USA > Georgia > Tift County > History of Tift County > Part 42
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Henry Love married, March 23, 1913, Lucile Ponder, born in Wadley, Jef- ferson County, Georgia, May 19, 1892. Issue: Ruth (Mrs. James A. Duke), Willard Henry, Eva (Mrs. W. R. Brown), Arthur, Olin.
Claude Love, in 1912, married Alice Alexander, of Nashville, Georgia. Issue: Claude, Jr., and Morris.
Mary Love married Thomas Tucker (died 1918) of Ocilla. No issue. She lives at Valdosta.
JOHN THOMAS MATHIS
John Thomas Mathis, son of John Sidney Mathis and Matilda Raymond Mathis, was born December 16, 1875, in Moultrie, Georgia, where he spent his early life. Thence he moved to Smithville and thence to Sumner.
When a young man Mathis came to Tifton where, in 1901, he conducted a business for the firm of Carter and Dorough, dealers in buggies and fine musical instruments, organs and pianos. Mr. Mathis loved music and took more pleasure in the musical instruments than in the vehicles. However, in 1904, he became manager of the Henderson-Cranford Buggy Company which opened a repository in the Carter and Dorough warehouse.
J. T. Mathis, in July of 1904, in company with E. E. Youmans and S. A. Youmans, both of Tifton, attended the St. Louis Exposition. Mathis married Sarah Lee Youmans, daughter of E. E., and sister of S. A. Youmans.
In 1904, after the W. W. Timmons residence burned, Mr. Timmons cut up his 100 by 200 foot lot into eight lots which sold for a total of $10,000.00. Mathis bought one of them.
That same year Mathis became interested in city politics and on Decem- ber 17, was elected to serve on the Tifton City council, beginning his term of office on January 2, 1905, when W. W. Timmons was mayor. In 1905 he
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was on the standing committees on Books and Accounts, and on Finance, H. H. Tift and E. P. Bowen being the other members of the latter committee. Mathis was mayor pro tem. during 1905 and 1906. Also, Mathis was inter- ested in fraternal orders. During the third week in May, 1905, he represented the Tifton Lodge of the Knights of Pythias at the State Grand Lodge meet- iny in Macon, and the following week he was representative of Tifton Lodge No. 122, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at the State Grand Lodge which met in Savannah.
Mr. Mathis was chairman of the building committee for the new edifice which the Tifton First Baptist Church erected on Love Avenue at Fourth Street.
In September, 1906, J. T. Mathis, W. T. Hargrett and Leon A. Hargreaves were appointed a committee to report to City Council respecting a plan for numbering houses and erecting street signs preparatory to establishment of free mail delivery in Tifton. As mayor pro tem. he presided over the meet- ing, September 21, at which this report was adopted. George Campbell was granted the permit to do the house numbering. In 1906 J. T. Mathis, J. J. Golden and S. G. Slack composed the Tifton City Council's standing com- mittee on accounts.
In 1907 John Mathis moved from Tifton to Valdosta where he and his brother-in-law, S. A. Youmans, opened their own musical instrument house. Later Mathis bought out Youmans, who returned to Tifton, and Mathis continued to conduct the firm, Mathis and Youmans, of which he was president, until his death.
After his death, in 1943, Mr. Mathis's widow, Sarah Lee Youmans Mathis, gave, in his memory, his books to the Valdosta Carnegie Library; and to the Valdosta First Baptist Church she presented Cathedral and organ chimes in memory of him who all his life loved music.
John A. and Sarah Lee Youmans Mathis had two daughters, Edith (Mrs. J. R. Wiggins) and Neva Ella (Mrs. H. Y. Tillman, Jr.), both of Valdosta. Edith plays the piano. Neva won first place in a four-state violin contest.
DR. JOHN ARCH McCREA 1849-1926-Contributed
On New Year's morning 1881 Little River was swollen and ice crackled along its banks. Two young men swam their horses through the torrent to receive Berrien County's welcome of morning sunlight on nature's display of icicles in a wild, rugged forest. They were John Arch McCrea and his brother Andrew Jackson McCrea. This same day they reached Brookfield where they rented a room at the home of the elder Bowens, paying $18.00 per month. They had spent the night of New Year's Eve in the "shed" room of the Gibbs family, about three miles east of Ty Ty, traveling all the way from Sumter County, their former home, on horseback, to settle down and begin a new life in Brookfield, Berrien County.
John Arch McCrea was born at Plains, Georgia, near Americus in 1849 and came from a line of distinguished Scottish forebears, some of whom sailing from Edinburgh, landed at Wilmington, North Carolina, between 1763 and 1775, while others settled in Ontario, Canada.
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As one with a vision this young John McCrea, originally spelled "Mac- Crea" by his Scottish ancestors, worked alternately among the pioneer folk and attended the Atlanta Medical College (now Emory University) until in 1885 he received a degree of Doctor of Medicine. Fittingly its salutation read, "To the Friends and Maintainers of the Arts, Literature and the Sciences be it therefore known that-". Later he was made a member of the Georgia Eclectic Medical College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. McCrea's first patient lay in the deep woods. A turpentiner's axe had bounced from a tree trunk and chipped out a section of the skull. The young doctor adroitly shaved the hair from the fragment, cleansed the wound, re- placed the dislocated piece, and sewed the wound neatly. The patient re- covered to bear witness to the new doctor's skill.
In 1887 Dr. McCrea married Miss Katherine Rhodes, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Rhodes of Brookfield, prominent pioneers of that sec- tion, and to them was born a daughter. The lovely young mother lived for only a short while and was buried in the old family cemetery, Bethesda, be- tween Tifton and Brookfield.
After leaving Brookfield, Dr. McCrea moved up to the promising saw mill community of Tifton. The Theory of Lister (antisepsis) startled the medi- cal world about this time, and though many doctors refused to accept it, Dr. McCrea eagerly accepted and championed it with amazing results.
Life was tough for this pioneer physician. No bridges spanned the streams, few roads existed, and much of his travel was through trackless forest and wild streams. His medicine and surgical instruments were carried in saddle bags. By night, by day, he moved among the hardy folk where, amidst death, there was life.
In March 1892 he married Miss Pauline Warnell, daughter of Jordan Warnell (of J. E. B. Stuart's Cavalry) and Louisa Edwards Warnerr, of Ludowici in Liberty County. To them were born two daughters and five sons. The second daughter Pearl died in infancy. When he first came to Tifton, Dr. McCrea lived over a store about where Brooks's Drug Store is now located, but the family home built later was on the corner of Love Avenue and 4th Street. It was the first ceiled residence in Tifton and was looked upon at that time as the "showplace" of the little community.
From saddle bags to a red wheeled buggy drawn by a beautiful white Arabian horse, Dr. McCrea progressed as Tifton grew in size and impor- tance. The countryside knew to hail the physician when they saw him approaching.
The doctor became well known in the field of sports, for this was his favorite diversion. He was one of the best quail shots in the county and possessed one of the finest collections of antlers. He established and organ- ized the Ferry Lake Fishing Club, becoming its first president. He was the first president of the Homasassa Fishing Club which annually visited the club in Florida by special train. On one such trip some members wired ahead that the president was coming, whereupon he was forced to speak from the rear platform of the train to the good-natured crowd. Although he
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was a man of strong character and quiet manner he would at times display quite a sense of humor when talking to his friends of his hunting and fishing experiences along the Alapaha River.
As the buggy replaced the saddle bags, so the automobile replaced the horse and the doctor advanced with the march of progress, inspiring many young men in their quest for knowledge. Dr. McCrea was a member and regular attendant of the Tifton Methodist Church, and he was a Mason in good standing.
While working beyond the strength and endurance of his age to meet the influenza epidemic of the first World War, he was himself mortally stricken. The news of his death March 24, 1926 brought sorrow to hundreds of homes of the older residents throughout this section. After forty-five years of serv- ice to his community as its beloved first physician his hands were stilled. Dr. McCrea of Tifton was buried at Oak Ride Cemetery on the beautiful hill overlooking the town. The doctors and Masons of the city formed an honorary escort to the grave.
On the battlefield of Flanders in 1918 another Dr. John A. McCrea wrote, ". .. To you, from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high. If you break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, . .
We quote in part from the following tribute to him which appeared in the Tifton Gazette of March 25, 1926: "He was in truth a family physician of the old school; and he was ever at the call of those in pain or suffering, never thinking if the bill would be paid, but ever willing to place his skill and knowledge at the command of those who required his services. Tifton loses not only its oldest resident and first physician, but one of its most highly esteemed, loved, and respected citizens in the death of Dr. McCrea."
At the Tift County Hospital there is a room dedicated to Dr. McCrea's memory which contains several valuable instruments presented to the hos- pital by members of the doctor's family.
Mrs. McCrea, at the age of 77 resides at her home on Love Avenue. She is a woman of keen intellect and great force of character.
Dr. McCrea lost not a patient during the influenza epidemic of 1918-19.
In answer to an inquiry as to his success in this field of medicine he re- plied that he treated his patients as though they had malaria, giving them quinine, being at the same time extremely careful that they had no relapses.
This treatment appears to have been further justified in later years by the Journal of Infectious Diseases of the University of Chicago Press in their article October 1946 "Effect of Quinine on Influenza Virus Infections in Mice."
Children
I. Deborah Greene: Born December 8th, 1888. Married Robert Constantine Balfour, Jr., Thomasville, Georgia. Attended Tifton Public Schools. Graduated Brenau College. Teacher of piano and organ at Brenau. Regent of Daughters of American Revolution Willoughby Barton D.A.R., ancestor; State Chair- man Division of Music, Women's Federated Clubs of Georgia; Past president of Thomasville Garden Club, choir director and organist in Thomasville.
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Constance Elizabeth Balfour: Born January 29th, 1919. Graduated Thomas- ville High School; attended Mary Baldwin, Staunton, Virginia; scholarship Brenau College; graduate of University of Georgia and Draughn's Business School. Married Bolling Jones III, Atlanta; Lieutenant U. S. Army Air Force. Constance Balfour Jones born July 26th, 1945.
Robert Charles Balfour III: Born September 9th, 1927. Attended Thomas- ville Public Schools; graduated Marion Institute, Marion, Alabama; Mid- shipman U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.
II. Mary Louise: Born December 12th, 1893. Married Wyatt Rainey Pierce. Culloden, Georgia. Educated Tifton Public Schools and University of Georgia.
James McCrea Pierce: Born May 13th, 1920. Educated Palmetto, Florida Public Schools; Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College, Tifton. Enlisted U. S. Army prior to World War II. Assigned to duty with famous "Hell on Wheels" Second Armored Division. Engaged in active combat in Africa, Sicily and Italy.
Jackson Edwards Pierce: Born December 20th, 1921. Graduate of Palmetto, Florida Public Schools and Middle Georgia College. Flight Officer U. S. Army Transport Command. Pilot of C-46 Transport in China, Burma, India theatre of World War II.
III. Woodbury Warnell: Born April 24th, 1897. Married Colleen Coe, Ma- con, Georgia. Educated Tifton Public Schools and Georgia Tech. Lieutenant U. S. Army World War I. Engineering Department of Southern Bell Tele- phone, Atlanta.
Colleen Virginia McCrea: Born July 16th, 1921. Graduate of Atlanta Public Schools. Married Leon Frederick Parr of Washington State.
IV. Joubert Stein: Born March 2nd, 1900. Married Etta Fitzpatrick, Cullo- den, Georgia. Educated Tifton Public Schools. Served U. S. Navy on U. S. S. Florida during World War I. Based in Scottish waters on the Firth of Forth.
Joubert S. McCrea, Jr .: Born June 21st, 1924. Married Delle Kinsey Love, Charleston, S. C. Graduate of Jacksonville, Florida High School. Lieutenant U. S. Army Air Corps: stationed in Philippines as Pilot of B-24 Liberator.
Henry Fitzpatrick McCrea: Born September 9th, 1926. Graduated Jackson- ville, Florida High School, U. S. Navy in World War II. Attended University of Georgia after war.
Mary Louisa McCrea: Born March 29th, 1932. Attending Jacksonville, Flor- ida Public Schools.
V. Thomas Russell: Born July 21st, 1901. Married Lennie Brown, Rich- lands, North Carolina. Educated Tifton Public Schools, Georgia Tech and North Carolina State University. (B.S. Chemistry), Senior Research Analyst Weyth Institute of Applied Biochemistry, Philadelphia.
VI. Henry Banks: Born February 7th, 1905. Married Pauline Kerrick Dins- more, Tifton, Georgia. Graduated Tifton High School. Office manager, Bal- four lumber interests.
Joan McCrea: Born October 16th, 1929. Graduate of Thomasville High School. Enrolled Wesleyan College.
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VII. Everette Edwards: Born June 30th, 1907. Attended Tifton Public Schools and Georgia Military Academy. College Park, Ga.
PERRYMAN MOORE
Perryman Moore, born December 15, 1864, in Valdosta, Georgia, was son of John Moore (born in Ireland), of Moore's District, North Carolina, and Barbara Roberts Moore (born in Coffee County, Georgia). Perryman came from Valdosta to Tifton in Tifton's early days. He married Susie Tillman (q.v.) May 11, 1888, at Quitman.
Mr. Moore was a planter, lumberman and merchant. He also owned a livery stable and a hotel in Tifton during the town's early days. By real estate purchases which increased in value he attained considerable wealth. He died at Piedmont Sanitarium, Atlanta, December 2, 1918, and is buried at Tifton. Surviving are his widow, former Senator and Regent Susie Tillman Moore, and one daughter, Perry Lee (born July 22, 1907); married, first Charles J. Webb; second, Briggs Carson, Jr.
SENATOR AND REGENT SUSIE TILLMAN MOORE
Susie Tillman, born at beautiful Cherry Lake, a five-thousand-acre planta- tion in Madison County, Florida, was daughter of Judge Joseph Tillman (born in 1823, Edgefield, South Carolina) and Susan Lane Tillman (born Lowndes County, Georgia) of Valdosta. Susie spent her childhood at Cherry Lake where she received instruction under tutors. She attended Mary Bald- win, at Staunton, Virginia, and afterward studied piano under de Graffin, New York City. May 11, at the home of her parents in Quitman where they were then living, she married Perryman Moore (q.v.).
Mrs. Moore took an active interest in her husband's business and thus de- veloped and displayed business acumen. However, she took no part in politics until the Joe Brown-Hoke Smith campaign. At that time Mr. Moore and H. H. Tift, Tifton's founder, were organizing Joe Brown clubs through- out the District. Mrs. Moore favored Smith. She had been appointed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, of which she was a charter member and at that time president, to select and invite here a speaker. She invited Hoke Smith, and instructed the man who blew the mill whistle to blow the whistle repeatedly and long when he heard the train blow at the crossing, because on the train would be the next governor of Georgia. The whistle blower did as requested and soon all Tifton knew that Hoke Smith was in town. Mr. Tift showed him courtesy, but Mr. Moore ignored him. Smith won the governorship. Thus began Susie T.'s colorful venture in politics. However, it was not until 1932 that Mrs. Moore became active in the state Democratic party and was recognized as a leader. In 1933 she was appointed a member of the State Democratic Committee and that year she became state Senator, the first woman state senator elected by popular vote. Later, while Senator, Mrs. Moore served as vice-chairman of the Democratic Execu- tive Committee. She was a member of the State Democratic Executive Com-
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mittee under three governors: Clifford Walker, Lemartine Griffin Hardman, and Eugene Talmadge.
In the Senate, Mrs. Moore sponsored numerous measures of benefit to Georgia, and she is credited with breaking the deadlock which tied up both branches of the legislature in 1933. In referring to this Governor Talmadge said: "She stuck to her guns; and she'll stick to her guns in the National Convention." Soon after this Mrs. Moore was elected Democratic National Committeewoman from Georgia.
Mrs. Moore served during three presidential campaigns as finance chair- man of the Second Congressional District.
When Mrs. Moore was first elected to the Georgia Senate, the Abraham- Baldwin Agricultural College was among those scheduled to be closed. Mrs. Moore fought valiantly to keep it open. Others closed, but Abraham-Baldwin remained open.
Other projects secured by Mrs. Moore include: stumping of the land north of the college. This, done by the C. C. Camps, was worth between five and ten thousand dollars to the Experiment Station, declared Silas Starr, station director at that time. Mrs. Moore filed and secured passage of a bill whereby it became law that the state of Georgia could pave state property free. The first strip of paving paved under this law was that lead- ing from Tifton to the Abraham-Baldwin Agricultural College. In her honor, it was named the Moore Highway. The formal dedication was on June 21, 1934, and at the exercises Tifton City Manager, George W. Coleman, present- ed to Mrs. Moore on behalf of the citizens of Tifton a silver loving cup in recognition of her achievement. Numerous distinguished guests were pres- ent on this festive occasion, which was followed by a barbecue dinner in the college dining room.
In 1932 notification had been given the college that no more diplomas could be issued because the library was not up to standard. Mrs. Moore succeeded in securing the requisite number of books, and built the library from 1,700 volumes to 8,500 volumes, and the college continued to graduate students.
When the college needed a gymnasium, Mrs. Moore and the Kiwanis Club gave the needed building, the club donating the cost of walls and the roof being Mrs. Moore's gift. Later this building burned but was replaced in 1939 by a building costing $80,000.00.
When Mrs. Moore served under Governor Ed Rivers during her second term of office she was appointed chairman of the University System of Geor- gia. Largely through her influence the state at this time appropriated $30,- 000.00 for purchase of land north of the college for experimental work with animals.
Also, Senator Moore succeeded in securing from the government an ap- propriation of $25,000.00 per annum, for the Coastal Plain Experiment Sta- tion provided Georgia would raise $20,000.00 for purchase of land. At a Board of Regents meeting in Tifton this was done, thus securing the gov- ernment funds annually. The amount was increased in 1945 to $33,000.00 an- nually.
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HOLMES SYLVESTER MURRAY
Holmes Sylvester Murray (born Irwin County, March 10, 1872-died Tif- ton, February 24, 1925; buried at Tifton), was son of Joseph Daniel Murray (born Fort Valley, Georgia-died, Sparks, January 7, 1906) and Alice Nance Murray (born South Carolina-died October, 1896). A school teacher, Joseph taught in Fort Valley, Houston County, in Irwin County, and at Alapaha, where he went when little Holmes was a lad of eight years.
In 1891 Holmes Murray came to Tifton where he studied law under his cousin, Columbus W. Fulwood, and after Holmes stood his bar examination at Nashville, in 1897, he practiced law in partnership with Mr. Fulwood, the firm being Fulwood and Murray, for twenty-five years.
At Tifton Holmes met Miss Nelta Dean, daughter of Joel Eldridge Dean and Allie Virginia Dean, of Tifton, but formerly of Eastman. Mr. Dean was with the Tift Lumber Mill in Tifton. Miss Dean finished the junior course in music at Brenau in 1893 and thereafter taught music in Columbia, Florida, where she and Holmes Murray were married on June 30, 1895, the Reverend Dr. Inman, pastor of the Columbia Methodist Church, performing the cere- mony. Of this union is one daughter, Nelta, of Columbia, South Carolina.
Holmes Murray in 1893 had become attorney for the Georgia, Southern and Florida Railroad, now the Southern. He continued for about fifteen years. In 1922 he became Tifton City attorney.
In 1905, the year in which Tift County came into existence, Holmes Mur- ray was clerk of Tifton City Council. That year, also, on the Wednesday prior to May 5, the Murrays moved from Central Avenue to a house which they had built on Love Avenue, between Eight and Sixth Streets. Mrs. Murray still makes this her home.
Mr. Murray was a member of the Tifton Methodist Church.
Holmes Murray was keenly interested in politics, and he greatly enjoyed his friends. He was a member of Gun Lake Country Club, and for five years or longer he was president of Ferry Lake, of which he was a charter mem- ber, also an enthusiastic charter member of the Tifton Kiwanis Club, he was second president of that organization.
TILLOU BACON MURROW
Tillou Bacon, daughter of Dr. Edwin Henry Bacon (born Walthourville, Georgia, August 28, 1839, graduated Medical College, Augusta; died Novem- ber 30, 1915, Eastman, Georgia; buried at Eastman) and (Sallie) Sarah Jane Willingham Bacon (born Allendale, South Carolina, March 28, 1849; first honor graduate, Monroe Female College, Forsyth; married in Macon; died, August 11. 1917, at Eastman, and is there buried), was born June 6 1871, at Albany, Georgia, which was the home of her mother's parents, Thomas Henry Willingham and Cecilia Baynard Willingham.
Tillou grew up at her parents' home in Eastman. She graduated from Mon- roe Female College, Forsyth. After her marriage to J. Badger Murrow, Tif- ton lawyer, a member of a prominent pioneer family of the community, she made her home in Tifton until her death.
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Tillou was niece of Bessie Tift, wife of Henry, the founder of Tifton, Mrs. Bacon being Bessie's eldest sister; and Tillou received as a wedding gift from Bessie and Henry the lot at what is now 414 Park Avenue, North, and the lumber with which to build the large and handsome house thereon, which for many years was the Murrow home, later was the Levy home, and now is the Shaw Apartments.
Like her parents, Tillou was musical. She had an unusually fine voice, and was skilled as an organist and as a pianist. She was a devoted and loyal wife, mother and friend; and she was noted for her delightful hospitality. She was particularly kind to children. She was organist of the Tifton First Baptist Church of which she was a member.
Mrs. Murrow had one brother, Edward Henry Bacon, who married Cath- erine Harding Tift (Cassie), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin H. Tift (q.v.) and niece of Henry Harding Tift. Mrs. Murrow's sisters were Sallie (Mrs. Reppard Colcord) and Nelia (Mrs. Roy Abernathy), both of Atlanta, and both frequent Tifton visitors.
Mr. and Mrs. Murrow had an only child, Elizabeth Tift Murrow (Bess), who possesses musical ability. She graduated from Bessie Tift College, studied further at Columbia University, New York, and also studied music in New York City where she lived for many years, after her mother's death, at Tif- ton, May, 1922. Mrs. Murrow is buried at Tifton.
Bess Murrow married McCalmy Belknap and they lived in Toledo, Ohio. They have a child, John Willingham Belknap.
Badger Murrow, after Tillou's death, moved to Florida, where he married again and now lives in Orlando.
IRVINE WALKER MYERS
Few have been possessed of a personality which so endeared them to a host of friends as was Irvine W. Myers. Exceptionally handsome, possessed of a rich and sonorous voice, and with a kind friendliness, he numbered his friends by those who knew him. When he died a community wept.
Born in Pamplico, South Carolina, June 1, 1876, Irvine Walker Myers was one of eight sons born to A. A. Myers (died 1934, aged 92) and Elizabeth Harrell Myers (died, 1904). After Elizabeth Myers died, A. A. Myers married Lottie Gray. Irvine's seven brothers died before Irvine did, but his step- mother and a half-brother, Monroe Myers, of Pamplico, survived him. Among Irvine's brothers were Carl Myers, of Savannah, and Joe Myers and Will Myers, all of whom were in Tifton at some time.
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