USA > Georgia > Fulton County > Atlanta > History of Atlanta, Georgia : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 23
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happier, he is ever ready to co-operate with Atlanta's most public spirited, liberal and progressive citizens. He is now spending the eventide of life among a people whose good opinion he has justly earned and in whose welfare he is willing to labor with no personal or selfish ends. He looks with no regret upon the past ; lives in the present, happy and contented in the society of family and friends, and faces the future with hopeful, manly courage.
MITH, HOKE, lawyer of Atlanta, was born at Newton, N. C., in Septem- S ber, 1855, and on the parental side is of Puritan ancestry. The progeni- tor of the family in America settled in New Hampshire, where many of his de- scendants still reside. In New England and elsewhere they have proved their natural heirship to a brave and self reliant race, who " carved their history upon the granite rocks of their native State." The characteristics of this fan- ily have ever been a sturdy self-reliance, an earnest acquisition of knowledge,. advancement in various departments of industry, and an intense love of coun -. try. Several of them served with distinction in the Revolutionary War. The. great-grandfather of Hoke Smith was a colonel in the Revolutionary army, and his grandfather, William True Smith, was a graduate of Dartmouth Col- lege, and a man of prominence in New Hampshire. Professor H. H. Smith, LL.D., the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in New Hampshire, and is a graduate of Bowdoin College. He came South and allied himself with the Southern people in Newton, N. C., about forty years ago, where for several years he was president of Catawba College. In 1858 he moved to Chapel Hill, in the same State, and became a professor in the State university at that place. Here he remained until 1868, when he located in Lincolnton, and after a residence of three years, came to Atlanta and became connected with the public schools of this city. In 1873 he was chosen principal of the Shelbyville High School, a position which he held for five years, when he moved to Houston, Tex., and organized the public schools of that city. After two years of remarkable success in their management as superintendent, he became president of the State Normal School at Huntsville, Tex., where he suc- ceeded Professor Bernard Mallon. In 1882 he returned to Atlanta, where he is now principal of the girls' high school. Professor Smith married Miss Mary Brent Hoke, a lady of German and English descent, the daughter of Michael Hoke, of Lincolnton, N. C., a lawyer of marked ability, who died at the age of thirty-three, but who, thus early in life, had gained the leadership of the Dem- ocratic party in his State and remarkable prominence in his profession. Mrs. Smith's grandfather owned the first iron furnace and cotton factory in the State, while her maternal ancestors were early settlers in Virginia, and nearly all of the male ancestors on this side of her family were lawyers of distinction. One of them was the first chief justice of North Carolina, and one a member of the Continental Congress. Her brother, R. F. Hoke, was one of the youngest
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major-generals in the Confederate service, and since the war has been promi- nent as a developer of Southern material resources,
Hoke Smith was educated at Chapel Hill until his thirteenth year, when the university was placed in the hands of incompetent men by the radical ad- ministration, all the old faculty being suspended. His education from that time was continued under his father, until he commenced the study of law in the office of Collier, Mynatt & Collier, in Atlanta, in May, 1872. Shortly af- ter beginning this pursuit he taught school in Waynesboro, Ga., but at the same time pursued his legal studies. In May, 1873, he came to Atlanta to at - tend a teachers' convention, and was then examined and admitted to the bar `at the age of seventeen. Before he had attained his majority he was in the possession of a lucrative practice. His success in his profession has been re- markable both for the rapidity with which it was acquired, and the extent and . character of his practice, and for the further fact that he began in a place where he was unknown, and where it was necessary for him to rely upon his own re- sources exclusively. He first gained distinction in the Stafford murder case, in which he took a prominent part as an assistant to the solicitor. To his mas- terful handling of the law and facts in this case was largely due the verdict in behalf of the prosecution. The local press of the city was unanimous in its commendation of his argument, and this one case did much to establish his reputation as a practitioner of ability. In the Hill murder case, tried three years later, he again appeared in behalf of the prosecution, and was equally successful in procuring a conviction. Among his earlier civil cases in which he gained distinction was that of Tanner vs. Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad. This was a case growing out of personal injury, and involved in- portant legal questions prior to that time undecided in Georgia. Mr. Smith appeared for the plaintiff, and in a long and closely contested trial, opposed by the ablest lawyers of the State, secured for liis client a verdict for sixteen thou- sand dollars, perhaps the largest sum ever awarded in Atlanta for personal damages. From that time forward his practice was unsurpassed by any law- yer in Georgia. His practice has been general in character, but of late years has pertained largely to corporation and commercial litigation. In 1887 he was appointed by the governor, with Judge George Hillyer, to represent the State in the prosecution of the convict lessees, and in this litigation, which at- tracted wide attention, he still further added to his laurels gained in the legal arena. For the first ten years of his practice he was alone, but since 1883 his brother, Burton Smith, has been associated with him under the firm name of Hoke & Burton Smith. As a lawyer Mr Smith is one of the hardest workers at the Atlanta bar. He is large of frame and possesses unusual physical and mental vigor, which seems to permit the most steady and persistent applica- tion. He also works with great rapidity, and easily accomplishes tasks which to most men would be impossible. He is thoroughly grounded in the princi-
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ples and application of the law, and in the preparation of his cases is careful to the most painstaking degree. No question of law or fact which could be of value to his case seems to escape his attention, and the intensity with which he thinks causes him to master the most difficult case apparently without effort. As an advocate he is noted for clear and forcible presentation of argument, and his appeals are addressed to the conscience and intelligence of court and jury in language of great earnestness. He is practical in his order of thought and work, and in his talk goes to his object with incisive directness. He im- presses his hearers by his logic and force, rather than by tricks of speech or ef- forts to be ornate. Few lawyers of his age have been so many years in prac- tice or have had such successful experience in all the avenues of litigation. In a profession where great success is rarely attained before middle age, he has . thus early in life gained, among the ablest lawyers in Atlanta, a position with the very best, as the result of hard work and by right of merit and achieve- ment.
Mr. Smith has never been a candidate for any political office, but has deemed it the duty of every citizen to take interest in the government of his country, and as a citizen he has been active in political affairs. In 1876, when only twenty years of age, he was chairman of the Fulton County Democratic Execu- tive Committee, and showed unusual capacity for organization. In the contest relative to the removal of the State capital from Atlanta to Milledgeville, 1877, he was selected to represent his home against the champion of Milledgeville, Mr. Furman, and they stumped Northwest Georgia against each other. He was a member of the gubernatorial convention of 1882, and took a prominent part in the defeat of the two- third rule which was abrogated in that conven- tion. He espoused the cause of tariff reform in the recent contest in Georgia, over Mr. Cleveland's message. The State, with practical unanimity, followed the course which he advocated, and as a recognition of his services he was made president of the convention.
He was president of the young men's library for 1881, 1882 and 1883, and inaugurated the art loan of 1882. He was among the founders of the Atlanta Evening Journal, and is president of the Journal Publishing Company. This is one of the best daily papers in Georgia, and has already secured a wide pat- ronage and exerts a powerful influence in the State. He has always felt a great interest in public schools, and is a member of the board of education of Atlanta.
Mr. Smith was married in 1883 to Miss Birdie Cobb, daughter of General T. R. R. Cobb, of Athens, Ga. They have one son and one daughter. They live quietly in a large home, with elegant grounds, on West Peachtree street, where little attention is paid to style, but where every comfort is found instead of it.
It is safe to say that Mr. Smith is wedded to his profession, and that he has
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no desire to leave it for any other calling. Now, at the age of thirty-two, un- surpassed as an all round lawyer, he has been heard to say recently that he "is only ready to begin a professional career."
TAN WINKLE, EDWARD, senior member of the firm of E. Van Winkle &
V Co., iron-workers, was born in Paterson, N. J., September 14, 1841, and is a son of J. E. Van Winkle, who was a well-known builder of cotton machin- ery. Mr. Van Winkle served under his father a regular apprenticeship at the machinery trade until he had thoroughly mastered all its branches in metal and wood from the drawing-room to the workshop. At the commencement of the war he served for a short time in the Union army, and then went to Cali- ยท fornia, where he was principally engaged in making mining machinery. After the close of the war he returned to Paterson to assist his father in the resump- tion of his business which had been practically suspended during the war, as his customers were almost wholly in the South. Mr. Van Winkle, after spend- ing several years with his father, left Patterson with the intention of return- ing to California, to which locality he had become greatly attached, but before Jeaving he was persuaded by friends to go South. At that time this section of the country was a good field for mechanical skill, men of ability in that line being in great demand. Being impressed with this state of affairs he came to Atlanta in the spring of 1870, at a time when the city was just beginning to recover from the effects of the war and had started on a career of material development, of which the present prosperity has been the result.
Mr. Van Winkle at once began the machinery making business, and three years later purchased a small wooden shed foundry located on the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which had been used for making shot and other war supplies during the war, but at this time was in a dilapidated condition. After repairing the old machinery and adding new tools, he commenced the manu- facture of a power cotton press of his own patent, and to do a general foundry work. He soon after invented a cotton gin condenser, then a self feeding at- tachment for cotton gins and several other useful and valuable machines, all of which he at once began to manufacture. This machinery soon led to the building of cotton gins, and the Van Winkle cotton gin and feeders, conden- sers and presses are now known and used all over the cotton producing coun- try. Year by year as the superiority of Mr. Van Winkle's machinery has become known the extent of his business increased, and in 1880, needing addi- tional help in the management of the rapidly growing establishment, Mr. W. W. Boyd, whose biography appears elsewhere, became a full partner in the business, under the present firm name of E. Van Winkle & Co. In 1884 branch works were established in Dallas, Texas, where besides the manufacture of cotton gins for that section, cotton seed oil machinery, and nearly all kinds of machinery used in the production of cotton are made. The manufactory
Jammer Romy Cin
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of this firm in Atlanta has become no inconsiderable factor in the prosperity of the city, and at present employs nearly two hundred men. Their machin- ery has received the highest award for general excellence at all the leading industrial exhibitions in the Southern States, and is sent to every cotton pro- ducing section in the United States, while considerable has been sent to for- eign countries. Mr. Van Winkle was the creator and sole manager of this business for several years, and the high standard of their production is not only due to his inventive genius but to his experienced and practical super- vision of the mechanical department.
Few men have more thoroughly and exclusively devoted themselves to their business than Mr. Van Winkle. While he is a public spirited citizen and in favor, and readily extends aid to all progressive public enterprises, his ex- tensive business interests have prevented any extensive personal participation in public affairs. His success in the business world has been earned by well- directed and hard labor, united to a thorough equipment for his work, and a high order of inventive ability. His business integrity, personal and private character are above approach, and few enjoy more thoroughly the confidence and respect of his business associates.
In 1885 and 1886 Mr. Van Winkle was a member of the city council, but outside of his service in this office he has never held a political office. His tastes do not lie in this direction, even if his extensive business did not pre- vent participation in public affairs. He was married in 1864 to Miss Amelia King, of San Francisco, and to them three children have been born.
W TYLIE, JAMES R., wholesale grocer of Atlanta, was born in Chester county, S. C., in 1831. and is a son of David G. and Martha (Robinson) Wylie, both of Irish parentage, but born in this country. His grandparents were natives of county Antrim, in the north of Ireland, and emigrated to this country at the beginning of the present century. His father was a farmer and when the subject of this sketch was a few months old removed to Fairfield county. Here his boyhood was passed until his thirteenth year, when the family moved to Cass, now Gordon county, Ga. He remained on the farm, assisting his father until 1851, when he became a clerk in a store at Calhoun, Gordon county, where he remained until 1859, when he secured a position as traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery house in Nashville, Tenn. At the end of a year he returned to Calhoun and served as a clerk until 1862, when he became local agent on the Western Atlanta Railroad and was stationed at Calhoun. Here he remained until the destruction of the road by General Sherman's forces in the spring of 1864. At the close of tbe war he assisted in re- building the road between Atlanta and the Chattahoochie River. In the spring of 1865 he came to Atlanta, and in partnership with Dennis Johnson and W. T. Busbee established the wholesale grocery house of Wylie, Johnson & Co.
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At the end of a few months Mr. Wylie purchased Mr. Busbee's interest, and William H. Dabney joined the firm. One year thereafter he purchased Mr. Johnson and Dabney's interest, and until 1875 conducted the business alone. At the latter date W. T. Wall and T. J. Dabney became associated with him as partners, continuing as such for two years. For two years following James Bridge, jr., had a partnership interest in the business, since which Mr. Wylic has had no partners. He is now retiring from the wholesale grocery trade having accepted the presidency of The Traders Bank. In the wholesale grocery trade he represented one of the best known houses in the State, and while not the largest concern of its kind in the city, none stood higher in the confidence of the trade. Mr. Wylie was one of the original directors of the State National Bank, now Merchants' Bank of Atlanta, and for many years has been its vice-president. He is and has been for several years a director in the Atlanta Street Railway Company; was a member of the executive committee of the International Cotton Exposition in 1881; director in the new railroad enterprise from Atlanta to Florida, known as the Hawkinsville Railroad; member of the executive committee of the Piedmont Exposition in 1887, and now general manager. He is a Democrat in political faith, but has never desired political preferment. The only office he has ever filled in At- lanta has been as one of the jury commissioners of Fulton county, of which he has been chairman for several years. He has taken an active interest in the breeding of Jersey cattle; has, in connection with J. H. Porter, a stock farm devoted to this interest near Peter's Park, and for the last few years has been vice- president of the Georgia Jersey Breeders' Association.
Mr. Wylie was married in 1853 to Miss Louisa O'Callaghan, of Calhoun, Ga., who died in 1871. Six children were born to this marriage, of whom five are now living, three sons and two daughters. He was again married in 1873 to Miss Sarah O'Callaghan, and one son has been born to them.
Without means, save as he created them, Mr. Wylie has had solely to de- pend upon his own exertions for all he has attained in life. He has made right use of his opportunities, and has gained for himself not only a deserving place among the successful business men of Atlanta, but a name for business, honor and integrity, of which he has a right to be proud. He is ever to be found among the progressive business men of Atlanta whose public spirit and enter- prise have, within the last two decades, made possible the city's present pros- perity. Personally he is a pleasant, affable gentleman, genial in nature, makes warm friends, and commands the respect and esteem of all who know him.
G' RADY, HON. HENRY WOODFIN, was born in Athens, Ga., in 1851, I During his boyhood he enjoyed the best educational advantages, but the four years of the civil war seriously interrupted his studies, and much of his time was spent in visiting the various points where his father, Colonel Grady,
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was stationed with his regiment. When peace came it found the lad fatherless, Colonel Grady having fallen in battle, while leading his men in a desperate charge.
Young Grady found that he had no time to lose in equipping himself for his career. After graduating at the State university he went to the University of Virginia, where he took a post-graduate course. He was, during his terms in each of these institutions the youngest student in attendance. He studied diligently what suited his intellectual bent, and paid little attention to branches in which he felt no interest. History, belles lettres, Anglo-Saxon and Greek attracted him, and his standing was very high in all of these. From the first his command of language was remarkable. His pen transferred his thoughts to paper in graphic and glowing phrases with almost lightning-like rapidity, and his ready, magnetic and ringing style of speaking soon won for him the name of the " silver-tongued orator." In the literary societies of the two uni- versities he carried off the highest honors as a speaker.
While still a student he wrote a letter to the Atlanta Constitution. It was printed, and the editor was so much struck with the sparkle and dash of the communication that he signified his desire to hear from the writer again. When the first press excursion after the war was tendered a ride over the State Road, the editor telegraphed his boyish correspondent, who had then returned to his home in Athens, that he wished to have him represent the Constitution on the trip, and write up the country and its resources along the line of the road. Mr. Grady accepted the commission, and, of the hundreds of letters written on the occasion, his, over the signature of "King Hans," were the most popular, and most widely copied.
It is quite likely that this pleasant experience caused this precocious boy of seventeen to turn his thoughts seriously to journalism. At all events, he was a year or two later the editor and one of the owners of the Rome Daily Commercial, a sprightly, newsy and enterprising journal. Rome, however, was a ; that time too small to support a daily, run on such a scale, and in 1872 Mr. Grady purchased an interest in the Atlanta Herald. Here he found a field wide enough for him at that stage of his experience.
The Herald was one of the most brilliant newspapers ever printed in the South. Mr. Grady infused something of his fire and enthusiasm into every member of his staff, and each man seemed to feel that it was incumbent upon him to be at his best, not only on special occasions, but at all times. The young editor from Rome who had established himself in Atlanta to compete with the older journalists who were conducting the Constitution, started out with auda- cious pluck and soon proved himself to be so fertile in resources and expedi- ents that his esteemed contemporary recognized the fact that it had a strong rival to fight. The Herald's Sunday editions and trade issues were the mar- vels of that day.
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Even then Mr. Grady showed a disposition to originate his own methods in journalism. It is a mistake to suppose that newspaper readers are wedded to old fashioned styles, or rather to the fashions with which they are familiar. There is in every man an inborn thirst for novelty, and when the reading pub- lic saw that the new paper had something solid back of its daring innovations, a hearty response in the shape of patronage flowed in from every quarter. But the story of the Herald cannot be told here. After the sharpest competi- tion with the Constitution ever known between any two papers in the South, it disappeared from the field. By this time its editor's abilities had made him many friends abroad as well as at home, and James Gordon Bennett at once made him the Southern correspondent of the New York Herald. On this great journal Mr. Grady did some of the best work of his life. He rapidly regained all that he had lost in his first ventures, and in 18So purchased a fourth inter- est in the Constitution, taking the position of managing editor, which he still holds. Of his work in this position Colonel Avery in his History of Georgia, says : "Mr. Grady's flashing and inimitable sketches, editorials and articles give an unremitting sparkle to the paper. His contemporaries on the journal will consider it no derogation to their high claims to say that Mr. Grady is the genius of this powerful paper. There is a vividness, an audacity, and a velvety splendor about his articles that are peculiar to himself, and that no other man has approximated "
It would be impossible in this brief space to speak in fitting terms of the work of the Constitution's managing editor. His editorials and letters of travel are in so many scrap-books all over the land, that it is unnecessary to describe their characteristics. The paper under his management, energetically seconded by his associates, has become the one Southern daily whose utterances are quoted throughout America and in foreign lands as the best and truest ex- pression of Southern sentiment and progress.
Passing over Mr. Grady's active part in the great political and moral move- ments of the age with which he is prominently identified, it should be stated that he is an earnest believer in the imperial future of the new South, and his time and labor and best thought are given without stint to the development of her resources and to the satisfactory adjustment of the vexatious problems that appear to retard her progress His speech before the New England Society at its annual banquet in New York in 1886, is still going the rounds. It has been published in almost every daily and weekly paper in the United States, and the London press complimented it in the highest terms. The following ex- tracts from this address well deserve preservation in this permanent shape :
Pardon me one word, Mr. President, spoken for the sole purpose of getting into the volumes that go out annually freighted with the rich eloquence of your speakers-the fact that the cav- alier as well as the Puritan was on the continent in its early days, and that he was " up and able to be about." I have read your books carefully and I find no mention of that fact, which seems to me an important one for preserving a sort of historical equilibrium if for nothing else.
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