USA > Georgia > Fulton County > Atlanta > History of Atlanta, Georgia : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 26
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George Winship was educated at the Clinton Academy, and after the re- moval of his parents to Atlanta, spent the remaining years of his early man- hood in acquiring a knowledge of the foundry and machine business under his father's direction. When he became of age he assumed control of his father's business, which he continued to successfully manage until the spring of 1862, when he enlisted in General T. R. R. Cobb's Confederate Cavalry Legion. This command took a prominent part in the Virginia campaign, and Mr. Win- ship remained in active service until he was severely wounded near Harper's Ferry, in September, 1862. He then returned home, and after a short vaca- tion sufficiently recovered to rejoin his company. But his wound again dis- abled him for service in the spring of 1864, when he returned to Atlanta and remained until the close of the war.
Work was continued in Mr. Winship's foundry until the city was captured by General Sherman, when the entire plant was burned. After the war closed Mr. Winship again rebuilt his shops, and started anew in partnership with his brother, Robert, under the firm name of Winship & Brother, and was continued
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under this style until 1885, when the business was incorporated under the name of the Winship Machine Company, of which the subject of this sketch has since been president. Prior to 1870 the product of the concern was lim- ited to a general jobbing work in iron and foundry and machinery supplies, but since the date named cotton gins and presses, engines and saw-mill machinery have been added,' much of which is manufactured under patents secured by Mr. Winship. The average number of men employed is about one hun- dred and twenty-five, and the productions of the company are sold in all the cotton producing States. In 1880 the entire manufacturing plant was rebuilt, and it is now one of the most complete in the South. Under Mr. Winship's management the business has grown from a comparatively small amount until at the present time it is no inconsiderable factor in the material prosperity of Atlanta. He has given his entire time to its promotion, which added to ex- cellent business judgment and executive ability, largely accounts for the gratifying success attained.
Mr. Winship has been a director in the Merchant's Bank for the last fifteen years, and since its organization has been a director in the Atlanta Home In- surance Company. He is also president of the Home Building and Loan Asso- ciation.
He was married in 1860 to Eugenie Speer, of Atlanta, who died in 1869. Two daughters were born to them, the eldest being the wife of Robert Tay- lor, jr., of Baltimore, and the youngest being the wife of James H. Nunnally, of Atlanta. Mr. Winship was again married in 1879 to Miss Lula Lane, of Macon, Ga. They have had two children, a boy now four years of age, and an infant son.
Mr. Winship has closely applied himself to his business, to the exclusion of conflicting interests, and from early youth has continued in the same line of work. In consequence he is thoroughly familiar with every detail of his busi- ness. The substantial pecuniary success which has rewarded his industry has been justly and honestly acquired, and among the business men of Atlanta, no man stands higher for strict integrity of character. He is public spirited, and in many ways has demonstrated his deep interest in the prosperity and ad- vancement of the city. He has been a member of the First Methodist Church ever since his removal to Atlanta, and for many years has been a steward and trustee. He is a good representative of the substantial and progressive busi- ness men of the city, and one whose public and private life has been above reproach.
H ILL, L. J. Lodowick Johnson Hill, capitalist and banker of Atlanta, was born in Wilkes county, Ga., January 16, 1846, and is the youngest of eleven children of Lodowick Merriwether and Nancy (Johnson) Hill. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, his paternal ancestors having emigrated from county
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Down, Ireland, and settled in Virginia prior to the Revolutionary War, but the branch of the family from which he is descended soon after removed to Wake county, N. C. Wylie Hill, his grandfather, settled in Wilkes county, Ga., after the War of the Revolution, where he became a successful planter and a man of prominence. His son, Lodowick Merriwether Hill, was a man of strong char- acter, and as a business man and a leader in public affairs wielded wide influ- ence. Early in life, having amassed a large fortune as a planter, he lived on his extensive plantation amid surroundings befitting a man of wealth and cul- ture during ante bellum days in the South, and at his home dispensed a lavish hospitality typical of the highest type of the genial Southern character. In the period of early railway construction in Georgia he invested largely in such en- terprises, becoming a director in the Georgia and in the Atlanta and West Point railroads, as well as becoming financially interested in the Georgia Cen- tral Railroad. He also took a prominent part in the administration of public affairs, and represented his county for several terms in the State Legislature. At the organization of the Gate City National Bank he was elected president of that institution, and at the time of his death in 1883, was acting as vice- president. His first wife died a short time after the birth of the subject of our sketch. His second wife was Miss Martha S. Welborn, who died in 1885.
Lodowick J. Hill passed his early boyhood at home. At the age of eleven, to carry out the intention of his parents, he began a thorough educational course. His elementary education was received at the primary schools at El- berton, Elbert county, and at Newnan, Coweta county, Ga. This was supple- mented by periods of instruction at Mercer's University, Georgia Military In- stitute and the University of Virginia. Having received the advantages of the best educational institutions of the South, he was sent to Europe to complete his studies. There he attended the University of Berlin, in Prussia, and a col- lege in Paris, France. He returned to America in 1870, and began the study of law in Atlanta under Judge Bleckley, the present chief justice of Georgia. After having completed the necessary legal studies for admission to the bar, he abandoned the idea of becoming a lawyer, and determined to devote his en- ergies to an active business career. With that end in view, in 1871 he organ- ized the First National Bank at Newnan, Ga., of which he became cashier, and continued in that position until 1877, when he was elected cashier of the At- lanta Savings Bank, which succeeded the Georgia Railroad and Banking Com- pany Agency. In 1879 he was elected president of this financial institution, when through his efforts it was converted into a national bank, and has since been known as the Gate City National Bank, the original capital stock of which was $100,000, but has since been increased to $250,000. The record of this bank has been one of continuous and uninterrupted success. Mr. Hill has de- voted himself assiduously to the responsible duties of his position, and has shown a financial generalship and business acumen which are alike creditable
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to him, and largely explain the gratifying success attained. But the successful management of his banking interests has not engrossed his entire time or en- ergies. He is president of the Georgia Security Investment Company, which has a capital of $550,000, its officers and stockholders including many of the leading capitalists of Georgia. He is also president of the Georgia Improve- ment Company, which has a paid-in capital of $400,000, and at present en- gaged in building the Atlanta and Florida Railroad.
Mr. Hill was married in September, 1871, to Miss Mary Ruth Henderson, daughter of General Robert J. Henderson, of Covington, Ga. They have two children, a daughter thirteen years old, and a son aged ten.
Although his education and experience as a young man were entirely out- side of a business career, Mr. Hill has shown the strongest trait in his charac- ter by his quick adaptation to the duties he assumed. He is a man of strong determination, and when a line of action has been decided upon he persistently follows it until success has been attained. He is not easily discouraged; is de- liberate in action, but firm and unmovable when a stand has once been taken. A man of the highest intellectual culture, he is literary in his tastes, but the active demands of business and his extensive financial interests during recent years have given him but little time for study. He possesses the confidence of the general public to a high degree, is honest and straightforward in all business transactions, has a keen financial faculty, pleasing address and cour- teous manners, and in all respects is a typical, bright and progressive specimen of the young American banker and business man.
PATTILLO, WILLIAM P. of Atlanta, son of John and Mary Pattillo, was born in Harris county, Ga., January 27, 1837. His father was a farmer, and the subject of this sketch passed the first sixteen years of his life on a farm. He then entered Emory College, and graduated from that institution in 1857. He taught in Alabama, for one year after graduation, and in the fall of 1858, removing to Texas, was admitted as a member of the Eastern Texas Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and for three years was an itinerant preacher in this conference. In the fall of 1860 he was appointed assistant principal of Fowler Institute at Henderson, Texas. This school was under the control of the East Texas Conference; and soon perceiving it would be impossible to carry out the purpose of the Conference in its establish- ment, he resigned his position. He then moved to Hickory Hill, Cass county, and took charge of a private school at that place, and was thus engaged when the civil war began. In June, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Third Texas Cavalry, and for twelve months was in constant service in Mis- souri, Arkansas, Indian Territory and Mississippi, after which he was appoin- ted chaplain of the regiment and in that capacity served for twelve months, resigning from the regiment just after the fall of Vicksburg, taking leave of
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his regiment July 6, 1863, at Jackson, Miss. He then returned to his pa- rental home in Georgia, and at the next session of the Georgia Conference was appointed to take charge of the colored church at Athens, Ga. Here he was stationed for two years, and here he was married, July 21, 1864, to Sallie E., daughter of Albon Chase, of Athens, Ga.
The Methodist Church South was much reduced in members and financially as a result of the war, and at the Georgia Conference, held at Macon in 1865, it was determined to reduce the number of ministers appointed to regular pas- toral charges, leaving fifteen of those who had but lately joined the conference, or who were most able in other fields to gain a livelihood, without appointment, and among the latter was Mr. Pattillo. His energetic nature would not permit him to remain long without regular employment, and he accepted the Atlanta agency of the Southern Mutual Insurance Company, of Athens Ga., of which his father-in-law was then secretary, and in January, 1866, moved to Atlanta and entered upon the business of fire insurance. Almost an entire stranger in the city, with no friend to aid or encourage him, and representing only a Southern Company, then much weakened by the results of the war, and the business being established in the hands of other well-known agents representing Northern con- panies with many millions of assets, his progress was for many months slow and embarrassed by difficulties such as would have disheartened most men. But with confidence in final success that never faltered, and determined perseverance that overcomes all obstacles, the claims of the Company were pressed, its con- dition explained, and the advantages of its terms to policy holders set forth, until the public-many of them its former patrons and recipients of its special benefits-were reassured as to its strength and advantages. Under such per- sistent, well directed efforts his business has steadily increased in volume from year to year, and at the present time this Company commands a larger busi- ness in the city than any other company, and has for the past eighteen years. In 1868 the Etna Insurance Company of Hartford and other companies were added to this agency, which for the past fifteen years has done the leading business in this line, averaging since 1875 to this date about one-fifth of the entire fire insurance business of Atlanta. In 1868 W. F. Pattillo, nephew of W. P. Pattillo, entered the office as clerk, and in 1878 was admitted as men- ber of the present firm of W. P. & W. F. Pattillo, which represents the South- ern Mutual of Athens, Ga., Georgia Home of Columbus, Ga., Home of New York, Phoenix of Hartford, Conn., and the Hamburg-Bremen Fire Insurance Company of Germany. For the last named Company they are also general agents for Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Tennes- see. The success of Mr. Pattillo and of the firm of which he is senior member has been due to persevering industry, prompt and careful attention to business, strict integrity and impartiality between the companies and their policy holders. Mr. Pattillo has devoted himself to his business with a thoroughiness and energy
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such as always win substantial success. He is affable in disposition and court- eous in manner, and no man in Atlanta possesses more unreservedly the con- fidence of the people in his honesty and integrity of character. During his residence in Atlanta he has taken a prominent part in religious work, having assisted in the organization of nearly all of the various churches of his denon- ination that have been forined in this vicinity for the last twenty years, and has delivered many sermons and addresses. In mission work he has been especially active and devotes much time to this branch of church work. His success in business has made it possible for him to render valuable aid to all religious and charitable work, and he freely contributes of his means to further these ends.
K IMBALL, H. I. The historian who seeks to portray the life and advance- ment of a people must, no matter how far he may be under the control of theories pointing otherwise, come at last to the individual and seek his true relation in the lives and records of those by whom the works he would describe have been performed. Thus biography becomes not merely a sidelight to his- tory, but the very essence and vitality of history itself. In the story of the leader you tell that of his times as well.
Viewed thus it does not need to be said that the true story of Atlanta can not be told, as we have tried to tell it in these pages, without more than a pass- ing reference to the man whose name may be found above, and whose varied lines of effort have touched almost every material interest of the capital city of Georgia as well as many reaching far beyond its boundaries. The events of his busy and useful life have two reasons for relation-they illustrate the days in which he has lived, and they form a powerful incentive to the grand army of youth, who aspire to walk also in the path of honor to reach the goal of success.
H. I. Kimball was born in Oxford county, Me., in 1832. His boyhood days were passed in the quiet of home. In early youth he acquired a prac- tical knowledge of carriage-making, his father and older brothers all being engaged in that business, and at the age of nineteen he removed to New Haven, Conn., and soon demonstrated such superior administrative and ex- ecutive ability that he was placed in exclusive control of one of the most ex- tensive carriage manufactories in the United States.
In 1858 he was married to the eldest daughter of Mr. George Cook, his then partner in business, and well known at that time as the most extensive carriage manufacturer in this country.
Early in the year 1866 he engaged with Mr. George M. Pullman in estab- lishing sleeping car lines in the Southern States. The field of his business operations made it necessary for him to thoroughly acquaint himself with the resources and necds of the South. He visited many southern cities, and at a
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time when few had much faith in the upbuilding of this section of Georgia, still suffering from the ruin and devastation war had wrought, he foresaw, with his keen business perception, what the future, under the right leadership and labor, had in store for the Gate City, and selected it for his headquarters.
With all the energy of his nature he entered upon a career of usefulness to the city and State of his adoption, and the beneficent results of his labors from that day to the present entitle him to the gratitude of every citizen of Georgia. His location in Atlanta was at a period when men of creative genius, unbounded force and capacity for large enterprises were most needed to grapple with the great industrial problem then unsolved ; to inaugurate material prosperity in the face of the greatest discouragements, and to bring order and a well regu- lated social and business condition of affairs out of the most discordant and unbalanced elements. Eschewing the work of the politician, Mr. Kimball gave his great powers to material development and soon became a well recognized force and a striking personality in the work of advancing the substantial inter- ests of this war blighted section.
The first work of a public character in which he took a prominent part was in relation to the location of the State capital at Atlanta. He saw the advantage to accrue to the city by its selection as the legislative center of the State, and he lent all his influence and power to further this end. When, in 1867, the consti- tutional convention of Georgia convened in Atlanta, he was foremost in urging upon that body the advantages of Atlanta as the capital of the State, and when the convention finally declared, by ordinance, that Atlanta should be the seat of the State capitol it was found that there was not a building in the city suit- able for a State house. Mr. Kimball immediately determined to provide such a structure as would be acceptable to the commonwealth. He accordingly purchased the abandoned walls of a projected opera house, and under his per- sonal direction in less than four months had the building complete in every portion and adapted in all details to the wants of the State. This building was leased by the city of Atlanta in pursuance of an agreement that the city would furnish, free of cost to the State, a capitol building for ten years. The follow- ing year the Legislature purchased the building, the city paying $100,000 in part payment, and for nearly twenty years it has been used as the capitol of Georgia. The full consequence of this resolute action of Mr. Kimball in the erection of this building has seldom been properly considered. Its effect was to permanently locate the capitol in Atlanta. Had the State simply occupied the building as leased by this city, it would have been comparatively easy to again change the location of the capitol to some other rival city of Georgia. Indeed since 1868 there have been more than one attempt to do so, and it is more than probable the opposition to Atlanta would have triumphed had not Mr. Kimball furnished a State house.
When Atlanta contracted in 1870 with the State Agricultural Society to
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provide grounds and buildings for the agricultural fair of that year, which would cost nearly $100,000, the city authorities selected Mr. Kimball as the man equal to the necessities of the occasion. The time for preparation was short, and a large amount of work was necessary. Nearly sixty acres of woodland had to be made ready, with suitable grades and buildings, but within six months, in ample time for the fair, Mr. Kimball turned the completed grounds and build- ings over to the city. He then contracted with the city to take entire manage- ment of the fair, and under his able direction the exhibition was regarded the most successful that had ever been held in Georgia. Over twenty thousand people visited the fair in one day. Nothing equal to it has ever been held in Georgia before or since.
As soon as this contract with the city was executed, Mr. Kimball stated that he would not only prepare everything for the fair, but that he would also erect a hotel for the accommodation of the visitors and have it open at the time of the opening of the fair. At this time there was no feature of the city more lacking than proper hotel accommodations. On Saturday, March 29th, Mr. Kimball concluded the purchase of the old Atlanta Hotel lot; two days there- after ground was broken, and on October 17th following the hotel was finished, furnished and opened to the public, at a cost of $675,000, and equal in all re- spects to the fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, and far superior to anything in the South. It was named "The H. I. Kimball House," after its owner and builder. The erection of this costly edifice was regarded at the time as a bold and hazardous undertaking. Men having less confidence in the future of At- lanta than Mr. Kimball declared from the time it was outlined that it was an extravagance which could never be sustained in such a city. The facts of its history refuted these opinions and fully sustained the judgment and foresight of its projector, and it is now admitted by all that this enterprise has had much to do with Atlanta's growth and prosperity.
The building of the Kimball House necessitated other improvements. Per- sons familiar with Atlanta in those days will remember the dilapidated old "car- shed," the unsightly park in front and the mud " hog wallow " in the rear, constituting the five acres of ground in the very heart of the city, bounded by Pryor, Decatur, Lloyd and Alabama streets. And also the entire block on Alabama street, running between the Merchants' Bank and Pryor street, con- stituting what is familiarly known as the " Mitchell heir property." The latter ground was given by Mr. Robert Mitchell for railroad purposes, and when the railroad shops were removed and a large portion abandoned for railroad pur- poses the heirs of Mr. Mitchell and others claimed the property. The city and State contested their claim by reason of having exchanged other property for it, and for many years suits had been pending for its possession. In conse- quence of these difficulties no improvements were made, and the property thus became an annoyance to the community. A continuance of this state of affairs
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Mr. Kimball saw would not only be a detriment to his hotel property, but would prevent many needed improvements in that part of the city. He therefore undertook the task of harmonizing conflicting interests and getting the property out of litigation. This required a cash outlay of some fifty thousand dollars> after which he succeeded in securing the ratification of his compromise in both the State Legislature and the city council. The immediate results of this im- portant step were that the city received a fine railroad depot in place of the old " car-shed " and $100,000 cash.
Mr. Kimball laid out the plans for the depot and provided for the tracks in the rear for the accommodation of wholesale houses on Alabama street, which resulted in changing the location of the wholesale business of the city. He widened Pryor street several feet and laid out Wall street nearly eighty feet wide, although he owned the property and his friends urged that fifty feet was sufficient, but he insisted that the time would come when it would be worth more in the street than in the lot, which prediction has long since proved true. This entire property was mapped and sold in one day, capitalists coming from New York, Boston and elsewhere, and notwithstanding the great outlay and cost of the property sold the profits to Mr. Kimball were over $100,000. This entire property is now covered with the most valuable storehouses in the city, while the young men of to-day can hardly realize the deplorable condition of this now valuable property twenty years ago. Perhaps no one improvement did more for the city, the inception and carrying out of which was alone made possible by the labors of Mr. Kimball, and among his exertions in behalf of Atlanta none are more deserving of credit.
The enterprises which have been named, important as they were, by no means engrossed the active energies and administrative genius of Mr. Kimball, and while he was carrying out projects of inestimable value to Atlanta, no one in the State of Georgia was more actively engaged in railroad building. At one time he was president of nine different railroad organizations. During the year 1871 he completed some three hundred miles of road, surveyed and laid out many others, and of all the roads since constructed in this State, there is scarcely one that was not projected or surveyed by him.
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