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 54

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

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WILLIAM STARR BASINGER, lawyer, Athens, Clarke Co., Ga., son of Thomas E. and Jane (Starr) Basinger, was born in the city of Savannah, Ga., in 1827. His father was born and educated in Savannah, became one of the city's most prominent merchants, and died in 1836. Mr. Basinger's mother- born in Savannah in 1804-yet survives, and makes her home with him. They were the parents of two children: William Starr and Elizabeth, unmarried. Maj. Basinger grew up and received his primary and preparatory education in Sa- vannah, after which he entered the university of Georgia, from which he grad- uated in 1846 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and later received the degree of arts master. Returning to Savannah, he studied law under the distinguished John E. Ward, who was afterward minister to China during President Buchanan's administration, and who is now a practicing lawyer in New York city. In 1849 he was admitted to the bar, and rose rapidly in his profession. About 1855 he entered into a partnership with Gen. A. R. Lawton, which continued until Jan- uary, 1861. He was with the troops which captured Fort Pulaski soon after the passage of the ordinance of secession. Years before he had become an active member of the Savannah Volunteer guards, of which in 1861 he was a lieutenant. In 1861, when it entered the Confederate service, it was so large that it had to be organized into a battalion and he was promoted into a captaincy. In 1863 he was commissioned major of the battalion, and commanded it until the close of the war. He saw much arduous and hazardous service, and gallantly participated in many battles. At Battery Wagner, in 1863, he was ordered to Sullivan's Island, of which he was in command in May, 1864. He was then ordered to join the army of northern Virginia, and was placed in command of all troops along the line of the Richmond & Danville railway from Richmond to Staunton river, where he did faithful and effective service. In October, 1864, he was sent to Chapin's Bluff, Va., where he was on the line facing the enemy. From there

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he was on the retreat and participated in the battle of Sailor's Creek, where he was captured and sent first to Old Capitol prison and afterward to Johnson's Island, where he was held until July 25, 1865. Accepting transportation furnished by the government, he returned to Savannah, where he and Gen. Lawton resumed the practice of law, receiving Gen. Henry R. Jackson as a partner, under the firm name of Jackson, Lawton & Basinger. This firm was continued from 1866 to 1881, since which time Maj. Basinger has practiced alone. In 1885 his wife's health necessitated his removal to Dahlonega, Ga., and the following year (1886) in compliance with the request of the trustees of the university, he accepted the presi- dency of the North Georgia Agricultural college, a branch of the university of Georgia. He held this position seven years, not, however, relinquishing his law practice. In May, 1894, he removed to Athens for the purpose of placing his sons in the university, where he still ardently pursues his profession. Of conspicuous ability, of scholarly attainments, and learned in the law, he stands high with the profession, and has the confidence of the people. During his residence in Sa- vannah he served several times as a member of the city council and in 1881 repre- sented Chatham county in the general assembly. While in that body he served with special efficiency as chairman of the committee on banks, vice-chairman of the committee on military affairs, and as a member of the committees on general judiciary and corporations. He did not occupy the floor much as a speech- maker, but when he addressed the house he was dignified, and what he said was to the point and practical. In 1882 he was a candidate for associate justice of the supreme court of Georgia, but was defeated. Maj. Basinger was married in Prince Edward county, Va., in 1866, to Miss Margaret R., daughter of James M. - Garnett, and of the children born to them six are living: Margaret A., wife of Prof. Charles M. Strahan, Athens, Ga .; James Garnett, New York; William S., Jr., Kansas City, Mo .; Mary Leslie, wife of Lieut. Edward P. Lawton, Nineteenth United States infantry, and Thomas and Walter G., who are students of the uni- versity of Georgia at Athens. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church.

THOMAS BARROW was born in England about the year 1640, and migrated to Virginia before he was twenty years of age. He first settled in what was then known as the northern neck of Virginia, and went to work on a tobacco plantation. He married, and subsequently moved to what is now Southampton county, Va., where he bought a place on the Nottaway river, upon which he spent the remainder of his life. He lived to be ninety-five years of age. His son, Thomas Barrow, was born at this place, in Southampton county, Va. He married Elizabeth Atkinson. He subsequently removed to Edgecombe county, N. C., where he lived until his death. James Barrow, his youngest son, was born Jan. 31, 1757, upon his father's place in Edgecombe county, N. C. Upon the breaking out of the revolutionary war James Barrow, although not fully grown, enlisted in the continental army. He served at Savannah, Ga., in New York, and in Pennsyl- vania, and in other parts of the country. He was one of those who remained through the winter at Valley Forge. He was in the battles of Germantown and Brandywine, and many other conflicts during that war. When the war was over he moved to Georgia, bought a place, and settled on Bark Camp creek, in what was then Burke, now Screven, county. He subsequently removed to Hancock county, and finally settled in Baldwin county, Ga., where he spent the remainder of his days. He married late in life Patience Crenshaw, whose parents came from Virginia to Georgia. As was evidenced by his conduct during the war of the revolution, he was a man of great determination of character. He died in his seventy-third year at his home in Milledgeville, Ga. David Crenshaw Barrow, only

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son of James Barrow, was born on his father's plantation, near Milledgeville, July 26, 1815. He married Sarah Eliza Pope. Her father was Middleton Pope, and her grandfather Henry Augustine Pope, both of Oglethorpe county, Ga. Her mother was Lucy Hopson Lumpkin, who was a daughter of Gov. Wilson Lump- kin of Georgia. David Crenshaw Barrow was educated at Harvard university, Mass., and almost immediately after his return home from college volunteered as a private in the Macon volunteers in the Seminole Indian war. He represented the county of Oglethorpe in the legislature of Georgia, and was for many years one of the trustees of the university of Georgia. Pope Barrow, eldest son of David Crenshaw Barrow, was born Aug. 1, 1839, in Oglethorpe county, Ga., on the planta- tion of his grandfather, Middleton Pope. He was prepared for college there under tutors, and was graduated from the university of Georgia, receiving his final diploma from the law department in 1860. In April, 1861, he entered the Confederate army as second lieutenant in the Troup artillery, and served as such one year at Savannah, in northwestern Virginia, and on the peninsula, and during Mcclellan's advance on Richmond in 1862. He was then appointed aid-de-camp on the staff of Maj .- Gen. Howell Cobb, in which capacity he served until he was taken a prisoner in the spring of 1865. Upon being paroled, after a short residence in Oglethorpe county, he entered upon the practice of his profession of law at Athens, Ga., where he remained until 1892, when he removed to Savannah, where he now lives. He is engaged in the active practice of his profession of the law. He was elected a mem- ber of the constitutional convention of the state of Georgia, of 1877, of the general assembly of Georgia of 1880 and 1881, and was elected by the legislature of Georgia in 1882 to the United States senate to fill the unexpired term of Hon. Benjamin H. Hill, deceased. He was a delegate from the state at large and chairman of the Geor- gia delegation in the national democratic convention at St. Louis in 1888. He was president of the state democratic convention of Georgia in 1892. He has served two terms as trustee of the university of Georgia, and was president of the Northeastern railroad of Georgia from 1884 to 1891. He has been twice married, first to Sarah Church Craig, daughter of Lieut .- Col. Lewis Stevenson Craig, of the United States army. Her mother was Elizabeth Church, daughter of Dr. Alonzo Church, presi- dent of the university of Georgia. She died Dec. 28, 1881, leaving six children, Pope, Elizabeth, Church, James, David Crenshaw and Craig. June 24, 1884, he was mar- ried to Cornelia Augusta Jackson, only daughter of Mr. Henry R. Jackson, of Sa- vannah, Ga. Her mother was Cornelia Davenport. Of this marriage there are four daughters, Florence Barclay, Lucy Lumpkin, Patience Crenshaw and Sarah Pope.

BISHOP JOHN W. BECKWITH, D. D. In the vigor of his massive intellect, the strength and beauty of his fervid diction, the power of his matchless ora- tory, the vastness of his theological attainments, the dignity of his commanding presence and the purity of his exalted life, the late lamented Bishop John W. Beck- with, of the diocese of Georgia, has never been surpassed, and in many of these respects has never had an equal. Bishop Beckwith was a prince of orators. He possessed every qualification that was needed to sway the hearts of men. His voice could assume at will the majestic cadence of the ocean and the tender melody of a maiden's song. Back of this the machinery of a great mind operated with lightning rapidity, and gave to his words a mental, as well as a physical, grandeur of utterance. Fashioned in the prodigality of nature, with a massive head sur- mounting a pair of broad shoulders that might have carried the weight of four score years without bending, had Providence seen fit to grant him that patriarchal limit, it seemed that Bishop Beckwith would survive his contemporaries in the ministry and that many years of brilliant service lay before him. In an unex-

BISHOP JOHN W. BECKWITH.

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pected hour, however, the brilliant sun of his career was darkened, and this radiant luminary of the church was blotted from the intellectual heavens in the full-orbed splendor of its meridian. As the successor of Bishop Elliot, one of the grandest and saintliest men who ever'donned the priestly robes, Bishop Beckwith assumed the mantle of this holy man with a consecrated spirit of devotion to the church, looking to a higher source than himself and to a stronger arm than his own for wisdom and guidance. Under the administration of Bishop Beckwith, the Epis- copal church continued to prosper, in both temporal and spiritual measures, as under his predecessor, and no diocese in the land was better illustrated in its gov- erning councils than the one over which Bishop Beckwith presided, with the grace and dignity peculiar to that noble man of God. Bishop John Watrous Beckwith, the subject of this sketch, was born in the state of North Carolina on Feb. 9, 1831. His father, Dr. John Beckwith, was a physician of great usefulness and one of the most distinguished members of his profession in North Carolina. His mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Stanley, of Newberne, N. C., was a lady of marked personal beauty and sweet amiability of spirit. Bishop Beckwith's father came to North Carolina from Poughkeepsie, N. Y. On his father's side he was a lineal descendant of Robert Bruce, of Scotland; on his mother's, of the Earl Derby. His ancestors were mostly all of Scotch nativity, and the vigorous char- acteristics of the stock asserted themselves constantly in his own rugged and fearless character. Both his own family and the one into which he married ranked high among the influential households of North Carolina, distinguished alike for their intellectual members, and for their social refinement and purity. Gov. Stan- ley, of North Carolina, was a brother of Bishop Beckwith's mother; and Hon. George E. Badger, one of the most distinguished citizens of the state, her nephew. Until twelve years of age the boyhood of the subject of this sketch was spent in the neighborhood of Raleigh, N. C., under the jealous guardianship of his watchful parents. He then moved with the family to Petersburg, Va. Here he received his early training and by diligent application to his books gave hint of those bril- liant gifts that were destined to lead him into the Christian ministry, and charac- terize him as bishop of the diocese of Georgia. After receiving his primary edu- cation from the schools of Petersburg, he entered Trinity college, located in Hartford, Conn. Graduating from this institution and also from the school of divinity, he was ordained as a deacon on May 24, 1854, and was subsequently admitted to the priesthood in the spring of the following year. The young minis- ter assumed charge of his first parish at Wadesboro, N. C., in his native state. From this place he next went to Maryland to accept the call of a parish in Anne Arundel county in that state. Here he made the acquaintance of his future wife, Miss Ella Brockenbrough, the daughter of John Fauntleroy Brockenbrough, of West- moreland county, Va., whose wife was Miss Frances Carter. Espousing the heart of this beautiful lady, the suit of the young minister was accepted and they were shortly afterward married. Their first child was born to them during their residence in this parish. At the breaking out of the war the subject of this sketch, who was intensely southern in his feelings and convictions, entered the Con- federate army as chaplain on the staff of Gen. Hardee, and subsequently on the staff of Gen. Polk, bishop of Louisiana. For a short while during the war he served the parish at Demopolis, Ala. After the war he settled in New Orleans, La., having been made rector of Trinity church in the spring of 1865. Having no clerical garb to wear, on account of the poverty to which the parish was rendered by the depredations of the war, the young clergyman appeared before his congregation for several months in his military attire. It was not inappro- priate to wear, even in the pulpit, the uniform in which he had served God on the

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battlefield and ministered to the spiritual needs of the wounded and the dying. The church to which the future bishop was called was one of the largest Episcopal churches south of Baltimore. He served the parish for three years, preaching with marvelous eloquence to large congregations that flocked to hear him. In 1868 he accepted the call of the Georgia diocese and became a citizen of the state. He was consecrated bishop of the diocese of Georgia on April 2, 1868, succeeding Bishop Stephen Elliot, of whom mention has already been made. During the first two years of his service Bishop Beckwith resided in Macon. He thence moved to Savannah, Ga., residing in that city for four years. In the fall of 1876, after a brief residence in Marietta, the bishop made his home in Atlanta, and con- tinued to live in that city until the time of his death, which occurred on Nov. 23, 1890. Shortly after his removal to Atlanta, on April 26, 1877, the bishop lost his beloved wife. Three children were born to Bishop and Mrs. Beckwith: J. F. B. Beckwith of Savannah, Daisy, wife of A. R. Lawton, Jr., of Savannah, and Miss Bessie Beckwith. The cause of Bishop Beckwith's death was an abscess on the face. Several operations were performed and the best of surgical skill was employed, but all effort to save the life of the bishop failed, and after weeks of pain- ful suffering, the great and useful man of God breathed his last. The funeral services were held in St. Luke's cathedral, and the occasion was one of the most impressive and solemn ever witnessed in Georgia. Nearly all the church dig- nitaries of the south were present, Bishop Quintard of Tennessee, Howe of South Carolina, Weed of Florida, and Dr. Stringfellow of Alabama, and T. F. Gaylor of the university of the South, being among the number. The remains of the bishop were respectfully interred among the blossoms of Oakland cemetery. In summing up the lessons of Bishop Beckwith's life for the closing paragraph of this short biographical sketch, it may not be inappropriate to quote from the beautiful resolutions adopted by the board of curators of St. Luke's cathedral: "Duty was the watchword of his life; duty done for duty's sake. How grandly he preached on that theme! And when he walked through the fiery furnace of trial, thanks be to God, he never wavered-the fire did not scorch his garments. He was equal to his duty. He sustained the dignity of the episcopate. He rebuked the world. He upheld the born of the church, the bride of Christ."

DR. W. F. BRUNNER. In the year 1888, says "Harper's Weekly," the health officer of Savannah, a young doctor named Brunner, announced that yellow fever had appeared at Jacksonville. Florida authorities denied it, but Dr. Brunner called for a cordon of police to stop the Florida train before it should reach Sa- vannah. The health board voted him down after a bitter debate. The railroad people were indignant. The train came in, and that night the fever was officially proclaimed epidemic in Jacksonville. Another evidence of his prescience and pluck was given in 1893, when Dr. Brunner called sharp attention to the laxity of the quarantine at Brunswick, Ga. That town broke out in clamor against Dr. Brunner, and when Surgeon Branham was sent to Brunswick and died, many people there declared Dr. Brunner was personally responsible for the yellow fever epidemic. When there was a lull in the fever in September following the sanitary board of Savannah raised the quarantine. Dr. Brunner protested. He main- tained that fever had prevailed in Brunswick all the summer, that cases had been sequestered and not reported, and the event proved the truth of the position. The fever flamed up in a week and the quarantine had to be established more rigidly than before. Dr. W. F. Brunner is thirty-eight years of age. He is a native of Savannah, Ga., and attended medical lectures in that city in 1876. While still a student he encountered the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 in Savannah, and suf-

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fered from a serious illness himself. He managed, however, to visit the different hospitals, and turned up at the autopsies, where he obtained a good idea of post- mortem lesions. Such experience was more to him than lectures or diplomas. In the winter of 1876-77 he continued his studies at the medical department of the university of Georgia at Augusta, and in 1878 completed his course at the medical school of the university of the City of New York. He was just twenty- one years of age when he was engaged by the Howard association to fight the epidemic of 1878 in the Mississippi Valley. Equipped with nurses and commis- sariat, he started out for Vicksburg. The authorities there doubted whether a youth like Dr. Brunner could really be the yellow fever expert from Savannah. They passed him on to Meridian, where the people and nurses shook their heads. He was assigned to Lake, Miss., with his retinue. There were no critics at this place to doubt, for practically the whole population had been stricken or scat- tered. At Lake he began very vigorous work. At such time a physician had to

be doctor, sexton and clergyman. Unshaken by the terrible scenes that met him on every hand, Dr. Brunner organized his force and concentrated his work. He impressed a church building for an orphan asylum, and opened a soup house and dispensary in the town. He worked without resting. The young physician was

sorely tried. On one occasion he visited a place where the desperate head of the family had established a shot-gun quarantine at his front gate. Seizing a little child just taken with the fever, Dr. Brunner wrapped it in a buggy blanket and took it to his hospital. Once or twice he was brought into collision with the town authorities. He found one morning that his best nurse, a colored woman, had been arrested for a petty theft. He demanded her release. The mayor replied that the woman had taken a pair of scissors. Dr. Brunner retorted that if she had taken a case of scissors the people could not repay her for what she had done. The mayor was obdurate, but Dr. Brunner was determined. "Unless she is restored right away," he said, "I shall call off my nurses and close up my com- missary." The woman was released. It was in 1882 that Dr. Brunner entered the service of the national board of health, and was ordered to the South Atlantic station at Sapelo Island. Afterward he became acting assistant surgeon of the Marine hospital service, continuing in this capacity until 1887. It was here that he first turned his attention to marine sanitation. He made a sanitary inspection of Florida under a commission from the State Health Protective association. In April, 1888, he was elected health officer of Savannah. His promptness, intelli- gence and pluck have subjected him at times to severe censure; at other times have won for him high admiration. Public estimate, regardless of abuse or eulogy, has settled down into complete confidence. As a man who guarded Savannah successfully when the epidemic had fastened upon her near neighbors, whose quarantine has been rigid, and who is as fearless and determined as a soldier, Dr. Brunner has taken front rank among sanitary officers. He is a member of the advisory council of the American Public Health association.

GEORGE TURNER CANN was born in the city of Savannah, Ga., July 22, 1866, and received his earlier education in the schools of that city. In 1882 he entered the Pennsylvania Military college at Chester and was graduated there- from three years later with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was the first honor man of his college, making a record of 997-10, was captain of the college base ball club, president of the athletic association, first cadet captain and president of the Y. M. C. A. He next entered Columbia college, New York, and was award- ed the degree of Master of Arts, then entered the law department of the same institution and was graduated in 1886. Returning to Savannah, he entered the

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law office of Denmark & Adams, and was admitted to the bar the following De- cember. He remained with that law firm until February, 1887, then began the practice alone, which was continued until his brother, Mr. J. F. Cann, whose sketch follows, was admitted to partnership. This firm now occupies a very de- sirable rank among the legal fraternity of Savannah. George Turner Cann was married on Feb. 12, 1890, to Annie Stubbs (nee Goodwin), daughter of the late Theodore A. Goodwin, of Savannah. On Feb. 12, 1892, he was awarded the degree Master of Arts by the Pennsylvania military college. Mr. Cann takes a very active interest in political matters. He is. also very prominently identified with the military organizations of the city of Savannah and is captain of Company C of the Savannah volunteer guards, First Battalion infantry, Georgia volunteers. He is also a member and secretary of the board of curators of Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, is a vestryman of St. John's Episcopal church, a member of the board of governors of the Guards' club, and of the Georgia Historical so- ciety. He is a member of the masonic fraternity and of the I. O. O. F., and Oglethorpe club.

JAMES FERRIS CANN, attorney, of Savannah, Ga., was born in that city on Dec. II, 1868. His father, James F. Cann, was a native of Delaware and came to Georgia in early manhood, settled at Savannah and married Anna Sophia, daughter of Thomas M. Turner. To that marriage were born five chil- dren, three of whom survive, viz .: William G., George T. and James F. The father was not in the war between the states on account of physical disability. 'He was a school teacher and departed this life in the city of Philadelphia, Pa., in 1872. James Ferris Cann was reared and received his primary education in Savannah, graduating from the old Georgia Military academy of Savannah with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1886. The following year he entered the summer law school of the university of Virginia, remained one term and returned to Savannah. . He was employed in the office of Denmark & Adams for the succeeding fifteen months. Mr. Cann was admitted to the bar in Savannah in January, 1889, and the following October formed a partnership with his brother, George T. Cann, which continues at this time. Mr. Cann takes no part in politics, though fully discharging his duties as a citizen. He is a member of St. John's Episcopal church, a member of the local branch of the Y. M. C. A., St. Andrew's society, the Savannah Bar Association Yacht club, the Oglethorpe club, Guards' club, Knights of Pythias and I. O. O. F. He is also secretary and attorney of the local branch of the National Railway Building and Loan association, secretary and attorney for the local branch of the Atlanta National Building and Loan associa- tion and the Southern Building and Loan association; also secretary of the Pineora Investment company, secretary and attorney of the Georgia Investment company and of the Twelfth Street Land company. He is captain of Savannalı division No. 15, uniform rank, Knights of Pythias; first lieutenant Company C of Savannah Volunteer guards, First Battalion infantry, Georgia volunteers, and takes very active interest in military matters.

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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 54

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