USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II > Part 80
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Thomas Johnson Christian was born in 1822 in Mouroe county, at which place he remained until seventeen years of age. After the death of his father in 1839, he and his mother moved to Florida, carrying with them their slaves. He entered government land in Madison county and improved a plantation. Having sold this in 1856 to his brother-in-law, Dr. J. W. Hines, he moved to Georgia, and purchased lot No. 82, a tim- bered traet, eight miles south of Quitman, then in Lowndes, but now in Brooks county. He was on the first jury drawn in Brooks county. Hav- ing again sold in 1860, he moved to Hamilton county Florida. near Belleville, where he bought lands. There in company with Green MeCall he built in the Withlacoochee river "a fall fish trap" from which he hauled fish by the two-horse wagon loads. The trap is still standing, having been in operation these many years. On account of failing health he sold his possessions in that locality and settled in 1862 in Berrien county, Georgia, four miles from Nashville, where he purchased Flat Creek mills, consisting of gins and grist with several adjoining lots of land.
During the war between the states he not being physically able to render active military service was detailed miller, and in that eapaeity did all that he could to help the Confederacy. He owned twenty-six slaves, for whom he was offered real estate in Savannah to their full value, but on account of the relation between master and slaves he re- fused to seil, saying that he always had treated them well, and he be- lieved they would never leave him, and some of them did, after freedom, remain with him for several years. During the latter part of the war Captain Sharpe, an enrolling officer, was his guest while performing his duties for the Confederate army. The captain's whereabouts was dis- covered by the Confederate deserters, by whom he was brutally mur- dered. These deserters worked great damage to the property of Thomas J. Christian by killing his stock, burning bis kitchen, setting on fire his dwellings, which would have burned had it not been for the prompt and active service of his slaves-especially the negro Summer, who carried the blankets into the well in order to wet them and smother the fire, the bnekets having been taken off by those who set the house on fire. His life was constantly in danger. He was waylaid by the deserters who were jealous of his kind treatment to the soldiers and loyal persons connected with the Confederacy. His life was spared and he remained until 1867 in this trying community, in the center of the collection of the Confederate deserters, who congregated around this ten-mile bay and large swamp. From here he went to Lowndes county, nine miles south of Valdosta, at which place he remained for six months. He traded his Berrien county property for land in Madison county, Florida, just across the state line. Fifteen years later he exchanged that land for a farm. lo- cated in Brooks county, Georgia, ten miles south of Quitman, and there he spent the remainder of his life, passing away January 6, 1885.
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Thomas Johnson Christian married Mary Susannah MeCall, who was born in Telfair county, Georgia, July 12, 1832, and died in Brooks county, Georgia. June 26, 1893. She was a daughter of Col. George Robert Francis MeCall, a granddaughter of Rev. Wm. McCall, and great-granddaughter of Francis McCall, a native of Scotland who immi- grated to America in Colonial days, settling in South Carolina. Rev. Wm. McCall served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and was for many years a noted preacher in the Missionary Baptist church. Remor- ing from Society Hill, South Carolina, to Sereven county. Georgia, he was there a resident until his death. He was twice married. His first wife, Nancy Fletcher, the great-grandmother of George R. Christian, was the danghter of William Fletcher, who died in southeast Georgia at the advanced age of 132 years. The maiden name of his second wife was Mary Pierce.
Col. George R. MeCall was born July 28, 1794, in Sereven county, and was educated for a physician, having graduated at a medieal eol- lege. Not caring for his professional life, he entered land in 1838 in what is now Brooks county, Georgia, and Madison county, Florida. The little Ancilla creek passed through his land and he improved the power, building first a grist mill and later putting up the first sawmill in South Georgia. He ereeted the first frame house in this section of the state, painted it white, and it was known for many miles around as the "White House." It was located about twelve miles south of Quitman in Lowndes county, now Brooks eounty, near the state line. Colonel MeCall sold that estate to William Thomas, moved from there to the Land place, eight miles south of Quitman. Then he sold this and moved about one mile south of the state line into Madison county. Florida. On the same little Ancilla ereek he built a larger grist and saw mill, and there resided until his death. November, 1884, in the ninety-first year of his age. The colonel was an important factor in the development of the resources of his community and during his career witnessed many won- derful transformations in the face of the country, villages and populous cities springing up. He saw Savannah grow from a small hamlet, when he first began trading there, to a large and enterprising city, one of the foremost in the state.
On January 15, 1817. Col. George R. McCall married Luvineia Fain, who was born in Telfair county, Georgia, January 15, 1801. She was a daughter of Thomas Fain and granddaughter of William Fain. a Revo- lutionary soldier who lies buried in Knoxville, Tennessee. William Fain was a native of Ireland, his trade was a linen weaver, and he left a land estate there when he eame to America; when the Tories land was eon- fiseated in this country he decided to give up his estate in Ireland. Lnvineia ( Fain) MeCall died June 26, 1885. They lived a long and happy wedded life of sixty-eight years, and reared ten children.
Of the union of Thomas Johnson and Mary Susannah ( MeCall) Christian ten children were born, namely : Mary Blair, Thomas Addison, Rebecca Luvincia. Frank Gilmer, Moses Nathaniel, Hope Hull, Martha Virginia, Georgia Robert. JJulia . Ann and Cora IFull.
George R. Christian. the special subject of this sketch. attended com- mon schools whenever opportunity offered, acquired a practical educa- tion when young, and assisted on the home farm until attaining his ma- jority. He then went to a horological school at Oxford, North Carolina, and mastered the trade of wateh maker, in which he engaged as watch maker and jeweler for eleven years in different parts of Georgia and Florida, during which time he permanently located at Quitman, Geor- gia. In November. 1899, he changed his business into an installment furniture business in which he was engaged seven years. Retiring from
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that business in 1906, he is at present a successful dealer in real estate, being one of the largest real estate owners in Quitman, Georgia. IIe is building a summer home on Pine mountain at Manchester, Georgia, and his winter home is on 15 Rhode avenue, St. Augustine, Florida. a place which is surrounded by palms, oranges, figs, mulberries and phims. trees and fruits which distinguish that section of the state. It is located near the famons Matanzas Bay, from which he gets his fish. oysters and deep-sea products. lle has made a home for his ummarried sisters in Quitman, Georgia. since 1896, who still remain with him.
Captain Christian has never married. He takes special interest in his genealogy and has several relies handed from his ancestors.
AARON WILEY DOWDY. Left fatherless when still a babe in arms and forced at a tender age to begin to make his own way in the world to a great degree, life presented to Aaron Wiley Dowdy no primrose path of dalliance. With him it has been the order of the day to work and hus- tle from early youth and to attain success not through any adventitious chance, but by ardnous effort and meritorious, self reliant service. That. he has done this and has met with a large measure of success in his op- erations is made evident to all who visit his tinely cultivated farm in Appling county, near Rockingham, where he has followed agricultural pursuits for the past thirteen years. Mr. Dowdy was born March 8, 1862. near Reidsville. Tattnall county, Georgia, and is a son of Aaron Wiley and America (Bacon) Dowdy.
Mr. Dowdy's paternal grandfather. Ben F. Dowdy. served as sheriff of Tattnall county during the war between the states, in which his son, the father of Aaron W., lost his life while serving in the Confederate ranks at Gettysburg. He married Emily Mattox. Mr. Dowdy's mother, a native of Bryant county, Georgia, who now resides in Appling county. is a dangliter of Frederick and Emily (Stubbs) Bacon, farming people of Georgia.
The educational advantages of Aaron Wiley Dowdy were secured in the schools of the vieinity of the family home in Tattnall county, and he was reared to the life and pursuits of an agriculturist. Brought up under stern discipline, he early learned traits of self-reliance, industry, integrity and clean living, characteristics which have helped him in surmounting many obstacles and eventually achieving success. He con- timmed to follow farming in his native county until he reached the age of thirty-seven years, at which time he came to Appling county. at that time locating on the farm which he now operates. Mr. Dowdy has been a hard-working, industrious man, living a frugal, correct and useful life. Whatever he has acquired is the result of his own thrift, energy and business capacity. He is one of the men who, in making money. do not so fall in love with it as to forget their duty to their fellow men. In all matters pertaining to the welfare of the people he takes a deep interest. and is one of the first to assist in promoting any good enterprise. In consequence of this disposition, together with his general worth and use- fulness, he is well esteemed and has many friends in his community.
Mr. Dowdy was married to Miss Frances Weathers, daughter of the Rev. A. and Harriet (Smitho) Weathers, the former a missionary Bap- tist minister who filled various charges throughout Tattnall and Liberty connties for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Dowdy have been the par- ents of seven children, as follows: Byron MeFarland, thirty years of age, a farmer: Edward Cleveland, twenty seven years old, who is also engaged in agricultural pursuits: Fannie, who is twenty-three years of age: Sidney, twenty, the wife of Frank Anderson, residing in Appling county, near Rockingham : Georgia, a sixteen-year-old student who has
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read the New Testament through three times; and Luther MeLain, aged thirteen, and Henry, seven years old, both of whom are attending school. Mr. Dowdy is a master Mason, and he and his family attend the Metho- dist church, South.
WALTER BLAIR RODDENBERY. Born on the plantation in Decatur county, now in the new county of Grady, which he now occupies and eul- tivates, and which his father attained years ago when all the land was covered with forest, Walter Blair Roddenbery has unusual and promi- nent relations with the agricultural and civic affairs of his locality. He represents the third generation of a family which has resided in south- ern Georgia, and the family is one that has furnished men of ability not only to the agricultural and business affairs of the state, but also to the larger public life.
A special distinction belongs to Walter Blair Roddenbery as one of the prime movers in the formation and organization of Grady county. This movement, which was brought to a successful termination in 1906, met with a great deal of opposition from both Decatur and Thomas counties, neither of which wanted to lose some of their best territory. Mr. Roddenbery worked unceasingly, being convinced that the best inter- ests of the locality would be subserved by a new county, and after the county had been created he became a member of the first board of county commissioners and chairman of the board. In this capacity he had much to do with the building of the present magnificent courthouse at Cairo, and continued as chairman of the board until that structure was built and paid for. It is believed that no county in Georgia has a finer courthouse building than Grady. Mr. Roddenbery is also president of the Roddenbery Hardware Company of Cairo, and of the Cairo Guano Company. IIe is a scientific farmer and a very successful one, rais- ing diversified erops, but principally sugar cane, and every year from his own crop of cane he manufactures several thousand cases of syrup which he markets under the brand "Nigger in de Cane Patch." In the other important relations which he bears to his community, Mr. Rod- denbery is chairman of deacons in the Baptist church, and for several years has served as superintendent of the Sunday School.
Walter Blair Roddenbery was born on his father's plantation near Cairo, on the twenty-eighth of April, 1862. His father was the late Dr. Seaborn Anderson Roddenbery, who was born on a farm in Thomas county, Georgia, in 1834. The paternal grandfather was Robert Rod- denbery, a native of South Carolina, where for so far as known his par- ents spent all their lives. Two of the brothers of Robert Roddenbery also came south and located, one in Georgia, and one in Florida. Robert Roddenbery was a young man when he moved to Georgia, and began life in this state just even with the world. He had been reared to habits of industry, and after coming to Georgia, became a wage carner, saving his earnings and with the money buying land which in those days sold at very low prices, sometimes as low as $1.00 per acre. He bought a large quantity of land near the south line of Thomas county, where he built a log house in the woods, and with the labor of his own hand cleared land and cultivated it. He was one of the successful men of his time. and acquired a large estate. Before the war he owned many hundred acres of well improved land, and worked the plantation with the aid of slaves, freeing nearly a hundred of them at the close of the war. Late in life he moved into Thomasville, where he remained until his death, which resulted from his being thrown from a carriage. The maiden name of his wife was Vieey Anderson, who was born in Thomas county. where her father was a pioneer and she survived her husband several years,
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passing away in Cairo. They are both buried on the old home farm in Thomas county. The seven children in that generation were named Louisa, Mary Ann. Seaborn A., John K., Nancy, Margaret and Georgia.
Dr. Seaborn A. Roddenbery attained his early education in the rural schools of Thomas county. It was his desire to become a physician and there is a matter of curious interest in the disagreement between him- self and father as to which school of practice he should adopt. The father wanted him to study homeopathy, and offered to pay his way through medical college, but the son was determined to follow the regu- lar school of allopathy, and in consequence he cut himself loose from dependence upon his father, and secured a clerkship in a Thomasville store. After earning sufficient money he entered Oglethorpe Medieal College at Savannah, where he was graduated M. D. in 1858. He then began practice in Decatur county, and engaged board and lodging in the home of Samuel Braswell, a planter living four miles northwest of the recent site of Cairo. He soon afterwards bought a traet of land at the "eross-roads," two miles from the present site of Cairo, and there built a log house. Into that humble shelter, he brought his bride and it was in that home that Walter Blair Roddenbery and other of the children were born. Dr. Roddenbery built up a very large and successful prac- tice in his vicinity and like all the pioneer doctors he had to undergo the hardships of almost constant riding and driving across the country with few roads and with very inadequate accommodations for man or beast. This exposure and hard work undermined his health, so that in 1870 he moved into Cairo and engaged in the merchandise business. After that he practiced only when called upon by the families whom he had doe- tored for many years, and who refused to accept the services of any other physician. He continued as a farmer and merchant, until his death in 1896. During the last year of the war Dr. Roddenbery was called out with the Georgia militia.
Dr. Roddenbery married Miss Martha America Braswell. She was born on the south side of Thomas county in 1837. and now resides at the old homestead with her son Charles D. Her father was Samuel Braswell. who came from North Carolina to Georgia, being one of the early settlers in Thomas eounty. About 1845 he moved to Decatur county, and bought land four miles northwest of the present site of Cairo. In that locality he spent the rest of his day. Dr. Roddenbery and wife reared tive sons and two daughters, named Walter Blair, Bertha, Robert S .. Seaborn A., Jr., John W. and Charles D., and Kate. Bertha, now deceased, was first married to Dr. A. B. Coffman, and second to Charles W. Beale. Charles D. is a cigar manufacturer in Cairo. Robert S. is engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Moultrie, Georgia. Seaborn A. Roddenbery, Jr., an attorney at Thomasville, is one of the prominent men in public life of Georgia, and is now representing his district in congress for the third term.
Walter Blair Roddenbery as a boy attended school in Cairo, and was then sent to Prof. O. D. Scott's school in Thomasville, where he prepared for college. Ile entered the University of Virginia, and was a student there for two years. It was his intention to enter the law, but his father's ill health turned him aside from professional life, and he returned home to take charge of the store, a business to which he later succeeded. He has also become owner of the old homestead. Since his proprietorship he has supplanted the old residence with a comfortable and attractive rural home, and with many excellent farm buildings and improvements all of which are suitable evidence of the excellent manner in which he does his farming. He keeps a home dairy of jersey cows, and each sea-
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son buys a number of stoek eattle for fattening. He raises grain, eotton. vegetables and fruits but as already stated sugar cane is his chief crop.
Mr. Roddenbery was married June 1. 1887. to Miss Maude Bost- wick. She was born in Homer, Louisiana, a daughter of Elijah and Rebecea (Scaife) Bostwick. Her maternal grandfather was Rev. Jimi- son Scaife. a pioneer of the Methodist ministry in Georgia. Mr. and Mrs. Roddenbery have four sons, named Albert C .. Julien B., Wal- ter Blair. Jr .. and Frederick W. Mr. Roddenbery is a member of the Baptist church and his wife of the Methodist.
WILLIAM BERRIEN BURROUGHS, M. D. Bearing an old and dis- tinguished name in Georgia, Dr. Burroughs has well performed the re- sponsibilities and creditably lived up to the expectations of his family history. During the war between the states he carned distinetion as a Georgia soldier. Fifteen years of his career were devoted to the exact- ing profession of medicine. Resigning a large practice on account of ill health he has since been in business in Brunswick. He has been honored with many of those offices in civic affairs, where the opportuni- ties of service are great, and the duties vitally essential to the general welfare, but in which practically the only individual reward is the sense of public duty well done.
William Berrien Burroughs was born April 7, 1842, at Savannah, Georgia. The history of the family goes back to the Elizabethan days of England's glorious maritime exploits. An old record names Capt. Stephen Burroughs as captain of one of three vessels which attempted to reach China by way of Nova Zembla in 1553. Captain Burroughs published a book of his adventures, during which he reached "farthest north" at that time (seventy degrees and three minutes), and was "the first who observed the declination of the magnetic needle." In old books of heraldry is described the Burroughs' coat of arms, and many other records indieate the prominence of the name in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Sir John Burroughs, who was knighted in 1624. was an attendant and court official to King Charles I. His descendants have been prominent in England from that time to this, one of them having been in recent years head of the largest drug house in the world at London.
The founder of the family in America was John Burroughs. who was born in Dorsetshire, England, in 1617. and came to Ameriea to Salem. Massachusetts. about 1642. As an adherent of Charles I, he had been one of those who fled from England at the time to escape the religious and political persecution after the dissolution of the long parliament of which he had been a member. Soon after arriving in this country, he located at Long Island, and was one of the original settlers of Middle- burg in 1652. where he paid his share of the Indian rate. Being a lead- ing man and skillful penman, he served as town elerk and clerk of court. and made the first map of Newtown. He was one of the seven patentees of Newtown in 1666, and continned in office as town elerk until his death. when his'oldest son succeeded him to that office. His children. grandchildren and great-grandchildren moved to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.
Fourth in deseent from this noted founder of the family in America was Benjamin Burroughs, grandfather of Dr. Burroughs. Benjamin Burroughs was born on Long Island at Newtown, March 31. 1779. and died at Savannah, Georgia. April 14. 1837. In 1795 he brought the name south to Angusta. Georgia, and in the following year moved to Savannah. On July 2. 1799, at the age of twenty he married in Savannah, Miss Catherine Eiriek, danghter of Alexander Eirick, a
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member of the colonial parliament. Her youngest sister. Ruth. married Captain Franeis II. Welman, an officer of the British navy, and their daughter, Mrs. JJohn HI. Reid, was long a prominent member of social cireles in Savannah. Alexander Eirick married Ruth Erwin, a daugh- ter of Christopher Erwin, who was born in county Antrim, Ireland, January 8, 1754. One sister of Ruth Erwin married a Captain Loyer. an officer of the French army, from whom is descended Capt. Richard J. Davant, the present mayor of Savannah. Another sister married Gov. Jared Irwin, her cousin, the letter being changed from e to i.
Grandfather Benjamin Burroughs was prominent as a cotton and commission merchant in Savannah. Ilis partner, Mr. Oliver Sturges. and himself, owned a third interest in the steamship Savannah which in 1819 was the first vessel to cross the Atlantic ocean under her own steam. The partners shipped a large cargo of cotton to Liverpool on the first voyage of the Savannah. The vessel sailed from Savannah May 26, 1819, and reached Liverpool after a passage of twenty-five days, during which the engine was employed eighteen days. Benjamin Burroughs was an elder in the Independent Presbyterian church in Savannah. and gave-five thousand dollars to assist in building the church in 1817. The names of the children of Benjamin Burroughs and wife were as follows: Joseph HI .: William Howe, who married Ann McLeod; Benjamin, who married Rosa Williams; Dr. Henry Kol- lock Burroughs, a former mayor of Savannah, and who married Ella Dessaussure: Oliver S .. who married Ann C. Maxwell; Elizabeth Reed, who married Dr. John S. Law; and Catherine, who married Charles Green.
Joseph Hallett Burroughs, father of Dr. Burroughs of Brunswick, was born in Savannah, Georgia. June 3, 1803. He was graduated from Yale College and then engaged in the cotton business with his father. On June 26, 1828, he married Miss Valeria Gibbons Berrien, who was born in Savannah, August 4, 1806. Her family was specially distin- guished in the south and elsewhere. She was a daughter of John Mac- pherson Berrien and Eliza Ancianx. Mr. Berrien was quartermaster- treasurer of the French Royal Denx Ponts Regiment, and his commission, signed by Louis XVI, is now in the possession of Dr. Burroughs at Brunswick. Nicholas Ancianx was a son of Chevalier De Wiltteiseno, who was born in Frankfort-on-the-Main in Germany.
The Berrien family in America was founded by a Holland-French Huguenot, who settled on Long Island in 1669, and for several genera- tions the family was prominent in the Dutch church and in the town and civil affairs of Long Island. Several generations later in the Ber- rien family was John Berrien, whose home was in Somerset county, New Jersey. He was a judge of the supreme court of the colony. General Washington made the Berrien home his headquarters for some time and from the doorstep of the Berrien house was delivered the fare- well address of Washington to the army. One of the children of this Judge Berrien was John Berrien. the maternal great-grandfather of Dr. Burroughs. John Berrien emigrated to Georgia in 1775. and at the age of fifteen was lientenant in the First Georgia Regiment. became captain at the age of seventeen, and at eighteen was appointed brigade- major in the Northern Army, by General Lachlan MeIntosh. He served with distinction in the battle of Monmouth and at Valley Forge as well as in other engagements and continued to fight for independence until the close of the war. He married Miss Margaret Macpherson, a danghter of Capt. John Macpherson, an officer in the provincial navy, the Macpherson family having been especially prominent in military affairs during the Revolutionary war. One of the sons of Major John Vol. II-35
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