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 99

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 99

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WILLIAM J. NEEL, lawyer, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., son of Joseph L. and Mary A. (Swain) Neel, was born in Cass (now Bartow) county, Ga., Feb. 15, 1861. His paternal ancestors were natives of Ireland, and when they emigrated to America settled in Maryland and Pennsylvania, some of them afterward locating in Virginia and Georgia. His maternal ancestors were Scotch, and settled in South Carolina. His father was born in St. Clair county, Ala., and married his wife in Gordon county, Ga. His principal occupation was farming, but in connection with it he carried on a general merchandise business, and was prosperous and popular, and attained to some political prominence prior to the war. In 1857 he represented Cass county in the general assembly of Georgia, and has represented it in the same body since the war. He is still living, and is chairman of the democratic executive

committee of Bartow county. He raised and commanded a company in the Fortieth Georgia regiment during the civil war, and rendered efficient and valuable service during that conflict. They reared four children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the youngest. James M., the oldest, is a prominent lawyer at Cartersville, Ga., and has also been judge of the city court. Another

. brother, Joseph N., is a member of the Eads-Neel company, Atlanta and Macon, the largest retail clothing house in Georgia. Mr. Neel's educational advantages were at first very limited. He attended the common county schools at Adairsville until he was eighteen years old, when he entered the North Georgia agricultural college at Dahlonega, at which he was a student two years. He then read law some months under the direction of his brother at Cartersville, and edited "The American," the local paper. Later he went to Washington, D. C., and in 1885 entered the Georgetown university law school, where he took a three years' course, and was graduated in 1888 with first honors, besides winning a $100 gold prize for the best scholarship record. In 1887 he was appointed chief of division in the treasury department at Washington, which he filled until the change in adminis- tration in 1889, when he voluntarily resigned. He then came to Rome and became a member of the law firm of McHenry, Nunnally & Neel, which continued until September, 1894, since which time he has practiced by himself, confining his practice principally to commercial causes. His clientage, already large, increases steadily in volume and value, as well as influence. No member of the profession as young as he has brighter prospects for professional distinction or political prefer- ment. In 1892 he was elected to represent Floyd county in the general assembly, and served his constituents with credit to himself and acceptably to his fellow- citizens. While a member of that body he secured the passage of a bill estab- lishing an industrial department for the deaf and dumb at Cave Spring, Floyd

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Co., and secured an appropriation for a building for that purpose. He declined to serve another term. In 1893 he was elected a member of the city council, of which body he was chosen mayor pro tem. He is still a member of that body and chairman of the finance committee. Mr. Neel was married in June, 1892, to Miss Isa Williams, at Murfreesboro, Tenn. His wife was born in Georgia, educated in part at the Mary Sharpe college in Winchester, Tenn., and then went to Europe and completed her education in Paris and Dresden. She is one of the most accomplished linguists in Georgia. Mr. Neel comes of a line of democrats and is himself an active and zealous member of that party. He is an earnest member of the First Baptist church of Rome.

MITCHEL ALBERT NEVIN, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., was born in. Augusta, Ga., April 10, 1842. His father, James Nevin, was a native of South Carolina, and came to Georgia and established himself in his early manhood, where he died about 1846. Mr. Nevin received a good education and grew to manhood in Augusta; and when twenty years old went to Columbia county, Ga., where he taught school two and a half years. He then left there and came to Floyd county, which he made his permanent home. After teaching school between two and three years he bought an interest in the "Rome Commercial" newspaper, and later bought the entire plant and conducted the paper until 1869, when he sold out. Four years afterward he repurchased it and ran it until 1876, when he sold out to the "Rome Courier," and shortly afterward established a book and job printing establishment. He successfully conducted this for a number of years, and then disposed of it and commenced improving some valuable real estate he owned in Rome, the building of the fine opera house which bears his name being due to his enterprising spirit. Public spirited and intelligently progressive he has been quite influential in promoting the growth of the city and its industrial interests, and is one of the most popular of its citizens. In 1884 he was elected school com- missioner of the county, and held the office twelve years, and in 1878 he was elected mayor of Rome, and twice successively re-elected. In 1882 he was elected clerk of the city council and held the office continuously until 1894. Mr. Nevin was married Dec. 20, 1866, to Miss Helen A., daughter of the late distinguished Judge John W. H. Underwood. Of the children born to them three survive: Ida, wife of W. A. Patton, Rome; James B., and Mary M. Mr. Nevin is a member of the I. O. O. F., Royal Arcanum, Knights of Honor, and of the Methodist Episcopal church south.

HUGH BARRY PARKS, retired merchant, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., son of William and Elvira (Allgood) Parks, was born in Pontotoc county, Miss., March 8, 1851. Both his parents were natives of South Carolina, and early in life migrated to Mississippi. Mr. Parks grew to manhood on his father's planta- tion and was educated at the schools in his native county. When he was twenty- one years old he came to Tryon, Chattooga Co., Ga., and engaged as clerk in the store of the Tryon manufacturing company, in which his uncle, A. P. Allgood, was a large stockholder. He remained in the employ of the company until 1874, when he came to Rome and entered the employ of the dry goods firm of W. T. McWil- liams & Co., with whom he remained two years. He then organized the dry goods house of H. B. Parks & Co., which soon commanded a large and profitable busi- ness, and continued until 1894 when they sold out and Mr. Parks retired from business. He came to Chattooga county a poor young man-his only capital industrious habits, a resolute will and moral rectitude-qualities which have won his way to wealth, honorable social distinction and the confidence of the com- munity; eminently elevated intellectually, and noted for deep-seated moral senti-

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ment. When he retired his firm had been doing an annual trade of $85,000. Mr. Parks was an important factor in the organization of the municipal government of East Rome, about 1880, and with the exception of a year or two has served on the council ever since. He is a public-spirited, progressive and useful citizen, wide- awake to everything calculated to promote material prosperity and advanced morality. Mr. Parks was married in Chattooga county, December 25, 1877, to Miss Mary E., daughter of the late John W. Penn, a union which has been blessed with two children: Mary Alice, and Hugh Barnett. Mr. Parks takes no especial inter- est in the partisan politics of the day, but he is an uncompromising prohibitionist and a wide-awake, working and influential member of the Methodist church.

MULFORD MARSH PEPPER, postmaster, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., was born in Savannah, Ga., July 14, 1850. About two years after he was born his parents moved to Cass (now Bartow) county, where they lived until 1860, when they removed to Rome. Here he was reared and received what education he has. When fifteen years old he went to Waynesboro, Burke Co., Ga., to clerk for a grocery firm, and remained with them eighteen months, when he came back to Rome and entered the hardware store of Ayer & McDonald. After clerking for this firm six years he went with J. & S. Bones, in the same business, and remained with this firm six years also, and afterward one year with their successor in the business-S. G. Hardy. Then, about 1880, he entered the employ of the Towers & Sullivan manufacturing company, as secretary and treasurer, and remained with them three years. The Rome hardware company being organized, he was elected a director, and was manager of it two years. After this he formed a part- nership with Park Harper-the firm being Harper & Pepper-and went into the crockery business and carried it on two years. He now entered the Merchants' National bank as bookkeeper and filled the position two years when, in April, 1893, he was appointed to his present position of postmaster. Mr. Pepper was married in 1875 to Mrs. Judith M. (nee Christian) Terrell. He is a Knight of Pythias and a Knight Templar Mason, and affiliates with the Presbyterian church.

JOHN H. REECE, lawyer, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., son of Dr. Alfred Burton and Sarah W. (Varner) Reece, was born in Floyd county, Ga., Aug. 29, 1840. His paternal grandfather, Pope Reece, came from Wales, England, in the colonial times, settled in North Carolina, and was a soldier in the patriot army during the revolutionary war. Mr. Reece's father was born in North Carolina, migrated to Georgia in 1834, and settled among the Cherokee Indians in the territory north of the Chattahoochee river. He officiated as surgeon under Col. Nelson, in com- mand of the troops which accompanied the Cherokees to their reservation west of the Mississippi. His maternal grandfather, Matt Varner, was a wealthy and influ- ential planter in Oglethorpe county, Ga. Mr. Reece was the eldest of four children, received his primary education at the common schools, and then entered the old Cherokee Baptist college at Cassville, where he was when the civil war was precipitated. He enlisted in the Eighth Georgia regiment, and was elected lieutenant of his company; and when Col. Cook was killed at the battle of First Manassas, he was promoted to a captaincy. He was afterward captain of a company in a regiment commanded by Col. George A. Smith, of Macon, Ga., was captured in April, 1864, and was kept a prisoner at Johnson's island until June, 1865. After the war he spent about two years on his farm in Floyd county and then came to Rome and entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1876 he was elected to represent Floyd county in the general assembly and took an active interest in calling the convention of 1877, which framed the present constitution

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of Georgia; and was elected to the first general assembly under it. Since then he has neither desired nor sought political position. For many years he was asso- ciated in his law practice with Col. Forsyth; but in 1886 he formed a partnership with Richard A. Denny, under the firm name of Reece & Denny, which still exists. The firm does a general practice in Rome circuit and others contiguous, in the state supreme court, and in the United States courts. Mr. Reece ranks high with the members of his profession and the public, has a large and influential clien- tage, and is so popular he could have almost any office in the gift of the people if he would accept it. Mr. Reece was married in 1871 to Miss Corry A. Armstrong, of Macon county, Ala., daughter of Maj. Henry Armstrong. She was educated at Mrs. Colwell's college, better known as Rome female college, presided over by Mrs. Colwell. Four children-two sons and two daughters-blessed this union. The eldest son, Henry, was killed by the Mexicans at Monte Vista, Col .; the other son, Burton A., and the daughters, Bessie and Mamie, are at home; the daughters are students at Shorter college, Rome. He is a working and influential member of the Baptist church, and in October, 1894, was one of the three delegates from Floyd county elected to the Baptist state convention.

JOHN J. SEAY, capitalist, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., son of Rufus M. and Laura (Wadsworth) Seay, was born in De Kalb county, Ga., Nov. 10, 1843. His father was born in Appomattox, Va., but grew to manhood in Knoxville, Tenn., where, in after life, he became a prominent merchant, and died'in 1851. Besides himself, the family consisted of another brother, and a sister. His mother was born in Decatur, De Kalb Co., where she grew to womanhood and was married. She is still living, something over seventy years of age. Capt. Seay enjoyed very limited educational advantages in his boyhood and youth. In 1861, when only seventeen years old, he enlisted in a company under command of Luther J. Glenn, which formed a part of the famous Cobb legion, and served until the surrender. Among other hotly contested battles he participated in were those at Malvern hill, seven days' fight around Richmond, Fredericksburg, Harper's Ferry, and Chancellors- ville, and he was with Gen. Longstreet at Knoxville, where he was wounded. He was not in active field service the last year of the war. After the war he went into the stove and hardware business in Atlanta, but in a short time sold out and started for Honduras, Central America. Yellow fever breaking out he abandoned the trip and went into business in West Point, Ga. At the end of three years he sold out (1872), and went to Rome, where he engaged in the manufacture of stoves- a pioneer in Georgia in this very important industry. He continued this business until 1883, when he sold out and embarked in steamboating on the Coosa river. He built one steamboat and bought four more, and established lines between Rome, Ga., and Greensport, St. Clair Co., Ala., which transported scores of thousands of bales of cotton and thousands of tons of miscellaneous freight. In 1890 he engaged in railroading as soliciting agent. In 1891 he built a dummy, three-mile-line street railway, which later he sold, and was elected president of the Consolidated street railway company. He was also elected president of the Rome land company, and secretary of the New Rome land company. In 1891-92, by way of recreation and to employ his leisure time, he edited the city daily paper. In 1892, when the alliance captured the state, he was elected on the straight demo- cratic ticket to represent Floyd county in the general assembly. The appreciated compliment of a tender of re-election was declined. Overflowing with public spirit, of irrepressible energy, and aggressively progressive, Capt. Seay is a most useful citizen, and is of the sort that projects and pushes to successful termination great enterprises and builds up cities. Capt. Seay was married July 17, 1867, to Miss

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Frances S. Wood, Canton, Ga., by whom he had four children: Charles M .; Laura L., Mabel B., and Susan L. The mother of these children died, and he contracted a second marriage with Miss Florida Bayard, of Sewanee, Franklin Co., Tenn., who has borne him two children: Clifford B. and Flory R. Capt. Seay is a life-long, uncompromising democrat, always loyal, and a prominent member of the Presbyterian church.

HALSTED SMITH, lawyer, Rome, Floyd Co., was born in Savannah in No- vember, 1849, and moved to Rome in November, 1873, and practiced law until 1879. In 1877 he was elected a member of the city council after a sharp contest. The mayor and entire council were re-elected without opposition for a second term. On account of impaired health he removed to the country, being at the time a law partner of Hon. D. B. Hamilton. He returned to the city in 1890, having previously entered into partnership with Mr. L. A. Dean in 1887, which continued until 1894, when he was elected city attorney and clerk of the council. He has filled these two responsible positions most admirably and still continues the practice of law, having made a splendid reputation as a real estate lawyer. He is general counsel for the Rome Mutual Loan association and represents the legal department of other loan associations in the city, and is familiar with cor- poration law, of which he has made an exhaustive study. He has always taken an active interest in politics, and has been for several terms chairman of the democratic county committee. Few citizens are more popular, and none stand better for integrity of character, professionally and socially. Mr. Smith was married May 8, 1871, to Miss Caroline Timanus, of Fernandina, Fla., by whom he has had seven children. His first presidential vote was cast for Horace Greeley. He is a member of the Presbyterian church.

WALLER T. TURNBULL, judge of the Rome circuit, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., son of Richard and Margaret (Bellamy) Turnbull, was born in Monticello, Fla., Sept. 9, 1860. His paternal grandfather, Dr. Theodore Turnbull, of Eng- lish extraction, was a native of South Carolina. Judge Turnbull's father was born in Florida. He was a lieutenant in the Confederate service during the civil war, first in the western army and later on detached duty on the Florida coast. He was afterward a member of the Florida legislature, and was one of the Florida commissioners to the world's fair. His mother is a lineal descendant of Arthur Butler, who was a colonel in the patriot army during the revolutionary war, and led the charge at the battle of King's Mountain, and also of Pierce Butler, a member of the convention that framed the constitution for the young republic. Judge Turnbull passed his boyhood and early youth in the city of his birth and received his primary and preparatory education there. In 1877 he entered Emory college at Oxford, Ga., from which he graduated in 1880 with the fourth honor and the degree of A. B. He was also awarded the Boynton prize medal for the best essay of the year. After his graduation he returned home, and the ensuing year was principal of the Monticello high school. He then attended a law course at the university of Virginia, and in 1883 was admitted to the bar in that state. He then located in Atlanta, in which city he practiced his pro- fession with pronounced success until 1889, when he moved to Rome, where his personal merit, professional attainments and superior ability being recognized and appreciated, he has been very successful. On Oct. 6, 1891, Gov. Northen appointed him judge of the city court of Rome, which position he creditably held until January, 1895, when he was elected judge of Rome circuit. Judge Turn- bull was married April 26, 1889, to Miss Cornelia, daughter of W. I. and Martha

SEABORN WRIGHT.

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Brookes. He is a member of the order of Red Men, a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Methodist church.

J. D. TURNER, deputy sheriff, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., was born in Floyd county in September, 1854. He was a son of John W. Turner, who was born in Lincoln county, Ga., in 1830, and came to Floyd county in 1847, where he acquired considerable property and became very prominent and influential. He was a captain in the Twenty-ninth Georgia regiment and served through the war, and who had the distinguished honor of representing Floyd county in the general assembly twenty years. He died in 1893. Mr. Turner was educated in the near- by country schools, and after receiving his preparatory education entered the university of Georgia at Athens. After finishing his junior year he returned home and engaged in farming until January, 1887, when he was appointed assistant postmaster of Rome, moved to the city and served two years and a half. After this he went on the road for D. W. Curry, druggist, Rome, for eighteen months -until January, 1891-when he was elected deputy sheriff, J. C. Moore being elected sheriff. He was re-elected in January, 1893, and 1895, the terms being two years, and has made an excellent record. Sheriff Turner was married in 1879 to Miss Susie, daughter of the late H. Bunn, of Cedartown, Ga., and to them four children have been born: Eugene D., Alfred Colquitt, Hugh Bunn and Cath- erine. He is a Knight of Pythias, a Knight Templar Mason, and a member of the Baptist church.

SEABORN WRIGHT, lawyer, Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., son of Hon. Augustus R. and Adeline (Allman) Wright, was born near Rome, Nov. 29, 1856. His father was of English extraction, born in Screven county, Ga., and came to Floyd county about 1850, having previously graduated from the Augusta school. He was a brilliant and impressive orator, and served with distinction in both the Federal and Confederate congresses and as a judge of the Superior court. His mother was of Scotch descent, having been a Miss Adeline Allman, and was born and raised in Chattooga county. They had ten children, of which the subject of this sketch was intermediate, and seven of whom are living. Mr. Wright received his primary and preparatory education in the schools of his county and then entered Mercer university, Macon, Ga., from which he graduated with dis- tinction in 1878. He took great interest and an active part in the college society debates, and was commencement orator of his class. He read law under his father and was admitted to the bar at the January term (1879) of Floyd superior court. As soon as he was eligible, in his twenty-first year, he was elected as an independent candidate over the strongest candidate the democrats could nomi- nate to represent Floyd county in the general assembly, and was re-elected to serve a second term. He made a fine record in the legislature and introduced many bills of importance. Since then he has been a candidate for no office. When Dr. William H. Felton announced himself as an independent candidate for congress in 1874 he allied himself with the movement and stumped the district for Dr. Felton. He did this for three successive campaigns, his boyish appearance and brilliant oratory drawing large audiences everywhere and imparting extra- ordinary effectiveness to his work. Mr. Wright has always been independent in politics. Believing the great evils of American politics to be the result of extreme partisanship, he has contended for greater independence and a higher degree of political responsibility. He believes that the overwhelming ascendancy of the democratic party in the south since the war, coupled with the blind obedience of the masses to the dictates of party action, made it possible for politicians to

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manipulate party conventions, thereby frequently nominating for office candidates without character or ability. This he fearlessly and eloquently denounced, hold- ing with Robert Toombs that the action of political conventions are simply advisory. That the rights of the people are higher than the dictates of party. These have been his political principles from boyhood, and from them he has never swerved for an instant. He has been repeatedly urged by the people of the seventh district to run as an independent candidate for congress, but declined to do so, although his election seemed assured, assigning as a reason that men in office become political cowards and soon lose the fearless freedom of thought and speech which alone render them useful to their people and their country. He has been prominent in all reform movements, especially the efforts to regulate and suppress the liquor traffic. Recognizing that the safety and integrity of the government rest largely upon free and fair elections, he has bravely denounced election frauds of every character. Believing in white supremacy in the south, because of the superior intelligence and virtue of the white race, he has never- theless always demanded absolute justice for the negro, arraigning in the press, and on the hustings, the wholesale corruption of the negro by local politicians. This has drawn down upon him the wrath of the small politicians, but has corre- spondingly endeared him to the common people, who regard him as their cham- pion and the defender of their rights. Since his service in the general assembly Mr. Wright has devoted himself to his profession, giving special attention to anti- corporation and criminal law. He has taken an active part, principally as an advocate, in most of the important criminal cases in northwestern Georgia. In the case of the State vs. Dr. J. B. S. Holmes, charged with the murder of De Forrest Allgood, he made the concluding argument, which was a masterpiece of eloquence and was one of the finest addresses ever delivered in the court house of Floyd county. He also made the leading arguments in the cases of the state vs. Ora McKee and Frank Wilkerson, cases famous in Georgia juris- prudence, and in all these there were verdicts of acquittal. Of magnetic person- ality, a strong and brilliant mind and oratorical ability of the highest order, should he so desire, Mr. Wright will no doubt attain the highest honors within the gift of his state. Mr. Wright was happily married in Atlanta, Feb. 28, 1882, to Miss Annie E., daughter of William A. Moore, of that city, a union which has been blessed with four children: Barry, Lewis, Max and Graham. He is a prominent and influential member of the Presbyterian church.

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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 99

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