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 118

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 118

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FRANK HARVEY MILLER, son of Andrew Jackson and Martha Olive Miller, was born in Augusta, Ga., Oct. 13, 1836. He was educated at the academy of Richmond county, the Villa school of the Rev. C. P. Beman and Franklin college (now university of Georgia). In the fall of 1854 he began the study of law in the office of his father and was admitted to the bar Nov. 20, 1858, at Burke superior court. Upon the death of his father, in February, 1856, he became a member of the law firm of Millers & Jackson, the other partners being Thomas W. Miller and John K. Jackson. On July 6, 1859, he married Julia Dyer, daughter of William K. and Sarah A. Kitchen. The firm of Millers & Jackson was dissolved Feb. 15, 1860, from which date Mr. Miller has practiced his profession alone, calling to his aid the assistance of associate counsel when necessary. At the commencement of the late war he entered the state service as a member of the Oglethorpe infantry, performing his first duty on the night of the surrender of the United States arsenal at Augusta to Gov. Brown. His company subsequently entered the service of the Confederate states as Company A, First regiment, Georgia volunteers. As the number of enlisted men was limited, all the married men, other than commissioned officers, were left at home. These organized Company B, of which Mr. Miller was first lieutenant. This company was ordered into the service of the state in November, 1861, and made a part of the Ninth regiment, of which the subject of this sketch was commissioned adjutant. As the war progressed many persons sought to avoid military duty by a resort to the courts. Such action necessitated the employment of counsel as assistant to the district attorney of the Confederate states, and Mr. Miller, who had much experience during his military service as judge advocate and had represented the government in other matters, was permanently and continuously engaged as such. At the close of the war he visited New York and Washington, where he had advantageous offers made to him to enter business, all of which he declined, preferring to bear the burdens of reconstruction with his own people. He returned to Augusta and resumed the practice of his profession before the military courts until the re-establishment of civil law, from which time he has devoted most of his attention to commercial and ecclesiastical law. In the former Mr. Miller's industry and success are best shown by a reference to the Georgia and Federal reports, which contain numerous interesting cases of his, in a majority of which he has been successful. He is one of the few busy lawyers who has given much attention to ecclesiastical law, in which branch of judicature he is recognized as an authority. In 1890 Mr. Miller was elected president of the Georgia Bar association. He has never sought or held political or judicial office. As a citizen he is deeply interested in the prosperity of Augusta and her institu- tions, and as a trustee of the academy of Richmond county and of the Masonic hall, has freely given time and attention to promote their welfare. Mr. Miller is one of the committee charged with directing the iniprovement and enlargement of the courthouse of Richmond county, in which capacity he has freely rendered valuable and timely service.

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WILLIAM K. MILLER, a prominent attorney of Augusta, Ga., was born in that city April 15, 1860. He was reared and received his primary education in Augusta, going to the university of the South, Suwanee, Tenn., 1872, and then to the university of Virginia, where he took a law course. Returning to Augusta he was admitted to the bar, Oct. 24, 1879, and to the supreme court of Georgia, Nov. 17, 1880, and to the United States court, fifth circuit in Georgia, June 1, 1886; also to the United States court of the fourth circuit April 4, 1893- Mr. Miller is a Knight Templar Mason.

REV. JAMES M. O'BRIEN, of the Church of the Holy Trinity, under the invocation of the Patrick, Augusta, Ga., was born in Kennebunk, Me., Jan. 28, 1842. In infancy he went to Keene, N. H., where he was brought up and received his primary education at the high schools, going thence to St. Mary's college, Wilmington, Del., and finishing his literary studies at Villanora college, near Philadelphia, in 1869. Then he went to St. Mary's seminary, Baltimore, Md., for his theological course, and was ordained priest in the old cathedral at Savannah, Ga., Jan. 6, 1874, by Rev. W. H. Grass, then bishop.of Savannah, Ga. Father O'Brien's first charge was at St. Patrick's church at Washington, Ga., and the adjoining missions of Sharon, Sparta and Athens. He remained in that charge from 1874 to 1879, when he was sent to the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Atlanta, Ga, and remained there two and a half years. Then he returned to Washington, Ga., and was in charge of St. Joseph's orphanage until February, 1889, when he was transferred to his present charge at Augusta.

FUGENE J. O'CONNOR, wholesale dealer in wines and liquors, of Augusta, Ga., was born in the County of Cork, Ireland. His father, Jeremiah, had come to America in 1847, settling at the city of Augusta, Ga., and in 1858 was joined by the son, who attended school there until his enlistment in the army of the Confederate States of America. In January, 1862, he joined the Rich- mond Hussars, Cobb's legion, rose to the rank of sergeant and laid down his arms at the surrender of Greensboro, N. C. During his service Mr. O'Connor was an active participant in the battles of seven days arcund Richmond; Brandy Station, where he was severely wounded; Upperville, Va., Sharpsburg, Second Manassas, Williamsport; Little Washington, Va., where he received a saber cut; Gettysburg, where he was badly wounded and disabled for five months; Peters- burg, and Bentonville, N. C. After the close of hostilities Mr. O'Connor, who was in the cavalry service, traded his horse for a mule, riding to his home in Augusta and selling the mule for $90, which he paid as rental for a small place in which he conducted a general grocery store. After sixteen months had elapsed he removed to larger quarters on Broad street, in the heart of Augusta, having as a partner at that time John C. Galvin. In 1870 he entered the employ of John W. Bessman, wholesale liquor dealer, as manager, remaining with him ten years. In 1880 the firm of Reab & O'Connor was formed, in 1884 the title of the house became Reab, O'Connor & Bailey, and in 1886 it was changed to O'Connor & Bailey. In 1890 Mr. O'Connor assumed the sole control and has conducted the business alone up to this time. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and is very prominently identified with the educational inter- ests of the city of Augusta, having been for twenty years a member of the board of education of that city. Nearly all those years he has been a member of the com- mittee on finance, and it is safe to say that probably no one in the municipality has exerted a greater and better influence in school matters. Mr. O'Connor is also a member of the Confederate Survivors' association of Richmond county, vice-president of the Richmond County Belt Line railroad, of the Murray Hill

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Improvement and Water Supply company; a director of the Augusta Exposition company, of the Irish-American Investment company, of the Real Estate and Investment company and the Augusta Savings bank. Thus it will be seen that he is bound up with the interests of the city of Augusta, and is altogether a public-spirited citizen. He was married in 1868 to Margaret McGarran of Augusta, a union which has been blessed by the birth of three lovely daughters, all of whom survive, viz .: Mary M., Margaret, and Julia.

PATRICK JOSEPH O'CONNOR, sheriff of Richmond county, Ga., was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in January, 1846. His father, Edward O'Connor, also a native of the land of the shamrock, is now, in 1895, in his ninety-ninth year, and still resides in County Mayo, which has been the local habitation of the O'Connor family for several centuries. Patrick Joseph O'Connor emigrated to the United States in his twentieth year, landing at New York, in which city he was engaged in business for a few months. He then came to the city of Augusta, Ga., and began clerking in a dry goods establishment, which position he filled most creditably until 1872. Removing to the town of Sparta, county seat of Hancock, he operated a general merchandise business there for eight years, at the end of that time returning to Augusta, where he carried on a general grocery store, until his election as sheriff of Richmond county, in 1888. He has been successively re-elected as sheriff of his county every term since his first and holds that office at this time. Mr. O'Connor has also held other positions of trust and honor, serving as councilman from the Fifth ward of the city of Augusta for six years. As a member of the city council he took high rank, being a member of the finance committee, chairman of the appropriations committee for two years, and chairman of the committee on streets and drains from 1889 to 1892. Patrick J. O'Connor was married in 1872 to Miss Mary E., daughter of the late M. P. Murray, a prominent citizen of Augusta, and that union has been blessed by the birth of several children, of whom five are now in life, viz .: Jolin Joseph, Anna Kate, Thomas Henry, Mary Ellen and Mattie.

LEONARD PHINIZY, one of the more prominent attorneys of Augusta, Ga., was born in that city, on the exact site of his present law office, Dec. 22, 1854. He is the third child and son of Ferdinand and Harriet H. (Bowdre) Phinizy. Ferdinand Phinizy was born on the old family plantation at Bowling Green, Oglethorpe Co., Ga., Jan. 20, 1819, being the eldest son and child of Jacob Phinizy and Matilda Stewart. The family of Jacob Phinizy consisted of Ferdi- nand, the eldest; Sarah, Margaret, Marco, Jacob and John. Sarah married John M. Billups of Columbus, Miss., and died in that city during the eventful days of the late war. Margaret, the second daughter, was wedded to Col. T. D. Lock- hardt, of Nashville, Tenn., and departed this life in the city of Atlanta, Ga .; Jacob fell on the field of Manassas, gallantly leading the Oglethorpe rifles, of which he was captain-a part of the famous Eighth Georgia regiment, that Beauregard saluted for heroic conduct and unparalleled bravery; John died at his home in north Alabama a few years since, a faithful, Christian man; and Marco, the last of that family, remains at the residence of his late lamented brother, Ferdinand, in the city of Athens, Ga., an old man awaiting with calm resignation the call of the Master. Each of these children bore the name of some dead relative, Ferdinand being called after his paternal grandfather. The boyhood of Ferdinand Phinizy was spent at Bowling Green, attending the schools of his native county. When still a mere lad his father moved to Athens, where Ferdinand was entered as a student in Franklin college (now university of

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Georgia). For three years he pursued his studies at that venerable institution and was graduated with honor in the class of 1838. Leaving the university he passed a few years on his father's farm at Bowling Green, overlooking the paternal interests there but the Georgia railroad being then in process of construction from Augusta to Athens, he obtained the contract to grade the first eleven miles of the road from Athens. This work he prosecuted to a successful completion, and may be said to have achieved here his first business success. Soon afterward he moved to the city of Augusta, where he had numerous relatives, and formed a co-partnership with Edward P. Cayton, an old college classmate, and engaged in the cotton trade. The firm of Phinizy & Clayton soon became one of the largest and best known in the south. This firm dissolving by mutual consent after some years of prosperous life, he took with him, as partners, his two kinsmen, Charles H. Phinizy and Joseph M. Burdell, and established the cotton house of F. Phinizy & Co .; this was the style and name of the firm when he retired from active business, but, up to the day of his death, he was connected in some way with the cotton houses of C. H. Phinizy & Co., F. B. Phinizy, and Phinizy & Co. He was for many years a director and leading spirit in the Georgia railroad and Banking company, an organization he always loved, and in whose safety he had absolute reliance. He was a director also in the Atlanta & West Point Railroad company, the Augusta & Savannah railroad, the Northeastern railroad of Georgia, the Augusta factory, the Southern Express company, the Bank of the University, and the Southern Mutual Insurance company, Athens, and a trustee of the university of Georgia. Ferdinand Phinizy did not enter the Confederate armies in the struggle of 1861-65, but served the cause he loved well, ably and honorably, as the financial agent of the Confederate government. As such, he successfully handled large amounts of cotton that ran the blockade of Union war vessels, and succeeded in floating large blocks of Confederate bonds. He lost heavily by the failure of the Confederate arms. He was married on Feb. 22, 1849, to Harriet H., the only child of Hayes Bowdre, a well-known citizen of Augusta. He was thirty and his wife twenty when they began life together, and he is quoted to have remarked that to this lady was due much of his success in life, as it was she who counseled him in many undertakings that proved of great benefit in the end. For four- teen years they lived a life of perfect happiness and harmony. On Feb. 7, 1863, his wife died, leaving as the fruit of that perfect union eight children, viz .: Ferdi- nand Bowdre (deceased); Stewart, Leonard, Mary Louise (now Mrs. Dr. A. W. Calhoun of Atlanta), Jacob, Marion Daniel, Billups and Harry Hays. On Aug. II, 1865, he was married the second time to Annie S., the second daughter of Thomas Barrett and Savannah Glascock, of Augusta. This union resulted in the birth of three children: Savannah Barrett (deceased); Barrett and Charles Henry. Though probably the wealthiest citizen of Georgia at the time of his death, Ferdinand Phinizy was not an ostentatious man. His manners were simple, cordial and unaffected. Essentially a man of sentiment, he loved and treasured everything that came down to him from the dead past. The place where he was born and reared, he kept up as long as he lived, and before he died, entailed it, as far as the law permits, upon his eldest son, and his son after him. The house in which he won and wooed his fair young bride, and where his younger married life was spent, he gave to his only daughter and charged her to forever maintain it. as it was the home of her mother. The watch he wore was the one his mother had fastened to his side when he began life for himself. To outsiders, Ferdinand Phinizy never spoke of his forefathers, but there were rare occasions in the family circle and around his own hearthstone, when he would tell his children much of those who had preceded them. He was proud of his paternal grandfather-the Italian refugee-who landed penniless upon American shores,

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and by indomitable will and persevering industry built up a large fortune. This gentleman, marrying Margaret Condow, reared a family of three sons and two daughters: Jacob, the father of Ferdinand; Marco, the father of John F. Phinizy; John, the father of Charles H. Phinizy; Sarah, who married Thomas Burdell, and Eliza, who married Thomas McGrau of Mobile. Jacob Phinizy, the father of Ferdinand, married Matilda Stewart, the daughter of Gen. John B. Stewart of Virginia, who settled in Georgia after the revolution, and who won his title in that struggle. The wife of Gen. Stewart, Ferdinand Phinizy's maternal grand- inother, was Mourning Floyd of Virginia, an aunt of John B. Floyd, secretary of war under President Buchanan, and an aunt also of John C. Breckinridge of Ken- tucky. On both his paternal and his maternal sides, therefore, Ferdinand Phin- izy belonged to the best families of Virginia and Georgia. The death of Ferdi- nand Phinizy occurred in Athens, Ga., on Oct. 20, 1889. Like his life, his end was- calm and peaceful; he had faith in the power of the Savior; he trusted implicitly; he was prepared and ready and willing to go. The best of fathers, the kindest and most generous of men; the stanchest friend man ever had; an honest, truthful, sincere man was dead. By the gently flowing waters of the Oconee, typical of that bright river he had already crossed, the mortal remains were tenderly laid to rest. A prince, indeed, had fallen that day in Israel. Leonard Phinizy, third son of Ferdinand, was reared and received his primary education in the city of Augusta, and was graduated with distinction from the university of Georgia, Athens, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1872. He taught school in Watkinsville, Oconee Co., Ga., in 1873, one year later entering the law school of Cumberland university at Lebanon, Tenn., and was graduated from that institution in 1875. In October of that year he began the practice of law in the city of Augusta and has continued uninterruptedly and very successfully in that profession up to the present time. Mr. Phinizy has never held any public office and, like his father, cares nothing for political preferment, choosing rather to devote his time and talents to his large law practice and to the supervision of his extensive business interests in various corporations. He is at this time vice-president of the Georgia Railroad bank, the Augusta Gas company, member of the lessee board of the Georgia Railroad company, and general counsel for the Augusta Southern Rail- road company. He was happily married on April 10, 1878, to Annie E., daughter of the late Robert Martin of Charleston, and this union has been an ideally happy one. He ranks high in his profession, and is considered one of Augusta's most conservative and soundest business men. In character and conduct he resembles his illustrious father; possessed of great ability, indomitable will, and never- flagging energy, wonderful success awaits him in the legal and commercial world.

O HARLES H. PHINIZY, president of the Georgia Railroad bank, Augusta, Ga., was born on Jan. 15, 1835, on what is known as the Eve plantation, a few miles from the city of Augusta, and is a son of John and Martha (Creswell) Phinizy. He received his earlier education at home until his preparation for col- lege, when he entered the university of Georgia, graduating from that institution in 1853. He afterward took a course of scientific study under D. H. Mahan, professor of engineering at the United States Military academy at West Point. For some two or three years thereafter, Mr. Phinizy was employed as a civil engineer during the construction of the Blue Ridge railroad. At the beginning of the civil war he entered the Confederate service as first lieutenant of Company B, Tenth Georgia regiment of infantry, but was soon thereafter trans- ferred to the adjutant-general's department and assigned to duty under Brig .- Gen. Alfred Cummings. In the consolidation of regiments in 1865, he was com- missioned as colonel of the Thirty-ninth Georgia regiment, and held that position

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at the close of the war. He served in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Sharpsburg, siege of Vicksburg, Hood's campaign in Tennessee, Missionary Ridge, Jonesboro, Powder Springs Road, Bennettsville, and in innumerable smaller engagements, and surrendered at Greensboro, N. C. After the close of the war, Col. Phinizy in the fall of 1865 embarked in the cotton fac- torage business in Augusta, which he successfully conducted until 1879, when he retired from that line of business. In the meantime he had become largely inter- ested in railroad operation and construction, and soon after his retirement from the cotton business, in 1879, was elected president of the Georgia railroad and of the Georgia Railroad and Banking company. He remained as president of the Georgia railroad until it was leased, in May, 1881, since which time he has been one of the six commissioners who have general charge of the road. Mr. Phinizy is still president of the banking company, a position he has filled most creditably to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the stockholders and directors of that institution. In 1882 he was elected president of the Augusta factory, but after holding that position five years resigned. In July, 1888, he was elected president of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad company, and held- that position until Sept. 4, 1894, when the offices of president and general manager were consoli- dated and he retired from the directory of that corporation Referring to his retirement from this position, "The Atlanta Journal," leading afternoon paper of the south, says: "The retirement of President Charles H. Phinizy of the Atlanta & West Point railroad and the Western railroad of Alabama, was announced in yesterday's 'Journal.' This gentleman is known as one of the most successful railroad officials in the south. Under his control, the line between Atlanta and Montgomery has made a record which can hardly be matched. It is one of the few railroads in the south which has escaped a receivership. During the past two years of general depression this road has done a prosperous business and declared handsome dividends regularly. During the past twelve months it has increased both its gross and its net earnings. This is not true of any other railroad in the United States. The record which Mr. Phinizy leaves is highly creditable, and his late associates hate to part with him. Besides his large interest in the corporation before mentioned, Mr. Phinizy is a director in the Central Railroad and Banking company of Georgia, the Port Royal & Augusta railroad, the Port Royal & Western Carolina railroad, the Western railroad of Alabama, and the Augusta factory. During the Augusta National exposition, Col. Phinizy was first vice-president of that enterprise, and by his personal efforts largely con- tributed to its success. As a business man, Col. Phinizy's course has been marked by rare success. He is conservative, possesses excellent judgment and a very high degree of administrative ability; and his ventures have all been in the line of legitimate trade and commerce. His success has been won by fair and honor- able methods and he possesses in the highest degree the respect and confidence of the people of Augusta, where the entire years of his life have been passed, and where few names are better known than his own. While a thorough business man, in the best sense of the term, he is sociable and affable in disposition, and in his home dispenses a hospitality typical of the true southern gentlemen." Col. Phinizy was married in 1885, to the widow of F. B. Phinizy, and a daughter of Col. B. C. Yancey of Georgia. That union has been an ideally happy one.

STEWART PHINIZY, a prominent cotton factor of Augusta, Ga., was born in that city on Nov. 23, 1854, being the eldest son of Ferdinand and Harriet H. (Bowdre) Phinizy. Ferdinand Phinizy, of whom a sketch appears in this volume, was a native of Bowling Green, Oglethorpe Co., Ga. He was a man of immense wealth and was very charitable and liberal, especially to the church. Harriet H.

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(Bowdre) Phinizy was born in the city of Augusta, Ga., in 1820. She was the only child of Hayes Bowdre, a well-known citizen of Augusta. Ferdinand Phinizy died in the city of Athens, Ga., on Oct. 20, 1889, and Harriet H. (Bowdre) Phinizy died on Feb. 7, 1863. They were buried side by side in Oconee cemetery, Athens, Ga. Stewart Phinizy was educated in the schools of Augusta and in Franklin college, now the university of Georgia, at Athens. He came to Augusta in 1871 and clerked for some time in the house of Phinizy & Co., but during the year following entered the firm of Phinizy & Co., cotton factors, with which he is still connected. The present house was originally founded as F. Phinizy & Co., then became C. H. Phinizy & Co., and then F. B. Phinizy & Co. The present title of Phinizy & Co. was assumed in 1877, the copartners then being Jacob Phinizy, Stewart Phinizy and James Tobin. In January, 1893, Mr. Jacob Phinizy with- drew, and the business has been continued to this time by the remaining members of the firm. In 1887 Mr. Phinizy became president of the Augusta factory, a model establishment of 827 looms and 27,442 spindles. Stewart Phinizy was happily married in 1876 to Miss Coles, a daughter of J. S. Coles, of Columbia, S. C., and a granddaughter of the late Gov. Pickens of that state. This union, which has proven an ideally happy one, has been blessed by the birth of two sons, Ferdinand and Coles, and four daughters, Eliza P., Marie S., Louise C. and Izaetta.

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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 118

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