with four inter- esting children : John Avery Gere, Jr., Gordon Cubbedge, Edwin Williams, and Carvill Ilynson.
J. FLORANCE MINIS, a retired citizen of Savannah. Georgia, belongs to one of the historie families of this state. The early record sets forth the fact that his great-grandfather, Philip Minis, was the first white male child born in Georgia.
J. Florance Minis was born November 12, 1852, son of Abraham and Lavinia (Florance) Minis. His father, a native of Savannah, was born November 4, 1820, and died November 5, 1889, his death occurring in New York City. For many years he was a prominent and successful merchant of Savannah. He had married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 22, 1851, Miss Lavinia Florance, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, born May 26, 1826, daughter of Jacob L. and Hannah Florance, and their family consisted of six children: Jacob Florance Minis; Rosina Florance Minis, who died in infancy; Miss Maria Minis; Isaac Minis; Lavinia Florance Minis, wife of Charles I. Henry of New York City ; and Abram Minis.
Isaae Minis died in New York City June S, 1893. His wife, to whom he was married in Savannah March 9, 1886, was before her marriage Miss Eugenia Myers of Savannah; she survives her husband. and has two sons, viz .: Isaac M. and Carol Minis. Mr. and Mrs. Charles I. Henry have two daughters, namely : Harriet and Lavinia Henry. Philip
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Minis. an unele of the subject of this sketch, married Miss Sarah A. Livingston of New York, and their children are as follows: Mrs. Alice · Henrietta Poe of Baltimore; Annie, Charles Spalding, Philip Henry, John Livingston, Mary Lela, and Augusta Medora Minis.
The paternal grandfather of J. F. Minis was Isaae Minis, and he, although of the Savannah family, was born in 1780, near Charleston, where his parents and family fled from the British troops, which at that time were besieging the city of Savannah. They returned to Savannah after the close of the Revolutionary war. Isaac Minis married Miss Dinah Cohen of Georgtown, South Carolina, December 4, 1803: she being the daughter of Solomon Cohen of that place. She was born in Georgetown, April 12, 1787, and died in Savannah, February 17, 1874. Isaac Minis, her husband. had died in Philadelphia, November 17, 1856; he and his wife were buried in the family lot in Laurel Grove cemetery in Savanah. Isaac Minis served in the War of 1812 as a private in Capt. William Bulloch's company of artillery, First Regiment of Georgia Militia, commanded by Colonel Johnston.
Isaae Minis was the son of Philip and Judith ( Pollock) Minis ; Judith Pollock being a member of one of the first families that settled Newport, just as her husband belonged to a family that was numbered among the first settlers of the colony of Georgia. An interesting faet, in this connection, is that Rhode Island and Georgia were the only two of the colonies where Jews were not prohibited from settling.
Going back to Philip Minis, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who bore the distinction of being the first male white child born in Georgia, it is found that this important event occurred at Savannah, July 11, 1734. the year following the founding of the Georgia colony by Oglethorpe. In substantiation of this fact, there are various authorities. among which is the following notice that appeared in the Georgia Gazette of the issue of Thursday, March 12, 1789, concerning the death of Philip Minis :
"On Friday, March 6. 1789, departed this life Mr. Philip Minis, merehant, age 55 years. He was the first white male child born in this state. ITis remains were buried in the Jews' burial ground on Sunday morning, attended by a large number of respectable citizens, who by their solemn attention evinced how sensibly they felt the loss the eom- munity has sustained in so valuable a man. He has left a diseonsolate widow and five children, together with an aged and venerable mother, and five sisters to deplore their loss. He was an affectionate husband, a dutiful son, tender father and kind brother; in short, he was in every sense of the word a truly honest man."
Philip Minis gave active aid and support to the colonists in the struggle with Great Britain, and on this account he was named in the Georgia Royal Disqualifying Act of 1780.
The founder of the Minis family in Georgia was Philip Minis' father, Abram Minis, who, with his wife, Abigail Minis, and two daughters, Esther and Leah, also his brother, Simon Minis, arrived at Savannah on a vessel from London, July 11. 1733, the year after Oglethorpe's found- ing of the colony of Georgia. There were thirteen Jewish families on this vessel, and the history of their organization for the journey, in London, and their trials and tribulations, as well as successes. after landing on Georgia soil in 1733. forms one of the interesting romanees of the .colonization of the new world. Abram Minis died in Savannah in 1757 and was buried in the first Jewish burial plot in the city. His widow, Abigail Minis, in 1760 received a grant of land from King George III. She died in Savannah October 11, 1794. at the age of ninety-three years.
J. Florance Minis, the eldest of the children of Abraham and Lavinia
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(Florance) Minis, was born November 12, 1852. In his early boyhood he attended Prof. W. S. Bogart's school at Savannah, and had as class- mates Mr. II. HI. Gilmer, Judge A. Pratt Adams, Judge Samnel B. Adams. the younger members of the Habersham family, the Owens boys and the Screven boys-all representatives of prominent. families in Savannah. When he was fourteen years old he entered Washington College at Lexington, Virginia, of which Gen. Robert E. Lee was then president, and which, later. in his honor, was named Washington and Lee University. Of his own accord. Mr. Minis decided not to remain in college to graduate, but instead he returned to his home at Savannah, and on November 12, 1870, he entered his father's office as a clerk. He afterward became a member of the firm, the name of which was then changed to A. Minis & Son. In November, 1890, his father, Mr. Abraham Minis, died, and, Mr. Isaac Minis having previously become a member of the firm, the name was then changed to A. Minis' Sons. Upon the death of Mr. Isaae Minis in 1893, the business was continued by Mr. J. F. Minis under the firm name of J. F. Minis & Co. In 1905 Mr. Minis retired from active business. closed up the affairs of the old firm, and since then has devoted his attention to his private interests. He divides his time between his Savannah home, his country home " Rock- wood" at Clarksville in Habersham county, and traveling in Europe.
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While in active busines, Mr. Minis served one term as president of the Savannah Cotton Exchange. He is now a director of the Merchants National Bank, director of the Savannah Trust Company, director of the Southwestern Railroad Company, vice-president of the Savannah Brewing Company. In all the principal clubs of Savannah he has membership, and he is a member of the board of managers of the Georgia Historical Society and one of the curators of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was appointed by Gov. Joseph M. Brown as a member of the Oglethorpe Monument Commission, which had in charge the erection of the Oglethorpe Monument in Savannah, which was dedi- cated on November 23, 1910.
In 1890 Mr. Minis married Miss Louisa Porter Gilmer. Mrs. Minis is a daughter of Gen. Jeremy F. Gilmer, a distinguished engineer, a graduate of West Point, who, during the war between the states, was chief of engineers of the Confederate government. Her mother, Louisa P. (Alexander) Gilmer, was a daughter of A. L. Alexander of Wash- ington, Wilkes county, Georgia.
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