USA > Georgia > Tift County > History of Tift County > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
In June, 1906, Council signed a petition of Postmaster J. M. Duff request- ing free mail delivery in Tifton.
In 1907, Cylatt was mayor and Tifton councilmen were H. H. Tift, W. T. Hargrett, E. P. Bowen, J. J. Golden, S G. Slack, W. H. Hendricks. Mayor pro tem. was E. P. Bowen. City clerk and treasurer was Leon A. Har- greaves. Dr. N. Peterson was city physician. Chief of police was R. G. Coarsey
In 1907 the "Code of Tifton, 1907," compiled by Raleigh Eve from the Charter of 1902 and the Code of 1895 and adopted by council in 1906, was printed by the Gazette Publishing Company.
388
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
In October of 1907, Tifton's first fire department was organized. S. G. Slack was chief and the volunteers who composed it were among Tifton's most prominent citizens.
Mr. Clyatt was elected to serve as mayor of Tifton during 1908 and 1909, and councilmen elected with him were H. H. Tift, S. G. Slack and W. H. Spooner. Dr. W. H. Hendricks was elected mayor pro tem. for 1908, and clerk and treasurer was W. W. Bryan. Mayor Cylatt resigned October 5, 1908, and was succeeded by W. W. Banks.
Mr. Clyatt moved away from Tifton and lived elsewhere for a number of years; but he later returned to Tifton and he and Mrs. Clyatt, the beloved Emma, who had a host of friends in Tifton, spent their tranquil declining years in Tifton. She preceded him in death and both of them now rest in the Tifton cemetery.
Marguerite Clyatt married, and she died at childbirth; but the infant lived and was for a number of years with Mrs. Clyatt, until the child's father mar- ried again and took the child to live with him.
James Clyatt married Josie Golden, daughter of his father's good friend, J. J. Golden. For more than thirty years she was organist of the First Bap- tist Church of Tifton, of which her mother, Mamie McLeod Golden was choir director for the same period.
For a record of Mrs. Clyatt's achievements and honors see "Who's Who in Georgia," published by Larkin, Roosevelt and Larkin, Chicago; also, "Ameri- can Women," (Vol. III, p. 173), published in Los Angeles, by American Publications, Inc.
THE CHURCHWELLS
John Churchwell, prosperous merchant of Brookfield, died April 29, 1904, aged 71, at the home of his son, A. F. Churchwell, in Albany, Georgia. He was buried in the Churchwell family burial ground near Brookfield, where his wife had been buried a few years previously.
John Churchwell was survived by six children, as follows: John H., of Cordele; A. F., of Albany; Walter, of Hawkinsville; Mrs. J. C. Hind, of Co- lumbus, Georgia; Mrs. Dan Fletcher, of Harding, Georgia; Mrs. M. D. Cal- houn, of Bainbridge.
A. F., John H., and Mrs. Dan Fletcher, all of whom grew up at Brookfield, remained for many years in close touch with what is now Tift County.
John H. Churchwell began his business career in McRae in 1895 with a cash capital of one hundred dollars. He so greatly prospered that he sought a larger field for his activities and located at Cordele where he soon had one of the most successful mercantile establishments of the state.
Soon after John entered into business, A. F., in 1897, at Abbeville, opened a store with a starting capital of $250.00. He, likewise, prospered and in 1900, on February 7, he opened a store in Albany, on Broad Street. He later moved to the Davis Exchange Bank Building there.
The Churchwell brothers opened a store in Tifton, and George Washing-
389
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
ton Coleman was its manager from 1903 to 1907. The store outgrew its old quarters and in 1909 moved into larger quarters, its opening being on March 19. Managers of the store at that time were "Messrs. Padrick and Abbott. Clerks were Messrs. Robert and Abbott."
In March of 1911 the Churchwells were conducting six retail stores in the following towns: Albany, Cordele, Waycross, Fitzgerald, Tifton, Syl- vester. Of these the Albany store was owned solely by A. F., and the Cor- dele store was owned solely by John H. The others were owned jointly. On March 17, announcement was made that a co-partnership had been formed and the retail stores would be conducted under the firm name of Church- well's, and a wholesale establishment would be opened by them in Cordele. The retail business of the stores in 1910 was four hundred thousand dollars.
Although business took the Churchwells away from Tift County in later years, their hearts and minds returned to the scene of their boyhood at well- loved Brookfield, and they were among those generous donors who have re- cently made possible the building of the beautiful Memorial Methodist Church at Brookfield. This church, organized in 1878 by Rev. J. J. F. Good- man, was called then Bethesda, and was built on land donated by a Mr. Matthews. In 1903 the church was moved into Brookfield. The name was changed to the Brookfield Methodist Church. The newest building is the Memorial Church, dedicated on Sunday, May 25, 1947. For further details see chapter about churches.
The dedicatory prayer was in part: "God, make the door of this house we have raised to Thee wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship and a Father's care; and narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and hate . .. God, make the door of this house the gateway to Thy Eternal Kingdom."
JAMES ELLISON COCHRAN
James Ellison Cochran, born Meriwether County, Georgia, January 24, 1875, was son of Rufus Cochran and Amanda Plant Cochran, both of Meri- wether, Amanda being of that Plant family who moved from Georgia to Florida and there founded Plant City.
In Tifton, where James moved in 1899, J. E. Cochran was nicknamed "John E." although his name was not John and he had a brother whose name was John. "John E." set up a watch repair and jewelry shop in the corner of Dr. George Smith's drug store on the site now occupied by Wright's Main Street Store. Tifton. Here he continued until fall of 1906, at which time he moved to the location of what is now the Nifty. He was Tifton's first, and, for many years, the town's only jeweler.
At Marietta, on March 18, 1908 James E. Cochran was married to Sallie Morris, the ceremony being performed at the bride's home by Dr. Patton, for more than forty years the pastor of the Marietta Presbyterian Church. Miss Morris had come to Tifton to teach, in 1905. She was daughter of Ma- rion Pitchford Morris (born October 14, 1844, Cobb County, Georgia; died June 17, 1903, at Roswell; buried at Marietta) and Arkansas Mayes, called
390
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
Cantie Mayes, born July 14, 1846, Cobb County; married June 30, soon after close of War Between the States (died November 16, 1927, at Marietta; buried at Marietta).
Mr. Cochran was a Baptist, and he was a Mason.
Continuing in the jewelry business until March 1, 1915, Mr. Cochran then sold his business to Herbert Luther Moor, who came to Tifton from New- port, Vermont.
On January 24, 1926 James Ellison Cochran was killed by a dynamite ex- plosion on his farm near Tifton. Burial was in Tifton cemetery.
Sallie Morris Cochran in 1926 began teaching in the Tifton Junior High School, of which she was principal from September, 1942 until June, 1946.
Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Cochran had an only child, Sarah, who married Hull Atwater, of Tifton.
When Governor Joseph Terrell, on Thursday, August 17, 1905, signed the bill whereby Tift County was created, he used a gold pen made expressly for that purpose, by J. E. Cochran, Tifton jeweler. The pen bore the words, "Tift County," on a pearl name-plate.
ABRAHAM BENJAMIN CONGER
Among the early settlers of Berrien County (presently Tift) was Abraham Benjamin Conger. He came from the state of New York in 1836 to Lowndes County, Georgia, and there married Ann Willis. Shortly after their mar- riage, they moved to Berrien County, and there acquired considerable landed interest and engaged in farming. Although not born in the South, he be- lieved the cause of the Southern people to be just, and enlisted in the War Between the States on the side of the South. To the union of Abraham Benjamin Conger and Ann Willis were born five sons, George, Abraham, Jr .. Barney, Joseph and Jackson. All of these sons settled on nearby farms and reared large families. Added to their interests in farming were stock raising. naval stores, logging and saw mill businesses. During the early young manhood of these sons, there was considerable trouble with the Creek Indians, and all of them engaged in the Indian wars of that period. Near the old home- stead of George Conger are the remains of a log fort which housed the womenfolk during the periods of trouble with the Indians. Living conditions were very difficult during this period, and in order to carry produce to mar- ket it was necessary to travel by covered wagons either to Albany or Co- lumbus. All of these young men married young women from Berrien and Worth Counties.
Abraham Benjamin Conger, Jr., married Elizabeth Young, whose father and mother were both born in Berrien County, and they also engaged in farming and naval stores operations. Elizabeth Young Conger came of a long line of ministers of the gospel. Her great-grandfather, Rev. William Pate, was a contemporary of Jesse Mercer and founded more than a hundred churches through the central portion of Georgia. He was also a Revolution- ary hero, was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, in 1750, and was the grandson of Major Thomas Pate, of Pettsworth Parish, Virginia, at whose
391
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
home Nathaniel Bacon, the patriotic rebel leader, died in 1676, who in turn was a direct descendant of Lord Edward Pate, Chief Mint Master of King Henry VIII. His ancestral line goes back, also to Lord John Ragland, of England, whose wife was Ann Beaufort. Another ancestor, the Reverend Parkerson, came to America from Sweden just prior to the Revolutionary War and served as a captain in that war. A boulder was unveiled to the memory of Reverend William Pate by the Daughters of the American Revolution at Amboy, Georgia, in 1929. To the union of Abraham Benjamin Conger, Jr., and Elizabeth Young were born eleven children, Barney, Jack- son, Nelson, Isaac Young. James, Minnie, Abraham Benjamin III. twin daughters, Sarah and Mary, Green and Dolly. Abraham Benjamin Conger II, died in 1909, and Elizabeth Young Conger died in 1940.
Among the children of Abraham Benjamin II and Elizabeth Conger Isaac Young Conger became postmaster at Tifton. He had two sons in World War II, Captain Preston DeWitt Conger. Medical Corps, in the European theater, who is now practicing medicine at Moultrie, Georgia, and Henry Jackson Conger, Lieutenant Commander. United States Navy, graduate of Annapolis, and one daughter, Elizabeth Conger Harris, whose husband, David P. Harris, served with the Marines in the Pacific theater.
Abraham II's and Elizabeth Conger's daughter Minnie, married Samuel Lipps. They had four sons in the service in World War II, and one grand- son ; Sergeant Frank Lipps served in the Pacific area and received five battle stars, the Bronze and Silver stars, and the Purple Heart.
Among the sons of Abraham Benjamin Conger II and Elizabeth Young Conger, Abraham Benjamin Conger III has attained a position of promi- nence in Bainbridge, Georgia, of which he was mayor in 1920-21, succeeding J. W. Callohan. Abraham Benjamin Conger III also represented his district in the Georgia Legislature in 1915, 1916. He was born in Worth County, July 14, 1888, received his early education in the public schools and in Nor- man Institute, received his A.B. degree from Mercer University in 1911 and his Bachelor of Laws degree from Mercer in 1912. Soon after graduation in law, Mr. Conger began the practice of law in Bainbridge, where for four years he was associated with R. G. Hartsfield. Thereafter he continued his practice of law in Bainbridge.
In 1915, A. B. Conger III married Onys M. Willis, who became president of the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs, and also was active in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Daughters of the American Revolu- tion, Society of Colonial Dames, Daughters of 1812.
Abraham Benjamin Conger III is a former president of the Decatur Bar Association and of the Albany Circuit Bar Association. He is a Mason, a member of Rotary Club, of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. He is a deacon in the Bainbridge Baptist Church.
Benjamin Conger and Onys Willis Conger have the following children, three of whom were engaged in World War II. Captain Abraham Benjamin Conger IV, Medical Corps, European theater; Lieutenant James Willis Con- ger, Base Legal Officer, Hickan Field, Hawaii; Private First Class Leonard Hodges Conger, who participated in the B-5 Program as a student in elec-
392
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
trical engineering, and Margaret Conger Varner, whose husband, Edwin Surles Varner, served in the European theater.
J. D. Conger was born in Irwin County. Georgia, October 25, 1897. Martha Ross was born in 1823 in Irwin County. Her daughter, Nancy Ross, mar- ried John Smith. John Smith's daughter, Martha Smith, was born on June 22, 1845, and married John Drew Roberts, Junior, who was born in Irwin County in September, 1847. His father, John Drew Roberts, Senior, was born in Irwin County in 1820. Martha Smith married John Drew Roberts, Junior, and October 6, 1875 Missouri Caroline Roberts was born. Missouri Roberts married in 1896 Bristole Ero Conger, who was born on December 21, 1874. Her son, George Drew Conger was born on October 25, 1897. He Married Annie Laurie Thomas, who was born on April 2, 1898 in Flovilla, Georgia. Their daughter, Dorothy Helen Conger, was born December 6, 1921.
Jesse Wilson (Billy) Lipps, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Lipps of Ty Ty, Georgia, entered service February 22, 1941, receiving his basic training at Camp Stewart, Savannah, Georgia, was shipped overseas January 7, 1942, going to the European theater of war and participated in the following cam- paigns: North Africa, Sicily, Italy-receiving 5 Battle Stars. His Division was the 5th army serving 30 months overseas, arriving back in the States September 17, 1945 and receiving his Honorable Discharge at Camp Gordon, Augusta, Georgia, October 28, 1945, his rating being Corporal.
Joseph M. Lipps, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Lipps of Ty Ty, Georgia, en- tered service of the U. S. Army February 27, 1942 in Columbus, Georgia. He first served in the Coast Artillery and later joined the Paratroop Division and received his training at the A. G. F. Parachute School, Fort Benning, Georgia. He went to the Pacific theater of war June 5, 1945 and was at Luzon, Okinawa and different parts of Japan, returning to the states on December 13, 1945 and received his Honorable Discharge at Fort McPherson, Atlanta, Georgia, December 20, 1945, his rating being a Sergeant.
James R. Lipps, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Lipps of Ty Ty, Georgia, en- tered service of the U. S. Navy September 1. 1944. Received his Boot Train- ing at Bainbridge, Md., later being transferred to Miami, Fla., and from there to New Orleans and on to Pacific. Name of ship Chewancan (Indian name), was in South Pacific when peace was declared.
VIRGIL FRANCIS DINSMORE
Virgil Francis Dinsmore, born in Milton County. Georgia, November 22, 1875, was son of M. Dinsmore and Mary Grogan Dinsmore. He spent his boyhood at Alpharetta, Georgia.
Reared by four different step-mothers, young Virgil worked hard and sup- ported himself, saved his money and accumulated several thousand dollars. By his own effort he put himself through the Atlanta Medical School and through the Bennett College of Medicine and Surgery, Chicago, where he graduated, in 1900.
After graduation young Dinsmore went to Kentucky where he worked
393
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
among the coal miners in the vicinity of Owensboro, where he remained until his coming to Tifton in 1912 or 1914.
In Kentucky, Dr. Dinsmore met Miss Fannie Belle Kerrick, whom he married in 1901. Of this union are the following children: Wilton Dinsmore, of Atlanta; Mrs. H. B. McCrea, of Thomasville; Mrs. R. M. Kennon, of Tifton.
The late Col. R. E. Dinsmore of Tifton was a brother to Dr. Dinsmore. Half-sisters were Mrs. Lena Overstreet, of Lake City, Florida, and Mrs. Savannah Cochran, of Fulton County.
Dr. Dinsmore had a large practice in and near Tifton. For 21 years he was physician to the Tifton Cotton Mills. For twelve or more years he served on the Tifton City Council, of which he was for a long time vice-chairman and from which, because of ill health, he retired early in 1937.
Virgil Francis Dinsmore died at his Tifton home, corner of Ridge and Sixth Streets August 22, 1937. Funeral services were at the First Baptist Church, Tifton, of which he had for many years been a deacon. The services were conducted by his pastor, Dr. F. O. Mixon, and by the Reverend M. P. Webb, pastor of the Tifton Methodist Church. Funeral was in Tifton ceme- tery. Tifton druggists were pallbearers. Doctors, dentists, and nurses were an honorary escort.
Dr. Dinsmore was a Mason and was a Woodman of the World.
JOHN M. DUFF
John M. Duff, born on the Duff Place, Irwin County, October 14, 1846, moved to Berrien County. For three years he served with gallantry in the Confederate Army. He was in Company H, 47 Georgia Cavalry.
At Albany, in 1877 John M. Duff married Blanche Catherine Ransome. Of the union were eight children.
Mr. Duff was in the hardware business for a time. He served as postmas- ter at Alapaha from 1882 until he came to Tifton in 1890 and became post- master at Tifton where he served for two years. In 1895 he taught school at Zion Hope, near Tifton. On February 1, 1897 he was again appointed Tifton postmaster and so continued until his death early in 1907.
At a meeting of Tifton City Council July 2, 1906, Councilman E. P. Bowen presiding Council signed Mr. Duff's petition to the First Assistant Postmas- ter General asking for free delivery of mail in Tifton. Council voted thanks to Mr. Duff for his effort to secure establishment of free delivery of mail in Tifton.
John M. Duff and Blanch Catherine Ransome Duff are buried at Albany. One of their sons was Barney Duff. Another son died as a result of a mule kick. Children who survive Mr. Duff were: Mayme Banner (aged twenty-one at the time of her father's death married a Mr. Arnald; lived .in Miami; died about 1944; buried in Albany) ; Rawlins (aged eighteen at time of his father's death); Clara Belle (aged eleven at the time of her father's death; when grown, worked at Tifton post office; later was transferred to Miami).
394
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
RALEIGH EVE
Raleigh Eve was born on August 7, more than seventy years ago at Ashe- ville, North Carolina. His father, Charles W. Eve was editor of "The Ashe- ville Pioneer" and his mother, Kate Emerson Reese Eve was daughter of Dr. Jefferson B. M. Reese and was a niece of Judge William B. Reese, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee.
After completing, his public school education in Washington, D. C., Raleigh Eve came to Adairsville, Georgia, where he worked for the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which had been leased by Governor Joseph E. Brown, a kinsman of Raleigh's mother. Working as agent and working in telegraphy at Adairsville, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and at Trion, Georgia, he con- tinued with the railroad seven years.
In the fall of 1896 Raleigh came to South Georgia, going first to Fitz- gerald, where he remained for only several months before coming to Tifton. In Tifton he worked for Henry Harding Tift until April, 1898, at which time Eve left for service in the Spanish-American War, in which he served as a non-commissioned officer.
Raleigh Eve had long been interested in law, and when he returned from the war he began to study law. He was one of the first to take a written examination after the passing of the law requiring that type of examination. He took his Georgia Bar examination in Thomasville in 1901, under Judge Augustin Hansell, Judge of the old Southern Circuit of which Berrien, now Tift, was then a part.
After being admitted to the bar, Mr. Eve practiced law in Tifton until 1907, when he became judge. He served as judge of the Tifton City Court for ten years and thereafter became judge of the newly created Tifton Circuit in which capacity he has served from the creation of the circuit in 1916 until the present time. Also he is the senior trial judge in Georgia.
On October 15, 1910 there had arrived in Tifton a young woman, Miss Jewell Vivian Strickland. She had been working in Atlanta but had expressed to her friend, Miss Lizzie O. Thomas, executive secretary of the Atlanta Y. W. C. A., her desire to change her position. Miss Thomas, a retired missionary to Japan, was a woman of much charm and was the original of the character, Miss Dixon, in Frances Little's book, "The Lady of The Decoration." Miss Little told Vivian that a friend of hers had been re- quested by Henry Tift, of Tifton, to be on the lookout for a good secretary for him. An appointment was arranged for Miss Strickland and Henry Tift in the office of an Atlanta lumber company. Before the interview Vivian, Henry Tift, and the friend watched from the office windows a parade staged in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt, whom she saw from the window. There was wild enthusiasm; for President Roosevelt was son of a Georgian, beautiful Mittie Bullock of nearby Roswell, where Mittie and Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., had been married at stately Bullock Hall, built by Major James S. Bullock in 1840, of great oak timbers to obtain which he had sent all the way to Augusta.
When the excitement of the parade was over Vivian had the interview
395
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
with Mr. Tift and he engaged her to be his secretary. She was an excellent secretary. Judge Eve met her and liked her and she liked him. Judge Eve found her charming and he paid her court. They were married on the eve- ning of Wednesday, December 16, 1914. After the ceremony Dr. and Mrs. Nichols Peterson were hosts at supper honoring the bride and groom. Among those present were Mrs. H. H. Tift, Rev. Durden, and Miss Nan Wicker, later Nan Clements, who became principal of Tifton Junior High School.
After the wedding supper the Eves went to an apartment which Judge Eve had furnished for his bride at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Perryman Moores where they lived for six months after their marriage.
Jewell Vivian Strickland was born in Meriwether County. She was daugh- ter of Solomon Pace Strickland of Whitesberg, Georgia, and Mary Frances Key, of Harris County, near Warm Springs. Jewel, as a child, used to love to visit her grandmother whose plantation was land now embraced in the famous Pine Mountain Valley Farm Project, dear to the heart of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
To Judge Eve and Jewell Vivian was born a son, Robert Worth Eve, so named in compliance with a recommendation of the Worth County Grand Jury; for Judge Eve was holding court in Worth County when he received word of the birth of his son on November 26, 1917, and the Grand Jury recommended that he name the child Worth, which the parents did. Robert Worth Eve graduated from Tifton High School in 1934; graduated from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1936; graduated from the Univer- sity of Georgia in 1938; took further work at Cornell. Since completing his studies Robert Eve has been with the United States Farm Security Adminis- tration at Vienna, and at Camilla.
Judge Eve has through the years of his Tifton residence been identified prominently with practically every civic enterprise that has been for prog- ress. He codified the laws of the city of Tifton in 1907; he served for many years as chairman of the Board of Education of Tifton. He has served as president of the Board of Trade. He is a former chairman of the Board of Stewards of the Tifton Methodist Church. In 1941 he was appointed chair- man of the advisory commission of the Jefferson Davis Memorial, near Ir- winville. He was for many years president of the Country Club at Gun Lake. He was organizer and is president of the Tift County Audubon Society. He was organizer and is president of the Tift County Historical Society, and is official Tift County Historian, appointed by the Grand Jury to arrange for the compiling of the history of Tift County. Carrying out this request re- sulted in the founding of the Historical Society which appointed writers to compile and write the history, which is incorporated in this volume.
Judge Eve early in his career as judge appointed probation officers and he has availed himself of their services, often taking care of youthful or first offenders by use of suspended sentences.
Judge Eve has served in three wars. Besides serving in the Spanish-Ameri- can War, he was commissioned as captain of Georgia state troops in World
396
HISTORY OF TIFT COUNTY
War I, and in World War II he was commissioned Major in the 25 Georgia Defense Corps.
However, he is a peace-loving, home body, and when his work is over he walks home and enjoys the good food that Jewell has with her own hands prepared for him, and he is welcomed not only by her but by a long-eared Spaniel who barks a joyous welcome.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.