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. II, Part 106

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166

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. II > Part 106

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ment during those perilous and trying times received the unqualified commenda- tion of his superiors. He is in every respect a worthy representative of the fam- ily whose honored name he bears, and is highly esteemed by a large circle of friends.

IRBY HUDSON ADAMS, insurance agent and planter, Eatonton, Putnam Co.,

Ga., son of David Rosser and Eliza (Hudson) Adams, was born in Eatonton, March 31, 1843. His father, son of William Ellis and Mary A. (Rosser) Adams, was born in Putnam county in 1810, and passed most of his life in Eatonton as a planter and banker. He was a pupil, about 1823, of Hon. William H. Seward, who was afterward secretary of state under President Lincoln, when he was principal of Phoenix academy, Putnam county. He was elected a delegate to the secession convention of 1860-61 and voted with Stephens and Johnson against immediate secession, but when the ordinance of secession was passed he heartily supported the Confederate government. Being a director in a bank which was a state depository he was exempt from military service. After the war he was elected a delegate to the convention of 1866 to restore the state to the union. About 1833 he was married to Miss Eliza Hudson, daughter of Hon. Irby Hud- son, a most prominent citizen of Putnam county, for eighteen years speaker of the Georgia house of representatives, for a brief sketch of whose life refer to the sketch of Hon. W. F. Jenkins. By this union ten children were born to him, of whom two are living. Those reared to maturity were John C., who graduated at Emory college and enlisted in the Putnam Light infantry, was wounded at McDowell, Va., and killed at the battle of Winchester, Va., in 1863; Irby Hud- son, the subject of this sketch; Emma, deceased wife of John T. Dennis, Putnam county; William H. Capers, who died in Savannah in 1870; Jennie, wife of Edward B. Smith, Jasper county, and Anna, deceased wife of Tucker Calloway, now of Atlanta. The mother of these children died in 1853. Three years after- ward he married her sister Sarah, widow of Robert Trippe, by whom he had seven children, four of them still living: D. R., Eatonton; George W., Eantonton; Carrie, wife of William G. Little, Putnam county; Laura, wife of J. R. Brannan, Jr., Atlanta. Mr. Adams died in 1876 in the sixty-seventh year of his age. He was a man of superior mental and moral worth, broad-minded and public-spirited; he had an excellent capacity for business, and was always foremost and ardent in every public movement calculated to benefit his county, his church or the state. He was a strong and exemplary member of the Methodist church. Bishop Pierce said his voice was as musical as that of an angel. Irby Hudson Adams has spent most of his lifetime in Eatonton, and had finished his preparatory studies and was just about ready to enter college when the war between the states occurred. May I, 1862, he enlisted in the Putnam Light infantry, Company G, Twelfth Georgia regiment, which he joined near Staunton, Va. Eight days after- ward he participated in the McDowell fight, one of the bloodiest little battles of the war. Of fifty-two of his company who went into battle twenty-eight were killed and wounded, and of the 580 in the regiment over one-half were killed and wounded, including eight captains. He was shortly after discharged on account of physical disability, but, impelled by irresistible patriotic impulses, he re-enlisted the following year, this time in the Twenty-seventh Georgia battalion, with which he gallantly remained until the close, and surrendered April 26, 1865, at Greens- boro, N. C., under Gen. Joseph Johnston. On his last entrance into the service he was elected first lieutenant and when he surrendered was a captain. After he returned home he was appointed a clerk in the comptroller-general's office under Col. John T. Burns, at Milledgeville, a position he retained while the state was

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under military government, and until 1868, when the capital was removed to Atlanta. He then returned to Eatonton and entered into the banking business with his father, which he continued three years with success. Retiring from banking, he directed his energies and superior abilities to the life and fire insur- ance business with the splendid results which one would predict for one so pop- ular, and so well capacitated every way to succeed. Energetic and enterprising, and always on the alert, he has established a large and valuable patronage. In addition to this he successfully conducts extensive planting interests. Capt. Adams was married in Eatonton in December, 1871, to Miss Florence Reid, of Eatonton, who bore him two children: Florence and David Rosser, both of whom are at home. Their mother died in 1881, and in 1884 he was married to Miss Julia Jordan, of Eatonton, a cousin of his first wife, who died in 1885, leav- ing a son, who also died in 1886. In 1887 he was married to Miss Eppie Elder, of Barnesville, Ga., who has borne him two children: Carrie Nell and Maude. In addition to his other honors Mr. Adams was captain of Company E, Second infantry, Georgia volunteers, for eighteen years, and now holds that position. Capt. Adams is a democrat, a master Mason and a Methodist, and in boyhood was an intimate companion of Joel Chandler Harris (Uncle Remus). On his paternal side he was related to the two presidents, John and John Quincy Adams, his ancestors moving from Massachusetts to North Carolina, and thence to Geor- gia; was also descended from the Ellises and Rossers, of North Carolina and Virginia. His grandfather, William Ellis Adams, was a captain in the revolu- tionary war, in which he was painfully wounded. He was a man of very marked mental and great moral worth. Capt. Adams' maternal ancestors were the Hud- sons, of Dinwiddie county, Va .; the Featherstones, of Virginia, and the Flour- noys, who were French Huguenots, who settled on the James river in Virginia, and subsequently came to Putnam county, where they were very prominent in the affairs of the county.

JOHN W. ADAMS, clerk superior court, Eatonton, Putnam Co., Ga., son of Benson W. and Ann (Hudson) Adams, was born in Putnam county, May 31, 1850. He was raised on the plantation, where he remained until of age, and received a good common school education. He commenced his business life as a clerk for his uncle, B. F. Adams, a merchant of Eatonton, who was also clerk of the superior court. His uncle, after he had filled this office ten years, died, and. in 1889, the subject of this sketch was elected to succeed him. He has been elected three times since successively, though opposed by some of the best and strongest men in the county. Mr. Adams was married in Eatonton, Aug. 3, 1880, to Miss Ella C., daughter of Jefferson and Susan Adams. Her father was a prominent lawyer of Eatonton, and her mother a daughter of Hon. James A. Meriwether, one of Georgia's most distinguished citizens, of state and national reputation, having been elected repeatedly to the general assembly, presided as judge of Ocmulgee circuit superior court, and having been a congressman. Three children have blessed this union: Meriwether Flournoy, Julia Carlton and Ella Gertrude. His family connections by birth and marriage being of the most honorable and distinguished character, and himself being of the most genial nature, it is not strange he is almost invincible before the people. He is a stanch democrat, a master Mason-secretary of his lodge for years -- and a member of the Presbyterian church.

THOMAS BUTLER COUPER, leading cotton factor, Eatonton, Putnam Co., Ga., son of Willian A. and Hannah P. (King) Couper, was born on St. Simon's Island, Glynn Co., Ga., Nov. 4, 1858. His progenitors on both sides are among

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Georgia's earliest settlers, and the most distinguished and highly connected families of Georgia. The following very interesting sketch of his paternal grand- father is copied from White's Historical Collections: "John Couper was born at Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on March 9, 1759, and was the third son of the Rev. John Couper, clergyman of that parish. His eldest brother was for more than a quarter of a century regius professor of astronomy in the university of Glasgow; and his second brother, Dr. William Couper, a distin- guished surgeon of that city, was with Mr. Tennant, the inventor of chloride of lime, which as a bleaching material has exercised a most important effect on textile fabrics. Mr. Couper emigrated to Georgia at the early age of sixteen, and arrived in Savannah during the autumn of 1775, as a clerk in the house of Lundy & Co. On the breaking out of the revolutionary war he retired with his employers to Florida, where he remained until the peace of 1783, when he returned to Liberty county, Ga., where, in the year 1792, he married a daughter of Col. James Maxwell. The death of Mrs. Couper preceded his own only a short time, after a union of more than fifty years. The talents and integrity of Mr. Couper at once gave him a leading influence in society, and soon after his removal to Glynn county that influence was successfully exercised against the Yazoo fraud, of which he was an indignant opponent, and which, as one of the members of the legislature of 1796, he aided in defeating. In 1798 Mr. Couper represented Glynn county in the convention that framed the constitution of Georgia; and at the time of his death himself and his friend, Mr. Spalding, of Sapelo Island, were the only survivors of that body. Having embarked very extensively in the cultivation of Sea Island cotton, Mr. Couper at an early period withdrew himself fromn politics, and during the remainder of a long life devoted himself to the discharge of the duties of a private gentleman. In making this selection his talents and character were probably more valuable to the community than if he had adopted a career of more notoriety, but of less practical utility. Living in a style of refined and most liberal hospitality, generous and enlarged in all his views, his example exercised an elevating influence on all around him. For many years one of the largest proprietors in the state, his system of treatment of his slaves, which was in accordance with his humane and just feelings, produced a happy effect on those around him, and has continued to influence the condition of that class of persons throughout the seaboard. Mr. Couper possessed a conversational talent equaled by few; and having been endowed with a tenacious memory his reminiscences of the early history of Georgia are highly interesting. Mr. Couper died in March, 1850, having just completed his ninety-first year." In 1798 Mr. Couper bought large bodies of land-including St. Simon's Island-on the coast of Glynn county, living on the island until he died. Here he reared four children: James H., one of the largest planters on the coast, a profound scholar, and a cultured gentleman, one whose extensive and varied information was a marvel to all who came in contact with him; John, who died young; William A., father of the subject of this sketch, and Isabella. The father of our subject, William A. Couper, married Hannah P., eldest daughter of Hon. Thomas Butler King, himself one of Georgia's most distinguished citizens. He represented Georgia in congress in 1839-43, and again in 1845-49; and during a part of the time two other brothers- Andrew and Henry-were in congress with him as representatives of other states. Afterward, during the administration of President Taylor and Fillmore -1851-52-53-Mr. King was collector of the port of San Francisco, Cal. The other children of Mr. King were Thomas B., Jr., the eldest; Mallory, a distin- guished officer in the late war; John Floyd, member of congress from Louisiana just after the war; Henry L., killed in Virginia during the war, and Capt. Richard C., now in Macon, Ga .; Mrs. James Wilder; Mrs. (Gen.) Henry R. Jackson, and

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Mrs. John Nisbet, Savannah. Mrs. King's grandfather, Page, was an officer in the British army before the revolutionary war, lived in South Carolina during that conflict, and was the subject of much abuse. Her father, William Page, was a major in a South Carolina legion. Mr. Couper's parents reared the following children: William P., Washington, D. C., in charge of a department in the patent office; Butler K., cotton factor, Marietta, Ga .; John A., civil engineer Marietta & North Georgia railway, Marietta; Anna R., Mrs. Charles M. Marshall, Rome, Ga .; Rosalie, Mrs. Echarte Van Walder, Atlanta; and Thomas B., the subject of this sketch. Mr. Couper's boyhood and youth covered the war period, so that he received but a limited education, in Savannah. When sixteen years of age he accepted a clerkship in a furniture house in Rome, Ga., whence, after a year, he went to Savannah, where he engaged in the cotton business. In 1884 he moved to Eatonton, where he has since been engaged in cotton factorage business under the firm-name of T. B. Couper & Co., whose transactions are direct with the mills and with Europe. Popular, pushing and persistent, he is enjoying great business prosperity. Mr. Couper was married Feb. 3, 1887, to the only daughter of Dr. R. H. Nisbet. He is a democrat, a master Mason, and a member of the Protestant Episcopal church.

" ALF" DAVIS, druggist, Eatonton, Putnam Co., Ga., son of W. C. and Elizabeth (Mason) Davis, was born in Eatonton, Dec. 14, 1834. His grand- father came from North Carolina to Georgia the latter part of the last century and settled in what is now Jackson county. He was related to ex-President Jefferson Davis, being descended from one, and the ex-president from another of four brothers, who came from England to America. His grandfather was a planter and lived in Jackson county until he died. He was of a vigorous con- stitution, raised two families of children, and lived to quite an advanced age. Mr. Davis' father was born in Jackson county in 1812. He was married in Eatonton in 1833, and came to Putnam county in 1840. He was a planter; but in 1850 he moved from the plantation to Eatonton and engaged in merchandising. Although of delicate frame and health, he was a man of untiring energy, enterprising and thrifty. In manners he was extremely retiring and modest, yet very popular. He was clerk of the superior court many years, and was treasurer of the county at the time of his death, which occurred in July, 1872. His widow died in 1879. They raised a family of seven children: "Alf," the subject of this sketch; Mary, deceased; John W., planter, Putnam county; James T., deceased, 1883; Edward S., enlisted in the war as sergeant of Putnam Light Infantry company, and was killed in battle at McDowell, Va., May 8, 1862; Clark M., merchant, Eatonton, Ga., and treasurer of the county; and Carrie D., wife of B. R. Paschal, planter, Putnam county. His maternal grandfather, John C. Mason, settled in the county the year succeeding its organization, in 1808. He was of Welsh descent, a planter, became quite wealthy, as well as prominent in county affairs, and dicd in 1846 at an advanced age. Mr. Davis was raised and educated in Eatonton; but at the age of twenty went to Tyler, Tex., where he engaged in merchandising, in which he prospered and continued until 1861, when he enlisted in Goode's battery. He was elected junior first lieutenant and remained with it twelve months in Arkansas and Mississippi, participating in the Elk Horn Tavern fight, and all the battles around Corinth, Miss. Just before the battle of Shiloh his twelve months expired and he returned to his old Eatonton home. In a short time he enlisted in Nelson's Rangers, a cavalry company, with which he served in the Kentucky and then in the Mississippi campaigns, as escort for Gen. Stephen D. Lee, whence the command was ordered to Georgia to reinforce Gen Johnson.

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Becoming tired of body-guard service he obtained a transfer to the First Texas legion, was appointed sergeant-major, and became a part of Ross' Texas brigade of cavalry, in which he served the entire Atlanta campaign. After the fall of Atlanta the command went with Gen. Hood to Kentucky. Mr. Davis, however, was taken sick at Florence, Ala., where he remained until Gen. Hood's return, when he went to Mississippi and remained until the surrender. Returning to Texas he re-established himself in business, and continued in it until 1885, when he sold out, came back to Georgia the year following, and went into general merchandising in Eatonton. In 1889 he bought out a drug store and has been successfully engaged in that business since. He has a beautiful home in Eatonton, and an intelligent and cultured family of the highest social standing. Genial and affable, he is very popular and does a good business. Mr. Davis was married Aug. 30, 1866, in Tyler, Tex., to Mrs. Julia H. (nee Harwick) Baxter, who has borne him five children: Fred J., railway manager, Temple, Tex .; Lallie F., at home; William H., Savannah, Ga .; George E., agent for Wanamaker & Brown, Eatonton; and Effie E., at home. He is a democrat, a member of the I. O. O. F., of several insurance fraternities, and of the Protestant Episcopal church.

J. T. de JARNETTE, planter, Eatonton, Putnam Co., Ga., son of Reuben R. and Mary (Bass) de Jarnette, was born in Putnam county, Aug. 6, 1835. The family is of Huguenot ancestry, and on coming to America settled in the neigh- borhood of Danville, Va., where members of it are now prominent in the commun- ity. Reuben de Jarnette, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, saw service in the patriot army during the revolutionary war, afterward became a government surveyor, and near the close of the last century came to Georgia and settled in Han- cock county. He was appointed by the governor to survey Putnam county, a duty he performed to the entire satisfaction of the state officials. In the land-drawing on the formation of the county, he drew land in what is now the suburbs of Eatonton, where he lived many years, finally moving to the eastern part of the county, where he built the first brick building erected in that county. He lived there till he died, about 1830. He had been liberally educated, and was very refined in his manners. He married a Miss Reid soon after coming to Hancock county, by whom he had four children: Reuben R., and three daughters. Mr. de Jar-

nette's father was born in Putnam county in 1811. In 1832 he married Miss Mary Bass, one of a family of twelve children, all of whom lived to be married. The six sons were men of great force of character, very successful, and became wealthy planters. Six children were born to Mr. de Jarnette by this marriage: Louisa, who died at eighteen; J. T., the subject of this sketch; Reuben R., planter, Putnam county; Ella, deceased wife of J. D. Norris, Cartersville, Ga .; Nathan H., planter, Greene county, Ga .; Emma Nashville, widow of J. W. Thomas, formerly state treasurer of Tennessee. Mr. de Jarnette's father, true to his Huguenot blood, was of a sanguine and very excitable temperament, enthusiastic and public spirited. All the family were democrats and ardent Methodists. He was a leading mem- ber of the church, and a great power for good in the community-energetic, thrifty, and a generous liver. His wife died in 1868, and himself in 1883. Mr. de Jarnette has made Putnam his life-long home. After receiving his preparatory edu- cation he entered Emory college, Oxford, Ga., whence he was graduated as a second honor man in 1855. He immediately began the study of medicine under Dr. L. D. Rogers, of Eatonton; then attended lectures at the Medical college of Georgia, Augusta, whence he graduated in 1857. Locating in Eatonton, he practiced with profit and eminent success until the close of the war, when his largely increased planting interests compelled him to abandon the practice and devote his entire

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attention to them. In 1873 he moved to his plantation, on the Oconee river, about twelve miles east of Eatonton, and is living in the house in which his mother was born. The plantation contains about 1,700 acres, and is said to be one of the finest in the county. On it is a famous mineral spring, which at one time was a favorite resort. In 1860 he was selected unsolicited as a delegate from the state at large to the national democratic convention at Baltimore, but declined on account of the pressure of his private affairs. In 1876 he was elected to represent the Twenty-eighth senatorial district in the general assembly. On the expiration of his two years' term of service he was widely and numerously petitioned by his fellow- citizens to allow himself to be nominated to represent the county in the general assembly, but he peremptorily declined. When the Alliance was organized he enthusiastically entered into it, took an absorbing interest in it, became a poten- tially influential power in its councils, and was elected president of the county organ- ization. As president he never allowed a motion of a political nature to be entertained, but insisted on holding its legislation to its original policy. He attained to such prominence that he was brought forward as a candidate for president of the state alliance, but finding that a majority of the members. favored going into politics, he withdrew his name. He next devoted his thought and energies to the establishment of a co-operative store at Eatonton, under Alliance auspices. Not- withstanding it encountered bitter opposition, the enterprise, with the active, intelli- gent assistance of Dr. N. S. Walker, Mr. J. T. Dennis and a few others, has been phenomenally successful. Based on a paid-up capital of $20,000, it has done a spot-cash business of $125,000 a year. For three years past its success has been such that it has been necessary to declare dividends, it not being desirable to in- crease the capital. It occupies five large rooms, handles all kinds of merchandise. and employs eight or ten clerks. In financial standing no store in the state out- ranks it. Mr. de Jarnette is president of the board of directors. A very gratifying outgrowth of this remarkable success has been, first, the establishment of the Put- nam County Banking company, the directors of which are the same as those of the Alliance store, with Mr. de Jarnette as president; and, second, the organization and establishment of the Middle Georgia bank, as a competitor. Thus, as a direct result of the success of this strictly farmers' enterprise, two sound, well-managed banking institutions are in successful operation, to the incalculable benefit of the people, where there was none before. This experience inculcates, practically, a very important lesson. Mr. de Jarnette was married in Eatonton in 1858 to Miss Mary McGee Trippe, a member of the old and prominent family of that name, who bore him two children: Henry R., planter, Putnam county; and Mary, wife of William L. Turner, manager of the Alliance store. Their mother died in 1861. Subsequently he married Miss Addie Reid, by whom he had two sons: Sidney, who was graduated from Emory college, with third honor, in June, 1894, and who now, in his twentieth year, is principal of the male academy, Covington, Ga .; and John B., now a student in the sophomore class at Emory college. In 1884 their mother died, and Mr. de Jarnette married Miss Marv Bass, of Glennville, Ala., who has borne him no children. Mr. de Jarnette is an uncompromising democrat, and a working, exemplary member of the Methodist church, of which he is a prominent official.

H. R. de JARNETTE, planter-capitalist, Eatonton, Putnam Co., Ga., son of J. T. and Miss Mary McGee (Trippe) de Jarnette, was born in Putnam county, April 12, 1859. He received his academic education in Eatonton, and then attended Emory college, Oxford, Ga., graduating in 1879. He settled immediately after- ward on a magnificent 2,000-acre plantation adjoining his father, deciding to make agriculture the chief pursuit of his life. Intelligent and progressive, and devoted to

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agricultural development, he has been eminently successful and prosperous. Him- self and father were actively instrumental in establishing the Farmers' alliance in Putnam county, he having been county lecturer and organizer. When it entered the field of politics they quietly withdrew. He is the largest stockholder in the Alliance store, which carries a stock of $20,000; a stockholder in the Putnam Coun- ty Banking company, his father being president of both, and also in the Cotton Compress company. He has been on the county board of school commissioners since 1887-an enthusiastic and progressive member. Through his enlightened and energetic activity the Putnam county school system has attained great efficiency and an enviable reputation. The upbuilding of the schools, and a general ad- vancement in all lines of intelligent progress, is an object near his heart. He was a delegate in 1893 to the National Farmers' congress, which met in Savannah. Mr. de Jarnette was married in Putnam county Nov. 17, 1880, to Miss Louisa de Jarnette, daughter of W. F. Little, who, prior to his death, was one of the wealthiest farmers in the county. She was born and reared in the county, and was graduated in 1879 at Lucy Cobb institute, Athens. Ga., with first honors. Four children have blessed their home: William L., May, Margie, and Louise. Mr. de Jarnette is a democrat, and a member of the county executive committee. He is a leading and exemplary member and a steward of the Methodist church; is superintendent of the Sunday school, and has been a lay delegate to the annual conference. It is such men as Mr. de Jarnette that are needed in public life; and the time cannot be distant when the people of his county and section will call for his services, and advance him to honor and distinction.

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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. II, Part 106

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1166

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166