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 46

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 46

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JOHN MURROW, attorney, Tifton, Berrien Co., Ga., is a son of Dr. John A. Murrow, now a resident of Pembroke, Ga., and was born in Bryan county, Ga., Dec. 31, 1858. He was educated at Cone's academy, Bulloch county, and entered on the study of law at the state university, Athens, being a member of the last class graduated by the celebrated Prof. Wm. L. Mitchell. He located at Ty Ty, Worth Co., where he practiced law for twelve years, moving to Tifton, Ga., in 1894. His practice extends over a territory comprising several adjoining counties. As a counselor Col. Murrow holds the confidence of his people and the respect of his brother attorneys. He has for twelve years been local attorney for the Brunswick & Western railroad, which fact attests the value of his services. In 1882 Col. Murrow was joined in wedlock to Miss Estelle, a daughter of Dr. J. H. Picket, to whom have been born four children: Willie L., a lad of eleven

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years; Roy H., nine years; Clyde, a daughter of six years; and Irma, three years of age. A blue lodge and royal arch Mason, and a Knight Templar at Americus, and also a Knight of Pythias, Col. Murrow combines with his excel- lent reputation as a lawyer social qualities which make him a pleasant and com- panionable gentleman.

WM. LEE PATTEN, M. D., is the son of a farmer, James Patten, and was born in Milltown, Berrien Co., Nov. 9, 1865. After receiving a good common school education, for one year he attended the agricultural college at Thomasville. During three years, 1883-1885, he taught school in Irwin, Berrien and Lowndes counties; for the two years following he was salesman in the general merchandise stores of J. W. Harroll & Son and H. C. Dukes of Valdosta. In the spring of 1887 he began to read medicine, entering the medical college of Atlanta the following fall, and graduating March 1, 1889. The young physician located at Pensacola, Fla., where he practiced four years. When about to leave that city he was tendered a banquet by the physicians of the city, and in the speeches made many well-deserved compliments were paid their departing friend and associate. Dr. Patten then located in the town of his birth, Milltown, where he has already acquired an excellent practice in the town and vicinity, besides carrying on a large trade in drugs. He is a member of Damon lodge, No. 13, K. of P., and of Columbia lodge, K. of H., both located in Pensacola, Fla. His wife, whom he married Jan. 15, 1891, formerly Miss Lizzie Dennis, is the daughter of Rev. W. B. Dennis, a Methodist minister of Pensacola. They have two little daughters, Lucille, born July 13, 1892, and Lizzie Lee, born Sept. 17, 1893.

HENRY B. PEEPLES, Nashville, Ga., was born at Athens, Ga., Feb. 2, 1849; is one of the leading lawyers of Berrien county, and is descended from a South Carolina family-his grandfather having come thence to settle in Jackson county, Ga., about 1820. The family seems to have a decided predilection for the law, his father and two uncles being quite distinguished in the profession. One uncle, Cincinnatus, for about six years was judge of the superior court of Fulton county; the other, Judge R. A. Peeples, has held various county offices in Berrien and Lowndes counties. His father having devoted ten years in Athens and four in Atlanta to mercantile pursuits, removed to Berrien county and commenced the practice of law at Nashville; was a member of the legislature from Berrien county, was ordinary four years, and at the time of his death, in December, 1893, was judge of the county court. Henry B. Peeples, after a few months at a private school in Atlanta, was sent to the High school (academy) at Nashville. Having reached manhood's estate, he began farming in Berrien county, near Nashville. To this calling he devoted several years, and was very successful; but in 1876 the natural bent of his mind decided him to begin the study of law, and in 1877, at the March term of the superior court, he was admitted to practice. By assiduous atten- tion to his profession in the city of Nashville, his home, he has taken a high rank among his fellows. He represented the county in the legislature in 1886-87. In April, 1892-to fill the unexpired term of J. R. Slater, deceased-he was appointed by the governor solicitor-general of the southern circuit. The following October he was elected by the legislature to fill the same office for the full term. Mr. Peeples is a member of Duncan lodge, No. 234, F. & A. M., of which he is worshipful master. He is also high priest of Daisy chapter, Royal Arch, at Adel, Ga. At the age of twenty-one Mr. Peeples married Miss Ellen Byrd, daughter of N. W. Byrd. He has two sons and two daughters: Mattie, aged seventeen; Nathan W., aged fifteen ; Taylor M., aged twelve, and Fannie J., eight.

J. W. TALLEY.

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BERRIEN COUNTY SKETCHES.

COLQUITT STRICKLAND, born May 22, 1857, is the son of a farmer of Clinch county, Ga., who was also justice of the inferior court of his county, and who died Nov. 1, 1883. The son obtained his education in the common country schools, working on a farm and attending school until twenty-one years of age, when he went into the mercantile business at Milltown, Berrien Co., where he has since resided. He is carrying on an extensive and profitable trade with a stock of some $10,000, and in addition, since 1892, has been running a large farm. Here he makes a specialty of corn and hogs, selling every year thousands of pounds of meat of his own raising. The political principles of Mr. Strickland are democratic. He is a Mason, a member of Butler lodge, No. 211, of which he is senior warden. His wife was Miss Mattie L. Roberts, of Valdosta, whose father, William Roberts, by diligence in the farming industry, has been able to retire from business with a competency. The family is highly esteemed in the community. Mr. Strickland has two sons and one daughter: Charley G., born July 16, 1884; Willie R., born March 10, 1888. The daughter, Luella, was born Feb. 11, 1894.

JAMES W. TALLEY, M. D., was born Feb. 22, 1826, in Henry county, Ga., not far from Atlanta, and is of English ancestry. His grandfather, with two brothers, came to this country, and the former, Caleb Talley, after serving during the revolutionary war, settled in Virginia. He was the father of seven sons, five of whom were Methodist ministers. One of these, Rev. Nathan Talley, of Greene county, Ga., was the father of James W. Talley. The latter received a good academic education, and in 1850 began the study of medicine under Dr. William Blalock, of Fayetteville, Ga. In 1851 he entered the Medical college of Georgia, at Augusta, but took his degree from Savannah Medical college. He located in Milltown, Berrien Co., where he has built up one of the most successful and extensive country practices in the state. During the war Dr. Talley was exempted front military duty on account of his profession. Politically he is a democrat. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, of lodge No. 211, has been grand master, and is now past master. One of Dr. Talley's brothers, H. M. Talley, is also a physician at Valdosta. Another, A. S. Talley, is a real estate agent in Atlanta. For his first wife, Dr. Talley married Miss Mary Little, daughter of Zabot Little, of Henry county. She died in 1867, and he afterward married Miss M. Holzendorf, daughter of Alexander Holzendorf, of Cumberland island, one of the best known planters in the state. Dr. Talley's family consists of two sons and four daughters. His eldest son, Junius V., born May 8, 1872, graduated from the Louisville Medical college in June, 1894; William T., born Aug. 30, 1875, at home, attending school. The eldest daughter, born in 1854, is the wife of Huffman Harroll, a merchant of Valdosta; Mary I., born in 1864, married J. H. Bostwick, a manufacturer of naval stores, in Berrien county ; Effie C., born Nov. 5, 1870; Lelia H., born Sept. 6, 1873, is the wife of J. J. Knight, a merchant of Milltown.

HENRY H. TIFT, Tifton, Berrien Co., Ga., was born at Mystic, Conn., March 16, 1841, his father, Amos C. Tift, having been a merchant of that city, where he died in 1886. Henry enjoyed the educational advantages of the common and high schools of his native town, and also a year at East Greenwich seminary. He then served an apprenticeship of three years in the machine shops of Mystic and Hartford, after which he served as engineer for five years, between New York, Apalachicola and Key West, and on the C. H. Mallory steamship line, plying between New York and Texas. Mr. Tift came to Albany, Ga., in 1870, taking charge of some manufacturing enterprises, N. & H. T. Tift & Co., but in 1872 he moved to Tifton and went into the luinbering business, in which he has since

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been chiefly engaged. For some time he carried on a mercantile establishment in connection with his lumbering enterprise, but last year sold his interest in that to his brother, W. O. Tift. He ships lumber to western and Cuban points, but mainly coastwise to New York and New England, his average cut being some 40,000 feet per day. Mr. Tift owns, individually, 65,000 acres of land, and is using every effort to bring a desirable class of settlers to his town. He is building a railroad from Tifton to Helena, Telfair Co., Ga., for which a charter has been secured, and a company will be organized. He is largely interested in the Tift & Snow company, which carries on a nursery and fruit farm of over 300 acres. H. H. and W. O. Tift also own a great fruit farm, 250 acres of pecans, pears and grapes -- thirty-five acres being in grapes alone. Mr. Tift also owns a large interest in the Tifton Canning company, and in addition, has an extensive business in naval stores near Tifton. During the war he was engineer of a government transport, being in the fleet that transported Butler's troops up James river. Mr. Tift married Miss Bessie Willingham, daughter of Thomas Willingham, of Albany, Ga., and has three sons, Henry, Thomas and Amos.

WILLIAM S. WALKER is the son of a farmer, Elisha S. Walker, who was at one time justice of the inferior court of Dougherty county, and who died May 25, 1865. The son, William, was born in Stewart county, Ga., June 18, 1849, and at- tended the common schools, chiefly in Rome, Ga. In 1871 he entered commercial life, going into business first at Tifton, but in 1873 he transferred his business to Allapaha. In 1885 he exchanged trade for farming, which he carried on quite extensively, and in connection with it a large livery business. Mr. Walker, who is politically a democrat, was elected to the general assembly in 1880, where he served one term, being contemporary with Gov. Northen. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is worshipful master of Eureka lodge, No. 313. The family to which Mr. Walker belongs is well known and esteemed. His mother's father was a Baptist minister in Stewart county; his brother, Eugene C., is a broker in Atlanta; another brother is a farmer in Berrien; a cousin, James M. Griggs, is judge of Pataula circuit. Dec. 14, 1879, Mr. Walker married Mrs. L. W. Griffin, whose father, Robert Downs, of Camden county, Ga .. died of yellow fever in 1856. Their one son, Griggs, was born Oct. 20, 1883.

BIBB COUNTY.

CAPT. GEORGE D. ALLEN comes of "Old Dominion" stock. His father, Maj. W. A. Allen, was born in Amelia county, Va., in 1815, and reared on a plantation. He, with his father, Capt. Alexander Allen, removed to Bedford county, Tenn., in 1834, where he married Martha E. Davidson, daughter of George Davidson, who was a native North Carolinian. Maj. Allen, while a resi- dent of Tennessee, was a man of distinction and influence, having served a term in the senate of that state. After the war he came south and located at Forsyth, Ga., where he now resides, enjoying, by choice, the life of a quiet citizen, much · loved and respected by the people of his community.

Capt. George D. Allen was born in Shelbyville, Tenn., Dec. 30, 1843, and passed

Allen

W. S. WALKER.

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BIBB COUNTY SKETCHES.

his boyhood days on the home plantation, and was being educated at the Shelby- ville university when war became the cry. He at once enlisted in Company B, Forty-first Tennessee regiment of the C. S. A., and served through the entire four years. His service, for the most part, was in the Army of the West, where he was in all the important battles. At the fall of Fort Donelson, in 1862, he was captured and spent seven months in prison at Indianapolis. He was exchanged in time to take part in the siege of Vicksburg. From this time he served as aide-de- camp. to Gen. H. B. Davidson, and at the close of the war was on the right flank of Lee's immortal band at Appomattox.

Capt. Allen returned to his father's country home in June, 1865. The following October he married Miss M. Eufaula Scandrett, an accomplished lady of Griffin, Ga. They are the parents of eight children, four of whom are living: Lawson D., George D., jr .; Harry S., and Stewart W., all of whom are now having the best edu- cational advantages.

Capt. Allen came to Georgia in 1866, engaged in cotton planting two years, and in 1868 embarked in the mercantile business at Forsyth, Ga. He was chair- man of board county commissioners and mayor of the city. It was during his administration and largely owing to his energy and influence that the Monroe Female college, the oldest female college in the south, was rebuilt.

The year 1884 marks the date of Capt. Allen's coming to Macon, since which he has been one of her most energetic and successful business men. He engaged in the wholesale grocery trade, and in 1890 organized the firm of Allen & Dumas Co., of which he was president and general manager. In December, 1894, he became sole owner of the business, which includes the Juliette water mills, located at Juliette, Ga., twenty-two miles north of Macon, on the Southern railway, and one of the largest and best-equipped grist mills in the south.

Capt. Allen is, in religion, a Methodist, is a Knight Templar Mason, and a citizen of whom Macon may well feel proud for his enterprise and ability.

AUGUSTUS O. BACON, United States senator-elect of Georgia, is a native of Bryan county, and was born there Oct. 20, 1839. His parents were, however, residents of Liberty county, and he was born when his mother was on a visit to Bryan county. His father was the Rev. Augustus O. Bacon, a Baptist minister, and on his mother's side he is a grand nephew of the late Judge William Law, of Savannah, one of Georgia's most distinguished men. By the death of his parents the boy was left an orphan at an early age, but under the care of a grandmother he spent his boyhood, and at the age of 16 he entered the University of Georgia, graduating in the collegiate course in 1859, and the law school in 1860. In October of that year he began the practice of his profession in Atlanta, but in May, 1861, he joined the forces under the starry flag of the Confederacy, and enlisted as adjutant of the Ninth Georgia regiment.

In 1864 he was wedded to Miss Virginia Lamar, of Macon, and when hostilities were ended Maj. Bacon returned to Macon, and has since practiced his profession there. His success in his profession was immediate, and he quickly assumed a ranking place in the Bibb county bar. In the summer of 1868, he made his debut in politics, being nominated by the democratic state convention as presidential elector for the then fourth congressional district. The compliment can be better appreciated when it is known it was made on the same day the great Bush Arbor mass-meeting, at Atlanta, was held, and was for the purpose of invoking the highest oratorical ability. The masterly way in which he handled the questions agitating the public, to the satisfaction of the party, marked him then as one of the coming men of Georgia. Two years later-1870-he was elected to the legislature I-21

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of 1871-72. He was re-elected to the next legislature, and in January, 1873, was chosen its speaker. In the fall of 1876, he was again elected, and this time was unanimously elected speaker. Under the new constitution he was re-elected in December, 1877, for two years, and on the organization of the house, was again unanimously elected speaker. In 1880, he was again elected to the house from Bibb, and chosen speaker. Maj. Bacon's record, under the circumstances, could hardly be other than a brilliant one. His knowledge of law, fine executive ability and parliamentary experience and learning, and fine personality, made him a model speaker. In 1883 he was a candidate for governor, and in that famous convention he had a large plurality. After a three-days' deadlock a committee was named to suggest a candidate to the convention, and, by a majority of only one vote, they agreed upon Hon. Henry McDaniel over Mr. Bacon. Two years later he was again a candidate for governor, being defeated by Hon. J. B. Gordon. The contest was a close one, and though Gen. Gordon won, there was only a difference of about 1,500 in the popular vote, several of the counties being carried by shoe- string pluralities. He was chosen United States senator in 1894, after an exciting campaign and a canvass on the part of Mr. Bacon, remarkable for its organization and execution.

DR. ROBERT B. BARRON, a leading physician of Macon, Ga., is the son of Dr. James Finney and Joannah E. (Shropshire) Barron, and was born in Clin- ton, Jones Co., Ga., Dec. 26, 1859. Dr. James F. Barron was born in Jones county in 1825 and has always lived there. He was educated at Powelton, Hancock Co., and was graduated in medicine at the University Medical college of the city of New York in 1849. He served in both branches of the general assembly before the war and was a member of the secession convention, being in favor of that movement. In 1853-4-5 he was justice of the inferior court of Jones county. He was exempt from active military service on account of physical disability, but was one of four men in his native county who, during the war, looked after the widows and orphans at home, and in so doing spent all he had. He was married in 1853, his wife being a daughter of Capt. James H. Shropshire, an officer in the Seminole war, and a granddaughter of Jamies Shropshire, a native of England. They had six children: James H. of Jasper county, Ga .; William W. of Jones county, ex-sheriff and clerk of the superior court; Dr. R. B .; Jackson Clay, Jones county, lawyer and judge of the county court, now serving his second term, having been elected first at the age of twenty-three; he was for two years at West Point academy; Abington L., a teacher in Putnam county; Sallie E., unmarried. Dr. James F. Barron's father was William Barron, also a native of what is now Jones county, Ga .. and was born in 1798. He was a farmer all his life, was at one time sheriff of the county, and died in 1837. His father, Dr. Robert B. Baron's great-grand- father, was Samuel Barron, who was born in Virginia in 1772, and came with his father to Hancock county, Ga., in 1783. He became an extensive planter, was one of the original settlers of Jones county, and owned several hundred slaves. He had eleven children and at his death left to each of them between thirty-five and forty slaves. His father, Dr. Barron's great-great-grandfather, James Barron, was a native of Scotland. The great Commodore Barron, who fought a duel with Commodore Decatur, was a first cousin of James Barron. The name, James, has been given to the eldest son of the Barron family for six generations. Dr. Robert B. Barron was brought up and primarily educated in Clinton. At the age of sev- enteen he entered Mercer university at Macon, Ga., graduating with the degree of A. B. in 1881. Returning home he read medicine with his father one year, then went to Bellevue Hospital Medical college in New York city and was graduated

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from that institution in 1883. He came back to Clinton, Ga., after his graduation and practiced with his father until 1889. From that time until August, 1891, he was employed as physician and surgeon by the Southern Lumber company and the Wadley & Mount Vernon Railway company at Wadley, Ga. He came from Wad- ley to Macon and has since practiced there. Dr. Barron is a member and president of the Jones County Medical society, and also of the Macon Medical society; is a member of the Georgia Medical association and of the American Medical asso- ciation, to whose meeting in 1887 he was a delegate. He is past high priest of Constantine chapter No. 4, R. A. M., and master of Mabel lodge No. 255, F. & A. M., and senior of St. Omar commandery No. 2, Knights Templar, and a member of the A. T. O. (Greek society). In 1885 he received the degree of A. M. from Mercer university. He was married in the year last mentioned to Miss Willa, daughter of William Etheridge. In 1887 he read before the Georgia Medical association a paper on "Uterine Disorders," which was published in the report of the society's transactions. He has read many other widely-noticed papers before the Jones county and Macon Medical societies and is orator of the Georgia Medical association for 1896. Dr. Barron is an honored member of the Baptist church, and his wife is a member of the Methodist church.

C HARLES LA FAYETTE BARTLETT, late judge of the superior court of the Macon circuit, is the son of Judge George T. and Virginia L. (Saunders) Bartlett, the latter a native of Georgia, whose ancestors were Virginians, her father and mother coming to Georgia from Southampton county, Va. George T. Bart- Jett was born in Jasper county, Ga., in 1824, and in his early life gained political prominence. He served several terms in both branches of the state legislature, having been a member of the Georgia senate in 1861, when the ordinance of secession came up for consideration. He recorded his vote in favor of that measure. Previous to this date he had been solicitor-general of the Ocmulgee circuit, being first elected to that position in 1848. He entered the Confederate service in April, 1861, as captain of the Glover guards, a company he organized in Jasper county, and was sent to Norfolk, where his command was assigned to the Fourth Georgia regiment. He was captured in November, 1864, and was taken first to Hilton Head, then to Point Lookout and lastly to Fort Delaware, where he was held a prisoner until July. 1865. On his release he returned to Jasper county and resumed the practice of law. In 1873 he was made judge of the Ocmulgee circuit and sat on the bench seven years, when he again took up active practice and in 1884 came to Macon, where he died a year later. Hon. Charles La Fayette Bartlett was born in Monticello, Jasper Co., Jan. 31, 1853, and received his rudimentary education in the academy in that city, the principal of which was Prof. W. R. Berncr. At the age of fifteen he matriculated at the university of Georgia at Athens, and graduated from that institution in August, 1870. He then entered the university of Virginia and while there took up the study of law. Re- turning home he entered his father's law office and was admitted to the bar in August, 1872, at the city of Monticello, in which he immediately thereafter began the practice of his profession in partnership with his father. This firm was, how- ever, dissolved after it had existed about a year, his father being, as above men- tioned, appointed in 1873 judge of the Ocmulgee circuit. Mr. Bartlett, therefore, practiced alone until 1875, when he associated himself with the late Samuel Hall (afterward judge of the state supreme court) and W. A. Loftin, the style of the firm being Hall, Loftin & Bartlett. This partnership continued until January, 1877, when Mr. Bartlett was appointed solicitor-general of the Macon circuit for the term of four years. In 1881 his father removed to Macon and they went into

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partnership for the second time, continuing together until the father's death in 1885. In May of that year Mr. Bartlett joined Hon. Washington Dessau and they practiced as a firm until Jan. 1, 1893, when he was appointed judge of the superior court of the Macon circuit. Political as well as professional honors have been won by Mr. Bartlett. In 1882 he was elected from Bibb county to the lower house of the state legislature and re-elected in 1884. Four years later he was sent to the state senate from the twenty-second senatorial district, composed of the counties of Bibb, Monroe and Pike. He has likewise served frequently as a delegate to con- gressional, gubernatorial and senatorial conventions. He is a member of the Macon lodge No. 5, F. & A. M .; of Constantine chapter No. 4; St. Omar commandery, Knights Templar; Franklin lodge, I. O. O. F .; M. R. Rogers lodge No. 59, Knights of Pythias and of Macon lodge No. 23, B. P. O. Elks. Dec. 3, 1873, Mr. Bartlett married Emma L., daughter of the late Dr. J. B. Carlton, Athens, Ga. In April, 1894, he resigned his seat on the bench and on the twenty-eighth day of that month the Macon bar met to take action on his resignation. A committee which had been appointed at a previous meeting reported the following resolution, the preamble to which was eulogistic in the extreme:

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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 46

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