Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I, Part 116

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1294

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I > Part 116

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Land company, $1,000,000, with headquarters in Chicago. Mr. Goode is the scion of a noble house. His father was S. W. Goode, of Washington, Ga., possessing every trait that characterized the old southern gentleman. His mother was Martha E. Kirkpatrick. He is descended from the royalists of England, and his ancestors are traced back to the fourteenth century. We know not what motto was engraved on their "arms." It might have been honor and integrity. Mr. Goode is an extensive traveler, a lawyer of decided talent, a cultured, genial gentleman, and is considered, from his long residence and retentive memory, one of Georgia's historians.

HON. JOHN B. GOODWIN, the subject of this sketch, occupies a bright position in the esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens, who have twice hon- ored him with the high and responsible office of mayor of the city of Atlanta. In every position of trust occupied by this useful Georgian since his entrance into politics, he has fully met the public expectation and discharged his duties with signal patriotism and ability. Mr. Goodwin was born in Cobb county, Ga., on Sept. 22, 1850. His early days were spent on his father's farm in Cobb county, and by virtue of the rigid discipline of the furrows he developed into a strong, athletic youth. He received his primary education from the neighboring schools and as soon as he was far enough advanced he entered the Powder Springs acad- emy. Leaving this excellent institution he clerked in a store at Powder Springs for two years and by strictly adhering to his business he acquired the principles of a good commercial schooling. Thus equipped for the active duties of life and ready for the wider arena of public service that awaited him in the metropolis of the state, he came to Atlanta in 1870. He began at once the study of his chosen profession, the law, and by vigorous strides he succeeded in acquiring a sufficient understanding of its elementary principles to be admitted to the bar in September, 1871. Having attained his legal majority and his commission to practice law in the same month, he entered upon the practice of his profession with the ardor of a prophetic zeal. Clients, however, in those days were scarce, by reason of the hardships entailed upon this section by the devastations of the civil war. Very few people had any ready cash to pay an attorney, and the young practitioner could not subsist on the mere hope of reward. For this reason in the following year he applied for a temporary position on the staff of the Atlanta "Herald," then under the management of the late lamented Henry W. Grady, associated with R. A. Alston and St. Clair Abrams. He remained on the staff of the "Herald," serving as reporter, for two years, and then resumed the practice of law in the early part of 1874. During this year, and also for two years immediately succeeding, Mr. Goodwin was elected to a seat in the city council, having scarcely attained the age of twenty-four at the time of his emergence into politics. He was elected as a councilman from the first ward. In 1879-80-81 he served the city as an alderman. Such was the splendid record made by Mr. Goodwin during his term of service in the legislative councils that two years after his voluntary retirement he was called upon to discharge the duties of mayor of the city. In this office he strengthened his hold upon the confidence and esteem of the community by sacrificing his personal interests in order to promote the public weal. From July, 1885, to January, 1893, Mr. Goodwin served as city attorney and by his safe judgment and discriminating sense of the legal effect of all legislative measures proposed by the city council he was enabled not only to save the city large sums of money, but the unforeseen embarrassment that might arise from future litigation. In 1891, during his term of office as city attorney, Mayor Goodwin was elected to a seat in the state legislature as one of

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the representatives from Fulton county. As a member of that body he frequently made speeches on the floor of the house, besides serving on the following com- mittees: General judiciary, corporations, public buildings and grounds, and railroads. He also served on the special committee appointed to adjust the dif- ferences between the state of Georgia and the Western & Atlantic railroad, and the special committee on congressional re-appointment. In 1893 Mayor Goodwin was recalled to the executive chair of the city and served in this high office for an additional two years. Mayor Goodwin is deeply imbued with the spirit of fraternity and belongs to quite a large number of mystic brotherhoods. He is a member of Georgia lodge, F. & A. M., a member of the Capital City lodge of Knights of Pythias, and belongs to the Independent Order of Red Men, and to the Capital lodge, No. 60, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In this latter organization he has held all the posts of honor and has been grand master of the grand lodge of Georgia. For fifteen years he has been a representative from the grand lodge of Georgia to the sovereign grand lodge of the world. He is now the chairman of the committee on appeals of the sovereign grand lodge. But the list of honors is not yet exhausted. Mayor Goodwin is the past chief patriarch of Empire encampment of No. 12, I. O. O. F., a member of the Knights of Honor and of the Royal Arcanum. Mavor Goodwin was married in 1877 to Miss Emma A. McAfee, of this state. Several children have blessed this happy union and the home life of the household is happy and inviting. The father of Mayor Goodwin, whose name was Williamson H. Good- win, was a native of Cobb county and throughout his life followed the occupation of a planter. He was also a commissioner and for several years held the office of justice of the peace in Cobb county. He was a gallant survivor of the Mexican war and a private in the First Confederate Georgia regiment, serving throughout the entire war. His death occurred in December, 1884, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. Mr. Goodwin has been faithful to every trust imposed upon him by his fellow-citizens, and being still in the prime of life, it is safe to predict that his career of usefulness has only commenced.

JOHN BROWN GORDON was born in Upson county, Ga., July 6, 1832. He came from good old Scotch stock, his grandfather being one of seven brothers who emigrated from Scotland to the colonies, and all of whom were brave soldiers in the revolutionary war. His grandfather was an influential citizen of Wilkes county, N. C., and his father was the Rev. Zachariah H. Gordon. Like many other of Georgia's great men, he secured his education in the state university, graduating at the head of his class in 1852. He was admitted to practice law a few months afterward, and entered the office of his brother-in-law, L. E. Bleckley. He re- signed his profession to help his father in the mining business, but when the war began he left everything and enlisted at once, serving to the close of the conflict. His part in the war was that of a brave and heroic man, and his record for hard fighting is unsurpassed in the history of the rebellion. He won inter- national distinction by his illustrious service, and was second to the great Lee in the Confederate army. From captain he rose in the service to command one wing of the army. He was five times seriously wounded, and when pierced by bullets at Sharpsburg, his life was only saved by the nursing of his faithful wife, who .accompanied him in the service. At Appomattox he led the last charge, taking the Federal breastworks in the final scene of the war. When hostilities had ended, he called his ragged and broken-down men around him and made an eloquent and feeling speech to them, advising them to bear the trial, go home in peace. obey the laws, rebuild the country and work for the future of their country. After

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the war he settled in Atlanta, and was a member of the national union convention at Philadelphia, in 1866, and delegate to the national democratic convention in 1868. He was defeated for governor, in 1868, by R. B. Bullock, and declined the use of his name for United States senator in 1871, when Mr. Norwood was elected. He opposed the nomination of Greeley in the Baltimore democratic convention of 1872, and in 1873 was elected United States senator, and re-elected in 1879. He resigned in 1880 and organized the Georgia Pacific railroad. In 1886 and 1888 he was elected governor, and in 1890 was returned to the United States senate. Gen. Gordon's presence in the senate in the seventies was of inestimable value to the southern states. In the Louisiana trouble he was chosen by the democratic congressmen to draft an address to the people of the south, urging patience. He aided Lamar in rescuing Mississippi from political misrule, and was empowered by Gov. Hampton to look after South Carolina's interest, and after the adjourn- ment of congress secured the removal of troops from Carolina.

HENRY WOODFIN GRADY was born in Athens, Ga., in 1851. He received in his youth excellent educational advantages, but his studies were disturbed by the civil war. The close of the war found him fatherless, Col. Grady having fallen on the battlefield. Young Grady graduated at the state university, and then took a post-graduate course in the university of Virginia. History, belles lettres, Anglo-Saxon and Greek attracted him, and he stood very high in these branches. From an early age his command of language was remarkable. His magnetic and ringing style of speaking won for him the title of the "silver-tongued orator," and in the literary societies of the two universities be carried off the highest honors as a speaker. While a student he wrote a letter to the Atlanta "Constitution," which was the beginning of his journalistic career. A year or two later he became the editor and part owner of the Rome "Daily Commercial." The field was too limited for him, and in 1872 he went to Atlanta and purchased an interest in the Atlanta "Herald." This paper was one of the most brilliant newspapers ever printed in the south. Later he became the southern correspondent of the New York "Herald," and on this great journal did some of the best work of his life. In 1880 he purchased a fourth interest in the Atlanta "Constitution," and became managing editor. As the guest of the New England society, at its annual banquet in New York, in 1886, he delivered a speech which attracted widespread attention. As a newspaper man, Mr. Grady's capacity for rapid work was amazing, and his fertility in conceiving newspaper enterprises audacious and prolific. His best gift was his eloquence, and one who has heard every famous orator since 1850, including Everett, Choate, Webster, Clay and Prentiss, says Henry Grady was unsurpassed. Of his brilliant orations, the following stand forth as the most striking illustrations of the great eloquence of Mr. Grady: Speech on prohibition, in Atlanta in 1887; at Dallas, Tex., 1888, opening of the state fair; to the societies of the Virginia universities, at Charlottesville, 1889, and his last public address, after the banquet of the Merchants' association in Boston, in December, 1889. On this occasion Mr. Grady contracted a cold which resulted in his death, Dec. 23, 1889. At his death Mr. Grady was the largest young national figure of this great government. Putting the war behind him, in his position as editor and orator, he directed thought to the united future, and thus did the mission of a national peacemaker. Mr. Grady married Julia King, in October, 1872. His sudden de- mise was a shock to the whole country, and his funeral was attended by a large concourse of people from all sections of the country. A monument in Atlanta was erected to his memory, by a popular public subscription, in which the thou- sands of friends of the great man among the poorer people contributed.

LAthanh

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DR. LUTHER BELL GRANDY was born in Oxford, N. C., April 3, 1865; was there reared and received his rudimentary education. In 1882 he entered the university of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, and graduated therefrom in 1886. Then he went to Charlottesville, Va., spending one year in the medical department of the university of Virginia. From this institution he removed to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York city, graduating there in 1890. In the autumn of the same year he came to Atlanta and began the practice for which his subsequent success has proved him so well qualified, and which he has enjoyed ever since. Wlien he first came to the Gate city he associated himself with Dr. W. P. Nicolson, which "partnership" continued for two and a half years. Dr. Grandy is at this time demonstrator of anatomy in the Southern Medical college, and owner of a half interest in the Atlanta "Medical and Surgical Journal," of which he is also managing editor. He is secretary of the anatomical board of Georgia, and member of the Atlanta Society of Medicine, the Georgia State Medical association, and the Tri-State (Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee) Medical society. He married, Dec. 14, 1893, Hattie, daughter of A. G. and Hattie T. Smart. Dr. Grandy's father was Titus T. Grandy, who was born in Camden county, and married in the historic city of Camden, N. C., to Elizabeth Bell. They removed to Oxford, N. C., in 1850, and there Titus Grandy engaged in mercantile business up to the year 1883, when he retired and died some five years later. He was in the quartermaster's department in the late war. His wife died in 1893. They had eleven children, of whom but three are now living: Leonora, wife of Thomas D. Crawford, Ocala, Fla .; Albert S., lawyer, Nashville, Tenn .; Dr. L. B., Atlanta. The last named has contributed many noted articles to the medical journals of the country, amongst which are the following: "The Present Demand for Better Medical Education in the South," read at the meeting of the Tri-State Medical society, Chattanooga, Tenn., October, 1892, and published in the Atlanta "Medical and Surgical Journal" in November of that year; "A State Board of Medical Examiners-the State's Medical Duty," read at the meeting of the Georgia Medical association, April, 1893, and published in the journal above named, May, 1893; "A Contribution to the History of the Discovery of Surgical Anesthesia, with Some New Data Relative to the Work of Dr. Crawford W. Long," published in the "Virginia Medical Monthly," October, 1893; "The History of Medicine and Sur- gery in Georgia" (four articles in the Atlanta "Medical and Surgical Journal," 1894- 1895); "The Discovery of Anesthesia and the Alleged Relations Between Dr. Crawford W. Long and Dr. P. A. Wilhite," published in the New York "Medical Journal," July 20, 1895.

LEMUEL P. GRANT, who was born in Frankfort, Maine, Aug. 11, 1817, died in Atlanta, Ga., on the morning of Jan. 11, 1893, aged seventy-five years and five months. Col. Grant's boyhood and youth were spent on his father's farm, the labors on which served to strengthen and toughen a naturally good constitution. Educational facilities were so limited that he enjoyed school advantages for only short terms at irregular intervals. When about nineteen years of age, in 1836, he obtained a position as rodman on the engineering corps of the Philadelphia & Reading railway. Here his industry and fidelity, the quickness and capacity of his mind, and his aptitude for mathematics received ready recognition, followed by rapid promotion. On the completion of the Philadelphia & Reading railway he accepted an offer from J. Edgar Thomson, engineer-in-chief of the Georgia railway, and came to Georgia in January, 1840, serving on the extension from Madison, to the proposed terminus-the present site of Atlanta. Financial embarrassment having necessitated temporary suspension of work on this line, he

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engaged as assistant engineer on the Central railway; but, in 1843, he was re- called to the Georgia railway, with which he remained until it was finished. It is worthy of remark here, and of record, that, although Col. Grant subsequently acquired extensive landed propertyship in and near Atlanta, his first purchase was not made for mere ownership, or on speculation; but he was moved to make it from higher and holier motives-which serve as a key to his inner thought, his broad mindedness and public spirit. The circumstances were these: To reach the point designated as the terminus, the right-of-way was needed through land, lot No. 52, between one and two miles east. This the owner positively and persistently refused to give. Col. Grant bought the lot, gave the needed right-of-way, and this assured an easy and free passway to the center of the now prospective metropolis of the south. As the years glided by, Col. Grant sagaciously invested largely his earnings in real estate, in and near the rapidly growing embryo city; the increased value of which contributed much to the value of the handsome estate which he left. Col. Grant's conspicuous ability as a railway engineer, together with the sterling attributes of his character attracted, as well might be expected, the attention of rail- way builders, and caused his services to be desired, and sought. Consequently, he was offered and accepted the superintendency of the Montgomery & West Point railway in 1845, of which he remained in charge until April, 1848, when he re- signed to accept the position of president engineer of the Georgia railway. He held the position until 1853, when he resigned and was appointed engineer-in-chief of the Atlanta & West Point railway. In addition to this, Col. Grant was, during all the years intervening between the time and his death, more or less engaged in several important railway enterprises, notably, the Georgia Air-line, and the Georgia Western (now Georgia Pacific), and an influential adviser in many others. During the war between the states Col. Grant rendered valuable services to the Con- federate government, in his capacity of engineer, particularly in his superintendency of the defenses round Atlanta. In October, 1866, he was appointed superintendent of the Atlanta & West Point railway, continuing until July, 1881, when he was elected president of the company. In 1843 Col. Grant married Miss Laura A. Williams, daughter of Mr. Ami Williams, of Decatur, Ga. This lady died in 1875, leaving two sons and two daughters, viz .: John A. Grant; Myra B., wife of Dr. W. A. Armstrong; Lemuel Pratt Grant, Jr., and Letitia H., wife of George W. Logan. In 1881 Col. Grant married Mrs. Jane L. Crew, widow of Mr. James R. Crew, one of Atlanta's first and oldest and most esteemed citizens, who was assassinated in the latter part of 1865, and robbed while on his way home from the office of the Georgia railway, of which he was ticket agent. In 1860, Col. Grant united with the Central Presbyterian church, of which he remained a consistent, and devout, and liberal member until his death-his generous church contributions, and his unnumbered free-will and other benefactions demonstrating that he recog- nized himself only a steward of the Most High. In 1883 Col. Grant donated to the city a tract of 100 acres of land, partly within and partly without the southeastern limits of the city, to be maintained in perpetuity as a public park. To this the city afterward added forty-five acres by purchase, the entire tract being known as the L. P. Grant park. Col. Grant was always one of the warmest and most steadfast friends and advocates of the public school system of Atlanta; and was an ardent supporter, and one of the early directors of the Young Men's Christian association. Unostentatious, unassuming, and politically unambitious, yet always ready to advance all laudable public enterprises, with mind, means, and service, Col. Grant was a model citizen; discharging fully, faithfully, and promptly, every Christain duty, and contributing liberally to every movement for the advancement of home and foreign Christian work, he was a model Christian gentleman; while in his

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domestic relations his open-handed hospitality, and firm and conscientious dis- charge of every marital and parental obligation presents him as a shining exemplar, worthy of all honor, and of the emulation of all.

JOHN T. GRANT, Georgia's pioneer railroad builder, was born in the vicinity of Grantville, Greene Co., Ga., Dec. 13, 1813. He was of Scotch descent, and the blood that ran in his veins was like that which inspired Wallace to heroism. His ancestors were devout, intelligent and patriotic sons of the land of "banks and braes," severe in truth and honesty. His great-grandfather was Daniel Grant, of Virginia, a man of culture and refinement, who removed to Wilkes county, Ga., after the revolutionary war had closed, and erected the Grant meeting-house, the first Methodist church in the state, and the initial school-house of the county. Believing that slavery was a relic of barbarism he personally emancipated his slaves and granted them the freedom of his own existence. Col. Grant's father was the husband of Lucy Crutchfield, daughter of a prominent Methodist. This couple, with their young son, moved first to Greene county, and later to Athens, Clarke Co., Ga. John T. entered the state university and was graduated in 1833. With the spirit of enterprise and genius he determined to open commercial inter- course with the north, and also between the southern states, and consequently became a railroad constructor and established lines in Georgia, Alabama, Tennes- see, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. The calamity of war destroyed his pros- pects and confiscated his land. When the bomb of secession had spent its force he reorganized his aids, and by stupendous contracts rapidly replenished his depleted finances. On Dec. 13, 1834, he married Martha Cobb Jackson, daughter of William H. and Mildred Cobb Jackson, at the home of her uncle, John A. Cobb, the father of Howell Cobb, governor and secretary of the United States

treasury. This charming lady, a child of southern chivalry, was a gentle help- meet to his worthy efforts and ambitions. They had one son, Capt. W. D. Grant, of Atlanta, Ga. Col. Grant was state senator from Walton county in 1856; was appointed colonel, as an aide on the staff of Gen. Howell Cobb, and has built an elegant home, placing it in a beautiful grove of oaks. Col. Grant was a bosom friend and companion of his brother-in-law, Chief Justice James Jackson, of Georgia's supreme bench. Their attitude toward one another was that of David and Jonathan. Col. Grant enjoyed a day passed in the field with dog and gun. Being an unerring shot and a devotee of athletic sports, he could find no happier diversion than hunting. He loved literature, and in his books found a pleasure that only intellects of power can appreciate. He was a connoisseur of art and music, and possessed great talent in each accomplishment. He was a man of mighty undertakings, with indomitable will power and force of character that can be expressed only by the adjective grand. Practical, religious and persevering, he gained the love and devotion of his people. Such was his life; his death came as softly as the morning, a fit close for years of usefulness and toil. He died Jan. 18, 1887. The immortal Grady, with the pathos of a sublime nature, wrote of his death: "He lived a long life, in which good deeds were sown with unstinting hand and far-reaching arm. He died as the tired and weary man falls asleep. The end came to him in no storm or convulsion, but gently as a leaf parted from the bough in an autumnal breeze floats adown the waiting silences of the forest, his life, parting from the world, passed into the vast unknown which men call death. 'Earth is better for his having been-heaven will be brighter because of his coming.'"

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COL. W. D. GRANT, one of the wealthiest of Atlanta's citizens, is the only surviving child of John Thomas Grant and Martha Cobb Jackson. He was born in Athens, Clarke Co., Ga., on Aug. 16, 1837, in the house of his paternal grandfather, Daniel Grant. When in his seventh year his father removed with his family to the neighborhood of Monroe, Ga., on the road to Social Circle. Mr. Grant attended school at Monroe until fifteen years of age and in the fall of 1853 entered the freshman class of the university of the state at Athens. After leaving college he undertook the study of law under his uncle, the late Chief Justice James Jackson, and was admitted to the bar, but decided not to practice this profession. Before arriving at his twentieth birthday he assumed entire charge of his father's plantation in Walton county, which he managed with marked success for four years. He was a theoretical as well as practical farmer and was the first person to use commercial fertilizers in Walton county and raise a bale of cotton to the acre on fields of very thin soil. When the war between the states summoned southern defenders to assert their conceived rights and loyalty, Mr. Grant was unanimously elected captain of the first cavalry company sent from that section of the state, and served in the Confederate army until discharged by reason of ill health. Later during the war he was superintendent of the construction of the fortifications around Atlanta, under the direction of Col. L. P. Grant of the engineer corps. Soon after the war closed Mr. Grant settled in Atlanta, in the place where he now lives, and became associated with his father in building railroads and other public works, and was actively engaged in that business until 1885. By the construction of railroads and introducing means of transportation and traffic, Mr. Grant aided materially in the substantial growth and rapid development of Georgia and the south. The enterprise and love of civilization here displayed has redounded largely to his latter years, by bringing as a fitting recompense wealth, luxury and happiness. At the same time he was thus engaged he was a large and successful planter, raising his own needed supplies, and an average of 1,500 bales of cotton per annum. He has dealt extensively in real estate since making Atlanta his home, and is at this time the largest taxpayer in the city. Mr. Grant was married June 13, 1866, to Miss Sallie Fannie Reid, the daughter of William Reid, and Martha Wingfield, of Troup county, Ga. They have two surviving children: Sallie Fannic Jackson, the widow of the late Tom Cobb Jackson, and John W. Grant, a dealer in real estate. Col. Grant retired from active business years ago, and since then has devoted his time exclusively to the improvement and management of his valuable property and the pleasures of his family. Col. Grant occupies much of his time in his library, which is large and contains the choicest literature. He is familiar with the best authors and revels in their company. He is fortunate in possessing not only affluence but the appreciation of genius.

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. I, Part 116

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1294

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1294