USA > Georgia > Fulton County > Atlanta > History of Atlanta, Georgia : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 20
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he has never professed to exclude from his practice any measures which he might consider conducive to the welfare of his patients; never being addicted to illiberal or extreme views; so that he has always in his practice been con- sistent with his professions. He has had the satisfaction of seeing the number of practitioners of homeopathy in the United States increase from a mere hand- ful at the time he accepted the system to over ten thousand in I888.
In 1859 he became a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, to which he has contributed many important papers, while he has taken an active part in the discussions during the meetings, and held important positions in connection with the work of the organization. This is the oldest medical society in the United States, and numbers among its members many of the first physicians in the country. The estimation in which he is held by his col- leagues may be inferred from the fact that he was elected to the presidency of this body in 1887, while he was prostrated on a bed of illness at his home-the meeting being held at Saratoga Springs. This was a most extraordinary com- pliment-indeed unparalleled-both in view of the character of the men com- posing the body (for there was much excellent material to choose from) and of the fact that it is altogether unusual, if not unheard of, for a body of this character to elect an absentee as president.
His address upon the opening of the annual session was a masterful defense of homeopathy, abounded in practical and valuable suggestions, and charac- terized by fairness, good' taste and scholarly finish. He received many com- pliments for his address, and at the close of the session an unanimous vote of thanks was passed "for the uniform courtesy, justice and decision with which he has presided over our deliberations." The election of a man to the presidency of the highest body known to his profession is admittedly placing him at the head of that profession, there being no higher distinction in the way of conferred honor for him to achieve. He was a member of the Homeopathic Yellow Fever Commission, which met in New Orleans in 1878, to investigate the subject of the fever and the effect of its treatment by homeopathy, which was found to be very greatly in its favor. This commission was composed of eleven prominent homeopathic physicians (chiefly yellow fever experts), appointed by the pres- ident of the American Institute of Homeopathy, five of whom are now ex- presidents of the institute.
The success of Dr. Orme as a physician may be largely ascribed to his earnest and exclusive devotion to his profession, which he has always made the first consideration, never allowing politics, speculation or other pursuits to interfere with his duties. By his courtesy and fairness in his dealings with other physicians of different schools he has always enjoyed, in an eminent de- gree, their respect and friendship, which he highly esteems. Narrowness of views, bigotry or prejudice have no lodgment in his nature.
This sketch would be incomplete if it dealt only with the professional career
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of Dr. Orme. With professional honor of the highest order he unites many graces of character that have won for him the respect and admiration of the community in which he lives. His personal character as a man of probity and high sense of honor has been firmly established by an unsullied record. As a friend his adhesion and reliability are unconquerable. He is incapable of any- thing like a betrayal of friendship. Loyally, and without regard to personal consequences, he stands by those to whom he has given his confidence and his pledge. Dignified, and yet always courteous in private life, he is one of the most genial, open hearted and interesting of companions, and lives in the en- joyment of a large circle of warm friends, who esteem him not less for his high abilities than his unbounded hospitality and the unlimited breadth of his sym- pathies. In addition to his professional attainments he is a thinker and writer who, in public addresses and otherwise, has shown a literary capacity of supe- rior order, united to soundness of judgment and grace of expression that give to his papers and public utterances a double value. Nothing is more distaste- ful to him than sham and superficiality. He is a man of broad views, of genial and liberal opinions, a man of taste and culture, without a trace of pedantry or a touch of imperiousness. His hand is hearty in its grasp and liberal in its charities. While he is in every sense a practical man, there is in his nature an element that is genuinely poetic. It is the vein of gold in the quartz of his more rugged virtues. Such are a few of the prominent characteristics of this eminent physician, of whom a distinguished colleague referred to as " one of our strong men in the South," and another as " a very able, influential man, who, by his exemplary character, exceptionally clear and forcible writings and devotion to his work, to his family and his friends, is a worthy representative of a noble profession."
In 1867 Dr. Orme was married to Miss Ellen V. Woodward, of Beaufort district, South Carolina. His family consists of a daughter, Miss Lillie, and a son, Frank. He has two living brothers, William P. and A. J. Orme, and a sister, Mrs. J. W. Culpepper.
A residence of twenty-seven years in Atlanta, marked by eminent useful- ness, distinguished professional success as the acknowledged leader of his school of practice, with a record of unquestioned probity, place Dr. Orme among the representative men of brains and character in the capital city. The achieve- ments of a physician-the triumphs which give him reputation are not to be stated like the principal events in the lives of men in military or political life. He is, however, estimated by those who know him, according to his general success and his personal character for integrity, and there are few prouder titles as there are few persons more beloved than " the good physician." This title Dr. Orme has justly won by long and loyal devotion to his profession, the nobleness of his life, liis many generous deeds and active usefulness. Dr. Orme is now in the full maturity of his powers, and that in the years to come
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a full share of increasing honors may come to him is the wish of the many warm admirers of this true friend, genial companion and cultured gentleman.
DETERS, RICHARD, one of the oldest residents of Atlanta, was born at Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia, Pa., November 10, 1810, and is a son of Ralph and Catherine (Conyngham) Peters. He is of English and Irish descent; his grandfather, Judge Richard Peters, was a son of William Peters, a merchant of Liverpool, England, who emigrated to this country and settled on the present site of Fairmount Park, near Philadelphia, about the middle of the preceding century. Judge Richard Peters, after whom the sub- ject of this sketch was named, was a contemporary of General Washington, served under the Confederation of States during the administration of Wash- ington as Secretary of War. When he resigned this position he was elected a member of Congress and was afterwards appointed judge of the United States District Court at Philadelphia, in which position he was serving at the time of his death in 1828.
The mother of Richard Peters was a daughter of D. H. Conyngham, of Dublin, Ireland, a member of a well-known Irish family in the north of Ire- land, whose descendants have become prominent in Pennsylvania.
Most of the years of the early youth of Richard Peters were passed at Philadelphia, in the family of his grandfather Judge Peters, where he received a good English education including civil engineering, the higher mathematics and drawing. At the age of nineteen he entered the office of William Strick- land, a celebrated architect of Philadelphia, who built the United States Bank and mint in that city, and the capitol of Nashville, Tenn., with whom he re- mained one year, studying architectural drawing. He then served one year as a civil engineer in the construction of a breakwater at the mouth of the Del- aware River. This was followed by service under Civil Engineer Major Wil- son, in locating the Camden and Amboy Railroad, and also in the construc- tion of the Philadelphia and Lancaster, now known as the Pennsylvania Cen- tral Railroad. He was engaged in the latter work until 1835, when he came South as the principal assistant under J. Edgar Thomson, under whose general supervision he had charge of locating the Georgia Railroad from Augusta to Madison. In 1837 he was appointed general superintendent and general man- ager of this road, and at that time located in Augusta, where he continued to reside until 1845. At the date named, in connection with other parties, he purchased from the Georgia Railroad Company the line of stages running be- tween Montgomery, Ala., and Atlanta, Ga., and continued in this business un- til the railroad was completed to Montgomery in 1850.
Mr. Peters's first visit to the present site of Atlanta, then called Marthasville, was made in 1844, and his second the year following, in company with J. Ed- gar Thomson, who was the first to suggest the name of Atlanta for the em-
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bryo city, the name being derived from the word Atlantic, and suggested be- cause the city at that time was the terminus of the Western Atlantic Railroad. In 1846 Mr. Peters permanently located at Atlanta, and from that time to the present has been prominently identified with the city's history. At the time he selected the place as a residence there were but few houses erected, and it took strong faith indeed to believe that within a half century here would be seen the present metropolis of Georgia. Mr. Peters devoted most of his time and energies to railroad building and management until the war between the States began. He was one of the active directors and managers of the Geor- gia Railroad, and of the Atlanta and West Point road, and in all of these en- terprises was intimately associated with the late John P. King, of Augusta, President of the Georgia Railroad for forty years, the ablest financier in the State, and a devoted friend of Atlanta. He also was largely interested in the Georgia Railroad Bank, which for several years prior to the war was located on the corner of Wall and Peachtree streets. In 1852 he was the principal builder and owner of a steam flour-mill in Atlanta, the largest south of Richmond. For the purpose of obtaining fuel to run this mill he purchased 400 acres of timber land, upon a portion of which his present residence on Peachtree street is located, while Peters's Park is also included in this tract. This land Mr. Peters purchased for five dollars an acre, and portions of it he has since sold at the rare price of $10,000 per acre. He still owns considerable area of his original purchase, a large portion of which is considered the most desirable residence property in the city. In 1847 he purchased from the Indians 1,500 acres of land in Gordon county, near Calhoun, which he has ever since retained, and here for the last forty years he has probably expended more money in improving the breed of cattle, and in experimenting with plants, trees and grasses than any other man in the South.
Before the war Mr. Peters was aligned with the Whig party, and vigorously opposed the secession movement. During the war he remained in Atlanta, attending to the business incident to his railroad interests, until the battle of July 22, 1864, when, with his family and the assets of the Georgia Railroad Bank, he went to Augusta. He remained in Augusta until after the surren- der at Appomattox, and returned to Atlanta on the first train after the com- pletion of the Georgia Railroad. During the reconstruction period he took a prominent part in advocating the return of the State to the Union, and in 1868 was instrumental in securing the location of the State capital at Atlanta.
In 1870 Mr. Peters became one of the lessees and directors of the Western Atlantic Railroad and is still connected with its management. In 1872, with others, he invested largely in the construction of street railways in Atlanta, and has since been president of the corporation known as the Atlanta Street Rail- way Company. He also took a prominent part in promoting State and county fairs before the war, and to the expositions held in Atlanta, during recent
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years, he has rendered valuable aid by his counsel as well as by money con- tributions. Ever since his residence in Atlanta he he has shown his faith in the city by liberally investing his means in real estate. His first residence in the city was on the corner of Mitchell and Forsyth streets, and here he contin- ued to reside for nearly forty years, or until 1881, when he sold this property to John H. Inman, and erected his present home on Peachtree street. He at one time owned a number of acres of ground, upon a portion of which is now located the Georgia Central Railroad depot, land which has become as valua- ble as any in Atlanta.
Mr. Peters, in 1847, with J. Edgar Thomson, Samuel G. Jones, Charles F. M. Garnett, then chief engineer of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and others, established the first Episcopal Church in Atlanta, which has since been known as St. Philip's Church. Of this church he has been a member ever since, and for many years was a vestryman. In 1864, under Chaplain C. T. Quintard, of the First Tennessee Confederate Regiment, who has since been made bishop of Tennessee, he assisted in the erection of St. Luke's Church, on the corner of Walton and Broad streets. Seven weeks after its completion it was destroyed during the burning of Atlanta, after the capture of the city by General Sher- man. Mr. Peters was married in 1848 to Mary J. Thompson, daughter of Dr. Joseph Thompson, a celebrated physician who practiced for many years at Decatur, Ga. They have had nine children, seven of whom are now living ; four boys and three girls. The children in order of birth are as follows: Rich- ard, secretary of the Chester Rolling Mills at Thurlow, Pa .; Nellie, widow of the late Hon. George R. Black, of Screven county, Ga. ; Ralph, superintend- ent of the Little Miami Railroad, at Cincinnati; Edward Conyngham super- intendent of the Atlanta Street Railway Company ; Katherine Conyngham, Quintard, a graduate of the Boston, Mass., Institute of Technology, and May, wife of H. M. Atkinson, of Boston.
The best estimate of a man's powers and qualities can be found in the work he has done and the repute in which he is held by those who know him best. Judged by these standards Mr. Peters has made a most creditable record. He has been among the foremost of those who have done much for Atlanta, and nobly labored to make it the great factor in the world's progress that it is to- day. He was with it in the early days of trial and doubt, and for more than forty years has been one of its truest and most valorous champions ; one of its most earnest and sturdy defenders, and for its future has hoped and planned when others were silent or opposed when they should have given help. With a natural aptitude for finances, and a thorough knowledge of men, Mr. Peters has long been recognized as a financial and personal force in the community, and his connection with any enterprise commends it to confidence and support. He has been careful, conservative and watchful of the important trusts re- posed in his hands, and his standing in this community is of the highest for
E El Cameron
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honesty, fair-mindedness and honor in all his personal as well as his business transactions. His life has been one devoted not merely to himself, but largely to the good of others, and, while generous and ready with his means in all worthy causes, he has, by industry and keen business sense amassed an ample fortune which he worthily enjoys. He has ever been one of the most modest and unostentatious of men, and one to whom publicity of any kind has ever been distasteful. He is a man of warm attachment, and when his confidence has once been given the loyalty of his friendship is unchangeable. For the last few years he has practically retired from active business, but for one of his years enjoys remarkable vigor of mind and body. He represents one of the few connecting links between the early past and present of Atlanta, and the events of his busy and useful life form in themselves a history of the progress and growth of the Gate City.
R AWSON, HON. EDWARD E., was born in the heart of the Green Moun- tains, at Craftsbury, Vt., in IS18. He is of English descent, and a lineal descendant of Edward Rawson, who was born in England in 1615, and emigrated to America in 1636 or 1637, and became an inhabitant of Newbury, in the colony of Massachusetts. He became a prominent character in the founding and development of New England, and held many offices of honor. In 1650 he was elected secretary of the colony of Massachusetts, an office he retained for thirty-six consecutive years, when he was succeeded by Randolph at the time of the usurpation of the government by Sir Edmund Andros. He died in 1693, after a long life spent in the service of the people of the colony. He was a man of the strictest integrity, commanded the confidence of the peo- ple, and possessed rare elements of popularity. He had twelve children and their numerous descendants scattered throughout the country have reason to feel pride in the honorable career and upright character of the progenitor of the family in the new world.
The subject of this sketch is a representative of the seventh generation of the Rawson family in America. His grandfather, David Rawson, settled in Shrewsbury, Mass. He removed to Bull Creek, Wood county, West Vir- ginia, where he died in 1837. The second son of David Rawson was Elijah, the father of Edward E. Rawson. He was born in Westboro. Mass., in 1781, and soon after his marriage to Susanna Allen settled in Craftsbury, Vt., where he died April 25, 1837. The boyhood of Edward E. Rawson was passed upon his father's farm. He was educated in the district school of his native place. Upon the death of his father, being then nineteen years of age, he left home to begin life's battles for himself. He came to Lumpkin, Ga., and entered the employ of his brother, the late William A. Rawson, as clerk. He remained in this capacity until 1841, when he opened a dry goods store and began a mer- cantile career, in which he achieved notable success. The late Judge James
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Clarke afterwards became associated with him as partner, and during the last year of his residence in Lumpkin E. P. Chamberlin of this city had a partner- ship interest with him in business. After sixteen years of business life in Lumpkin, attended with a fair measure of success, his health failed and he was compelled to seek a more invigorating climate. He then, in 1857, came to Atlanta. Here he has continued to reside, and during all the years which have since elapsed, some of them filled with gloom and disasters, he has been one of the true and steadfast friends of the city, around whom men have clustered for counsel and guidance in hours of peril and doubt, while in the later years of the city's prosperity no one has been more ready to lend a helping hand to every deserving public enterprise.
Upon his arrival in Atlanta Mr. Rawson embarked in mercantile pursuits, and at the time the war begun had built up a large and prosperous business. He was a member of the general council during the trying time of 1863 and 1864, when the late James M. Calhoun was mayor, with whom he visited Gen- eral W. T. Sherman, and protested, as a matter of humanity, against the forci- ble removal of the population of Atlanta. The services he performed in this connection led to a correspondence which is now historical, and concerning which in another part of this volume will be found extended reference. After the destruction of the city by the Union forces he removed with his family to Des Moines, Ia. In June, 1865, he returned to Atlanta, and heartily entered into the work of restoring the ruin war had wrought to every material interest of the city. As member of the general council in 1867 and 1868 he was active in promoting every project which seemed to promise good to the city, and during this memorable period of general impoverishment, when the slowly re- viving interests of the city needed liberal assistance, no one more unselfishly devoted himself to the public welfare than Mr. Rawson. He was actively and prominently identified with the removal of the State capital from Milledge- ville to Atlanta, which in many ways has been of great advantage to the latter city. Soon after the war he was elected a member of the board of education, and immediately addressed himself with vigor and force to the founding and maintenance of public schools. From 1868 to 1888 he was a member and treasurer of the board, and for these years Atlanta has had no more warm and enthusiastic advocate of the free school system than he, and the city's present excellent facilities for free education, owes much to his intelligent labors. He was chairman of the board of water commission from 1872 to 1888, and de- voted much time to the construction of the present admirable system of water supply.
For several years after the war Mr. Rawson engaged in merchandizing, but in 1879 became interested in the Atlanta Coffin Company, a manufacturing enterprise, with which he was connected until he established in 1887 the Gate City Coffin Company, of which he has since been president. He and his sons,
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and Charles E. Boynton, are the principal owners and managers of the enter- prise, which has proved a most successful venture and furnishes employment to about sixty men.
Mr. Rawson has been successful in business, not as the result of any single, brilliant stroke, but rather as the result of patient, persistent and well-directed effort. He possesses good business judgment, excellent executive ability, and an evenly balanced mind. He is naturally conservative, and wild, speculative methods, with promise of great reward if successful, but with ruin as the price of defeat, have no charms for him. No man in this community stands higher for strict integrity of character, business probity and faithfulness to every trust. and obligation. It was but recently that an intimate business associate of Mr. Rawson for nearly forty years, in speaking of him, said to the writer : " I con- sider him as one of the highest type of a high-minded, conscientious Christian gentleman and honorable business man." This estimate of the man, it is not too much to say, is the universal verdict of all who have had business relation- ship with him. Atlanta has been benefited in many ways by his ready willing- ness to promote, by his labor and his means, every public enterprise, and ac- cording to his ability to do and to give, the city has had no more helpful and sincere friend. He early in life became a convert to the Christian faith, and has been an active member of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church ever since his residence in Atlanta, and it was largely through his efforts that the present commanding location on Whitehall street was secured and the handsome church building erected. He is generous and charitable, and although closely de- voted to business interest, gives much time and freely contributes of his means to benevolent work. Personally, he is a genial and pleasant gentleman, but modest and retiring in disposition, and naturally shrinks from anything that would lead him into the public view. He is domestic in his tastes, loves his home, and finds his chief pleasure in the family circle and in friendly inter- course with intimate friends.
He was married in 1846 to Miss Elizabeth W. Clarke. They have had nine children, their names in order of birth being as follows : Mary P'., wife of John D. Ray ; Laura E., wife of Judge W. R. Hammond; Emma S., wife of Henry S. Johnson ; Carrie V., wife of Colonel T. P. Westmoreland; Edward E., Charles A., William C., Sidney J., and Lonie Lee.
R IDLEY, DR. ROBERT BEMAN, of Atlanta, was born at La Grange, Ga., October, 1842, and is a son of Dr. R. A. T. Ridley. His father was born in Mecklenburg, N. C., in 1806; was educated at Chapel Hill, Ga., and was a graduate of the Charleston Medical College. He practiced his profes- sion with distinguished success at La Grange for many years. He took a prominent part in politics and represented his county in the Legislature, and was a State senator for several terms. He was a man of strong character,
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high professional attainments, and until his death, in 1872, exerted a wide influence both in his profession and in public affairs. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Morris, was a daughter of John Morris of North Carolina, and was born in 1812. She is still living, and resides at the old homestead in La Grange. The early life of the subject of this sketch was passed at La Grange, and in the High School of that city he was prepared for entering the senior term at the State University, when the beginning of the war prevented his continuing his studies. In May, 1861, he enlisted in the La Grange Light Guards, which became a part of the Fourth Georgia Confederate Regiment, commanded by Colonel George Doles. The first service of this regiment was at Norfolk, Va., and after the evacuation of that city it went to Richmond and participated in all the important battles of the Virginia campaign as a part of General Robert Rode's division, being in General " Stonewall" Jackson's corps until the death of that distinguished military leader, when General Ewell as- sumed command. Dr. Ridley soon after joining the company was made a lieutenant, and in this capacity served throughout the war. He was twice wounded at the battle of Spottsylvania, and so severely as to incapacitate him for service, but after a furlough of sixty days he rejoined his company and re- mained in active service until the surrender at Appomattox Court House.
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