USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > History of Savannah, Ga.; from its settlement to the close of the eighteenth century > Part 23
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Among the other secret societies of Savannah are Alliance Lodge, No. 586, Knights of Honor; and Savannah Lodge, No. 1183; Tattnall Coun- cil, No. 884, American Legion of Honor ; Isondiga Lodge, No. 18, and Sheperd Lodge, No. 17, Ancient Order of United Workmen ; Branch No. 38, Catholic Knights of America; Savannah Lodge, No. 2, Golden Chain ; Georgia Lodge, No. 151, O. K. S. B .; Pulaski Council, No. 153, Royal Arcanum ; Jasper Council, No. 10, Home Circle ; three branches of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union ; two lodges of the Independent Order of Good Templars ; one division of the Sons of Temperance; Geor- gia Tent No. 151, of I. O. of R .; St. John the Baptist Society, and St.
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Patrick's Society of T.A. B .; two lodges of the I. O. B. B., and one lodge of the U. S. of T.
The soldiers who fought in the Confederate and Federal armies during the late civil war, have each an organization in Savannah, the object of which is for social reunion and benevolence. The Confederate Veterans Association was formed a few years ago and is in a flourishing condition. The officers are L. McLaws, president; H. R. Jackson, W. W. Gordon, vice-presidents ; J. K. P. Carr, treasurer; E. A. Silva, secretary. The organization composed of honorably discharged Federal soldiers is known as the Winfield Scott Hancock Post No. 48. Its officers are T. F. Gleason, commander ; W. Snow, senior vice-commander ; E. Ybanez, junior vice- commander ; S. F. B. Gillespie, adjutant.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
E STILL, COLONEL J. H. The story of the life of a self-made man is almost always interesting, particularly to those who have their way to make in the world. The methods by which he won distinction, or ac- quired fortune, are eagerly studied by those who are ambitious and en- terprising, with the hope of finding something that will assist them in their efforts to achieve success.
Colonel John Holbrook Estill is a conspicuous example of a self-made man. He owes his success in life to his own unaided exertions. He be- gan at the bottom of the ladder, and has climbed steadily toward the top. Indomitable perseverance, great application, a high order of executive ability and excellent judgment in business matters are marked features of his character.
Colonel Estill was born in Charleston, S. C., October 28, 1840, in a building on Broad street which subsequently was occupied by that cele- brated organ of secession, the Charleston Mercury. He was one of a family of eleven children. William Estill, his father, who was a book-
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seller, bookbinder and printer, lived to the age of eighty-two, and died in Savannah in 1882. From his earliest years Colonel Estill has been con- nected in one way and another with the printing business. His father moved from Charleston to Savannah in 1851, and at the early age of eleven years Colonel Estill began his career in the office of the Evening Journal, his first work being setting type and distributing newspapers. During the next five years he was employed at different times in the offices of the Savannah Daily Courier and the Savannah Georgian. In 1856 he returned to Charleston, and served an apprenticeship in the printing house of Walker, Evans & Cogswell. In 1859 he was back in Savannah assisting in the publication of the Evening Express. The Ex- press was a failure, however, and when the war of secession began he was a pressman in a job office which was situated on the site now occupied by the Morning News building.
Colonel Estill was, of course, in sympathy with the prevailing senti- ment of his State in political matters, and promptly volunteered when troops were called for. He was one of those who garrisoned Fort Pu- laski, and he went with his company, the Oglethorpe Light Infantry, commanded by the distinguished Colonel F. S. Bartow, to Virginia. He has always been proud of the fact that he was one of "Bartow's boys." He was wounded in battle, and was discharged from the army in 1863 because of his wounds, but he afterwards served as a volunteer in defense of Savannah.
At the close of the war Colonel Estill was penniless and without occu- pation. He was not, however, discouraged. He had confidence in him- self and he was willing to work at anything that promised to yield him a living. He accepted employment at a dollar a day, but kept his eyes open for chances to improve his material condition. In 1866, while work- ing as pressman in the News and Herald office, he purchased a small job printing office, and in 1867 he bought an interest in the News and Her- ald, and became its business manager. In the following year he secured entire control of that newspaper and changed its name to the Morning News.
It was not an easy matter to make a newspaper in Savannah pay at that time. There were two other morning newspapers, but the Morning News quickly became the favorite, and in a short time had the field to
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itself. In 1876 the Morning News became financially strong enough to own a home of its own, and a four-story building was erected on the pres- ent site of the magnificent Morning News publishing house, which was built nine years later.
It may be asserted without fear of successful contradiction that the Morning News under Colonel Estill's management, has led the newspaper press of the South in every step of its improvement. It used a folder when there was not another in use south of Philadelphia, and the same is true with respect to the mailing machine. It was the first to print from stereotype plates, and it was the first in Georgia to organize a regular sys- tem of correspondence and to use the telegraph extensively in its special news service. In the Morning News publishing house there is an im- mense business carried on outside of the publishing of a newspaper. Job printing, lithographing and book-binding are done on an extensive scale. The patrons of the publishing house are found in about every city in the South.
Colonel Estill also owns the Macon Telegraph, the leading newspaper of Middle Georgia, and one of the four great dailies of the State. Outside of his newspapers he has taken a leading part in a great many business enterprises, and continues to do so. In all undertakings for the benefit of Savannah he is pushed to the front, and made to shoulder a large share of the burden. Within the last few years he has been endeavoring to relieve himself of many of the trusts confided to his care, but he has only partially succeeded. He is still, in a very marked degree, a servant of the public, and doubtless will continue to be. Among the places of trust and responsibility he now fills are the following : President of the Union So- ciety, which includes the care of the Bethesda Orphan Home, founded in .1740 by Rev. George Whitefield; President of the Chatham Real Estate and Improvement Company ; a member of the Board of Public Educa- tion, and a County Commissioner. Besides these he is either president or director in a dozen or more corporations. He built one of the street railways of Savannah entirely from his own means, and was the projector of the Belt Line Railroad. In addition to the various business enterprises to which attention has already been called he directs a rice plantation and cattle ranch which he owns in South Carolina.
Colonel Estill has never held an elective political office, except that
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of public printer, to which he was twice elected. He has, however, been on the staff of the governor for many years, and is at present the Geor- gia member of the National Democratic Committee.
Colonel Estill is almost wholly a self-educated man. He received some benefits from the public schools, but he did not attend them regu- larly because he was so occupied that he could not. He has been a reader all his life, however, and being a thinker, as well as a man of many origi- nal ideas, his want of early educational advantages has not seriously in- terfered with his success in life. He is not contentious, but he adheres to his opinions with great tenacity when once they are formed. He yields gracefully when the facts are against him, however, and is quick to set himself right when he finds that he is in the wrong. He is an enemy of cant, hypocrisy and humbuggery in whatever shape they present them- selves, and does not hesitate to show his hostility to them, but he is in- clined to treat leniently the faults and shortcomings of his fellow men. The late Colonel Thompson, who was the editor of the Morning News for a quarter of a century, said that had Colonel Estill given his undivided at- tention to editorial work he would have made a reputation second to that of no other editor in the country. Upon questions that interest him he writes with force and clearness. As an "All-around man" he probably ranks with the best of the newspaper men of the country, as he is equally at home in writing local matter, editorials, or directing the business de- partment.
H ARTRIDGE, ALFRED LAMAR, was born in Savannah, Febru- ary 17, 1837, the son of Charles Hartridge, a cotton factor, a native of Savannah, of Saxon lineage, and was the youngest of four brothers, Julian, Algernon Sidney, Charles John, and Alfred Lamar. He was edu- cated at the Georgia Military Institute, Marietta, Ga, and was senior captain of cadets when he withdrew from the institute to enter commer- cial life in Savannah in October, 1854.
At the time of the secession of Georgia he was a bank officer under G. B. Lamar, president of the Bank of Commerce. On the withdrawal of his State from the Union he joined the Chatham Artillery as a private, but was soon afterwards made first lieutenant of the DeKalb Riflemen, and on June 7, 1861, was mustered into the service of the Confederacy with his
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company, and ordered to Genesis Point, at the mouth of the Great Ogee- chee River. In August, 1861, he was elected captain of the DeKalb Rifle- men, and re-enlisted with his company in the Confederate service for the war. He built and named Fort McAllister, calling it after his warm friend, Colonel Joseph L. McAllister, who was afterward killed in Virginia. Dur- ing his command of this work Captain Hartridge had several engagements with the enemy, first with one and then with four gunboats, repulsing all attacks.
In August, 1862, he was transferred with his company to the First Battalion of Georgia Sharpshooters, under command of Major Robert H. Anderson, (afterward brigadier-general of cavalry.) In the spring of 1863 he was promoted to major of artillery C. S. A., and placed in command of the heavy batteries at Rosedew, on the Little Ogeechee River. The . island of Rosedew was considered by General Beauregard as the strategic point from which the Federals would attempt to advance on Savannah. On November 18, 1864, Major Hartridge was ordered by General Mc- Laws, then in command of the military district of Georgia, to take com- mand of a force consisting of the Twenty-seventh Georgia Battalion of Infantry, the Ashley Dragoons, Captain Heyward, and a section of Max- well's artillery under Lieutenant Huger, and to proceed to the Central Railroad bridge over the Oconee River, to hold it against what was then supposed to be a raiding party sent to destroy railroad communication with Southwestern Georgia ; but which in fact was Sherman's army ad- vancing from Atlanta. He held this bridge and Ball's Ferry for three days against the attacks of Osterhaus's division of Sherman's Army, be- ing gallantly assisted by the Cadets of the Georgia Military Institute under the command of Major F. W. Capers, and by other State troops under the command of General H. C. Wayne, adjutant-general of the State of Georgia. On the third day Lieutenant-General W. J. Hardie . visited this command, and seeing the overwhelming strength of the ene- my, ordered the troops to fall back to Millen.
On November 30, 1864, he was placed in command of that portion of the outer line of the defenses around Savannah at Monteith, extending from the Charleston and Savannah Railroad bridge over the Savannah River to the Central Railroad, just to the southwest of Harrison's place. The troops under his command consisting of six companies of the Twen-
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ty-seventh Georgia Battalion, Howard's Battalion, a North Carolina Bat- talion, two Cavalry companies and Captain Abell's Light Battery of four pieces. On December 6th the advance of the Federals appeared in front of this line, and on the day following a general attack was made by skir- mishers, and in the afternoon by heavy columns. By order of the general commanding, the troops were withdrawn from this, line on the night of December 7th, and Major Hartridge was placed in command of that por- tion of the inner line resting on the Williamson place on the river.
On December 13th Fort McAllister was captured, and on the 14th Ma- jor Hartridge was ordered to take command of the Little Ogeechee bat- teries from Rosedew to the railroad bridge crossing the river. This line he held until the night of December 20th, when all the lines around Sa. vannah were abandoned, and the army withdrawn to the north side of the river, leaving Savannah defenseless. After the evacuation of Savan- nah he was placed in command of the Twenty-seventh Georgia Battalion, and served in General McLaw's Division in South and North Carolina, taking part in many skirmishes, and in the battles of Averysboro and Bentonville. He ended his war record as a colonel of infantry on April 19, 1865, at Greensboro, N. C., when General J. E. Johnston surrendered his army to General Sherman.
Since that year he has been actively at work in his native city, en- deavoring to do his share towards reviving the shattered fortunes of his section. In 1876, during the yellow fever epidemic which devastated Savannah, he served as a volunteer in the Benevolent Association, and worked among the sick and poor without intermission from the begin- ning to the end of this fearful scourge. Particularly has he been untiring in his endeavors to aid those who are developing the Central Railroad Company of Georgia into one of the great railroad systems of the coun- try, and in encouraging those who believe in the future greatness of Sa- vannah.
M ERCER, GEORGE A., born in Savannah, Ga., February 9, 1835. His father, Hugh W. Mercer, was born in Fredericksburg, Va., in 1808. His mother was Mary S. Mercer, nee Anderson. Hugh W. Mercer was graduated at West Point in 1828, in the class with Jefferson Davis, and one class behind Robert E. Lee. He was the intimate, personal
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HISTORY OF SAVANNAH.
friend of General Lee. Lieutenant Mercer was for several years on the personal staff of General Winfield Scott. He was sent to Savannah on duty as an officer of artillery. General Lee came to Savannah at the same time as an officer of the U. S. Engineer Corps. In 1833 General Mercer resigned from the army, settled in Savannah and married there Miss Mary S Anderson, the daughter of Mr. George Anderson, a very promi- nent merchant and citizen of Savannah. Hugh W. Mercer became cashier of the old Planter's Bank of Savannah, and retained his position until the breaking out of the late war. He was one of the first brigadier-generals appointed by President Davis, and served throughout the entire war on the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, and in the army of Northern Georgia under Generals Joseph E. Johnston and Hood. At the close of hostilities General Mercer returned to Savannah; then he entered into a banking and commission business in Baltimore, finally went to Europe, and died at Baden Baden, Germany, in 1877, in his sixty-ninth year.
General Mercer's mother, the grandmother of Colonel George A. Mercer, was the daughter of the distinguished Cyrus Griffin, of Virginia, the president of the last Continental Congress. General Mercer was the son of Colonel Hugh Mercer, of Fredericksburg, Va., who was president of the old Farmers' Bank of Fredericksburg for many years. Colonel Hugh Mercer was the son of General Hugh Mercer of the Revolutionary army, who was killed at the battle of Princeton, N. J. He was the inti- mate personal friend of General Washington.
Of the three children now living of Hugh and Mary S. Mercer, George A. Mercer is the eldest, the other two being Mrs. Mary S. Walker, wife of General H. H. Walker, of the Confederate Army, now a resident of Mor- ristown, N. J., and Robert Lee Mercer. George A. Mercer received his preliminary education in Savannah. At the age of thirteen he was sent to the celebrated school of Mr. Russell, in New Haven, Conn. Upon his return he became a pupil of the well-known teacher, William T. Feay, who prepared him for college. In August, 1853, he entered the sopho- more class of Princeton, N. J., and was graduated in 1856. He attended the law school at the University of Virginia in 1857. In 1858 he went to Europe. Upon his return to Savannah he entered the law office of Messrs. Lloyd and Owens, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. After admission, he remained in the law office of Ward, Jackson & Jones for
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one year. Soon after he began practice, in 1860, he was taken into co- partnership by George A. Gordon, esq., then counsel for the Central Rail- road and Banking Company of Georgia. When the war broke out in 1861 both partners entered the Confederate service, and never resumed practice together. Colonel Gordon after the war moved to Huntsville, Ala., and died there. George A. Mercer during the war married Miss Nannie Maury Herndon, daughter of Dr. Brodie S. Herndon, a distin- guished physician and surgeon in the Confederate Army, of Fredericks- burg, Va. George A. Mercer entered the war as corporal in the Repub- lican Blues, organized in 1808. He was soon promoted to a lieutenancy in said company, and in 1861 was tendered a position in the adjutant and inspector general's department, with the rank of captain and assistant- adjutant-general. He at first served upon the staff of General Mercer, at Brunswick, Savannah, and Charleston, and along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. He was afterwards transferred to the Western Ar- my, then under command of General Joseph E. Johnston. He participated in all the battles towards the close of General Johnston's command, and in those delivered by General Hood. Under Hood he was the adjutant- general of Smith's Brigade of Cleburne's Division. He saw much of General Cleburne prior to his death at the battle of Franklin, and appre- ciated and admired his fine soldierly qualities. He was ordered by the war department, just at the close of the war, to report to General Howell Cobb, at Macon, Ga., and was there captured with the Confederate troops by the forces under General Wilson, and paroled. He resumed his law practice in Savannah in the fall of 1865, as soon as the courts were open, and has since continued to practice his profession. In 1872 and 1873, and in 1873 and 1874, he represented Chatham county in the Georgia Legislature, but has filled no other political office. Upon the reorgani- zation of the Savannah military, he was chosen captain of his old com- pany, the Republican Blues, and remained in active command for fifteen years, until December 27, 1886, when he was promoted to the colonelcy of the First Volunteer Regiment of Georgia, which position he still holds. He was president of the board of trustees of the Savannah Medical Col- lege. He is a director of the Georgia Historical Society, and of the Tel- fair Academy of Arts and Sciences He is a member of the board of trustees of the Chatham Academy, and president of the Board of Public
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Education for the city of Savannah and county of Chatham. He is pres- ident for the present year of the Bar Association of Georgia, and is one of the executive committee of the American Bar Association of which he was one of the organizers.
Colonel Mercer sustained a severe loss in the death of his wife on June 16, 1885. Of the seven children born of this union five survive: George, Lewis, Robert Lee, Edward, and Nannie Herndon, the only daughter, now Mrs. J. M .. Lang.
M cMAHON, CAPT., JOHN, was born near Kilrush, county Clare, Ireland, in March, 1815, and emigrated with his parents to America in early boyhood. They settled in Meramichi, N. B., where he and his sister, Mrs. Edward Grant, now a resident of Iowa, were soon after left as orphans, they being the only children of their deceased parents. From Meramichi he moved to Utica, N. Y., with his sister and family, and con- tinued to reside there until about 1836, when he came to Savannah with several others under an engagement to work in a shoe factory. Young McMahon's comrades returned North the following summer, but he de- cided to remain here, and soon after obtained a situation from Captain Wiltberger, who was the first to discover his sterling qualities, which in after years made him conspicuous. Captain Wiltberger was then propri- etor of the city hotel, which was the principal hostelry of the city. Mr. McMahon remained in this position about two years when he with the aid of some friends, went into business on his own account, on Whitaker street.
In April, 1840, he was married to Miss Kate Harty, of Locust Grove, Taliaferro county, Ga. Her gentle manners and amiable disposition had their influence in shaping his after career. In November, 1841, Captain Wiltberger opened the Pulaski House and Mr. McMahon succeeded him as proprietor of the City Hotel, in which position he was both popular and successful. He was doing a good business at the hotel in 1846 when Georgia was called on to furnish troops to serve in the war with Mexico. Being an officer in the "Irish Jasper Greens," a company which had vol- unteered and been accepted under the call as Savannah's quota to the Georgia Regiment, he turned his business over to a manager, under direc- tion of his estimable wife, and proceeded with his company to Columbus,
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
Ga., where they were mustered into the service of the United States, June I Ith, for a term of twelve months. Captain (now General) Henry R. Jack- son, of the Greens, was elected colonel of the Georgia Regiment on its organization, and Lieutenant McMahon was elected to succeed him as captain on the 20th of June. The regiment left Columbus for the seat of war in Mexico on June 28th.
An incident in Captain McMahon's history at this period may be men- tioned to show the character and determination of the man. When the Georgia troops reached the Brazos they received instructions to proceed up the Rio Grande to Camp Belknap opposite Burita, where they remained about two weeks. Among the troops there assembled was the Fourth Illi- nois Regiment under command of Colonel Baker. This regiment was re- garded as one of the finest from the Northwest. In consequence of the lim- ited facilities for transportation to Comargo, where the troops were subse- quently ordered, it was necessary to move only a few companies at a time. Four companies of the Georgia Regiment including the Jasper Greens and the Kenesaw Rangers were left behind for a few days, under the com- mand of Lieutenant-Colonel Redd. On the evening of August 31st the troops received orders to proceed to Comargo, and the Georgia troops were marched to the river bank for the purpose of taking the steamer Cor- vette which had just arrived. While waiting at the landing two or three sparring contests occurred between members of the Jasper Greens and of the Kenesaw Rangers, which occasioned considerable excitement, as the friends of the contestants cheered them on lustily. Colonel Baker, who was aware that Colonel Jackson had gone to Comargo, was returning to camp with a detachment of his men from the funeral of a brother officer when he heard the noise, and imagining that there was trouble among the sol- diers, marched down to the point from whence the disorder proceeded. Before his arrival, however, Captain McMahon had already interfered, stopped the sparring, which was becoming rather earnest, and marched his men on board the steamer, and proceeded with them to the hurri- cane deck where he was reprimanding them for their boisterous conduct, when Colonel Baker hurried his men on board the steamer, and rushed up the stairway to this deck. Captain McMahon, who was addressing his men at the time, had his back turned to the stairway, and the first inti- mation he had of Colonel Baker's presence was a peremptory command
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HISTORY OF SAVANNAH.
"Surrender your sword." Captain McMahon not recognizing the officer, turned upon him and replied : "I'll cross swords with you but will not surrender." A fierce combat ensued and Colonel Baker was being worsted, when one of his men seized him around the waist and drawing him back, said, "Colonel, he's too much for you," and others yelled, "charge bayonets," "run him through, etc." The Illinois men at once rushed forward, Captain McMahon was knocked down, bayoneted through the mouth, and pinioned to the deck. Some of the Jaspers perceiving this cried out, "Boys they have killed our captain," and then rushed upon the Illinoisans killing some, seriously wounding others, and forcing a number overboard The disturbance was soon over. Captain McMa- hon was reported dangerously hurt and Colonel Baker fatally wounded. Both, however, recovered. Colonel Jackson, on hearing of the affair, or- dered Captain McMahon and his company under arrest, and had charges preferred in order that the matter might be fully investigated and that there should be no misunderstanding in the future about the unfortunate affair. A court-martial was ordered by General Taylor, and resulted in the thorough exoneration of Captain McMahon from all blame in the matter. Early in December Captain McMahon obtained leave of absence to attend to some important business requiring his presence in Savannah. Soon after his return to the city his health began to fail, as a result of exposure, etc., while in the field with his command. Later on finding that he would not be able to resume active duty before the "Greens" term of enlistment expired, he forwarded his resignation as captain of the corps.
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