USA > Georgia > Fulton County > Atlanta > History of Atlanta, Georgia : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 30
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As a business man Mr. Richards was cautious, yet he had the boldness of his convictions, and when he became fully determined upon a plan of action he was not easily turned aside by obstacles. He acted almost entirely upon his own judgment, and that judgment in business matters was almost always right. He was a keen judge of human nature, gave his confidence to few, but those he trusted he had the most implicit faith in. He was quiet in manner and the most unobtrusive and unostentatious of men. He disliked publicity of any kind. Political life and public station had no charm for him, and he strenuously avoided assuming any position which would bring him into public view. He was thoroughly honest in his business matters, and was implicitly trusted by all who had business relations with him. He was one of the most industrious of men, and few more unreservedly gave themselves up so persistently to business duties. Methodical in his methods, he kept constantly before him the whole range of his business affairs, and gave to every detail the most systematic care. Starting a poor boy in the race of life, and laying down his burden in the com- paratively early evening of life, he has left behind him the record of one of the most successful business careers in the State of Georgia, and what is better still, a record of unblemished business honor.
Mr. Richards enjoyed through life more than a fair degree of good health, and when last summer he started with his wife on his annual vacation, there was nothing to indicate but that there were many years of active usefulness be- fore him. But toward the end of his journey and when he was thinking of his speedy return home he began to feel unwell, and while at Ashville, N. C., he was stricken with an affection of the heart, and died on Sunday, September 16, 1888. His death was most sudden and unexpected, and produced widespread
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feelings of sorrow in the city of his home. For many years he had held a position of commanding commercial influence in Atlanta, and those who had been nearest to him knew how severe was his loss. The bank over which he had so long presided, passed resolutions to his unswerving fidelity to its inter- ests, while in commercial circles throughout the city his death was regarded as a severe calamity. But it was in his home circle where he will be most mourned. It was here he was only known as the loving husband, ever kind and affectionate. True to his friends and to every obligation he assumed, he has left behind the memory of an honest, courageous man. Mr. Richards was married in 1853 to Miss Josephine A. Rankin, of La Grange, Ga., who still sur- vives her husband.
S TRONG, JUDGE C. H. Perhaps no man in Fulton county is better or more favorably known than the subject of this sketch, and while it is not the purpose of the writer to give him undue praise, there are certain marked ele- ments of his character which give him prominence and individuality. Just to everybody, generous to his friends, he has built for himself a following which few men enjoy in any community.
C. H. Strong, or Judge, as he is now called, is one of the oldest of Atlanta's present men of note. For thirty-eight years he has been identified with the county and city, and though sixty years of age, he is still a man of wonderful activity. Massive in frame, tall in stature, he presents a magnificent personel, a veritable Jean Valjean. He was born in Gwinnett county, Ga., July 1, 1828. His father, Noah Strong, removed from his birthplace, Durham, Conn., in 1820, living in Gwinnett until 1835, when he removed to Cumming, Ga., coming to Atlanta in 1850, when his son, C. H. Strong, had just reached his majority.
The Strongs, as a family, are perhaps the most thoroughly representative one in America; the family history published in 1874, containing a list of di- rect descendents, out on both lines of the original family tree to cousins eight times removed, or back through the seventh generation. This family history is published in two large volumes of nine hundred pages each, and contains twenty-seven thousand names It was published by Professor Dwight, the well- known educator, brother to the Dwight of Columbia Law School, and cousin to Theodore Dwight, president of Yale College.
The Strong family has been one of the largest and best of the original fami- lies of New England. In its widely ramified history we have a picture on a broad scale of men founding families in the fear of God, and turning them to His service from generation to generation, according to the best typical forms in church or State of our ever expanding home growth. They have ever been among the foremost in the land to found and to favor those great bulwarks of our civilization, the church and the school. Many have been the towns, the territories and the States into whose initial forms and processes of establish-
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ment they have poured the full currents of their life and strength. Few fami- ilies have had more educated and professional men among them, scholars, phy- sicians, lawyers, teachers, preachers, judges, senators and military officers.
The Strong family of England was originally located in the county of Shrop- shire. One of the family married an heiress of Griffith, of the county of Caer- narvon, Wales, and went thither to reside in 1545. Richard Strong was of this branch of the family, and was born in the county of Caernarvon in 1561. In 1590 he removed to Taunton, Somersetshire, England, where he died in 1613, leaving a son, John, then eight years of age, and a daughter Eleanor. The name is stated in one record, on what authority the writer knows not, to have been originally McStrachen, and to have gone through the following changes: McStrachen, Strachen, Strochn, Strong. John Strong was born in Taunton, England, in 1605, whence he removed to London and afterwards to Plymouth. Having strong Puritan sympathies he sailed from Plymouth for the new world March 20, 1630, in company with one hundred and forty persons, and among them Rev. Messrs. John Warham and John Maverick and Messrs. John Mason and Roger Clapp, in the ship Mary and John (Captain Squeb), and arrived at Nantasket, Mass., (Hull) about twelve miles southeast from Boston, after a pas- sage of more than seventy days in length, on Sunday, May 30, 1630.
The original destination of the vessel was Charles River, but an unfortu- nate misunderstanding, which arose between the captain and the passengers, resulted in their being put summarily ashore by him at Nantasket. After searching for a few days for a good place in which to settle and make homes for themselves, they decided upon the spot, which they called Dorchester, in memory of the endeared home in England, which many of them had left, and especially of its revered pastor, Rev. John White, " the great patron of New England emigration," who had especially encouraged them to come hither.
The grandfather of Elder John Strong was, as tradition informs us, a Ro- man Catholic, and lived to a great age. The Strong family has borne out re- markably in its earlier generations in this country, at any rate the historical genuineness of its name in its widespread characteristics of physical vigor and longevity, and the large size of very many of its numerous households. There are a few families of Strongs in the land, some half a dozen only, so far as the author has been able to find, that are not descended from Elder John Strong. The special homes of the family in this country, its centers of largest growth and strength, have been Windsor, Northampton, Coventry, Lebanon, Wood- bury, Colchester, Durham and Chatham, all but Northampton in Connecticut, and in New York, Setauket, L. I., Blooming Grove, in Orange county, Dur- ham and Windham in Greene county, Lansing in Tompkins county, and Hunts- burgh, O.
The great mass of the Strongs for numbers-two-thirds nearly of all that the author has been able to trace-have been the descendants of three out of
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sixteen of the eighteen children of Elder John Strong, who lived to establish families of their own : Thomas, Judediah and Ebenezer Strong.
Among the most frequent names to be found among the Strongs, next to John, William and Henry, those universal favorites, are the scriptural names Joseph, Elijah, Samuel, Nathan, David, Jonathan and Daniel, and especially Benajah, Phineas, Selah and Salmon. The more odd and uncouth any name was. the more likely was it, when once worn by an honored bearer of it, to be perpetuated from one generation to another.
Among the governors, soldiers, statesmen, scientists, etc., of America, the Strongs held many prominent people. They have been prominent in Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and other colleges, while from California to Maine they have been among the rulers of States, in Congress, in the army and in the halls of legislation. They have been among the noted authors of the country, also ministers to foreign lands, cabinet officers and generals of the army.
Shall, then, mineralogists like Dana, one of them be commended for spend- ing years of laborious exploration among corals and minerals ; or distinguished botanists, for searching everywhere, far and near, for long periods of time, for plants, and trees, and flowers that have escaped others' notice ; or naturalists, like Agassiz, for devoting a lifetime to the study of the forms and habits of fishes, and even of the differences of their scales ; or practical astronomers, for watching the skies by night, from youth to old age, to make observations, which need much repeating and comparing and studying afterwards, to yield any result, and that often of but little actual value even for ideal uses ; and yet he, who gives a few happy years of earnest inquiry into the origin, progress and issues of the lives of those for whom all plants and rocks and hills and seas and skies and stars were made, and especially in respect to a race, the most conspicuous of all that have yet appeared upon the earth, for its higli moral characteristics and experiences, be asked, with a leer, or rather with a sneer, " To what purpose is this waste ?"
The friends of the Georgia Strongs will value the above family history, and Judge C. H. Strong's Atlanta admirers will hold him in still stronger affection by knowing that he comes from such a long line of distinguished antecedents.
Following is something of the works of the subject of this sketch : In 1853 the county of Fulton was constituted from the county of De Kalb, and in Jan- uary, 1854, our subject was elected with Judge Walker and Judge Donohue to fill the number requisite to complete the Inferior Court, Judge Terry and Judge Hayden having belonged to the old court in De Kalb. It was to this court of the new county that the care and construction of the court- house, jail, and public highways, the levy of taxes, etc., was delegated. It also ratified the agreement of the act incorporating the new county with the city council of Atlanta for the use and joint occupancy of the old city hall, which lasted up to five years ago from the date of this sketch in 1888, when the county moved into its own court-house. The work of this first court is still felt in Atlanta
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and Fulton county, and much of their sagacious labor will be remembered and known as valuable, for many decades. The sound business principles on which it was founded have been always successful, with always good credit and im- proving tendency. This court had also jurisdiction in civil suits at law, and in that early day of its existence would last from a week to ten days at a session.
In 1855 Judge Strong was elected to the city council, and again in 1856, becoming mayor pro tem., by the action of the board this latter year. In 1857 he was elected city treasurer, and after his term of office expired engaged act- ively in commercial pursuits until 1873. When Mr. Anthony Murphy retired from the board of city water commissioners in 1873, Judge Strong was elected by the city council to fill the vacancy, and remained in office three years. He was not a candidate for office again until 1881, when, at the earnest solicita- tion of his friends, he consented to make the race for clerk of the Superior Court, which important public trust he still holds, having, it is said, the most thoroughly systematized clerk's office in Georgia. He has a corps of ten as- sistants, who are known among the legal fraternity and courts as zealous work- ers and faithful aids. Judge Strong has made marked improvements in the management of the office, until, as already stated, it is known as one of the fin- est in the land, and everything is done under his direct personal supervision.
Going back to the time when Judge Strong was connected with the city council of Atlanta, in 1855, it is well to note that the work commenced then has proven the most lasting and beneficial in the city's history. The organi- zation of the gas light company, as the city's property, has developed into one of the most valuable enterprises known in a Southern city's history. It has proved to be the greatest basis for advantageous trades for the city, such as establishing city schools, making loans, etc., that could be imagined, and much of Atlanta's prosperity to-day is due to the business sagacity of Judge Strong and his associates. Of course, like every other aggressive measure, this was opposed by many conservative people, who raised the strongest objections to the enterprise. How well they foresaw the benefit, however, it is unnecessary to discuss further.
L OCHRANE, Hox. OSBORNE A., late chief justice, and one of the most distinguished citizens of Georgia, was born in Ireland, on August 22, 1829, and was a son of Dr. Edward Lochrane, of Middleton, county Armagh. Dr. Lochrane was a man learned in the profession of medicine, loved by all classes for his kindness of heart, and his society sought by the highest on account of his intellectual culture and extensive literary acquirements. He was as fond as he was full of anecdote, the life of every company in which his genial humor was displayed. His opinions, too, were widely respected on account of his reading and information. His brother, Ferdinand Lochrane, esq., J. P., is 25*
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manager of the Ulster Bank of Ireland, city of Dublin, a man of fortune and position.
The subject of this sketch himself, had, at a very early period, the advan- tages of a finished education. He was a good classical scholar, had read largely works of poetry and romance, and was full of information from the best authors before he came to this country. When he had passed his seventeenth year, although his life had been one of every comfort, and even ease and refinement, he found himself environed by circumstances such as any ambitious boy might have rebelled against. Ireland was at that time was repressed by the weight of a heavy hand ; the line of promotion for her ambitious youth obstructed in every quarter ; the avenues of official advancement and even of private fortune hedged in and curtailed by a thousand petty exactions such as tended to crush and make almost impossible all hope of gaining fame and fortune as the result of honest toil. Loving his native land with all the fervor of a loving nature, he saw with sorrow her pitiable and apparently hopeless condition, and with a brave spirit he deliberately determined to seek his fortune in a foreign land, and to work out such a destiny as he might be able, by his own unaided labors, to wring from the slow admiration and reluctant sympathy of alien strangers.
At the age of eighteen he left his home and came to America, and as a clerk in a drug store at Athens modestly commenced his labors in the new world. He came well equipped to make the struggle for the place he was des- tined to hold among the most illustrious sons of his adopted State. Those who surrounded him at this period remember him as a young man evidently tenderly nurtured, exhibiting the most polished address, and possessed of great courtesy and refinement of manner. They readily preceived, from the accur- acy of his diction, that he had scholarship; that he was always dressed neatly and that he bore about him an air of good breeding. Although he mingled little with the people, and was constantly reading or writing while not en- ployed in the store, and in no way courted public attention, it was natural that people should become interested in him. At length it was ascertained by those who had now become his friends that young Lochrane secretly devoted the greater part of his leisure moments to prose and poetic writing. A few fragments of this early work have been accidentally preserved, and it is not too much to say that they betray an imagination tropical in its luxuriance, and bear the marks of refined taste and cultured thought. Not only in prose, but in poetry as well, did he at this early period train his thoughts to beauty of expression. Indeed he was a casual contributor to the columns of the press, and under anonymous signatures many a little gem of fancy dropped into the abyss of literature to be lost, save in the way of making room for the develop- ment of its author's deeper stores of mental wealth and power.
In the course of time the young men of the University of Georgia took a fancy to the well informed and brilliant young Irishman, and his election as an
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honorary member of the Phi Kappa Society followed as a substantial mark of their regard. This was followed by his being selected the anniversary orator of a temperance society, on which occasion he first exhibited his wonderful talent for public speaking. This speech may be said to have been the turning point of his career. In the audience sat Judge Lumpkin, then chief justice of the State-himself the greatest orator within its borders-who was so much impressed with the ability and eloquence of the young Irish orator, that his congratulations were expressed with warmth and enthusiasm. It was in con- sequence of Judge Lumpkin's advice that Mr. Lochrane was induced to study law, and subsequently to obtain admittance to the bar, which he did in Wat- kinsville, Ga., at the February term, 1850, of the Superior Court. In the next month, March, 1850, he went to Savannah and made a speech on St. Patrick's day. The audience crowded the theater when he spoke, and his success was attested by the repeated cheers that rang through the hall. The Irish women wanted to see the youth who had so painted the misfortunes and glories of his country, and as he threaded his way through the crowding throng many a smile and handshaking and some kisses were given him.
From this hour young Lochrane began to be recognized as the representa- tative Irish orator of the State. Coming to Macon to practice law, he was again the orator of his countrymen, and again covered himself with newer and fresher laurels. It was in Macon, after his successful exhibition of power as an orator that he began in earnest the labors of his profession. At the outset of his career he won the favorable opinion of the bar and the people as a jury advocate. But this alone did not satisfy his ambition. What would have been to very many young men a success, to him was only a stepping-stone. He began to spread his practice, and being invited to address his countrymen in Atlanta, he added strength to his reputation and won additional plaudits.
One of the first cases in which he gained great reputation was tried before Chief Justice Lumpkins at Decatur. This case involved the purity of the jury box, and Lochrane, after presenting the law and facts, finally closed with a tribute to the trial by jury in periods remarkable for beauty, particularly to the impartiality which was to characterize the juror's mind, and in tracing the effect of an expressed opinion upon the judgment it influenced. The case was reversed and the party finally acquitted.
Another case in his early career which forcibly illustrated not only his ability as a lawyer, but his sympathy and tenderness of heart occurred at Macon. One day a poor woman, worn out into shreds of life, sobbing and in rags came before the bar. Young Lochrane was appointed to defend her. The charge was vagrancy. In a hurried consultation, in a few pitiful sentences the wretched woman told him the tale of her degradation. It was an old, old story, but as the words, stinted and woe-begone, came from her tear-dazed heart, Lochrane resolved to fight for her liberty. The evidence was conclu-
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sive of her guilt. She was a vagrant, a vagabond on the earth. The mayor and marshal of the city, who were sworn as witnesses, established it. Noth- ing apparently was left to be done but to write the verdict, when Mr. Loch- rane announced that he proposed to argue the case. At his announcement the prosecuting attorney but ill disguised a sneer, and he quickly responded in the accustomary set phrase that he "would not insult the intelligence of the jury by uttering a word." When Mr. Lochrane rose, his first words startled jury and bystanders, and went far to change the "court-house sentiment." " This woman," said he, in slow, repressed words, " is the victim of crime, not its perpetrator." He paused a moment, while the great meaning embodied in his words seemed to settle down in awe on the face of the jurors, and added : " It was you, jurors, and men like you who committed the offense with which she stands charged. Strong brutal men have been assiduously sowing seeds in the yawning furrows of her heart, and here she comes back to you with the inevitable harvest of vagabondism held out to you in her shrunken fingers." Thus changing the front of the entire case, he adroitly directed the whole accu- sation against her betrayer. Interweaving argumentatively and by way of illus- tration her heart history into his speech, he went on and on until the words " soiled dove" were uttered behind him. He instantly turned and replied : " Yes! Her innocence has been soiled by your lusts. You took her from her father's fireside ; you tore her from a mother's caresses ; you made her home- less, for you shut a father's door upon her and dragged her sick with shame and trembling with horror of herself and you from the shelterings of a mother's prayers and blessing. You have turned her out as a storm-beaten dove, with no home for its broken wing, and to add shame to your treachery, you will brand felon on her brow and hide your own disgrace within the walls of a pen- itentiary !" It is useless to add the jury acquitted her without leaving their seats, and from the powerfully awakened sympathies of the audience, a sum of money was raised on the spot to furnish her with clothing, and to supply her present wants.
In the case of Conally, charged with the murder of his wife, Mr. Lochrane achieved one of his most remarkable triumphs during his early career at the bar. Conally was an Irishman, and the crime with which he was charged so intensely aroused the fury of his countrymen, that they added two distinguished lawyers to the prosecution. Public opinion was strong against the accused, and the prejudice the awful crime had engendered was bitter. When Mr. Lochrane stood up to speak for him, the jury turned away their heads. His argument was well put and pointed, but the points only touched the jury like icicles. The case seemed hopeless. The evening shadows were creeping down from the walls, and ignominious death seemed every where to threaten the accused Conally. Suddenly, as in a gust of inspiration, lifting him above the occasion, he turned to the heavens and painted the mother looking down,
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upon the scenes of the trial, and with an invocation to her spirit brought her down and made her plead for the life of her husband. He turned and rebuked the prejudices around him. He made her tell the tale of the killing, and with uplifted hands warned the jury against the sympathy all felt for her. He caused her voice to speak imploringly for the life of her husband ; of his former kindness; of his trials and cares of life ; of the suddenness of his passion ; and begged piteously for his life as the father of her child, no words could do this appeal justice. It did not acquit Conally, but it saved his life.
These instances feebly illustrate Judge Lochrane's early and peculiar power as an advocate. His devotion to his clients was proverbial. To elo- quent advocacy he joined unquestioned tact. With the quickness to draw out every shadow in the case favorable to his client, yet all could perceive the constant touches of sympathy he would interweave with the facts, and those who knew him felt that out of these straggling links hanging through the mass of testimony, he would construct and coil a chain about the jury hard to break in its sympathetic influence. His greatest strength lay in his changing the front of a case, so as to change the current when it ran against him, and when he had broken or turned the sharpest points of the testimony he would melt away the balance in the heart of human sympathy ; for he could paint anguish until tears involuntarily dimmed the eye, if not the judgment, as, for instance, in the case of Revel, when he argued the motion for a new trial, and one of the pros- ecuting attorneys shed tears over his recital of the anguish and pain of an imprisonment under a sentence of death.
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