USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II > Part 71
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five miles from Bainbridge, and went in debt in order to secure this start in life. There he built a small log house, and it was to that rude shelter that he took his young bride on their marriage. All the furniture of the establishment was home-made, and Mr. Rich went to the mill and bought rough lumber, with which he made with his own hands all the furniture for his home, doing this of mornings before work, and at noon hour. In April, 1867, Mr. Elijah A. J. Rich, married Mrs. Hattie Pierce. She was born in Baker eonty, and at an early age was left an - orphan, and was reared by her aunt, Harriet Bryant. Mrs. Rich. as a girl, received a very practical training and learned to card, spin and weave. She spun and wove and ent the cloth and made clothes for all her family, and sewed it all by hand. She also wove the sacks in which Mr. Rich was accustomed to carry corn to the local mill. and in which he brought the meal which furnished the great staple food of corn bread.
Mr. Elijah A. J. Rich was elected to the Georgia legislature in 1886 on the Democratic ticket from Decatur county, defeating his opponent with an overwhelming majority.
One among the many things Mr. Rich did for the good of his state and county, was to support the bill, leasing the Georgia railroad run- ning from Atlanta to Chattanooga. Tennessee. He served two years with credit to himself and state, and was offered a second nomination but refused. Thrift indoors and without, brought its reward, and in a few years Mr. and Mrs. Rich were on the high road to prosperity. After paying for the first tract of land, he secured other tracts, and improved these and sold them out for a profit.
In 1875 Mr. and Mrs. Rich founded a school. known at this date, 1913, as the Bethel high school. This school is a living monument to Mr. and Mrs. Rich. When Mr. and Mrs. Rich first started up this school it was for the benefits of their own children, but later others joined them. This big-hearted man and woman not only desired a good education for their own children but that other children not so fortunate should have the same advantage. Mr. and Mrs. Rich maintained this school with their own funds, letting the poorer children go without any cost to their parents. One very poor boy, William II. Griffin, came to Mr. Rich and asked that he be admitted to this school, saying that he was a poor one-armed boy and wished to get an education so he would be able to make his own living. Mr. Rich seeing that the boy was very desirous of learning, allowed him to attend school. This man is now a professor of one of our southern colleges.
In 1895 Mr. Rich bought the land where he now resides in lot 391. in Bethel district. There he has built a most comfortable frame house, and various farm buildings for the shelter of his stock. Mrs. Rich is a very careful and tasteful housekeeper and their home is furnished nicely, and is a place showing the refinement and thrift and good cheer of the entire family. Mr. and Mrs. Rich have eight children, whose names are: Euzema, Minnie, Emory G., Arthur J., Dola. Hunnewell. Perry D., and Thomas E.
Euzema married Menla Powell, and their nine children are named, Leroy, Jewell, Lloyd, Ross, Jennings, Emory G., Gladys. Lois, and James Clay.
Minnie, now deceased, married Willie Powell, and has six children, named Lamar, Ellis, Dewey, Mable, Adonis and Willie G.
Emory G., married Cornelia Powell, both of whom are now deceased, leaving three children, named Kate. Lucile, and Clyde. Mr. and Mrs. Rich, in addition to raising their own large family, have raised these three grandchildren. taken when the youngest was four years old.
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Kate married W. F. Wynn, and they have one child named Irene. Lucille has completed school and is now teaching. Clyde, the youngest, is now in college. Mr. and Mrs. Rich have been able to give these chil- dren more advantages than their own children received ..
Arthur J. married Florence Powell, and their one son is named Charles.
Dola, married William J. Bush, and their two children are Myrtle and Hoke.
Hunnewell, married J. T. Powell, and their four children are Curtis, Jesse T., Louise, and Minnie.
Perry D., married for his first wife Julia Bush, and their four chil- dren are, Hattie Sue, Ruth, Forest, and Julia. By his second mar- riage to HIuron Powell, he has one child, Mazie.
Thomas E., married Rosa Arline, and their three children are, Thomas E., Pauline, Alee Frank.
Mr. and Mrs. Rich are both members of the Missionary Baptist church, as are all their children. Mr. Rich and his sons are affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, he and three sons being Knight Templars.
That while we have done these things, we feel like it's not of our- selves but of the Holy Spirit has guided and directed us through this life.
GEORGE EMORY THORNTON. The thirty years' service of Mr. Thorn- ton as clerk of Webster county is a record rarely equalled in the annals of county officials of Georgia, and his long continuance in one of the most important local positions is due to his faithful and intelligent ser- vice in behalf of the people and the relations of his office to the public welfare. Mr. Thornton is by profession a lawyer and practiced for ten years in Webster county before he became clerk. Ile represents one of the old families of this section of the state.
George Emory Thornton was born in Carroll county, Georgia, Janu- ary 4, 1849. His parents were John J. and Emeline (Darnell ) Thorn- ton. The father was born either in Putnam or Monroe county. Georgia. in 1818. The founder of the family in this section of the state was the grandfather, William Thornton, who was born in Virginia. The father of William Thornton, and the great-grandfather of the Webster county clerk, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and a lifelong resident of Virginia. Grandfather William Thornton emigrated from Virginia into Georgia, as one of the pioneers of the central portion of this state. Ile was a very energetic business man, and when all the country was new he secured large tracts of goverment lands in different counties. One of his plantations bordered upon the Ocmulgee river in Monroe county. Ile was survived for many years by his widow, whose maiden name was Tempy Briggs, and who married a second time and died when one hundred and seven years old. She was the mother of six children whose names were Rakdum. Harrison, Robert F., Isham, Lucy and Millie.
Isham J. Thornton, the father, received his education in the country schools. Ile had a natural skill as a mechanie, and following the ineli- nations of this ability he became a machinist and a very skilled work- man. In 1852 he removed to Roanoke, in Alabama, where he followed his trade and remained a resident until his death in 1896. Ilis wife, Emeline Darnell Thornton, was born in Putnam county, Georgia, dangh- ter of J. A. and Polly ( Antry) Darnell, both of whom had been born in North Carolina, and had come to Georgia as early settlers of Putnam county, subsequently moving into Alabama and settling at Roanoke, where Mr. Darnell died. His widow subsequently moved to Lafayette in the same state, where she died at the remarkable age of one Imdred
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and four years. Mrs. Thornton, the mother, died in 1907. The eight children in her family were Robert F., Lonisa, Anmie, Emma, George Emory, Laura, Eugene and Lneile May.
George Emory Thornton spent his early life at Roanoke, Alabama. where he obtained his education. When he was sixteen years old. he left school and home, and has ever since been self-supporting and is a self- made man in the best sense of the term. He became a clerk at Mont- gomery, and also at Union Springs, but at the end of three years re- turned to Roanoke and scon turned his attention to the study of law .. He was admitted to the bar in 1872 at the age of twenty-three years. and soon afterwards located at Preston, where he opened an office and had a large share of the practice during that decade in the local conrts. Then in 1883 he was elected to the office of clerk of Webster county, and has been retained in office by successive elections almost too numerous to mention.
At Americus, Georgia. in 1871, Mr. Thornton married Ludie E. Birdsong, who was born in Talbot county. Georgia, a daughter of Charles and M. E. (Daniel) Birdsong. The children of Mr. Thornton and wife are named as follows: Mackie E., Jennie. Nannie, Sallie, Minnie, Clande and David B. Mackie E. married D. H. Smith, and they have six children of their own. Jennie is the wife of D. E. Hutchins. and she died leaving one son. George E., who lives with his grandparents. Nannie married S. T. Wilson, who died leaving three children. the young- est named Mamie, being but an infant at the time of her mother's death, and now being reared in the home of her grandparents Thornton. Minnie is the wife of R. L. Nickerson. David B. is now a resident of New York City, where he is office manager for the Giess Manufacturing Company. Mr. and Mrs. Thornton are members of the Methodist church and he is affiliated with Preston Lodge No. 188, A. F. & A. M., and with the Tri-County Chapter of the Royal Arch Masonry at Richland.
BENJAMIN R. HARRISON. A career of unusnal accomplishment and success has been that of Benjamin R. Harrison of Grady county. When he was ready to take up the independent responsibilities of life. he had no capital and found his opportunities by working land on the crop- sharing plan. By thrift and industry he passed several successful seasons, and with the accumulations of his diligence he was able to make his first purchase of land. He bought a tract situated within the limits of his present splendid farm, and after that beginning his prosperity has been steady and undiminished until he ranks as one of the foremost farmers of Grady county.
Born in a log cabin about twelve miles south of Thomasville, Geor -. gia on the twenty-eighth of October, 1849, Mr. Harrison belongs to a family which has been identified with Georgia for three generations. His father was Henry Jackson Harrison. born in Pulaski county, and the grandfather was Benjamin Harrison, who came from Pulaski connty to Decatur county, becoming one of the early settlers in the latter vicinity. His settlement was at a time when all of south Georgia was a wilderness. and deer, wolves and wild turkeys were plentiful in the woods which covered nearly all the country. Another source of meat supply was fish. and in those days the Georgia streams were not "fished ont" as they are now. As there was hardly a fence. over the entire region, this portion of the state made an excellent range for cattle. The grandfather bought a tract of timbered land. and erected a log cabin about twelve miles southwest of the present site. of Cairo. On that place he remained until his death.
Henry Jackson Harrison was a child when brought to Decatur Vol. 11-31
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county, and .was reared on a farm, and after reaching manhood bought a piece of woods land, south from the present site of Cairo. IIe lived there a few years and then moved into Thomas county, where he re- sided until his death in 1889 in his seventy-first year. He married Patsy Jones, who was born in Decatur county. a daughter of Robert Jones. Robert Jones came from Pulaski county at the same time with the Harrison family, and bought land five miles west of the pres- ent site of Cairo. The farm which he cleared out of the wilderness in that location is now owned by one of his grandsons, and it was his home until his death. Robert Jones married. as his second wife, Patsy Hawthorne, who was the grandmother of Benjamin R. Harrison. She survived her husband. and both are now buried in the family burial plot on the old farm. The ten children in the elder Harrison's family were Elizabeth, Martha Jane, William S., Benjamin R., Naney, Temper- ance, Seely, John, Mary and James.
Many of the pioneer conditions still prevailed in this seetion of Georgia, during the youth of Benjamin R. Harrison. There were no railroads in this part of the state and Bainridge and Tallahassee were the principal markets and depots for supplies. As a boy he has hunted nearly all kinds of wild game, and knew the hardships and privations of early life in south Georgia. As already mentioned, he began life without capital.
His purchase of land was fifty acres, covered with woods and without anything that might be called a permanent improvement upon it. When he had cleared out a space in the midst of the timber and had built a log cabin. he brought his young bride to the humble home and there they started housekeeping and home making. During the succeeding years he cleared off the timber from the rest of the land, and with the aid of his thrifty wife he enjoyed a progressive prosperity from the start. As means increased he bought other land until MIr. Harrison is now known as the owner of more than eight hundred acres of fine farming land in Grady county, and one of the most subtantial land owners and eitizens in this vicinity. In recent years he has ereeted a comfortable frame residenec, and on the outskirts of the family home has situated barns and sheds for the shelter of stock and machinery, and all the equipment and improvements are in keeping with modern standards of Georgia agriculture.
Mr. Harrison married Miss Elizabeth Clay. She was born in Ter- rell county, Georgia, daughter of Augustus and Isabelle (Sligall) Clay. Her father, a native of north Georgia, and her mother, a native of Ter- rell county, were married in Terrell county, and from there moved into Thomas county, where both spent their remaining years. Mrs. Harrison died November, 1912. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison reared the following children: Melinda, Leona, William Robert. Benjamin F., Evvie, and Eula. Another child, Jack, died at the age of fifteen. Me- linda married Seab Sutten and has four children named Mattie. Belle, John Benjamin, Seba A. and Edna .J Leona married Charles Con- molly and their three children are named Ruth. Mary and Roberta. Evvie is the wife of Levi Harper.
WILLIS J. DUKE. Now in his carly forties, Mr. Duke of Deeatur county is one of the largest land owners and erop producers of this part of Georgia. His career has encouragement for young men who start without resources except those contained in themselves. He was a renter for several years, prospered in every undertaking, and thriftily turned his surplus into more land until he found himself independent and with better provision for the future of himself and family than most men have at the close of a long hfetime.
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It is an old family of Georgia that is represented by Mr. Duke. Ic was himself born in Decatur county, December 8, 1870. His father was Maston Hendricks Duke, who was born in Butts county, Georgia, September 4, 1845. The grandfather was Weekly W. Duke, and it is thought that he also was a native of Butts county, where he was reared and married. From there the grandfather moved into Randolph county, buying land about eight miles north of Cuthbert. He built up a large plantation and had numerous slaves to do the work of the fields and the household. That remained his home until his death when he was about fifty years of age. The maiden name of his wife was Penelope MeClenden, who was born in Butts county, and died in Randolph county. They were the parents of several children and both were members of the Baptist church, and the grandfather was a Mason.
Maston Hendricks Duke. the father, was a small-boy when his fan- ily moved into Randolph county, where he was reared and married. When eighteen years old he enlisted in the Twenty-eighth Georgia Battalion, first accompanying . the command to Florida, and snbse- quently to North Carolina. He participated in several of the cam- paigns and battles of the closing years of the war, the last engagement being that at Bentonville. He also fought at Ocean Pond in Florida, and was the great struggle at Chickamauga. He was never wounded or captured, and went with his command until the final surrender. On returning home he found that his father was dead, and he then took charge of the home farm. In the fall of 1866, he bought a farm of seven hundred aeres in lots 382, 384, 264. 383, and 182 in the Faceville district. There he earried on general farming and made his home until his death on October 23, 1009.
By marriage, Maston H. Duke became connected with another old and prominent family of Georgia. IIe was married to Miss Frances Elizabeth Mounger, who was born in Stewart county, Georgia. Jannary 11, 1847. Her father was Edwin Monnger, who was born in Jefferson county, Georgia, in 1806. Her grandfather, Edwin Mounger, was years ago treasurer of the state of Georgia, was also trustee of University of Georgia for years, and married Franees Clark. daughter of Gen. Elijah Clark. IIe was also cousin of Thomas Jefferson and was offered a posi- tion in his eabinet but refused on account of relationship. Edwin Mounger was left an orphan when a boy, and was reared by his uncle. Governor Clark, and for a time was a student in the State University. He then took up the printers' trade, becoming an expert compositor, and set type on the first newspaper published at Marianna, Florida. He subsequently taught school at Perry in Houston county, Georgia. After his marriage he bought a farm in Stewart county, where he lived three years, then sold out and moved into Randolph county, where he bought a plantation five miles north of Cuthbert. enltivating its broad aeres with the aid of his slaves and remained there until his death. The maiden name of the wife of Edwin Mounger was Elizabeth Jane Ball. whose relationship has been traced back to Gen. George Washington. She was born in Milledgeville. a daughter of William Ball, who was a Vir- ginian and said to have been a Revolutionary soldier. Coming to Georgia. he bought a home in Milledgeville and a plantation near by, and remained there the rest of his days. William Ball married Elizabeth Grey. Their daughter, Elizabeth JJane, first married a Mr. Allen, and was the mother of five children by her first marriage and seven by the second. The Allen children were named William H., Julia. JJohn R .. Thomas and Marens. The children of Edwin Mounger and his wife. Elizabeth Jane, were Sarah A., Edwin O., Frances E., Mary Jane, Annie E .. Selma, and Clara O.
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Maston II. Duke and wife reared nine children, named as follows: Momelus W., Edwin Mounger, Willis J., Oscar Clark. Elizabeth P., Julia Frances, Clara P., Maston H., and Annie Pearl. The parents were both members of the Methodist elinrch.
As a boy Willis JJ. Duke received snch education as the rural schools could furnish, and remained at home and worked for his father until he was twenty-four years old. He then began an independent career on rented land. ITis industry and good management brought him sue- cess from the start, and for several years he continued as a renter. In the meantime, however, he had bought a tract of land in the south part of the county, and also bought a tract in lot No. 370 in the Bethel district, seven miles northwest of Bainbridge, and in 1901 took up his residence on that farm. Mr. Duke is a Progressive farmer, and has a homestead which in its improvement is cqualled by few others in district. IIe has built a good frame house as a residence, has erected barns for the shelter of stock and shed to protect all his farm machinery, and from time to time has bought other traets of land so that he now owns upwards of one thousand acres. He engages in farming, raising a variety of crops and feeding a large number of hogs and cattle each year.
In 1894, Mr. Duke married Martha Elizabeth Sunday, who was born on the south line of Decatur, Georgia. Her father was Joseph Larue Sunday, who was born in the same vicinity, but across the state line in Gadsden county. Florida, where his father, George Sunday, had been one of the early settlers. About 1873, George Sunday moved to Mont- gomery county, Texas, which was his home until his death. The maiden name of his wife was Martha Johnson. Both parents lived to a good old age. Joseph L. Sunday, the father of Mrs. Duke, lived in Decatur county for a few years after marriage and then returned to Gadsden county, Florida, where he now resides. Joseph L. Sunday married Nancy Ann Johnson, who was born in Decatur county, daughter of Noah and Nancy ( Lewis) Johnson. The eight children in the Sunday family were named as follows: Jesse W., Martha E., Nannie J., Bera and Burrus, twins, Joseph Jarius, Jeptha L., and Mary Lou. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sunday were members of the Methodist church. Mr. and Mrs. Duke are the parents of five children, whose names are Vasta Elizabeth, Bernard Lamar, Wesley Allen, Fannie Mae, Annie Ruby. Mr. and Mrs. Duke are both members of the Methodist church.
DR. THOMAS FRANKLIN BIVINS has been in active practice in Vienna, Dooly county, Georgia, for more than twenty years. This statement is almost enough to call to the vision of people just what sort of a man Doe- tor Bivins is, for when a man ocenpying his position of family counselor and friend to people for a period of twenty years, remains in the same place during this time, he must be of a noble character, and of a sincere heart, else his clientele would have found him out long ago. We all admire and exclaim over the wonderful feats of the surgeons in our great hospitals, and of those medical investigators who are continually an- nouneing remarkable discoveries from their laboratories; do we- ever think that the practitioner in the small town or city runs just as great risks and has practically as great a number of calls upon his nerve force as has the city surgeon? In the first place what work coukl be more taxing than a general practice, where the physician does not have to know everything about something, but what is much more impossible, something about everything. Again when he has a critical. ease the patient is not simply a human being whose life must be saved but as a rule some one whom he has known for years so he has the same strain
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on his nerves that he would have if he were operating upon one of his own family. It is this type of hero that Doctor Bivins is, though he. himself, very likely, would never think of himself as doing anything but his duty.
Doetor Thomas Franklin Bivins was born on the 13th of September, 1862, at Haynesville, in Houston county, Georgia. He was the son of Franklin Ward Bivins, whose birthplace was in Jones county, Georgia. Franklin Bivins had the opportunity of giving his service to the cause he thought was right, and of becoming one of that splendid body of men, the veterans of the army of the Confederacy. He was a private soldier in a company of infantry, and after the war was over he returned to his plantation and set to work to build up again his shattered for- tune. His wife was Betzy Blackshear Walker, a daughter of a Mr. Walker, a planter of Houston county. Georgia. The father of Franklin Ward Bivins was Stephen Bivins, who was a native. of Maryland. He came with his family to Jones eounty, Georgia, when only a small lad, so the family has been closely identified with the state for a long time. Dr. Bivins has one brother, Stephen Fillmore Bivins, who is a planter in Houston county, Georgia. His sisters number four: Mrs. Ella Tiguin, who is the wife of Samuel Tiguin. of El Paso, Texas; Betzy Bivins, who lives in Macon. Georgia; Mrs. Georgia Baskin, who is the wife of J. D. Baskin, of Moultrie, Georgia, a farmer ; Mary W., who mar- ried C. E. Mathis of Maeon, Georgia, her husband being a locomotive engineer.
Dr. Thomas Franklin Bivins grew up on his father's farm, helping with the work of the place and attending the near-by school. He early determined upon his future profession, for even as a boy he saw the need of a good doctor in all the country communities through the South. There was a dearth of physicians, just as there was a dearth of every- thing else. When he was about sixteen he began to attend the country high school, and from that time he was so busy with his books that he had no time for anything else. After finishing his high school work, he attended the Louisville Medical College, in Louisville, Kentucky, and here he was graduated, with the degree of M. D. in 1886.
True to his determination the young doctor returned to the state of his birth, bent on goving his serviees to help the people among whom he had been reared. This was no small sacrifice for the young man .for he realized the opportunities to advance himself in his profession would be very few. While he had been in college he had been in constant con- tact with the leaders in his profession, and now he would have to strug- gle along by himself with neither the inspiration or the wise counsel that they could have given him, had he gone for example into hospital work in Louisville. However, if his career was not to be as brilliant as it might have been had he remained in the city, he was to receive a training and experience that would broaden his character and give him an insight into the real problems of this complex life such as no hospital practice could have done. He was to learn the souls of men, and to go through trials and tribulations with his people, as he would never have had the opportunity to do as a hospital physician. He first lo- cated in Eureka, in Dooly county, Georgia. After remaining here for five years he moved to Vienna, in the same county, and here he has been in practice ever since. Ilis practice is general, and that means that he has to cover many miles a day, through every sort of weather, but he never falters, and his reward is in the devotion of the people whom he has served so well and so faithfully. Who shall not say that friends are better than fame.
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