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 57

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 57

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Your scope is extensive, your style of treatment clear and logical-in some passages terribly trenchant-and your argument irresistible. How I wish that every intelligent man in Savannah would read it with the care and candor which it deserves and be brought to the conclusion that there is a religion which is true, and a service of God and man which is noble and blessed, apart from superstition." -Extract from a letter from Rev. T. Harley, of London, in the "Savannah Morn- ing News."

JULIAN HARTRIDGE, deceased. Handsome in person, accomplished in

intellect, polished in manners, the very mirror of honor, always kind, always gentle, always considerate of the feelings of others, generous almost to prodigal- ity, the late Julian Hartridge impressed one as the most lovable gentleman one ever chanced to meet in the social circle. As a lawyer, he was rarely equipped. Endowed by nature with an intellect singularly adapted to the discernment of truth, and embellished by literary attainments of the most liberal description, acquired in the very best institutions of learning in the country, he brought to the pursuit of his chosen profession an honorable ambition and a persevering industry which speedily secured for him an enviable distinction at the bar of Georgia. As an orator his language was unusually chaste and elegant, as well as easy and fluent, his elocution correct and impressive, his logic clear and concise, and his voice musical and magnetic. Few who heard him can forget the charm of his manner or the force and perspicuity of his matter. As a legislator he was pre-eminently conservative and just, and although a democrat of the strictest sect, he did not hesitate to disregard the demands of mere party exigency whenever there was a conflict between them. The Hon. Julian Hartridge was born in the city of Savannah, Ga., Sept. 9, 1829. From early youth he was remarkable for his studious habits and reflective turn of mind. He was the eldest son of a successful merchant of Savannah, who gave his son all the educa- tional advantages within reach. At the Chatham academy, a school then distin- guished of its kind; at the Montpelier institute, presided over by the late Bishop Elliott, of Georgia, and at other educational institutions in the interior of the state, Julian Hartridge passed the school days of his boyhood. From the first he was a bright and apt scholar, standing at the head of his classes and mastering with equal facility the classics and the sterner routine of mathematics in advance of the boys of his own age. Even then he developed a marked capacity for speaking in one so young and modest, and soon attained rank as a declaimer. When prepared for college, he entered Brown university at Providence, R. I., an institution of high renown, then under the presidency of the eminent Dr. Way- land. His class was one of rare ability, being composed for the most part of young men from the best families of the neighboring New England states. His powers of oratory and composition made up in a measure for other delinquencies, and he graduated with distinction at the age of nineteen. After graduation he

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entered the law school of Harvard university, and there diligently applied himself to the mastery of the principles of that great science. Having taken his degree of Bachelor of Law when just of age, he returned to Savannah, and after service in the office of Judge Robert M. Charlton, was admitted to the bar and settled down for practice in his native city. Success attended him from the inception of his career, and he was soon elected by the legislature of Georgia to the office of solicitor-general of the eastern judicial circuit. In the discharge of the duties of that office he was thrown into almost daily antagonism with a bar of excep- tional power and brilliancy, composed of such men as Charlton, Law, Ward, Owens, Lawton, Jackson and others, whose names and achievements are a part of the history of the state. This office he filled with marked ability and unswerving fidelity, winning distinction which was an earnest of his future professional power and success. Yielding to the persuasion of personal and political friends, he was elected to the general assembly of Georgia from the county of Chatham in 1859, and in the execution of this his first political trust, he secured the respect and confidence of all. He was chosen and served as a delegate in the democratic convention of 1860 at Charleston, S. C., and Baltimore, Md. Upon the inception of the late war between the states, thoroughly in sympathy with his state and people, he took the field as second lieutenant of the Chatham artillery of Savannah, and served in that capacity until he was elected a representative from the first district of Georgia to the Confederate congress. There he served until the close of hostilities, holding a distinguished place upon the com- mittees and in the debates of the house, his speech upon the conscript act having marked him at once as one of the profoundest thinkers and ablest debaters in a body composed of men who had justly won their titles to eminence in govern- mental affairs. Upon the subjugation of the Confederate states he returned to his home in Savannah, broken in fortune, but undismayed in spirit, and resumed the practice of his profession, being associated with the late Judge Walter S. Chisholm. Almost his first appearance of note was before a military tribunal charged with the trial of an old and prominent citizen of Georgia for his life, and, though conviction followed, the sentence of the court remains until this day unexecuted. Debarred for a time in common with his fellow-citizens in the political management of his state, he devoted himself assiduously to the law, and with eminently satisfactory results. When the sword was at length sheathed at the behest and in the presence of the civil law, he was called to preside over the first convention which gave Georgia a chief magistrate chosen by the people. He was then and there made chairman of the state central executive committee, and soon after was one of the electors-at-large for Georgia on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket. Reluctantly he gave up his profession and agreed to stand for the forty-fourth congress, to which he was elected by a handsome majority. In this contest, after accepting the nomination, he prepared a letter of withdrawal and was only persuaded by the strong appeals of personal and political friends from putting his determination into execution. In 1876 he was returned to con- gress by his constituents, and was in Washington, discharging with admirable ability his duties as representative of the first congressional district, when death summoned him hence, anticipating by but a short time a step he deemed incumbent upon himself in behalf of those he held most dear, he having voluntarily announced his retirement from public life soon after his election as a member of that body. In early manhood he married Miss Mary M. Charlton, eldest daughter of his legal preceptor, Judge Robert M. Charlton, one of the purest and ablest of Georgia jurists, and once a senator in the United States congress. Nine chil- dren were the fruit of this union, four of whom survive, and the youngest was

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born at the moment when his father was eloquently defending his people in the matter of the Hamburgh massacre. On the morning of Jan. 8, 1879, Julian Hartridge departed this life, the disease which bore him away being pneumonia. Although he had been confined to his apartments for several days, no one, until a late moment, anticipated a fatal termination of his attack. His unexpected demise produced a profound impression alike in the national capital in Savannah and throughout the wide borders of Georgia. His body was tenderly laid to rest in the cemetery of Laurel grove, near Savannah, and the entire community gave token most emphatic that theirs was no ordinary bereavement. Julian Hart- ridge died as his star was in the ascendant. On either side fame and fortune seemed to be waiting and beckoning to him with kindly hands. He had declined a place upon the supreme bench of Georgia, the goal of the ambitious of his pro- fession, and had laid aside the power and place of a representative of the people just as his name and fame were becoming familiar to the heart and ear of the country. He was indeed a true type of the men of the south of his day and gen- eration. His last public duty. was the preparation of an. argument upon the Geneva award. Just as that was finished, the summons came. He does not need the pen of eulogy. His record is inscribed upon the pages of the history of Georgia, and truly may it be said that

"A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman, Framed in the prodigality of nature, * * *

** * * * * *

The spacious world cannot again afford."

GEN. HENRY ROOTES JACKSON, a prominent lawyer, soldier and diplo- mat, of Savannah, Ga., was born in Athens, Ga., June 24, 1820. He was one of the highest honor men at Yale college in 1839, and was made a lawyer in 1840, settling in Savannah. He was United States district attorney for Georgia in 1843, colonel First Georgia regiment in the Mexican war in 1846 and 1847, judge of the superior courts of Georgia in 1849-1853, United States minister to Austria in 1853, resigning in 1858. He declined to be chancelor of the state university at Athens, Ga., in 1859, which institution made him LL. D. in 1893, was delegate to the historic Charleston democratic convention in 1860, elector for the state-at- large on the Breckinridge and Lane ticket, Confederate judge for Georgia in 1861, brigadier-general Confederate states army in 1861, major-general Georgia state troops in the field in 1862, brigadier-general Confederate states army in 1864, trustee of the Peabody educational fund for years, United States minister to Mexico in 1885-1887, president Georgia Historical society from 1875 and of the Telfair Art academy, in 1892 a director of the Central Railroad and Banking company of Georgia. In all these important functions Gen. Jackson has been signally successful and distinguished. His character has been marked by a deep aversion to office-seeking and to the personal rivalries of politics, and he has repeatedly declined the highest political offices. He has achieved the largest successes of his career in his profession of the law. While his large practice has been interrupted by long intervals of military and diplomatic service, one in two great wars far apart, and the other in widely different epochs of national interest, embracing both his young and matured manhood, and each only an incident of his record, yet his speeches in the court room and his triumphs in vast cases at the bar, make up the best and main part of his long and eventful life. His effort in the famous "Wanderer" slave-ship prosecution over thirty years ago is to-day a living memory of the highest forensic eloquence, and he conducted and gained some of the heaviest litigations in the south, and earned the largest fees known

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in that section, realizing a fortune from them. As a commander and organizer of troops he won distinction in Mexico and on Confederate battle-grounds in Georgia, northwestern Virginia and Tennessee, becoming a prisoner in the last fateful campaign of the war. As a diplomatist he conducted international nego- tiations with consummate tact and statesmanship. He has true poetic genius, publishing a volume in 1850 entitled, Talulah and Other Poems. A connoisseur in art and letters, genuinely eloquent, of dauntless chivalry and immovable convic- tions, a man of affairs, and endowed with exalted home qualities, and a prince of entertainers, Gen. Jackson is a type of our best American manhood.

ALEXANDER ROBERT LAWTON, one of the foremost attorneys of the southern states, was born in St. Peter's parish, Beaufort district, S. C., Nov. 4, 1818. His grandfather was an officer of the continental army, and his father pursued the vocation of a planter. His youth was spent among the sports and comforts of a generous southern plantation, and his early education was acquired at the private schools of the neighborhood. At sixteen years of age he entered the United States Military academy at West Point, from which he was graduated in 1839 as second lieutenant of the First artillery and for the ensuing eighteen months was stationed successively at Petersburg and Rouse's Point, N. Y., and at Coastport, Me. Resigning from the army in January, 1841, he studied at the Dane law school, Harvard university, Cambridge, Mass., and was graduated therefrom in June, 1842. Returning to his home he continued his studies in the office of Hon. William F. Colcock, and in December of that year was admitted to the practice in Columbia, S. C. In January, 1843, he established his home in Savannah, Ga., and entered regularly and very earnestly upon the practice of his profession. In November, 1849, he accepted the presidency of the Augusta & Savannah Railroad company, and retained that office until the successful com- pletion and operation of that road in 1854. Gen. Lawton's entry into the political arena was as a representative from the county of Chatham in the Georgia legisla- ture during the session of 1855-6. Among other important services rendered by him while a member of that body was the introduction and passage of the act incorporating the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad company. During the winter of 1860-I he was a member of the Georgia senate and time and again measured swords with Benjamin H. Hill, anti-secessionist. While absent from the state and entirely without solicitation on his part, he was called upon to represent Chatham county in the lower house during the legislative session of 1874-5. He was vice-president and chairman of the judiciary committee of the convention which, in 1877, framed the present constitution of Georgia. Gen. Lawton was president of the Tilden electoral college of Georgia in 1876, and chairman of the Georgia delegation to the national democratic convention that nominated Gen. Winfield S. Hancock at Cincinnati, and Grover Cleveland at Chicago. Early in 1885 he was nominated by President Cleveland as minister plenipotentiary to Russia, but technical objection being raised as to his eligibility under the four- teenth amendment of the national constitution, he urged the president to withdraw the nomination, though the point raised was not sustained by the attorney-general. The patriotism which thus laid upon the altar of democratic harmony one of the highest honors within the gift of the administration, won for him a reputation transcending any fame he could have acquired by an acceptance of the tendered mission. When congress reassembled in December, 1885, the first private act passed was one removing the political disabilities of Gen. Lawton. It received the unanimous vote of both houses. In April, 1887, President Cleve- land conferred upon him the mission of Austria-Hungary. As minister plenipo-

Ene byF G Herman, &

yours truly

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tentiary to that power, Gen. Lawton conducted himself and maintained diplomatic relations with marked acceptability both to his home government and to the Austrian court. His residence in Vienna, which extended over a period of two years, was entirely pleasant. His resignation of this official position was in the hands of the secretary of state prior to the inauguration of President Harrison, although, by request, he delayed his return home until the arrival of his successor. Since his return to Savannah Gen. Lawton has not resumed the practice of his profession, which he relinquished when he went abroad upon the mission just referred to. The war record of Gen. Lawton is a very brilliant one. He was the first colonel of the first volunteer regiment of Georgia, brigadier-general in the Confederate army in command of the military district of Georgia in 1861, served in Virginia in 1862, was wounded at Sharpsburg, Md., under Gen. Stone- wall Jackson, and in August, 1863, was appointed quartermaster-general of the Confederate states, holding that rank at the termination of hostilities. As a lawyer and orator, Gen. Lawton is pre-eminent. He has had an enormous practice and as chief counsel of the Central railroad of Georgia for twenty-one years, has treated questions of private and corporate right in the supreme courts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, and in the United States supreme court. He is one of the ten founders of the American Bar association, and had a leading part in the formation of the Georgia Bar association. His address as president of the Ameri- can Bar association on the lives and services of James L. Pettigrew and Hugh S. Legare, his eulogy on the life, character and services of Robert E. Lee, delivered in Savannah, and his oration upon the laying of the corner-stone of the new capitol of Georgia, by invitation of the general assembly, are all full of genuine cloquence. Gen. Lawton has long been recognized as a true type of the southern gentleman. He is now crowning a life of labor with an age of ease. His mar- riage in November, 1845, to Sarah H. Alexander, of Savannah, proved a source of unalloyed domestic happiness, and has been blessed by three children, viz .: Louisa F., wife of Mr. Leonard C. Mackall, of Philadelphia; Nora, wife of Henry C. Cunningham, of Savannah, and Alexander R. Lawton, Jr., of the Savannah bar, who is following in the footsteps of his illustrious father.

EDWARD LOVELL. Among those who have contributed by their enterprise and public spirit to the permanent growth and prosperity of Savannah, Edward Lowell will always have a prominent place. Mr. Lovell was born at Medway, Mass., March 4, 1816, and came to Savannah in 1835, then a little seaport having a limited commerce carried on by sloops and brigs, the river being too shallow to admit larger vessels. Mr. Lovell, as soon as he attained his majority, embarked in business for himself. His first venture was a gun store, both for the sale and repair of guns. In 1840 his success justified him in enlarging his business and adding thereto a line of hardware and house furnishing goods, and in 1857 he established the house of Lovell & Lattimore by associating his brother, Nathaniel Lovell, and his friend, William Lattimore, in co-partnership with him. In 1868 his son, Edward F. Lovell, having arrived at maturity, Mr. Edward Lovell retired from the firm of Lovell & Lattimore, leaving the good-will, the established stand or location of the business and the familiar firm name to his partners, and opened a place of business on Congress street, which was soon removed to Broughton street; and taking William C. Crawford and Edward F. Lovell, who had received their training under his watchful care, he continued his old business with their co-operation under the firm name of Crawford & Lovell. This firm soon com- mended itself to public patronage and continued until terminated by the death of Mr. Crawford in 1884. The business of the old firm having been speedily and

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satisfactorily adjusted a new firm took its place, comprised of Edward Lovell and his two sons, Edward F. Lovell and Robert P. Lovell, and soon the new firm became one of the largest hardware and iron houses in the state and has so continued, notwithstanding his death, which occurred on Aug. 25, 1888. Mr. Lovell by his sagacity and experience laid the foundation broad and deep for a growing and successful business and the impress of his wisdom and integrity is illustrated in the name of Edward Lovell's Sons, under which the business still continues. Mr. Lovell was a man of great industry and application, but so method- ical and exact in all his transactions that he kept the even tenor of his way, without hurry or confusion, accomplishing a vast amount of work without excessive effort or apparent sacrifice of physical or mental activity. He was loyal to his adopted city. He had confidence in her ultimate success. He did not hoard his gains and after filling his coffers remove himself and his wealth to the place of his birth, there to enjoy in ease and comfort his well earned rest, but actively participated in every important enterprise that promised to advance the interest and prosperity of Savannah; invested his income judiciously in permanent improvements, in real estate in and out of the city, and became interested in financial and manufacturing ventures which have largely contributed to the growth and progress of Savannah. He was early interested in the Savannah & Ogeechee canal, which, in its day, floated millions of feet of lumber and timber to the city and before the construction of the Central railroad was an important highway of commerce to this point on the coast of Georgia. Mr. Lovell was its president for many years. He was a director in the Atlantic & Gulf railroad, president of the Savannah Brick Manu- facturing company, vice-president of the Oglethorpe Savings and Trust company, while his name appeared as a stockholder and contributor to many of the corpora- tions and associations formed for the promotion of manufacturing and commerce. Not only was Mr. Lovell loyal to his adopted home in contributing to its growth and material prosperity but he was also true to it in time of war and pestilence. Although he was exempt by age from service as a soldier he served the Con- federacy in superintending the construction of batteries and earthworks in the defense around Savannah. With the capacity and fitness for business so eminently displayed Mr. Lovell possessed the estimable qualities of charity and benevolence, unostentatious but effective, dispensing relief to the needy and distressed with a lavish but discriminating hand. No worthy object ever appealed to him in vain. Mr. Lovell was married May 4, 1845, to Miss Mary A. Bates, of Cohasset, Mass., a devoted wife and constant companion. Together they pursued the even tenor of their way devoted to each other and their children. The widow did not long survive her husband. This worthy couple left a good name to their children, a heritage more lasting than wealth or earthly preferment. Mr. Lovell was social in his feelings and while immersed in business and discharging many duties and trusts he found time to participate in the pleasant associations of Odd Fellowship as a member of Live Oak lodge, and was for many years an active member of that time-honored corps, the Chatham artillery, a military company which united the discipline of the soldier and the amenitics of social engagement more successfully than any other of the volunteer militia of Georgia. Mr. Lovell was an honorary member of the Chatham artillery at the time of his death.

M. YOUNG M'INTYRE, a prominent cotton factor of Savannah, Ga., was born in Thomasville, Thomas Co., Ga., Oct. 23, 1856. His father, A. T. McIntyre, is a native of Georgia, and a son of Archibald McIntyre, who was a native of Scot- land. A. T. McIntyre is now engaged in the practice of law at Thomasville, Ga., at the age of seventy-two. Just prior to the civil war he was a member of the

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legislature of Georgia from the county of Thomas, and also represented the old First district of Georgia in the United States congress during the seventies. During the civil war Mr. McIntyre was a colonel of the Georgia state militia. Col. McIntyre has never held or sought office, preferring to devote his entire time to his business. M. Young McIntyre was reared and received his primary education in the city of Thomasville, attended the university of Georgia, at Athens, and was graduated from that institution, with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, in 1877. For the first five years next after his graduation he was in charge of his father's farm in Thomas county, Ga., and in 1882 he removed to Savannah, where, for one year, he was engaged as clerk for Capt. C. F. Stubbs, in the cotton business. Upon the death of his employer he became a member of the firm, under the style of Garnett, Stubbs & Co., which relation he sustained for two years, when he and his brother, Mr. D. I. McIntyre, entered the cotton business. In the spring of 1894 Mr. D. I. McIntyre disposed of his interest in this business, which has since been continued under the name of M. Y. McIntyre & Co. He is prominently iden- tified with the directory of the Savannah Bank and Trust company, and among the more prominent social, fraternal and military organizations, is a member of the Masons, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Oglethorpe club, Savannah Yacht club, University club, a pay member of the Chatham artillery and the Georgia hussars, and vice-president of St. Andrew's Society of Scotchmen.

WILLIAM WHANN MACKALL, one of the leading attorneys of Savannah, Ga., was born in the city of Washington, D. C., on July 8, 1853. His father was Gen. William W. Mackall, of the United States army, a graduate of West Point Military academy, who was stationed in California until 1856, resigning that post at the commencement of the war between the states in order to remove to the southern states. The subject of this sketch came south with his father and resided in Macon and Savannah, Ga., and in Virginia. He received a limited education in the schools of Macon, graduating later from St. John's college, Annapolis, Md., his father having settled in Virginia some time prior to the year 1871. He was admitted to the bar in Maryland in 1875, one year later removing to Columbus, Ga., thence coming to Savannah, Ga., where he entered the office of Col. William Garrard on a salary, remaining in his employ for two years. He then formed a partnership with R. G. Erwin, which was continued for one year, and in 1880 he entered the firm of Collier & Charlton as a partner. Mr. Collier withdrew from the firm at the expiration of one year, the business being continued under the style of Charlton & Mackall. In 1890 Jefferson R. Anderson was added to the firm, its name being then changed to Charlton, Mackall & Anderson. Mr. Mackall takes no active part in politics, nor has he ever sought or held office of any kind.

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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 57

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