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 43

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 43

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MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

I EVI D. JOLLEY, farmer, Ford, Bartow county, Ga., son of Joseph and Zilla (Dickerson) Jolley, was born in Anderson district, S. C., July 5, 1827. His great grandfather, Marcus Jolley, was a native of Ireland, where he grew to man- hood and married. He came to America, with his family, before the revolutionary war, settled in Virginia and was in the patriot army during that conflict. He was a planter, and reared four children-one son and three daughters. The daughters mar- ried and lived and died in Virginia. Henry L., the son, and the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Ireland, came with his parents to this country, and was reared in Virginia. When he grew to manhood he migrated to South Carolina and settled in Anderson district, and lived and died there. During one period of his life he officiated as a magistrate. He reared five children: Joseph, Henry, who lived and died in South Carolina; Millie, who married Jesse Hardin; Sarah, who also lived and died in South Carolina, and Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Crenshaw, of Troup county, Ga. Mr. Jolley's father Joseph, was born in South Carolina, in 1785, where he was raised on his father's farm, and married Miss Zilla, daughter of Robert Dickerson, who came from England to Virginia. In 1837 he moved to Georgia and settled in Cass (now Bartow) county, purchasing 160 acres of land, the same on which Peter Hammonds now lives. This property he improved, reared his family (in part) on it, and lived and died there. He was a strong and ardent democrat and a devout and liberal member of the Baptist church. He was an original member and one of the organizers of the Raccoon creek Baptist church of which he was a deacon from the time of its organization until he died. He reared ten children: Annie, deceased, wife of Elias Felton; Elizabeth, deceased, with of Joseph Kennedy, Bartow county; William, deceased; Henry, died from exposure while in the army, in Virginia; Rachel, married Archie McDaniel, he dying, she married Elbert Shaw, of Troup county, Ga .; Levi, the subject of this sketch; James, Bartow county; Sarah, widow of Thomas Booker; Maria, deceased, wife of Elbert Shaw; Mary, the youngest, widow of Edmund Harling. The father died in November, 1861, and his wife in 1873. Mr. Jolley, the subject of this sketch, was reared a farmer, was educated in the common schools of the county, begun life for himself with no capital except "vim" and untiring energy. In 1870 he settled on the farm where he now lives, which contains 300 acres; and in addition to cultivating his farm, he has for twenty-four years operated a cotton gin, and later has added a corn and saw mill. Mr. Jolley was married in 1851 to Miss Hannah, daughter of Thomas Carpenter, a South Carolinian, who settled upon the land now owned by Dr. Beazley. Nine children blessed this union, of whom eight reached maturity: Robert F., Bartow county; Joseph T., Bartow county ; Elizabeth K., widow of Dr. I. N. Van Meter; James C., William A., Bartow county; Lee W., Taylorsville, Ga .; John H., teacher, and Hilliard J. Mr. Jolley is a democrat and an exemplary and influential member of the Methodist church. He was one of the original members of Oak Grove church, contributed $400 toward the building of the "meeting house," and has been one of the stewards since the church was organized. Mr. Jolley had the misfortune to lose his wife by death, Dec. 18, 1887, and is now living a life of usefulness, calmly awaiting the summons to an unending reunion. He prides himself on inheriting from his ancestry a God-fearing spirit. None of them avoided the payment of a just debt, and that the name is the synonym of strict honesty.

ROBERT H. JONES, carriage manufacturer, Cartersville, Bartow Co., Ga., son of Samuel and Ann E. (Edwards) Jones, was born in Elbert county, Ga., Sept. 21, 1828. His parents were natives of North Carolina, but the family moved soon after his birth to Alabama, where he was reared. There, until after his

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marriage, he was engaged with his father in a tannery and a general merchandise store. In 1851 he embarked in the carriage business at Oak Bower, Hart Co., Ga., where he remained until 1853, when he moved and located at Cartersville and established an extensive carriage manufacturing business, which he continued until 1861. That year, in response to the call for volunteers, he raised the "Fire- side Defenders," which afterward became a company of the Twenty-second Geor- gia regiment, of which he was elected colonel, and with which he remained until 1863. His command was engaged in the battle of Seven Pines, where he received a painful musket-shot wound in the hip, but did not leave the field. He was in the seven days' fight around Richmond, and in the battle of Malvern Hill, where he was shattered and badly burned by the bursting of a shell in his face. As soon as he recovered he resumed the command of his regiment. At Sharps- burg, while leading his brigade, he was evidently made a target of by the Federal sharpshooters, having been shot through the hat, the ball grazing the top of his head; then, immediately afterward, he was hit in the stomach, the ball penetrating through his belt; and in a few seconds he was shot through the right lung, the ball going completely through him. From this wound he never recovered, and was compelled to resign in 1863. After remaining several days without having his wounds dressed, he was carried by the men of his regiment to Winchester, where he received the needed medical treatment, and as soon as he could travel came home. In 1866 he returned to Cartersville and reorganized his carriage- building business, which he has since conducted with his usual energy and fore- sight, and with phenomenal success. It is now conducted under the firm name of R. H. Jones & Son. Politically he is a democrat, but has never sought or filled a public office.

Col. Jones was married in 1851 to Miss Cynthia E., daughter of W. G. Cotton, then a resident of Troup county, Ga. Six children have blessed this union: Emma C., wife of W. B. Soddle, Hart county, Ga .; Lulu B., wife of C. R. Bilbro; L. Glenn, Alabama; John W., Cartersville; Fannie B., wife of A. S. Quinlon, At- lanta, and Howard E. F., Cartersville, Ga. Col. Jones is a member of Bartow County Veterans' association, of which he is chaplain, a Knight of Honor, a member of the I. O. O. F., and a Master Mason. He is a member of long standing of the Methodist church, has been a lay delegate to its conferences, and since 1859 has been a local preacher. No citizen in the county stands higher than he in any respect.

JOHN J. JOHNSON, farmer, Adairsville, Bartow Co., Ga., son of William C. and Cassandra (Lindsey) Johnson, was born in South Carolina Oct. 14, 1826. His paternal grandfather was Randolph Johnson, who was a native of England, and emigrated to the United States and settled in Virginia, whence he migrated to South Carolina and settled in Laurens district. He afterward moved to Duck river, Maury Co., Tenn., where he died. Mr. Johnson's father was reared in South Carolina, and in 1845 migrated to Georgia and settled at Poplar Springs, near Adairsville, in Cass (now Bartow) county, where he lived until 1863, when he retired and made his home with the subject of this sketch until he died in 1866. Thirteen children were born to him, of whom six grew to maturity: Hosea, Gordon county; Perry, Bartow county; Wiley, Arkansas; Arena Murphy; Me- linda Bray and John J., the subject of this sketch. Mr. Johnson was reared in South Carolina, where he lived until he was nineteen years of age, when he came with his father to Georgia, and they jointly bought the Poplar Springs prop- erty. In 1854 he bought and settled on the land he now lives on-a tract of 362 acres. This he cleared and has improved, and it has been his home since. In

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1862 he enlisted in Company I, First Regiment, Georgia State troops, and was with them in every engagement they participated in until the close of the war. Since then he has given his attention exclusively to his farming interests, satis- fied with being regarded as one of the best farmers and among the most sub- stantial of the county's citizens. Mr. Johnson married Miss Mary E., daughter of William T. Barton, Bartow county, by whom he has had twelve children: Martha J., wife of V. Alexander; Henry Wiley, Atlanta; Luella; Estella, wife of John Hunt; Inez; Birdie; Lowell; Robert E., deceased; Homer, deceased, and three who died in infancy.

C. M. JONES, planter, manufacturer and mineral developer, Emerson, Bartow Co., Ga., son of Wylie and Nancy (Lively) Jones, was born in what is now De Kalb county, Ga., July 29, 1829. His grandfather, William Jones, was a native of Wales, England, who, when he emigrated to America, settled in Maryland, where he died. Mr. Jones' father left Maryland when a young man, came to Georgia and settled in Morgan county, where he married. Later he moved to what is now De Kalb county, where he engaged in farming and stock-raising, and died in 1830. His children were: Frances, wife of Jacob House, Cobb county, Ga .; William L., died in 1854 in Alabama; C. M., the subject of this sketch.

Mr. Jones was reared on the plantation, receiving a common country-school education; his father having died when he was quite young, he was deprived of some advantages in this respect he might otherwise have enjoyed. Attaining to man's estate he engaged in farming as a life occupation. In 1861 he enlisted in company F, Thirty-sixth Georgia regiment, of which he was commissioned first lieutenant. He served with this command until the battle of Perryville, Ky., where he was seriously injured, forcing a temporary retirement from the service. Six months afterward Mr. Jones raised the Second regiment, Georgia reserves, of which he was commissioned colonel, and at the time of the surrender was in command of the brigade. While in the service he participated in the following engagements: Fazewell, Cumberland Gap, Tenn., Richmond, Lexington, Covington, Ky., George- town, Frankfort, Versailles, Perryville, Ky., near Charleston, S. C. At the close of the war he resumed his farming operations on the old homestead, where he remained until 1873. Perceiving the necessity of having land on which improved farming implements and machinery would be used to meet the changed conditions on the plantations resulting from the war, he prospected extensively through the south and west, and finally purchased 800 acres of his present property from Dr. H. J. Bates, paying $21,500 for it. By subsequent purchases he has increased his holding to 2,800 acres, 1,000 acres of which are bottom lands extending along the Pumpkinvine creek three miles, than which there is no finer farming land in the state. The property is rich also in deposits of brown hematite, gray and other kinds of iron ore, manganese, black lead, lime, yellow ocher, flexible sandstone, red oxide iron, umber and gold -- all of which have been mined and shipped. For many years he has had a woolen and grist mill, doing a large and profitable business, and putting in a saw-mill, engaged also in the manufacture of lumber. In 1874 he commenced mining and shipping ore, and, later, organized the Brown- Jones mining company, with which he is connected, which is opening and develop- ing valuable iron deposits. He laid, at Emerson, the first malleable iron plant in the state, which is known as the Emerson Malleable Iron company, of which he is president. A limestone quarry on the property, which had been partially worked before his purchase of it, he opened more extensively and has since operated. A deposit of black lead is the most extensive, and is regarded by Col. Jones as the most valuable on his property, to develop which he organized the Georgia Graphite

SAM P. JONES.

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company, and erected a large mill for preparing the product for market. This plant is now operated by J. F. Allerson & Co., under lease and royalty. The kaolin clay deposits are operated by Anderson & Armstrong, of Marietta, Ga. At Emerson are the extensive ocher mills of J. C. Orme, established through Col. Jones' efforts, and in which he is interested. The town of Emerson was founded by, and is really a creation of Col. Jones-was named in compliment of ex-Gov. Joseph Emerson Brown, and is situated on the Western & Atlantic (state) railway, forty-three miles from Atlanta. From this place Col. Jones has built a broad-gauge railway to the various mines, quarries and mills scattered over his valuable prop- erty. He is a far-seeing and true and wise developer, and is demonstrating on a limited scale, yet in none the less convincing manner, the vast possibilities of the development of Georgia's varied and exhaustless natural resources; and if one man, unaided, can accomplish what he has, what might be reasonably expected of organ- ized companies, with millions of capital !

In his farming cperations Col. Jones, as elsewhere, leads the van. He uses the latest improved labor-saving implements and machinery, and the most advanced methods. As an evidence of it it may be stated that he owned and operated the first self-binder brought to Georgia. While not neglecting any of the staple southern products adapted to his locality -- cotton, corn, oats, wheat, etc., he, to a limited extent, pays some attention to fruits, having now about nine acres of the very choicest fruit in great variety. Were he a younger man these acres might be expected to multiply to hundreds at no remote date. In early manhood he was sheriff of De Kalb county four years, and in 1882 was elected to represent Bartow county in the general assembly. Subsequently he identified himself with the populist party, and in 1892 was a delegate to the national convention, held in Omaha, Neb. In the recent state election he was the candidate of the party for state treasurer.

Col. Jones was married in 1850 to Miss Sarah, daughter of Thomas Carroll, of Gwinnett county, Ga., a union which has been blessed with ten children: Louise J., wife of R. C. Tillie, Atlanta; Mary E., wife of J. E. Morris, Bartow county ; William L., farmer, Floyd county; Charles W., farmer, Bartow county; Thomas H., farmer, Cherokee county, Ga .; John P., broker, Augusta, Ga .; Sarah F., wife of J. E. McElroy, Norcross, Ga .; Milton H. V., attorney, Atlanta, Ga .; James M. Jones, farmer; Robert E. Lee, Bartow county, deceased, and Lena. Entertaining a profound sense of the necessity and value of education, he liberally educated his children, and lends his great influence to all educational movements. Col. Jones is a member of the Bartow County Veterans' association, and has been a Master Mason forty-three years. He is an exemplary and influential member of the Methodist church, has been honored as a delegate to its general conference, and takes great interest in its affairs. He ranks with the foremost in all the walks of life, and his energy, enterprise and public spirit are worthy of emulation.

REV. SAMUEL P. JONES, Cartersville, Bartow Co., Ga., son of Capt. John J. and Mrs. Queeny (Porter) Jones, was born in Chambers county, Ala., Oct. 16, 1847. His paternal grandfather, Rev. Samuel G. Jones, was a Methodist preacher, who married a daughter of Rev. Robert L. Edwards, one of the pioneer Methodist preachers of Georgia. Four of the brothers of Mr. Jones' father are ministers of the Gospel; and for several generations the family on both sides have been prominent church members and preachers of the Word.

When only nine years old Mr. Jones had the misfortune to lose his mother. Four years afterward his father married Miss Jennie Skinner, of Cartersville, to which place he moved his family in 1859. In 1861, his father entered the Con-

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federate army, and by reason of his absence and the disordered state of society, he drifted into the company of the immoral and dissipated. Surrounded by and associating with this class, he found himself at the age of twenty-one, physically and morally wrecked and ruined. Until his mother died he had been a scholar under Prof. W. F. Slaton, now the superintendent of the public schools of Atlanta. Here the groundwork of an education had been faithfully laid. During his father's absence he had neglected his studies; but soon after his return he entered the school of Hon. W. H. Felton, and, later, attended the high school at Euharlee, of which Prof. Ronald Johnson was principal. Here his health broke down and prevented his taking the collegiate course his father intended for him. It was at this period he mistakenly sought relief in drinking; he also at this time com- menced reading law, and, after due preparation was admitted to the bar. He, however, continued his life of dissipation until August, 1872, when, on his death- bed, his father extorted from him a solemn promise to reform and meet him in heaven. He kept his promise, and soon after his conversion, commenced to preach the Gospel. The first serinon he preached was the week after his conversion, at the old New Hope church two miles from Cartersville. He went there with his grandfather Jones, who was the pastor on the Bartow circuit; and the Rev. Sandford, who was to have preached, failing to keep his appointment, his grand- father prevailed upon him to preach in his place. He now began to preach, and under the direction of Rev. George R. Kramer, began to prepare himself for the ministry. Three months afterward he applied for admission and was accepted and received into the North Georgia annual conference, and entered upon the arduous self-sacrificing work of the itinerant Methodist preacher. His first appointment was on the Van Wert circuit, where he preached acceptably three years. His next ap- pointment was on the DeSoto circuit, Floyd county, Ga., with seven churches, where he was unusually successful. From here he was sent to Newborn circuit, Newton county, Ga., where he remained two years, and where he was blessed with greater success than ever before. His next appointment was on the Monticello cir- cuit, Jasper county, Ga., where he also served two years. During these and the three preceding years he had been instrumental, under God, in converting 2,000 people and adding them to the membership of his churches, besides doing a great deal of revival work in other circuits. In the first eight years of his ministry he was instru- mental in converting not less than 5,000 people, and preached not less than 400 sernicns a year. His first revival work that gave him any notoriety was in 1879- 80. In January, 1881, he was appointed agent for the orphans' home of the North Georgia conference, at Decatur, De Kalb Co., Ga., and doing revival work in Atlanta, Griffin, Macon, Columbus and Savannah. This work engaged him during 1881-82. His first revival work in Atlanta was at the First Methodist church, when Gen. Evans was pastor; this was followed by work at St. Luke's, Columbus; St. John's, Augusta; Trinity and Monumental, Savannah; Mulberry Street, Macon, and at all the leading Methodist churches in Georgia. The first revival services which gave him newspaper notoriety were in Memphis, Tenn., in January, 1883. Since that time he has worked in more than twenty states, includ .. ing the cities of Brooklyn, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, D. C .; Indianapolis; St. Joseph, Mo .; Waco, Tex .; Mobile, Ala .: Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn., and in Toronto and other cities in Canada. In no place where he has preached have the buildings or tents been large enough to hold the people. He has preached to congregations numbering 10,000 people, and at Plattsburg, Mo., he had an audience of 20,000 people. At his revival in Chicago, the "Inter- Ocean" and "Tribune;" the "Commercial-Gazette," and "Inquirer," Cincinnati, and the "Globe-Democrat," St. Louis-having an aggregate circulation of 300,000-

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printed his daily sermons. Through the columns of those widely-circulated jour- nals he enjoyed the great privilege of preaching to a million and a half persons every day. His first preaching, he says, was called "earnest exhortation"-which, he claims, cannot be feigned-and he contends that that which did so much for him, will do as much for others. He has always had an inborn hatred for shams, and especially for religious shams; says that he would prefer to be an Ingersoll, and a disbeliever in the Book, than to be a Methodist, professedly believing everything, and yet being just like Ingersoll. In the fourth year of his ministry he began to preach to his people just as he thought, convinced that the preacher who fits the most consciences will get the most hearers-just as the shoemaker who makes the best fit will get the most customers. In preaching at the consciences he says there are three essential requisites-clearness, concentration and directness- and that when the conscience is aroused the alternative is left, of a better life or complete abandonment. When he first began to preach- he was brought face to face with the fact, that to succeed as a preacher one must either be a great thinker or a great worker-and after prayerful consideration he chose the latter. During the first eight years of his ministry he preached not less than 400 sermons a year, week after week, preaching oftentimes four sermons a day. He has never attempted to prove that there was a God-that Christ was divine-or that there was a heaven or hell. He made these things not an objective point-but a starting point; his idea being that Christ meant what he said in the command-Preach the Gospel, not defend it; preach the Word, not try to prove that the Word is true. He is a believer in progressive theology, in aggressive effort, in agitation, in conflict, in conquest, and in the crowns which must follow this line of work. To the newspapers he concedes he owes much of his success, they having been very kind to him in their reportorial columns. The main object of all his preaching has been to make men fully realize that sin is hideous, and righteousness attractive; to drive men from the former, and to attract them to the heights and beauties of the latter.

Mr. Jones was married in November, 1869, to Miss Laura, daughter of John H. McElrain, Henry county, Ky., and of the seven children which have blessed this union six survive: Mary M., Annie C., S. Paul, Robert W., Laura Henry, and Julia Baxter.

CHARLES LOWRY, a native of the north of Ireland, and his wife emigrated to America and settled on James river, in Virginia, before the revolutionary war, in which he served as a soldier. From his son Charles have descended the Lowrys of Bartow county, Ga.

Charles Lowry, second, was born in Virginia, and served as a soldier in the patriot army during the latter part of the revolutionary war. He married a Miss Reese of that state and afterward migrated to South Carolina, where he remained until about 1812, when he moved to Georgia and bought and settled on a tract of land in Franklin county. In 1825 he moved from Franklin to Gwinnett county, Ga., where he lived until 1833, when he came to Cass (now Bartow) county, and purchased and settled on land near Cassville. He died in 1847 or 1848 at the home of his son David. Of fifteen children born to this worthy couple five died young and ten were raised to maturity: David, married first a Miss Bennett, of Gwinnett county; she dying, he married Mrs. Sheppard (nee Stegall); he was a soldier in the war of 1812 and died about 1879 in Smith county, Tex .; James, also a soldier in the war of 1812, married and died in De Kalb county, Ga .; Solomon Reese, whose sketch hereinafter appears; John, a soldier in the war of 1812, married and died in Mississippi; Thomas, served in the Indian war, mar-

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ried and died in Rome, Ga .; Samuel, married and died in Mississippi; Elizabeth, married Joshua Gibson, a soldier in the war of 1812-both died in Texas; Sarah, deceased wife of Jacob Reed; Mary, deceased wife of Shadrach Lowry, Calhoun county, Ala .; Martha, deceased wife of Theophilus Little, Arkansas.

Solomon Reese Lowry, third son of Charles Lowry, second, was born in Spartanburg, S. C., Nov. 17, 1800. He received a good common school education, and when a young man taught school in Gwinnett county. Later he settled in Forsyth county and engaged in farming until 1838, when he moved to Cass (now Bartow) county, and settled near Cassville, where he lived until 1861, when he purchased four 167-acre lots five miles north of Cartersville, where his son Joseph now lives. He lived here until his death, in June, '1889. Mr. Lowry married Miss Priscilla, daughter of Isaac Gilbert, of Gwinnett county, who died in 1892. In early life Mr. Lowry was a whig, but during the latter part of his life he was an ardent democrat. He was a strong and consistent member of the Methodist church. Their children were: Russell J., Gwinnett county; Joseph G., Bartow county, and a daughter who married M. H. Leak and died in Texas in 1865.

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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 43

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