USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > History of Savannah, Ga.; from its settlement to the close of the eighteenth century > Part 28
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Mr. Meldrim is a delightful speaker, whether at the Bar or in response to a toast on some formal occasion. As a ready debater he is the equal of the best. His sarcasm is a weapon which opponents dread.
Mr. Meldrim is known from one end of Georgia to the other. The cause of State aid to education has no warmer friend, and his influence and his zeal in this direction were recognized by a place on the State University's Board of Trustees.
D UNCAN, WILLIAM, M.D., the subject of this sketch, was born in Savannah, Ga., January ., 1840, and is of Scotch and Irish parent- age. His elementary studies began in the Chatham Academy, Savan- nah, Ga., one of the oldest institutions of learning in this country, fol-
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lowed by a course of studies at the Springfield Academy in Effingham county, Ga. He completed his academic course at Oglethorpe Univer- sity, near Milledgville, Ga., in 1857. In 1858 he commenced the study of medicine under the late Dr. Richard D. Arnold, matriculated at the Savannah Medical College in November of the same year and received his diploma from that institution in March, 1861. Soon after receiving his degree in medicine, Dr. Duncan was appointed assistant surgeon in the provisional army of the Confederate States, and was stationed at Fort Jackson (now Fort Oglethorpe) in the spring of 1861 with Captain Jacob Read, of company D, First Georgia Regulars. In the summer and fall of 1861 he was with the First Georgia Regulars in Virginia; in 1862 he was assigned to the Savannah Medical College hospital where he served until the spring of 1863 when he was assigned to duty with the Fourth Alabama Regiment, Law's Brigade, Hood's Division, Long- street's Corps of the army of Northern Virginia. Later in the spring of 1863 he was stationed temporarily at Mississippi Hospital No. 2, corner of Seventh and Carey streets, Richmond, Va., and at the Army Hospital at Harrisonburg, Va.,. while convalescing from an attack of smallpox covering a period of six weeks, rejoining his regiment immediately after the Pennsylvania campaign. In 1864, he was relieved from duty in the field, and assigned to duty at Howard's Grove Hospital, Richmond, Va., where he remained until the fall of the Confederate capital in April, 1865, which virtually terminated the war. After the war Dr. Duncan spent one year abroad in the prosecution of his niedical studies and returned to Savannah in the summer of 1866, when he entered upon the active practice of his profession, in which he is still engaged.
Dr. Duncan is a member of the State Medical Association of Georgia nd of the Georgia Medical Society (local) of Savannah, and was dean of the faculty of the Savannah Medical College until the suspension of the exercises of that institution several years since, which was necessita- ted in consequence of the death of several of the professors, and an ina- bility to fill satisfactorily the vacancies thus occasioned.
Dr. Duncan was one of the surgeons of the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, and is now connected in the same capacity with the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, under the Plant system; he held the position of surgeon of the cavalry squadron reorganized soon after the war under the
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late Colonel E. C. Anderson, jr., having been commissioned by the gov- ernor of Georgia under the law regulating such appointments. He is superintendent, and one of the medical staff, of the Savannah Hospital, which positions he has held since 1867. He was secretary and treasurer of the board of trustees of the Georgia Infirmary for colored persons, from the year of its organization 1870, to 1887, and is still one of the members of the board of trustees. He has been a member of the board of sanitary commissioners of the city of Savannah from the period of its organization until two years since, and author of the ordinance of the city providing for the organization of said board in 1877, immediately after the epidemic of yellow fever in 1876.
In an active professional life Dr. Duncan has not manifested any am- bition for preferment, but has served on the board of aldermen during the incumbency of Captain J. F. Wheaton, as mayor, and during two terms of the incumbency of Hon. Rufus E. Lester, embracing a period of ten years.
Dr. Duncan has always taken an interest in educational affairs, as in other matters looking to the advancement and progress of the commun- ity in which he resides; he is a member of the board of education of the city of Savannah and county of Chatham, also a member of the board of trustees of Chatham Academy, is past master of Ancient Landmark Lodge No. 231, F. and A. M., Savannah, Ga., member of Georgia Chap- ter No. 3 Royal Arch Masons, member of Georgia Council No. 2 Royal and Select Masons, member of Palestine Commandery Knights Templar No. 7, and sublime prince of the Royal Secret, thirty-second degree An- cient and Accepted Rite of Scottish Masons.
D ORSETT, CHARLES HENRY, was born in Savannah, Ga., No- vember 29, 1845, and is the son of John and Sarah R. Dorsett. The father of the subject of this sketch was a master ship carpenter, and had charge of the largest ship yards in Savannah. He died in 1846, and his wife survives him.
Mr. Dorsett was educated at Chatham Academy, Savannah, Ga., and immediately after leaving the academy accepted a clerkship, in his six- teenth year. He enlisted as a member of Major Shellman's battalion for the defense of the city during the late war when the Federal forces were
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investing the city. Mr. Dorsett married Miss Josie Gross, a daughter of Charles Gross, a merchant of Savannah; the fruit of this union is a beau- tiful daughter now in her tenth year.
Although Mr. Dorsett is comparatively a young man, his life has been one of great activity, energy and industry. Entering, as we have seen, commercial life before he had attained his seventeenth year, he has from a small clerkship risen to his present commanding position in the com- mercial and monetary circles of Savannah. To attempt to follow him from the humble position he occupied when a boy in the counting-room up to his present position as a wealthy land-owner and financier, would require greater space than has been assigned the writer of this sketch. During his earlier years he was employed as a book-keeper for leading grocery, banking and cotton houses. He was for ten years cashier of the late A. S. Hartridge, one of the prominent cotton factors of his day, managing Mr. Hartridge's business for the ten years preceding his death. In December, 1876, Mr. Dorsett embarked in business for himself, estab- lishing the firm of Dorsett & Kennedy, auctioneers and real estate dealers.
The business proved to be a lucrative one from the start. The partner- ship was dissolved in 1879, since which time Mr. Dorsett has conducted, and still conducts the business on his own account. He has disposed of most of the city and suburban property sold in and about the city for the last ten years, and his counsel is daily sought by those seeking invest- ments, as his judgment is unerring in matters pertaining to real estate. He has an extensive real estate interest of his own, owning as he does a great deal of city and suburban property, and a summer residence at the Isle of Hope. He organized the Savannah Real Estate Company, which marked the period of the first activity here in real estate transactions, and which proved to be a most profitable investment for those who were con- nected with the company. Mr. Dorsett also organized the Savannah In- vestment Company, which built the Belt Line Railway, which company not only has one of the best roads of the kind in the South, but owns nearly five hundred lots in the extended city limits, now rapidly building up. Mr. Dorsett is a director in and treasurer of both companies; he is vice-president and director of the Chatham Real Estate and Improvement Company which he organized; he was also active in the organization of the Citizens' Loan Association, which has since been succeeded by the Cit-
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izens' Bank, and of which Mr. Dorsett is vice-president and a director. He is a charter member and director of the Title Guarantee Company, and Dime Savings Bank, and he has extensive interests in all the principal real estate and financial agencies in the city. His superior judgment in mat- ยท ters pertaining to finance was exemplified in the purchase of the Pritch- ard plantation for the county while a member of the board of county commissioners. This plantation was being cultivated in rice by tide- wa- ter culture, and materially interfered with the proper drainage of that section of the county. There was but one way to obviate this, and that was the purchase of the plantation of 1,300 acres by the county, which Mr. Dorsett not only suggested, but strongly advocated, until he carried his point, Mr. Dorsett claiming that the county would not only solve the problem of drainage in that section, but would be able to thus provide the county with an extensive tract of land for the poor farm, and at the same time could dispose of enough land to pay for the original cost of the en- tire tract. By subsequent appreciation of the lands in that portion of the county, due to the opening of new roads which Mr. Dorsett advocated, the county will be able to sell two-thirds of its purchase for more than the entire tract cost, and will still have left 350 acres of the most fertile agricultural lands in the county, and situated only five miles distant from the city.
Mr. Dorsett was appointed one of the board of county commissioners by Governor Gordon, and at once took rank as a thorough, energetic and conscientious public servant. It was by his earnest endeavors that the Waters road was opened to the Montgomery cross road, and Estill ave- nue from the White Bluff road to Waters road. These highways brought into notice large areas of lands which had before been almost inaccessible. This important public improvement was accomplished without cost to the county other than the labors of the convict force. The opening of these roads demonstrated the value of such improvements, and since then the public sentiment has been strongly in favor of better highways and more of them. It is not saying too much to assert that through Mr. Dorsett's foresight and energy the value of land in Chatham county has largely increased, and in consequence a large sum has been added to the public revenues. If Mr. Dorsett had done nothing more than to in- augurate a system of roads from which the people and the county are
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daily receiving benefit, his name should stand high on the roll of public benefactors. He is better known and his worth appreciated more to-day than when he was a commissioner, and it can therefore be well understood that the clear-headed business man that he is known to be, rendered val- uable service to the public in his official capacity. In the reappointment of county commissioners in 1888 Mr. Dorsett declined to permit his name to be presented. The large and costly jail and jailer's residence was - built while Mr. Dorsett was on the board, and the court-house completed in the summer of 1890 was determined upon while he was a member.
Mr. Dorsett has been a liberal subscriber to almost every enterprise which has been started in this city for the past ten years, and this includes subscriptions to real estate, financial, railroad, hotel and other industrial and public-spirited enterprises, calculated to further the progress of the city, and in most of these enterprises he has taken a leading part to in- terest others in this direction.
He is a member of Wesley Monumental Methodist Episcopal Church and chairman of its board of trustees, and was chairman of the board of stewards, and superintendent of its sunday-school for many years. He is a member of Landrum Lodge, Master Masons. Mr. Dorsett ranks very high in the society of Odd Fellows, and has held all the positions in the order in the State of Georgia but that of grand master. He is a mem- ber of De Kalb Lodge No. 9, I. O. O. F. with which he has been connected for over twenty-one years; he has held all the offices up to that of grand representative. He is now serving his sixth year as one of the three rep- resentatives of the State of Georgia to the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the world. He is lieutenant-colonel on the staff of General John C. Under- wood, grand sire and generalissimo of the order of Independent Odd Fel- lows throughout the world.
L OVELL, EDWARD, the subject of this sketch, was born in Med- way, Mass., March 4. 1816 He located in Savannah in 1835 and . two years later opened a gun store, and in 1840 he added to his already increasing business a line of hardware. In 1857 he established the firm of Lovell & Lattimore, admitting his brother, Nathaniel Lovell, and Will- iam. Lattimore into partnership; in 1868 he retired from the firm and formed a co-partnership with his son, Edward F. Lovell, and William C.
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Crawford under the firm name of Crawford & Lovell, which partnership was terminated by the death of Mr. Crawford in 1884. After the death of Mr. Crawford, Mr. Lovell admitted his son, Robert P. Lovell, into the firm of Edward Lovell & Sons, under which name a very large and ex- tensive business was conducted until the death of the senior member, which occurred August 25, ISSS. After a continued illness during the winter and spring of ISSS, he was taken north in the hope that a change of air and scenery would restore his health, but the best medical skill was unavailing, and he died at Ballston Spa., N. Y. The sons Edward F. and Robert P. Lovell still continue the business under the firm name of ' Edward Lovell's Sons, which is one of the largest hardware houses in the South.
The deceased was a man of great industry, of the most charitable im- pulses, and a public-spirited citizen, ready at all times to forward and foster every commercial and manufacturing enterprise calculated to ad- vance the interest and prosperity of the city in which he was an honored citizen for over half a century, and at the time of his death he left a large estate, the result of a long life of industry and business integrity.
Edward Lovell was married May 4, 1845, to Miss Mary A. Bates, of Boston, Mass., who survives him as do their four children; Edward F., Ellen M., Grace B., and Robert P.
Mr. Lovell was a man who had little ambition for political preferment but one whose domestic ties and commercial life kept him out of the arena of politics, although frequently solicited to enter the public ser- vice. He served on the aldermanic board of Savannah for six years rom considerations of public duty and was one of its most efficient and conservative members. He was one of the directors of the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad; president for many years of the Savannah and Ogeechee Canal Company ; president of the Savannah Brick Manufacturing Com- pany, and at the time of his death was vice-president of the Oglethorpe Savings and Trust Company. No higher recommendation was required to lend confidence to an enterprise than to know that Mr. Lovell was . connected with it in some capacity, as his well-known integrity and fidel- ity and careful methods of doing business were well known in this com- munity.
During the war Mr. Lovell was in the detached service and assisted
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in the plans and construction of the artillery defenses for the defense of the city. He served his time as an active member in the Chatham Ar- tillery, the oldest artillery company in the country, and at the time of his death was an honorary member. The deceased was a member of Live Oak Lodge, I. O. O. F.
0 LMSTEAD, COLONEL CHARLES H., was born in Savannah, Ga., in 1837, and is the son of Jonathan and Eliza (Hart) Olmstead. His father, a native of Connecticut, and of English descent, early in life re- moved to Savannah, where he was married and for many years engaged in the banking business.
Young Olmstead was educated at the Georgia Military Institute, grad- uating in the class of 1856, being at the time adjutant of the corps of ca- dets. After leaving school he commenced a business career as clerk in the mercantile house of Brigham, Kelly & Co., of Savannah, but his pro- gress in commercial life was soon arrested by the war between the States. For some time before actual hostilities commenced, many foreseeing the drift of affairs, were convinced that the questions involved could not be settled except by an appeal to arms. The greatest interest was revived in military organizations all over the South, and especially in Savannah ; old companies were strengthened, new ones were formed, and every prep- aration was made for the impending conflict. In these preparations young Olmstead took an enthusiastic part as a member of the first volunteer reg- iment of Georgia. In 1860 he was appointed adjutant of the regiment by Colonel A. R. Lawton (afterward general and quartermaster-general in the Confederate States Army, and late United States Minister to Vienna), and in that capacity served at Fort Pulaski when it was seized by order of Governor Brown on the 3rd of January, 1861.
In the spring of 1861 the First Regiment was reorganized and mus- tered into the Confederate service. Soon after Colonel Lawton was pro- moted to a brigadier-generalship, and Hugh W. Mercer was elected col- onel of the regiment ; W. S. Rockwell, lieutenant-colonel, and Charles H. Olmstead, major. During the following summer the regiment was scat- tered to various points along the Georgia coast, being stationed at Forts Pulaski and Jackson and other points on the Savannah River, Tybee Isl- and, Causton Bluff, Thunderbolt, Green Island and St. Catharine Island.
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In December, 1861, Colonel Mercer was promoted to a brigadier- generalship, and Major Olmstead was elected colonel of the regiment. At this time with the resources at command it was deemed impracticable to defend all of the outlying islands of the Georgia coast. Tybee Island was evacuated and Fort Pulaski garrisoned by the First Regiment under Colonel Olmstead became the outwork of the line of defense. In Janu- ary following the Federals seized Tybee Island and commenced the erec- ` tion of batteries with the intention of besieging the fort. A few weeks thereafter the enemy succeeded in passing their vessels through Wall's Cut and entered the Savannah River above the fort, thus cutting it off from all communication with Savannah. Thus isolated without hope of assistance from any quarter, the little garrison with its 400 men on the IOth of April was confronted with eleven land batteries mounted by thirty-six well protected heavy guns. Early on the morning of the 10th General Gilmore, commanding the besieging force, sent, under a flag of truce, an order " for the immediate surrender and restoration of Fort Pu- laski to the authority and possession of the United States," to which Col- onel Olmstead commandant of the fort, after acknowledging the receipt of the order, heroically and laconically replied: "I am here to defend the fort, not to surrender it." A few minutes after the return of the flag of truce the bombardment of the fort commenced, and was continued all day with great danger to the fort. The firing was resumed on the follow- ing morning, and at midday all the guns of the fort bearing upon Tybee except two were disabled. It was seen that further resistance was use- less, and under the circumstances Colonel Olmstead believing the lives of his command to be his next care, gave the necessary order for a surren- der. Colonel Olmstead and the other officers of the garrison were taken as prisoners of war to Governor's Island, New York harbor, and finally to Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, O., where they remained until their ex- change was effected in September, 1862.
At the reorganization of the First Regiment in October, 1862, Col- onel Olmstead was again placed in command. For many months it con- tinued to do service at various points along the coast, being stationed at battery Wagner, James Island, and Charleston Harbor.
In the spring of 1864 the scattered companies of Colonel Olmstead's command were brought together and joined General Joseph S. Johnston's
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army in Northern Georgia, being assigned to General Mercer's brigade, in Walker's division, Hardee's corps. From that time until the close of the war the First bore an honorable part in the history of the army, suf- fering its first severe loss in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain.
The summer of 1864 was a period of almost constant fighting, and at Smyrna Church, Peachtree Creek and the battles around Atlanta, the First did heroic service. Colonel Olmstead was wounded on July 22, 1864, on the same day that General Walker was killed. After the death of General Walker, General Mercer's brigade was assigned to the divis- ion of General Pat. Cleburne, at the same time General Mercer being as- signed to duty elsewhere, the command of the brigade fell upon Colonel Olmstead as senior colonel, and he continued in command until the fall of Atlanta. General J. Argyle Smith was then placed in command of the brigade.
At the time of the battle of Nashville Colonel Olmstead was on de- tached service with the brigade under General N. B. Forest, who was then operating against Murfreesboro. At this time General Smith had succeeded to the command of the division, and from this time until the close of the war the command of the brigade fell to Colonel Olmstead. After the defeat of Hood at Nashville the force under General Forrest made a forced march to rejoin Hood, reaching his army at Columbia, Tenn., from which point Smith's brigade formed a part of the rear guard of General Hood's retreating army to the Tennessee River.
After a short rest the army was called to the east and Smith's brig- ade once more came under its old leader General Joseph E. Johnston, at Smithville, N. C., what was left of Colonel Olmstead's old command, the First Volunteer Regimeut of Georgia, was consolidated with the Fifty- seventh and Sixty-third Regiment under the name of the First Regiment, and placed under Colonel Olmstead's command. A short time there- after it surrendered with General Johnston's army at Greensboro, N. C.
After the war Colonel Olmstead returned to Savannah and became a partner in the shipping and commission house of Brigham, Holst & Co. In 1873 he was made treasurer of the Citizens Mutual Loan Company, and in 1883 with Henry Hull and Francis S. Lathrop, under the firm name of C. H. Olmstead & Co., succeeded to the business of Henry Hull & Co., private bankers, a business in which he is still engaged.
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Colonel Olmstead is an active member and has taken a deep interest in the welfare of the Georgia Historical Society, of which he is now sec- ond vice-president and for several years has been curator. He is also vice-president of the Georgia Infirmary. He is a member of and for the last twenty years has been an elder of the Independent Presbyterian Church.
Colonel Olmstead's career viewed from all sides has been an eminently honorable one, such as befits the well-rounded, symmetrical character of the man. He has been content to go modestly along doing his duty as he understood it without fear or favor. As a military leader he was faith- ful to every trust, never shirked a responsibility, and discharged every duty laid upon him with high credit to himself and the cause he es- poused. He is quiet and retiring in disposition, and one to whom public- ity in any form is distasteful. He is literary in his taste, is a great reader, and a graceful writer. His pen has done much to preserve the military history of Savannah soldiers during the war. One of his recent articles "Savannah in War Time," published in Historic and Picturesque Saran- nah is a striking example of his concise and powerful grouping of facts, combined with smoothness and elegance of diction. He is public spir- ited and progressive in his ideas, and warmly espouses every project which promises to advance the material interest of Savannah. He is genial and social in nature, and is ever ready to aid with his time and his labor, his presence and his counsel whatever tends to social, moral or in- tellectual advancement. As a business man his course has ever been marked with the strictest integrity, and no one holds more securely the confidence and respect of Savannah's commercial community.
Colonel Olmstead was married in 1859 to Miss Florence L. Williams, daughter of Peter J. Williams, of Milledgeville, Ga. They have three daughters.
S CREVEN, JOHN. A history of Savannah would be lacking in com- pleteness, if the life and character of the subject of this sketch were not included. He comes from a patriotic parentage on both sides of the family tree :- The Screvens and Bryans, of whom he is a lineal descen- dant, having been conspicuous during the war for American Independence.
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