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 55

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 55

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WALTER GLASCO CHARLTON, attorney-at-law of Savannah, Ga., is a native of that city, and was born June 5, 1851. His paternal grandfather, Thomas U. P. Charlton, was a native of the state of South Carolina, and repre- sented the county of Chatham in the legislature of Georgia, was mayor of Savan- nah, judge of the superior court of the Savannah circuit, and attorney-general of Georgia. His son, Robert Milledge Charlton, the father of Walter Glasco Charl- ton, was born in Savannah, Ga., Jan. 19, 1807. He received a liberal education,

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took up law as a profession, and was admitted to the bar in 1827. In 1829 he was married to Margaret, daughter of Peter Shick, a capitalist of Savannah. At twenty- one years of age he represented the county of Chatham in the legislature of Georgia, at twenty-three was made district attorney for Georgia, was several times mayor of Savannah, and in 1835, at the age of twenty-seven, was appointed judge of the superior court for the eastern circuit of Georgia. In 1852, at the age of forty-four, he was appointed to the United States senate, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of John McPherson Berrien. He published a volume of poems in 1839, Leaves from the Portfolio of a Georgia Lawyer, and several addresses. He departed this life in Savannah, Jan. 18, 1854. Walter Glasco Charlton is the youngest child born to his parents, among the elder ones being: Robert Milledge Charlton, who served throughout the war between the states as a private in Wheaton's battery, Chatham artillery, and died from disease contracted in the service, in 1865; Mary, wife of Julian Hartridge (deceased); and Margaret (deceased), who was the wife of Capt. Charles P. Hansell, of Thomasville, Ga. Mr. Charlton was educated in the schools of Savannah, in 1866, attending the academy in Hancock county, Ga., which was presided over by Prof. Richard Malcolm Johnston, and later was under the tutelage of the same gentleman in Baltimore, Md. In 1869, he became a student at the university of Virginia, remaining there until 1872, and graduating from the law department. Returning to Savannah, he entered the office of Hartridge & Chisholm, and was admitted to the bar in Jan- uary, 1873. During the following November he associated himself in practice with A. R. Lamar, then solicitor-general of the eastern circuit, and this partnership was continued until 1877. Mr. Charlton practiced alone for the succeeding two years, then formed a partnership with N. C. Collier, now United States judge for the dis- trict of New Mexico, which was continued until the retirement of Mr. Collier, in 1882, Mr. William W. Mackall having been admitted the previous year. In 1880, Mr. Charlton was elected as solicitor-general for the eastern circuit by the legisla- ture of Georgia, and retained that office until January, 1885, when he declined further service in that capacity. He is very active in national, state and local poli- tics, and was especially prominent in the local campaign of 1880, was temporary chairman of the state convention of 1883, president of the democratic convention of the First district in 1886, and was made chairman of the democratic executive committee of Chatham county in 1888, and is now serving his third term in that position. As an attorney and counselor Mr. Charlton sustains a most desirable rank among the members of the Savannah bar, the firm of Charlton & Mackall being general counsel for the Savannah Electric railway and for the Atlantic Short Line railroad. He is not connected with any secret society or fraternity, and is a consistent member of the Episcopal church, has been a vestryman of Christ church, Savannah, for many years, was a member of three church conventions for the diocese of Georgia, was for several years a member of the standing committee, and was church advocate in the famous Armstrong trial. He was married on Feb. II, 1874, to Mary Walton Johnston, the accomplished daughter of Col. Richard Malcolm Johnston, the distinguished southern litterateur, and that union has been blessed by the birth of five children, viz .: Robert Milledge, Frances Mansfield, Walton, Richard Malcolm, and Margaret Walter Charlton.

WALTER SCOTT CHISHOLM (deceased), at the time of his death vice- president of the Plant Investment company; of the Savannah, Florida & West- ern Railway company ; of the Plant Steamship lines; also president of the Alabama Midland railway, and a director of the Brunswick & Western railroad, and the senior member of the law firm of Chisholm, Erwin & Du Bignon, of Savannah, was born in Macon, Bibb Co., Ga., Nov. 7, 1830. His father was Murdoch Chis-

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holm, of Scotch descent, and his mother Georgia Barnard of Savannah, both of whom died before he had reached the age of twelve years. His earlier education was received amid the cultured citizenship of the county of Liberty, Ga., that nur- sery of eminent men, and he was graduated from the university of Georgia with second honor in 1855, in a class of more than usual ability. He then studied law in the offices of Law & Bartow of Savannah, and was admitted to the bar in 1857, forming a partnership soon thereafter with that brilliant son of Georgia, Julian Hartridge. On the death of Mr. Hartridge, he formed the firm of Chisholm & Erwin, and later Chisholm, Erwin & Du Bignon. He was judge of the Savannah city court from 1863 to 1878, the only public office he ever held. He organized and was captain of the Savannah cadets early in the war between the states, but delicate health forbade the service he wished, and he was made the head of the military examining board. He became, in 1877, general counsel for the failed Atlantic & Gulf railroad, and then general counsel for its successor, the Savan- nah, Florida & Western railway, and for the Southern Express company. He became also president of the Alabama Midland railway; vice-president of the Savannah, Florida & Western railway, Charleston & Savannah railroad, and the Plant Investment company, and of the Southern Express company; director of the Richmond Terminal company, East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway company, South Florida Railway company, Central Railroad and Banking com- pany of Georgia, and the Brunswick & Western railroad. His law judgment was unerring, and a wise mercy tempered his justice. To the profoundest legal knowl- edge he added an instantaneous grasp of principles, like intuition, while his lucid statement and close argument made his speeches masterpieces of potent reasoning. Richly endowed with analytical power, he fortified it with thought and wide study; and with his intellectual force he combined an even placidity of spirit, wonderful in that he was ever confronted by great physical ill. Attracted by his great fame as a lawyer, he was employed in some of the most celebrated causes of the Southern bar, notably of the Telfair will case. His intellectual versatility was fully demonstrated when he so ably bore heavy business responsibilities in vast railway systems. He spent in these new duties the last five years of his life in the city of New York, handling large corporate and financial problems against the legal genius of the nation's commercial center. He was happily married in 1861 to Eliza, daughter of that noble citizen of Savannah, Capt. John W. Anderson, and by her had six children, viz .: Anderson, Georgia, Walter S., Jr., Eddie, Frank, and Sadie. Five children, with his wife, survive him. The universal out- pouring at his funeral in Savannah showed the exalted esteem in which he was held at home; while no citizen has ever had more elegant tributes from the illustrious men of his state. The late Senator Evarts, of New York, once said of him that he was the best lawyer before the supreme court of the United States that the south had, and that was the estimate placed upon him by the bar of Georgia. The following is an extract from the tribute of respect paid to his memory by the bar of Savannah: "His constant growth, the unimpaired vigor of his mind, the versatility of his powers commanded, as they received, the admiration of his fellow-citizens; whilst their manifestations placed him in the foremost rank of his profession-a wise, learned, useful lawyer, in the skilled exercise of his calling imposing peace upon the discordant elements of strife, and quieting, with kindly, sympathetic speech, the anxious doubts of troubled minds." He departed this life in the city of New York, Dec. 5, 1890.

HENRY CUMMING CUNNINGHAM, one of the most prominent attorneys of Georgia, was born in the city of Savannah on April 5, 1842. His father, Dr. Alexander Cunningham, was a native of Wilkes county, Ga., and practiced medi-

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cine in Augusta and Savannah for many years. His mother was Anna Francis Mayhew, and is still alive. The father departed this life in the city of Savannah in 1861 at the ripe age of seventy-six years. Henry C. Cunningham attended the schools of Savannah until the fall of 1858, when he entered the South Carolina college, now the university of South Carolina, and was graduated in the class of 1861. He left college to enter the Confederate service as a private, and a year later, after a competitive examination, was appointed a first lieutenant of artillery in the Confederate states army. He served throughout the war between the states and was paroled at the surrender of Greensboro, N. C. Mr. Cunningham had three brothers, viz .: Alexander T., Thomas M. and Charles M. After the war Mr. Cunningham entered the service of the Central railroad of Georgia as a clerk, and later became treasurer of the company. He was admitted to the bar in 1872, and located in Savannah, forming a partnership with Charles N. West, Esq., which lasted until July, 1876, and he then practiced alone until 1881, when Gen. A. R. Lawton, Mr. Cunningham and A. R. Lawton, Jr., formed a partnership under the firm name of Lawton & Cunningham, which continued until 1886, Gen. Lawton withdrawing from the firm on being appointed minister to Austria in 1886. Mr. Cunningham was corporation attorney for Savannah from 1880 to 1887, the only office he ever held. He is a warden of Christ church of Savannah. He was mar- ried on Dec. 19, 1867, to Virginia Waldburg Wayne, daughter of Dr. Richard Wayne, deceased. She left four children, three sons and a daughter. Mr. Cun- ningham was again married in 1886 to Nora, daughter of Gen. A. R. Lawton, and has one daughter by his second marriage. The firm of which Mr. Cunningham is the senior member has been the general counsel for the receivers of the Central Railroad and Banking company of Georgia since their appointment.

BRANTLEY A. DENMARK, a very prominent attorney of Savannah, Ga., was born in Brooks county, Ga., on April 25, 1850. His father, Thomas Irving Denmark, now living at the age of eighty-six, is a native of Georgia, and served in the war with the Indians in Georgia, and through the latter part of the war between the states, in the Confederate service. He had two sons, Redden I. and Clayton R., who served throughout the civil war. Another son, Elisha P. S., is a prominent lawyer of Valdosta, Ga., and was a member of the Georgia senate at twenty-five years of age. Brantley A. Denmark was reared on a farm and attended private schools until eighteen years of age; attended the Valdosta institute for one year, and then became a student of the university of Georgia, at Athens, from which he was graduated in 1871 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Soon after his gradu- ation he began the study of law, in September, 1871, under Hon. Henry G. Turner, in Quitman, Ga., but one month later removed to Savannah, Ga., where he con- tinued to study law with Hartridge & Chisholm, being admitted to the bar on Jan. 9, 1872. He at once entered into partnership with Mr. George A. Howell, under the firm name of Howell & Denmark, which continued until August, 1876, when Mr. Howell removed to Atlanta, both practicing from the office of Hartridge & Chisholm up to January, 1875, looking after the minor cases of that firm and pur- suing their studies. After the dissolution he practiced alone until April 1, 1879, when he formed a partnership with Hon. Henry B. Tompkins, who had just resigned the office of judge of the eastern judicial circuit. This partnership was continued under the firm name of Tompkins & Denmark until October, 1881, when Judge Tompkins returned to the bench and subsequently removed to Atlanta. Mr. Denmark practiced alone until March, 1882, when he formed a partnership with Samuel B. Adams, Esq., which now continues. In 1883, Mr. W. L. Gignilliat was admitted to the firm and remained four years, retiring on account of ill health. In March, 1889, Hon. A. Pratt Adams, who succeeded Judge Tompkins in the

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judgeship of the superior court of the eastern judicial circuit of Georgia, resigned and entered the firm, which became Denmark, Adams & Adams, and was con- tinued under that style until the death of Judge Adams in September, 1892. In May, 1893, Mr. Davis Freeman was admitted, though the firm name remained under the style of Denmark & Adams until Sept. 1, 1895, when it became Denmark, Adams & Freeman. Mr. Denmark has never sought or held any office, nor does he take any active part in politics, though doing his duty as a citizen. He has been delegate several times to congressional and gubernatorial conventions. For the last seven or eight years he has rarely gone to the court house, his work being chiefly confined to the office, and his health and temperament not being suited to jury practice. In June, 1890, Mr. Denmark was elected president of the Citizens' Bank of Savannah, with a capital of $500,000, which position he still holds. In April, 1890, he was elected president of the Savannah Construction company, which company was formed for the purpose of building a railroad from Savannah, Ga., to Columbia, S. C. This road was completed in September, 1891, and Mr. Denmark was made vice-president of the corporation, it being known as the South Bound Railroad company. In August, 1892, he was made president of this railroad, and filled that office until October, 1893, when the Savannah Con- struction company sold the road to the Florida Central & Peninsular Railroad company. Both of these companies have proved a great success. Mr. Denmark is a director in the Savannah Hotel company, which built the DeSoto hotel, in Savannah, the Savannah Mutual Gas Light company, was a director in the United Underwriters' Insurance company of Atlanta, now out of business, and is a director in the Savannah Guano company, with which he has been connected for years. He is also a director of the Southwestern Railroad company, and various other enterprises. Mr. Denmark is a member of the Savannah board of public education, in which he has always taken a deep interest. The firm of Denmark, Adams & Freeman is general counsel for the receivers of the Savannah & Western Railroad company, counsel in Georgia for the Florida Central & Peninsular rail- road system, and for various other corporations in Savannah, and has a very large practice. Mr. Denmark also represents a large number of estates as guardian, trustee and in other fiduciary capacities. He is a consistent member of the Baptist church, and was married Feb. 21, 1877, to Miss Anna R., niece and adopted daughter of the late Mr. William H. Stark, of Savannah.

HON. FLEMING GRANTLAND DU BIGNON. With a strong and inter- esting individuality; an exceptionally fine mind; an orator whose eloquent thoughts, clothed in language classic, flow with all the naturalness and ease as the sparkling waters from a fountain; a lawyer who crowds court rooms; a speaker who arouses the latent enthusiasm of his hearers to the highest pitch; skilled in the maneuvers and expedients of the parliamentarian, possessed of all the dash of the cavalier that dazzles and fascinates, Hon. Fleming G. du Bignon has rapidly risen to a height where the greatest public honors are within easy reach. He was born on July 25, 1853, at Woodville, near Milledgeville, Baldwin Co., Ga., and is a son of Capt. Charles and Ann (Grantland) du Bignon. Charles du Bignon was born on Jekyl island, off the coast of Georgia, March 2, 1809, was a graduate of Yale law college, and twice represented Glynn county, Ga., in the state legislature. During the late war he served as captain in Gen. Cobb's legion, and at its close returned to his vocation as planter, never having followed the law as a profession. His death took place in 1876. He was a son of Henry du Bignon, also a native of Jekyl island, and who, in turn, was a son of Christopher Poulaine du Bignon, a native of Bordeaux, France, who came to the United States a refugee from the first Napoleon, purchased Jekyl island, and there located with

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his family. Ann (Grantland) du Bignon was born in Baldwin county, Ga., and was a daughter of Hon. Seaton Grantland, who established one of the first newspapers in Georgia, the old "Federal Union," and edited it for many years. He was a whig and an elector on the Scott-Graham ticket; he also represented the Milledgeville district of Georgia in the United States congress for six years, and died in 1864. He was a son of Fleming A. Grantland, a native of Virginia and a planter. Flem- ing G. du Bignon is the second of a family of three living children, the others being Kate and Christopher P. His early education was begun under the private tutorship of the celebrated Washington Baird, D. D. After receiving a military education at the Virginia Military institute, at Lexington, Mr. du Bignon went thence to the university of Virginia. Upon leaving that institution he spent more than a year in Europe to complete his education. Returning to Georgia, he settled in Savannah, was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law. In 1875 he married Miss Caro Nicol Lamar, daughter of the late Col. Charles A. L .. Lamar (and granddaughter of Judge Nicol, of the United States district court), and soon thereafter he removed to Milledgeville, where he began the practice of law under the favorable auspices of family influence. It was soon acknowledged that the young attorney was strong in debate, and possessed to a high degree the graces of an accomplished orator. He had the capacity to win success in the face of opponents of wide experience and established reputations. From 1875 to 1877 he was county judge of Baldwin county, and for one year of that time was associated as partner with Robert Whitfield, Esq., and afterward, when that law firm was dissolved, he formed a partnership with A. McKinley, Esq. In 1880 he became a candidate for representative of Baldwin county in the general assem- bly of the state, and he defeated his opponent, the mayor of Milledgeville, by a large majority. In the lower house of the general assembly Mr. du Bignon took an active and prominent part. He was the author of the measure which appropri- ated one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars ($165,000) for the purpose of erecting new and additional building's at the state lunatic asylum, and for improving the treatment of the unfortunate there confined. The measure, though bitterly opposed at first, was carried finally by an overwhelming vote. In 1882, at the end of his term, Mr. du Bignon was elected without opposition to the state senate from the twentieth senatorial district, comprising the counties of Baldwin, Han- cock, and Washington. Upon the organization of the senate, Mr. du Bignon's friends urged him to allow the use of his name for president of that body, but he preferred to be upon the floor, and declined. He was appointed chairman of the judiciary committee, which is the most important committee in the legislature. It is to this committee that all important legislation is referred before enacted into laws. After the organization of the senate, a poll of its members was made, and it was found that there was but one vote's difference between Mr. du Bignon's

following and that of Mr. Boynton, who was elected president. Had Mr. du Bignon been elected, he would then have succeeded to the gubernatorial office upon the death of Gov. Alexander H. Stephens, which occurred shortly afterward, and would have been the youngest man who ever entered that high office. After a residence of a few years in Milledgeville, Mr. du Bignon returned to Savannah, and was directly afterward elected solicitor-general of the eastern judicial circuit, which embraces the counties of Chatham, Bryan, Liberty, McIntosh, and Effing- ham. In Savannah, in the superior court of Chatham county, he won a splendid reputation as a fearless and successful prosecuting attorney for the state. No influence was strong enough to deter him from prosecuting to the full extent of his ability a violation of the law. Mr. du Bignon took an active part in local politics, and in 1888 he was elected a member of the state senate without opposition. He

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resigned the office of solicitor-general, and on the assembling of the senate was unanimously elected its president. He filled the chair with dignity, impartiality and ability. Legislation was in a great measure in his hands, and as those who are acquainted with the secret history of the two sessions know, the designs of certain foreign corporations to mulct the state treasury were thwarted mainly through his efforts. In 1889 he accepted a partnership in the law firm of Chisholm & Erwin, the counsel for the Platt system of railways and steamships, for the Southern Express company, and Western Union Telegraph company. The firm is now Chisholm, Erwin & du Bignon. As a delegate to the national democratic con- vention of 1888, he served on the committee on platform and resolutions, and heartily supported the tariff reform idea. In 1892 he was elected a delegate for the state at large to the national democratic convention, and was unanimously elected chairman of the Georgia delegation in that convention. He was a supporter of Mr. Cleveland, and took a prominent part in the proceedings of that body. Both in 1890 and 1894 Mr. du Bignon was urged to enter the race for governor. He is now prominently mentioned as Gen. Gordon's successor in the United States senate.

DR. WILLIAM DUNCAN, a thirty-second degree Mason, of Savannah, Ga., was born in that city on Jan. 4, 1840, and received his primary education there. He then attended Chatham academy, Savannah, Ga., and Springfield academy, Springfield, Ga., then became a student at the old Oglethorpe university, at Midway, near Milledgeville, Ga. He was graduated in medicine from the Savan- nah Medical college in March, 1861, and from the Rotunda hospital, of Dublin, Ireland, in 1865. Dr. Duncan is also a licentiate in midwifery of Kings and Queens College of Physicians, Ireland, and pursued a clinical course in Kings hospital, London, England, and in the hospitals of Paris, France. He located in Savannah, for the practice of his profession, in 1866. He is a member of the State Medical association, of Georgia, of the Georgia Medical society, of Savannah, and was treasurer of the latter in 1867. The doctor was demonstrator of anatomy in the Savannah Medical college (now suspended) in 1867, and is at present dean of the faculty and secretary of the board of trustees. He has been one of the attending physicians of the Savannah hospital since 1868, and was for many years secretary and treasurer of the board of trustees of the Georgia infirmary for colored people. During the civil war, he served as an assistant surgeon in the army of the Confederate states, and in the field, also, at the hospitals of Savannah, Richmond and Harrisonburg, Va. Dr. Duncan was an alderman of the city of Savannah for twelve years, during that entire period serving as a member of the sanitary board of that city. In the masonic circles of Savannah, there are few that stand as high as he, having received the thirty-second degree of that order. The doctor has never married.

CHARLES STEPHEN ELLIS, a prominent dealer in naval stores, of Savan- nah, Ga., was born in Wilmington, N. C., in January, 1835. His father, Charles D. Ellis, was a native of Vermont, and a resident of North Carolina. During the war between the states he was attached to the Confederate artillery service, and he and three others organized three companies of artillery in the city of Wilmington. His son, Zaccheus, brother of Charles Stephen Ellis, was killed at the battle of Bentonville, N. C. Charles Stephen Ellis was reared and received his earlier education in Wilmington, N. C., at fifteen years of age becoming a student at Wake Forrest college, North Carolina, from which institution he was graduated in 1857, with the degree of bachelor of arts. Soon after his graduation he removed to Charleston, S. C., and engaged in the commission

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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 55

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