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 136

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 136

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aire in the flush of a sturdy young manhood; now comparatively stripped of wealth, bereft of wife and his beloved oldest boy, advanced in years and infirm in body, though strong in will and faith, he calmly awaits the final summons. But he does so with a mind unimpaired and a spirit joyously buoyed with the unshaken belief in an endless reunion in the great hereafter. Mr. Root's dis- tinguishing characteristics are unswerving honesty, lofty conceptions of and self- sacrificing devotion to duty, ungrudging contribution of time, talents and money in furtherance of all movements calculated to promote local interests and advance intellectual and religious progress, regardless of locality and boundaries. The world is better for his having lived in it-will miss him when he leaves it. He would not swerve from a firm conviction as to what he felt to be his duty to gain the most cherished object of life; and it is, therefore, no wonder that he has the unstinted esteem, the implicit confidence of all who ever came in contact with him. Mr. Root was happily married in 1849 to Miss Mary H., daughter of Judge James Clarke, of Stewart county, Ga., sister of the late Judge John T. Clarke, and of ex-Judge Marshall J. Clarke (of Fulton superior court), and a niece of the late Judge Marshall J. Wellborn. It was an exceptionally happy union, from which sprang three children: John Wellborn, who became the world-famed architect of Chicago, and chief architect of the World's (or Columbian) exposition, who died just as he had planned the stupendous exposition, and to whose memory a tablet has been erected at the university of New York; Walter, a leading architect of Kansas City, Mo., and a daughter, wife of James E. Ormond, Atlanta, who graduated from Rutger's college, New York, taking the first and second honors, the first instance of the kind in the history of the institution.

JOHN WELLBORN ROOT, architect, deceased, son of Sidney and Mary Harvey (Clarke) Root, Atlanta, Ga., was born in Lumpkin, Stewart Co., Ga., Jan. 10, 1850, and died in Chicago, Ill., Jan. 15, 1891. His grandfather, Salmon Root, was a farmer, first of Massachusetts, and afterward of Vermont. Mr. Root's father was born in Massachusetts, where he lived until the family moved to Ver- mont. When fourteen years old he was apprenticed for four years to a jeweler, at the end of which time, when eighteen, he came south and clerked for W. A. Rawson, Lumkpin, Ga .; and at the end of two years was admitted as a partner. In 1858 he came to Atlanta and engaged with J. N. Beach-firm name, Beach & Root-in the dry-goods trade. They soon built up the largest trade then known to Atlanta, and theirs was the first house to do a wholesale business, and to import direct from Europe. Mrs. Root, a most excellent and exemplary Christian lady, died some years ago; but Mr. Root, honored and loved by all who know him, yet lives, delighting in offices of kindness, charity and usefulness-calmly awaiting the summons that shall call him to join the loved ones who have gone before. John Wellborn Root received his primary schooling in Atlanta; but in 1863 he was sent through the blockade to England to complete his education. He attended school at Birkenhead-opposite Liverpool, England-three years, and passed an examination for Oxford; then returned to the United States and entered the uni- versity of New York in 1868, whence he was graduated as a civil engineer and architect. In 1872 he entered the office of Drake, Carter & Wright, Chicago. About the same time, D. H. Burnham, another young architect, entered the office, and the following spring the two young men formed a partnership. They com- menced business immediately after the disastrous conflagration left such a large portion of Chicago in ruins; and business and reputation increased apace and together. The ambitious and progressive city called for greater and grander structures-structures that should surpass others elsewhere in magnitude and

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eclipse them in beauty. This demanded originality and genius of the highest order, and these young men so developed as to prove equal to the emergency. Mr. Root was soon recognized as the foremost architect of Chicago; his fame . spread, and his services were in demand in all he principal cities, from Chicago to San Francisco, inclusive. Some of the largest and most beautiful and imposing buildings-private residences and public buildings of every kind-in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Francisco and Atlanta, and residences innumerable in hundreds of places, were designed by him and built under his direction. If not at the time of his death at the head of his profession in the Union, that honorable distinction, by general consent, would soon have been his. The high estimation in which he was held, professionally and socially, is best shown by the following extracts from editorials, resolutions, and the discourse delivered on the occasion of his funeral. He was consulting architect of the great World's Columbian expo- sition, and had called a meeting of architects from other cities for consultation. His death occurred just before the meeting, at which, after stating that they had been "met by calamity in the death of John Wellborn Root," they resolved that, "We formally put on record our sense of professional loss, because his professional genius, his well-trained intellect, and his large artistic resources were doing unusual service in advancing the architecture of the country. That to the public, in a national sense, is due our testimony that in this event a loss has occurred which can hardly be remedied." The buildings and grounds committee of the exposition, by resolution, said: "Possessing high genius, exquisite taste, and a genuine love of all that is true and beautiful in art, we had looked up to him confidently to select with masterly skill the best designs. But the quick intellect, the skillful, unerring judgment of this architect and designer are lost to us forever. It will be difficult, if, indeed, possible, to fill his place." Mr. Van Brunt, the eminent Kansas City architect, said: "I doubt if there is a man in our profession who can do the work he had in hand as acceptably as he would have performed it." Eugene Field, of Chicago, wrote: "Genius is rare! Yet a man of genius, we, in our brief day, have had with us. Has he been too close to us for us to perceive what he was? John Wellborn Root is dead, and this city of triumphs and mis- fortunes which had high triumph in his work, has suffered in his death pro- foundest misfortune. The city will still be great, powerful, prodigious; the hands -the two hands which could mold its ambition into beauty, its greatness into grandeur-are done with work. One may look over the earth and say that no architect of immortal name in any age did more for his own fame or for the world of beauty than he, who twenty years ago was a boy, and who'now is dead.

'Till wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils throw down the work of masonry,'

he will be remembered. As long as one stone remains above another, those stones will have a tongue to proclaim his genius! The ruins will furnish examples for newer days." Mr. Root was not a member of the masonic fraternity-yet so closely did he symbolically and practically work to the "Square," the "Level," and the "Plumb," in his planning and supervision of the Masonic Temple, that Chicago Oriental Consistory volunteered the following tribute: "We join with our citizens generally in the deep sorrow felt at the loss of this prominent citizen, whose personal worth and professional skill brought him in close contact with this ancient fraternity as a designer of the great Masonic Temple, the erection of which had so auspi- ciously begun under the direction of his master mind." In his charming discourse on the occasion of the funeral, Bishop Cheney said: "Only here and there is to

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be found a man who can successfully organize the work of others. And when, as in the case of him who sleeps yonder, the two-industry and executive ability- are cojoined in the same individual they constitute a consummate flower of intellectual supremacy. He who thus unites them is a king of men! This was a man who only can be compared in his intellectual development to a crystal of many facets, all reflecting the light. He possessed a varied, yet not a superficial scholarship. His professional attainments were those which place a man in the forefront of his contemporaries. His business aptitude was recognized by all. Social grace added to his influence. His acquaintance with every branch of art broadened his devotion to that department of artistic work to which his talents were given. Even in the realm of music his singularly refined taste added to the charm which he carried into the social circle." Mr. Root possessed an exception- ally active and powerful intellect-his mental grasp was wonderfully broad, far- reaching, retentive. These great gifts were fostered by years of study, sup- plemented by travel, reading and observation. His capacity for work was pro- digious-his work was done well-done quickly. Thorough intelligence char- acterized every performance. Splendid monuments to his professional skill stand in every prominent western city; and in every part of the country where architecture is appreciated, his name is known. In every-day life he was essentially a social and winsome man. He was secretary of the National Institute of Architects, corresponding member of the Royal Institute of Architecture of Bel- gium, one of the only two honorary members of the Art institute, was a member of the Union league, and of quite a number of other unions and clubs. He con- tributed many valuable papers to these various bodies, and published many articles on architecture and kindred topics in various magazines, the article in "The Century" on "Architecture in the West" attracting wide attention. He married a daughter of Henry S. Monroe, a lawyer and old citizen of Chicago, and left three children-two daughters and a son.

I UTHER ZIEGLER ROSSER, one of the leading attorneys of the Atlanta bar, was born in Gordon county, Ga., Dec. 30, 1858, and here remained until four years of age, removing after this interval to Randolph county. His boyhood and early youth were spent on a farm. He attended school in the neighborhood, learning the elementary branches of an education. The rugged life of the farm strengthened his nerves and muscles and gave him the sturdy constitution that has proven a valuable aid to his professional labors. In 1873 he left home to pursue a course of study at Emory college, located at Oxford, Ga. He applied himself diligently to the mental tasks imposed by his professors and graduated in 1879. Mr. Rosser, after receiving his degree, thought the experience of a peda- gogue would prove of vast merit in disciplining his mind and faculties for future usé, and went to Mitchell county, Ga., where he obtained a small school and taught successfully for eighteen months. In the fall of 1879 he began the study of law with Mr. L. S. Roan, in Fairburn, Ga., and was admitted to the bar in 1880. He followed his legal practice in connection with Mr. Roan until 188.4, and then came to Atlanta, still continuing the partnership. Mr. Roan, however, remained in Fairburn. During 1886 this joint interest was dissolved and Mr. Rosser formed a partnership with Mr. E. V. Carter, of Atlanta, which still exists. Mr. Rosser was married in 1887 to Miss Julia, the daughter of Thomas W. Con- ally. To them have been born one son and two daughters. Mr. Rosser is prom- inently connected with the local secret organizations, and is a loyal member of the I. O. O. F. and the Red Men. His father is Rev. James A. Rosser, a minister of the Methodist church, who was born in Henry county, Ga., in 1834. He

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married Temperance Ziegler, a native of Screven county, Ga. They were blesscd with five children, one of whom died. The surviving ones are L. Z., the subject of this sketch; Dr. Warren A., of DeKalb county, Ga .; Dr. C. V. Rosser, of Atlanta; and Nora F. Mr. Rosser's mother died in 1892. His grandfather, Aaron Rosser, a native of Georgia, dicd a short time before the civil war. Mr. Rosser has practiced his chosen profession profitably and prosperously in the city of Atlanta. He is looked upon by his associates and the people at large as possessing a thorough knowledge of the law, and in his construction of it exercises nice discriminations. He has figured as counsel in a number of important cases. His speeches and the manner of conducting the testimony indicate deep applica- tion and research. He is exceptionally shrewd in the examination of witnesses, and frequently defeats an opponent and receives a verdict by virtue of his skill. As a fluent, convincing speaker Mr. Rosser has few equals.

FGBERT B. ROSSER, president of the Exchange bank of Atlanta, Ga., was born on a farm in Walton county, Ga., Nov. 7, 1838. He was instructed in the country schools in the neighborhood of his home, and there, surrounded only by the charms of nature and its valuable lessons, cultivated the sturdy precepts that have guided his life in a prosperous and honorable channel. He resided here until the age of eighteen and then went to Decatur, Ga., remaining a year as clerk for his uncle, Elijah Rosser. Leaving Decatur he removed to Covington, Ga., and having saved a few hundred dollars, he invested this as capital in a general store and conducted this business with success until March, 1862, when the cause of secession summoned supporters from every state in the south. He left his mercantile interests and enlisted in the first available company. This was Company F of the Forty-second Georgia regiment. He was contented to remain a private throughout the four years, for it was principle and not personal notoriety that he was fighting for. This spirit has characterized his after life. For fourteen years after the restoration of peace he prosecuted the occupation of merchandising in Conyers, Ga., having re-established his old business. He came to Atlanta in 1879 and engaged in the cotton warehouse and storage industry for the succeeding ten years. For a year or two following he conducted a general trading business, until 1892, when the Exchange bank was organized and he was chosen its president, which position he now occupies with notable credit. During Gov. A. H. Colquitt's administration Mr. Rosser was appointed judge of Rockdale county court, but resigncd after two years' excellent service. In 1877 he was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention from the twenty-seventh senatorial district of Georgia, but with this exception he has never taken active interest in politics, having no inclination in this direction. It was through the distinguished efforts of Mr. Rosser that the clausc protecting the present school system in Georgia was inserted in the Georgia constitution. He has always been a strong advocate of education. Mr. Rosser was married in 1862 to Sarah, daughter of William Greer, of Chambers county, Ala. To this union three children were given: R. M. R., W. G. R., and Belle Rosscr. Mr. Rosser affiliates with the Christian church and has accomplished untold good by his Christian charity and unselfish labor. His father is John W. Rosser, a native of Georgia, now living at the ripe old age of eighty-one years. He has farmed all his life and for many years held the office of justice of the peace in various counties in Georgia.

DR. GUSTAVUS GARNETT ROY, one of the most successful practitioners of medicine in Atlanta, is a native of Virginia, and was born in Essex county in that state on June 8, 1836. The talents of the family for generations have been

DR. G. G. ROY.

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identified with the medical profession. Dr. A. G. D. Roy, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a very eminent physician, and enjoyed, for more than forty years, the lucrative practice of his profession. He was born in King and Queen county, Va., on Nov. 12, 1804. His marriage with Miss Lucy Carter Garnett on March 6, 1834, inaugurated a most happy alliance and one that supplied him with all the encouragement that lies within the range of a noble woman's influence. Miss Garnett was a member of one of the oldest and best families of Virginia, being a daughter of Col. John I. Garnett, of that state .. She was born on July 8, 1816. After sixteen years of wedlock this gentle lady died on Feb. 16, 1850, mourned by everyone who knew her. Dr. A. G. D. Roy died on Nov. 23, 1873. Dr. G. G. Roy, the subject of this sketch, passed his boyhood in his native county. He was prepared for college by private tutors, completing his literary education at Richmond college, one of the most thorough institutions of learning in the south. After reading medicine under his father, who took a paternal pride in giving direction to the studies of his young son, he attended, for a short while, the medical department of the university of Virginia. He then took a special course of study at the Jefferson Medical college of Philadelphia, graduating from that institution in the spring of 1857 with high honors. By virtue of his excep- tional qualifications he was chosen, in the absence of the regular appointee, to serve as resident physician of St. Joseph's hospital, Philadelphia. Returning to his native county in Virginia he practiced medicine with his father until the breaking out of the late war. In the spring of 1861 he raised a company of volun- teers, subsequently known as Company D of the Fifty-fifth Virginia regiment, in Field's brigade of Gen. A. P. Hill's division. He served as the captain of this company, and afterward as major of the regiment until the second battle of Manassas, after which he resigned the command and came to Atlanta, accepting the position of assistant surgeon. He was acting as post surgeon, in charge of the hospitals of the city, at the time of its destruction by Gen. Sherman. He was subsequently ordered to Andersonville for the purpose of organizing hospitals at that point. Having been promoted to the full rank of a surgeon he remained in charge of the hospitals until the close of the war. Dr. Roy was in quite a number of bloody engagements during his military experience. At Urbana, Va., he participated in the hostile encounter by which the Federals, in making an effort to land troops from their gun boats on the Rappahannock river, were dis- astrously repulsed. He was also in the seven days' fight around Richmond, taking part in the battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines' mill, Frazer's farm, and Malvern hill. It was during the siege of Atlanta that Dr. Roy was promoted from the rank of assistant surgeon to that of surgeon. As a soldier Dr. Roy was noted for his gallantry on the field of battle, and as a surgeon for his skill and tenderness in binding up the wounds of his comrades who had suffered from the bullets of the enemy. After the war Dr. Roy moved to Bartow county, Ga. He remained in the county for three years, spending the last year in the town of Cartersville. He enjoyed a very successful practice in that county, and might have remained longer had not peculiar circumstances interfered. In 1869 he paid a visit to his old home in Virginia, and finding his father broken in health and wholly unable to give any attention to his practice, he decided to remain in Virginia as long as his father lived. His father died in 1873, and after winding up the estate he came to Atlanta in 1875, where he has since resided in the successful practice of his profession. Dr. Roy was united in marriage on Nov. 21, 1860, to Mrs. Flora Fauntleroy, a native of Greenesboro, Ala., and a daughter of John W. and Priscilla (Carlton) Dillard. Miss Ella Fauntleroy, the daughter of Mrs. Roy by her first husband, is now the wife of Dr. C. S. Webb, of Atlanta. Three children

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sprang from her subsequent union with Dr. Roy: Charles Dunbar Roy, Rosa G., and Jennie T., the latter two, who were twins, dying at the age of sixteen. Dr. Charles Dunbar Roy is one of the brightest young practitioners in Atlanta. In 1879 Dr. Roy assisted in the organization of the Southern Medical college. He was made a member of the faculty, and now occupies the chair of materia

medica and therapeutics. He also lectures on clinical gynecology. Though Dr. Roy has never taken a very active part in politics he was elected to a seat in the city council in 1886, and served as the chairman of the sanitary and relief committees of that body. Dr. Roy is a master Mason, a member of the Legion of Honor and the Royal Arcanum, and also a member of the First Baptist church. In courtesy Dr. Roy has always illustrated the manners of the typical Virginia gentleman. The sterner qualities of his nature have come to him from his Scotch ancestry and these have never failed to command for him the loyal respect and confidence of his fellow citizens.

DR. CHARLES DUNBAR ROY, the only son of the foregoing, is considered one of the most intellectual and promising members of the medical profession in Atlanta. He was born in that city in 1866. During his early infancy, however, he accompanied his parents to Essex county, Va., the boyhood home and birth- place of his father, and remained at the old family homestead in Virginia until attaining his eighth year. He then returned to Atlanta, where he completed his primary education in the public schools of that city. He subsequently graduated from Richmond college, Richmond, Va., in 1887, with the degree of bachelor of arts. In the following year he graduated from the medical department of the university of Virginia, completing his course of lectures in that institution in a wonderfully short length of time. After this he went to New York and stood a competitive examination, securing the fourth place among a large and brilliant number of professional applicants. He entered the Charity hospital of New York city and was also at the same time assistant in the New York Polyclinic institute. He remained in the Charity hospital for eighteen months and in the Polyclinic for the same length of time. Returning to Atlanta he entered upon the practice of his profession as a specialist. In order to perfect himself thoroughly for the practice, and to gain the advantage of the best instruction, he decided to spend a year in Europe and devote himself to the study of his profession under the cele- brated instructors of the old world. He became the assistant in the Eye and Ear hospital at Leipzig and also studied in Vienna, becoming assistant in the Royal Ophthalmic hospital. Returning to America he immediately resumed the success- ful practice of his profession in Atlanta. In 1893, while a student in Europe, young Dr. Roy was elected professor of ophthalmology and otology in the South- ern Medical college of Atlanta, which chair he accepted and now fills with credit. Dr. Roy belongs to the Georgia State Medical association and also to the Amer- ican association and to the Atlanta Medical society. Recently before the state and national associations he read two interesting and remarkably well written papers, which elicited the warmest commendations of the fraternity. No young physician in Atlanta enjoys a higher degree of prominence or has a more inviting future awaiting him in the practice of his profession. Socially Dr. Roy is a man of universal popularity, due to his personal and intellectual graces and to his genial and sunny disposition. He is a member of the First Baptist church of Atlanta.

T INSLEY W. RUCKER, assistant United States district attorney, was born in Elbert county, Ga., on March 24, 1848. In this county he was reared and instructed in the primary branches of an education. When nine years of age he

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moved to Athens, Ga., with his parents, and there prosecuted his studies still further, and in a short time entered the state university located there. After attend- ing here two years he went to Princeton, N. J., and continued through the junior year. When this term was completed he returned to Athens, Ga., and began reading law with Col. W. L. Mitchell, a distinguished practitioner, now deceased. He was admitted to the bar in Atlanta, Ga., during 1871, by Judge John L. Hopkins, and first undertook the practice of his chosen profession in Athens, remaining there twenty-two years. In 1893, he was appointed assistant United States district attorney, and then moved to Atlanta. Mr. Rucker was city attorney of Athens, Ga., for eight or ten years. He was married on Sept. 27, 1876, to Miss Sarah M. Cobb, daughter of Gen. Howell Cobb. This union has been blessed with five children: Tinsley W., Jr., Lamar Cobb, Mary Ann, Kate Baxter, Sarah Mildred. Col. "Tinney" Rucker, as he is popularly known, is a favorite with the other members of his profession and every one who is so fortunte as to be numbered among his friends and acquaintances, for a jolly nature surrounds a big, noble heart. He is noted for his gift of sparkling repartee, and is considered a brilliant repre- sentative of the Atlanta bar. In the cross-examination of witnesses, his keen, penetrating and sagacious interrogations rarely fail to reveal to him a vantage point; and before a jury, with a ready command of wit, sarcasm, eloquence and forceful argument, he is virtually invincible. During the trial of the Georgia Ku Klux, in March, 1895, as assistant United States district attorney, he conducted the cases with such marked ability that all of the accused were convicted. Mr. Rucker, as a vigilant legal officer for Uncle Sam, is convincing in debate, vigorous in ferreting out crime, and powerful in asserting the principles embraced in the statutes.

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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 136

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