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 38

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 38

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Col. Du Bignon was married Jan. 4, 1844, to Miss Anna V., daughter of Hon. Seaton and Ann (Tinsley) Grantland, a union blessed with the following-named children: Charles Fleming, who lost his life in the Confederate service; Seaton G., deceased since the war; Katharine, who married Gen. Moxley Sorrell, now of the Ocean Steamship company, with office in New York; Fleming G., lawyer, Savannah, Ga., sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in these Memoirs, and Charles P., youngest child and son, who is living with his aged mother at the Grantland old homestead, Woodville, Ga.

JOHN MARTIN EDWARDS, county treasurer, Milledgeville, son of Martin Edwards, was born in Milledgeville in 1840. His father was born in Rocking- ham county, N. C., in 1800, ran away from home when a boy, and finally settled in Augusta, Ga., in 1836. He was married in 1838, very poor, and about the same time began life in earnest by engaging in peddling. After accumulating a small sum from his savings he settled in Milledgeville and engaged in merchandising; was prosperous and acquired considerable property, and died in 1879. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity. His widow, whose maiden name was Miller, is still living at the old homestead, her home since 1848, where she awaits the sum- mons to a reunion with him who has gone before. She is a revered and exem- plary member of the Methodist church. Eight children blessed this union: John

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M., the subject of this sketch; Annie E., wife of M. Kidd; Susan E., widow of M. R. Bell; Perry J., who was a soldier in the Confederate army; George F .; Jeffer- son, drowned when thirteen years old; Mary, deceased, and Warren.

Mr. Edwards was reared in Milledgeville, where he was schooled until he was seventeen years old, when he was made overseer of his father's plantation. He remained there until the civil war began, when he joined the state troops and served six months under Col. Robert T. Harris. He then enlisted in the Confed- erate service, and gallantly participated in some of the most important battles of the war, among them Vicksburg, seven days' fight around Richmond, Knoxville, Murfreesboro, Missionary ridge, Powder Springs, Kennesaw mountain, and the battles around Atlanta, remaining in the service until the surrender, losing no time in hospitals or by furlough. His father had 6,000 or 8,000 acres of land, and on this on his return home he commenced farming. Of the corn he raised he sold 100 bushels for $250, which was the foundation of his present estate. In 1873 he was made deputy sheriff and served four years, and in 1885 he was elected treasurer of Baldwin county, to which he has been continuously re-elected since, the highest testimony possible as to his business capability and integrity. He is now operating thirty hands on the farm, and is accounted one of the best farmers, as well as one of the solidest and most influential of Baldwin county's citizens.

Mr. Edwards was married, in 1869, to Miss Bessie, daughter of Robert Himes, Franklin county, Tenn. Four children have been the fruit of this union: Himes M., William Stroud, Mattie T., deceased at six years of age, and Bessie. Mr. Edwards is a member of the I. O. O. F. and a Master Mason, and Mrs. Edwards is an active working member of the Baptist church.

CHARLES W. ENNIS, ex-sheriff, farmer, Milledgeville, Ga., son of P. M. and Evaline (Minor) Ennis, was born in Baldwin county in 1845. He grew to manhood on the farm, and enjoyed very good educational advantages at the country schools and in Milledgeville. His father was of Scotch-Irish descent, born in Baldwin county, and died in 1891. His mother died in 1882. Both were members of the Primitive Baptist church. On reaching manhood he engaged in farming, which he has made the principal pursuit of his life. In 1863 he entered the Confederate service as a member of the governor's horse guards, Capt. Nichols, and continued in it until the close of the war. He was a participant in the battles of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, and many others-in all fourteen engagements in twelve months, besides numerous skirmishes. Early in 1865 he was captured and sent to Hart's island, N. Y., where he was detained until June 19, 1865. He reached home July 3, to find his father's farm nearly devastated-stock and pro- visions all gone, the Federal army having passed over it. In 1875 he embarked in the saw-mill business, which he successfully followed until 1879, when he was elected sheriff of the county. He was continuously re-elected until 1895, having served for sixteen consecutive years. While discharging the responsible duties of sheriff so efficiently as to be continued so long in it, he conducted his farming with success. His faithfulness and efficiency and the consequent merited popularity could not be better attested than by his prolonged retention in office.

Mr. Ennis was married in 1866 to Miss Eliza F., daughter of George W. and Abia (Lewis) Barnes, natives respectively of Maryland and North Carolina. To them six children have been born: Sonora, Charles P., killed in 1891 by a boiler explosion; Cora; J. Howard, farmer; Ernest and Willie. He is a Master Mason and has filled several offices-senior warden and others-below that of worshipful master, and is a member of the Fraternal Mutual Insurance company. Himself and wife are members of the Baptist church, of which he has been a deacon for more

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than twenty years, and a trustee for a long time, and Mrs. Ennis is a working member of the Ladies' Aid society.

SAMUEL EVANS, cotton merchant, Milledgeville, Baldwin Co., Ga., son of Jesse and Rebecca (Cash) Evans, was born in Person Co., N. C., May 5, 1841. His paternal great-grandfather was born in Wales, England, and came to this country and settled in Philadelphia before the revolutionary war, during which he served in the patriot army. Soon after the war he moved to North Carolina and settled in Orange county. Samuel Evans, his son, and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Philadelphia, and while yet young came with his parents to North Carolina, where he died in 1840. He married a daughter of Levi Sweeney, whose wife was a Miss Ledbetter. They were natives of Ireland and emigrated to this country about 1775. She lived to be over one hundred years old. The wife of Samuel Evans died in 1852. These old matrons remem- bered well and recounted vividly the privations and stirring events which occurred during and after the war for independence. A brother of Mrs. Evans-John Sweeney-served during the revolutionary war and was wounded near the Sa- vannah river; for many years the family preserved the old flint-and-steel musket he carried, which is believed to have seen some service during the late war. Mr. Evans' father was born in Orange Co., N. C., in 1808, where he married and had nine children born to him, of whom six were boys: Azariah, killed at the battle of Plymouth; Henry H., wounded in the battle of Murfreesboro, now in North Carolina; John S., killed in the battle of Sharpsburg; William, who came to Georgia and afterward went to Tennessee, where he died in 1872; Moses D., in North Carolina, and Samuel, the subject of this sketch. The parents of Mr. Evans were industrious farming people, accumulated quite a large property for the times-including but few slaves-and were devoted members of the Primitive Baptist church. When Mr. Evans' great-grandfather on his mother's side (Cash) settled in North Carolina he received five square miles of land for a rifle valued at $75. Mr. Evans' mother was a daughter of Moses Cash, and her mother was an Oakley, this family being related to the Ashleys. She was born in 1810 and was married in 1829. The father died in 1878 and the mother in 1881.

Mr. Evans spent his boyhood on the farm in North Carolina and attending school. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service, but on account of a broken ankle was assigned to detail duty, and remained in the service four years -two of which were at the presidential mansion. After the war he engaged in farming for about a year, then, in addition, began the manufacture of plug tobacco, and in 1871 established a business in Milledgeville which he continued three years. At the end of that time he embarked in the heavy grocery and farmers' supplies business and pursued that until 1887, when he entered the cotton commission business, which he has successfully pursued to the present time, at the same time profitably operating a thirty-plow plantation. As a good and progressive farmer and successful business man and an able manager and financier he is not outranked by any citizen of the county.

Mr. Evans was married in 1869 to Miss Zella, daughter of Isaiah and Elizabeth V. (Anderson) Bumpass, anglicized from the French-de Bumpre. Of thirteen children born to them five survive: Alice L., Addie V., Bessie, Samuel and George C. He is an ardent member of the Masonic fraternity and himself and wife and all the children are members of the Methodist church.

SEATON GRANTLAND, deceased, formerly a citizen of Baldwin county, was during his active life one of the most conspicuous as well as one of the most influential personages of his day. Mr. Grantland was born in New Kent Co., Va.,

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· June 8, 1782. On reaching a suitable age he was apprenticed to learn the printing trade in the old "Enquirer" office, Richmond, Va., when Thomas Ritchie was its editor. Soon afterward his brother, Fleming Grantland, was also apprenticed, and the two brothers there learned the printer's art. In 1808 Seaton Grantland came to Georgia and located at Milledgeville, and was followed the succeeding year by his brother Fleming. Milledgeville had a few years previously been made the capital of the state, and in 1807 the general assembly held its first session there. In 1809 the Grantland brothers commenced the publication of the "Georgia Journal," which soon established a character for uncommon editorial ability, and under the management and editorship of Seaton and Fleming Grant- land became a leading and controlling power in Georgia politics. In the struggle between William H. Crawford and Gen. John Clark for political supremacy the "Journal" espoused the cause of Crawford. Fleming Grantland was elected to the state senate without opposition. But his life was short; he died in 1819 when only twenty-nine years of age. Upon the death of his brother Fleming Mr. Grantland sold the "Georgia Journal." Later in the same year, however, with the late Richard McAllister Orme, he established the "Southern Recorder," and was its editor until 1833, when he sold out to Miller Grieve, who had married his niece, Miss Sarah Caroline, daughter of his brother Fleming. Mr. Grantland was a strong and fearless writer, and still opposing the Clark party with gloveless hands, under the battle-cry of "Troup and the Treaty," carried the first direct election of governor by the people-in 1825-by electing George M. Troup over John Clark. It was a bitterly and hotly contested struggle-a veritable "battle of giants"-but was a grand triumph for Troup. Mr. Grantland was twice elected a representative to congress-1835 and 1837-when the election was by general ticket, and it is worthy of remark that his membership was contemporaneous with that of some of the grandest characters which adorn the nation's history --- Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Jackson, Benton, Cass, John P. King, Forsythe, Bu- chanan, John M. Clayton, and scores of others. He retired after this from active politics, his only subsequent service being as one of the electors for Georgia in the presidential election in 1848, when he cast Georgia's vote for Taylor and Fillmore at the capitol in Milledgeville. He was opposed to secession and lived until near the end of the war, his life closing October, 1864, at his long-time home at Woodville, near Milledgeville, aged eighty-two years. When he came to Georgia he brought his mother-then Mrs. Caroline Goodwyn-with him. She died in 1851 and was ninety-one years old.

Mr. Grantland was twice married. He was first married to Miss Ann Tinsley, of Virginia, by whom he had three children: Fleming, a physician, to whom was given the best possible education, partly in Paris: he died in 1854 in the prime of promising young manhood, aged thirty-six years; Susan, now Mrs. David J. Bailey, and Ann V., widow of Charles Du Bignon, now living at the Grantland "old homestead" near Milledgeville. His second marriage was to Miss Katharine Dabney, but there was no issue.

ILLER GRIEVE was born in Edinborough, Scotland, Jan. 10, 1801. His

father was named John Grieve and his mother's maiden name was Miller, Miss Marion Miller, a daughter of Dr. Daniel Miller. There were four children: Marion, who married Mr. James McHenry; John, Miller and Callender, who married the late Judge Joseph Henry Lumpkin, so long the chief justice of Georgia. In 1817, they landed in Savannah, John Grieve and James McHenry to go in the old house of Andrew Low & Co., to ship cotton and rice to England and Scotland. In 1820, John Grieve and James McHenry died of yellow fever in

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Savannah, and the balance of the family moved first to Liberty and then to Ogle- thorpe county, Ga. Miller Grieve read law at Lexington and went into the prac- tice, the law firm being Grieve & Lumpkin. George R. Gilmer was elected governor over Joel Crawford in 1829, and brought Miller Grieve with him to Milledgeville, Ga., then the capital, as secretary of the executive department and his private secretary; and he remained in that capacity for two years. In 1833 he married Miss Sarah Caroline Grantland, a daughter of Fleming Grantland, and niece of Seaton Grantland; and during the same year he bought out Seaton Grantland's interest in the "Southern Recorder," and with the late Richard Mc- Allister Orme, conducted that paper under the firm Grieve & Orme until 1853. As an editor he was a power, pure, chaste, genial, honest in conviction, frank in statement; and the "Southern Recorder" was then the leading and controlling paper of the whig party. It was regarded, as has been remarked about it, while he was editor of it, that "it was the supreme court of the whig party." Men in different counties would wait its coming to direct what to do, and how to act, and when it did come it was as a remittiteur from the supreme court to the court below. He conducted the paper through the Harrison campaign of 1840, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and Georgia cast her electoral vote for Harrison and Tyler. It was the campaign of log cabin, coon skin, green gourds, strings of red pepper, and hard cider, against the "sly fox from Kinderhook, New York, named Martin Van Buren; the political magician; agreeable to all men and all measures; 'now I see you, now I don't,' everything in general and nothing in particular. Write a paper meaning one thing at the start, in the middle something else; wind up with still another contrary to either of the first, capable of three constructions and maybe more, and meaning neither, promise anything, and everything, and when the time came for him to stand, would dodge you sure. Yet smart, and a man not only of ability but of prominent ability.

Mr. Grieve was a power with the "Recorder" in the campaign of 1848. Taylor and Fillmore were the whig candidates, and Cass and Butler, the democratic, and Georgia voted for Taylor and Fillmore. George R. Gilmer was beat out by Wilson Lumpkin, in 1831, for governor, but Miller Grieve left the secretaryship of the governor, or executive department, with a determination to re-elect him, and never did give up until he was re-elected in 1837, beating Schley.

Miller Grieve was elected as a whig to represent Baldwin county in the Georgia legislature twice-1841 and 1843. He was the chairman of the bank committee of the house, and a powerful aid to Gov. George W. Crawford in bringing up the central bank bills, which were at 50 cents on the dollar to 100 cents on the dollar. George W. Crawford was elected governor in 1843, and adopted his plan, (See report of bank committee, 1841.) Mr. Grieve made an able representative, but declined repeatedly to run again for the legislature, though often urged. He was chairman of the board of trustees of Oglethorpe university, at Midway, Ga., and gave some $20,000 of his private fortune to build and establish it.

He was for a number of years a trustee of the Georgia Lunatic asylum and president of the board. Dr. Green, the old late and former superintendent, has remarked repeatedly that, but for Miller Grieve and the editorial columns of the "Southern Recorder" he would not have been able to have built the asylum or carried the measures for appropriations through the legislature.

He was the captain of the old Metropolitan Greys, one of the finest military companies in the state.

Mr. Grieve was present and met Henry Clay when he visited Milledgeville in 1844, when Mr. Clay spoke from the corner in front of the old McComb's hotel.

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He advocated the subscription by the citizens of Milledgeville of $100,000 to locate the Central railroad at Milledgeville when W. W. Gordon, its first president, was in Milledgeville urging it. He advocated the building of the state road, Western & Atlantic, from Atlanta to Chattanooga, and, in general, was a public- spirited man.

He was offered the minister's position by President Taylor to the Argentine Republic, South America, but declined it. He was tendered by President Fillmore charge d'affaires to Denmark, and accepted it, and went to Copenhagen, taking with him his two oldest boys, Miller and Fleming G., and his nephew, James McHenry Lumpkin.

His wife preceded him to the grave. There were nine children: Miller, Mar- ion, Fleming G., Eliza, John, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Marion, George Gilmer, and Sarah Collender. The two Marions died in infancy; Mr. John Grieve died at the age of 31 years, and six of the children are still living.

He died in 1878 at the age of seventy-seven years, honored, respected, beloved by all who knew him, an honest man, a Christian gentleman. He is buried in the Milledgeville cemetery.

C HARLES RHODES HARPER, farmer, Meriwether, Baldwin Co., was one of five children born to Robert H. and Eliza Ann (Carter) Harper. The father was born in Hancock county in 1817, and was a big farmer and large slave holder before the war. He served in the state militia during the war, and died in 1884. His wife was born in Putnam county, Ga., in 1819, and died in 1881. They were good, honest, Christian people, who enjoyed the esteem of every one. Mr. Charles Rhodes Harper was born in Putnam county in 1842, and his boyhood days were those of the farmer's lad, with a meager schooling, picked up here and there in the old log school houses. When the war broke out he enlisted in the state militia, where he did duty for six months, and then went out in Company H, Fifty-seventh Georgia regiment. He was attached to Walker's brigade, in the battles of Peachtree creek and Decatur, and was also at the siege of Vicksburg, and his war record is as creditable as has been his private life.

In 1866 he was married to Anna E. Tatum, a daughter of Dudley. H. Tatum, a native of North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Harper have had born to them seven children, as follows: John B., Fannie E., married; Robert D., deceased; Charles T., a student in the Technological school; Annie E., a graduate of the Milledgeville Normal school; Julia M., and Emma G., deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Harper are devout Christians, belonging to the Methodist church, of which Mr. Harper has long been a steward and trustee. Mr. Harper is one of the largest planters in Baldwin county, and owns about 2,100 acres of finely cultivated land. The estate is now managed by his son.

IVERSON L. HARRIS, physician and surgeon, Milledgeville, Ga., son of Hon. Iverson L. Harris, once associate justice of the supreme court of Georgia, in his day one of the most eminent members of the legal profession in the state, was born in Milledgeville Nov. 21, 1835. He was raised in his native city, where he enjoyed excellent educational advantages. After preparatory study he attended lectures at the Pennsylvania Medical college from 1857 to 1859, graduating the last-named year. Very soon afterward he located in Albany, Ga., where he was when the "war between the states" began. In May, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Gov- ernor's Horse Guard, Milledgeville, and served as such six months, when he was appointed assistant surgeon to Phillips' Legion-to which his company had been assigned. After acting in this capacity and command three months he went before

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the medical examining board at Charleston, S. C. He "passed" the examination and was appointed surgeon of the Fifty-ninth Georgia regiment, in which position he continued until the surrender-serving a part of the time as brigade surgeon of Anderson's brigade. During the time he was in the army he was in several im- portant skirmishes, and professionally saw much arduous service. Eafly in 1865 he was captured by Wilson's raiders between Macon and Columbus, Ga., but was soon after paroled and returned home. He then went to Macon, Ga., and tem- porarily retiring from the practice, engaged in the drug business, in which he continued five years. In 1872 he returned to Milledgeville and resumed the prac- tice of his profession, in which he has continued, growing in professional reputation, with constantly extending patronage and financial success. For six years of the existence of the old board of physicians he was its secretary and dean. He has also been a member of the State Medical association. He is at present local surgeon of the Central railway of Georgia, and ranks with the foremost of the members of his profession in the state in scientific attainments and practical skill.

Dr. Harris was married in 1876 to Miss Ida Burnet of Sparta, Ga., and to them have been born two children: Mary F. and William B. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, of which he is an elder.

WILLIAM GARDNER HAWKINS, farmer, Milledgeville, Baldwin Co., Ga., son of Peterson and Mary P. Hawkins, was born in Baldwin county Feb. I, 1844. His father was born near Petersburg, Va., in 1813, and when a mere boy came to Georgia and settled in Baldwin county, where he engaged in farming, and which he made his home until he died in 1893. His wife was born in 1826 and is still living-both parents having for many years made their home with the subject of this sketch. They had but two children: William Gardner and Jane Rebecca, who married W. S. Elam, and died in 1882.

Mr. Hawkins was raised on the farm and educated in the common schools of the county. In 1861 he enlisted in the Baldwin Blues, Capt. Caraker, and went immediately to the front. He was in the battles at King's school-house and Mal- vern Hill, where, being seriously wounded, he returned home. In a short time he rejoined his command, but receiving discharge on account of disability he returned home. He resumed his farm work, to which he has since devoted his entire time and attention. He has prospered and has large farming interests, and is regarded as one of the foremost farmers in Baldwin county.

Mr. Hawkins was married in 1874 to Miss Fannie, daughter of D. H. and Frances Tatum, who bore him five children: Bernard H., just finishing his educa- tion; Kirby P .; Dudley R .; Mary A. and Willie G. Mrs. Hawkins, an exemplary member of the Presbyterian church, is still living. Mr. Hawkins is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an elder.

WALTER PAINE, clerk of the superior court, Milledgeville, was born in Milledgeville in 1835. He was raised and received his primary education in the city and finished his education at Oglethorpe university, then located at Midway, Baldwin county. At the beginning of the civil war he was in the hotel business in Milledgeville and in June, 1861, enlisted and entered the service, but was discharged on account of physical disability and returned home. He remained at home until January, 1863, when he entered the Georgia reserves as lieutenant, but was at once made captain of Company D, Fifth regiment, continuing in the service until the surrender. He was at Savannah when that city was evacuated, and was afterward in the following engagements: River's bridge; Coosahatchie and Pocotaligo, and was then detailed to accompany wounded soldiers to Augusta

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and saw no more active service. After the close of the war he returned to Milledge- ville, but soon afterward went to Macon and accepted a clerkship in the freight department of the Central railway, which he held three years. He then returned to Milledgeville, where he engaged as bookkeeper for G. W. Haas, groceryman, with whom he remained for several years. In 1873 he was elected clerk of the superior court, to which office he has been continuously re-elected since.

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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 38

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