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 80

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 80

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MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

home took a law course in Macon, Ga., graduating in 1876, and locating in Camilla, which has since been his home. The people called him to the mayoralty in 1877-78, and in 1880 elected him to represent the county in the general assem- bly-re-electing him in 1882. In 1884 he was elected solicitor-general of Albany circuit, and has been continuously re-elected since-a sufficient evidence of the efficiency and fidelity of his service. In addition he is quite extensively engaged in farming, and ranks high in his county and section socially and politically. Mr. Spence married Miss Anne R. Curry, born in Virginia, but reared in Baker county, Ga., daughter of Rev. W. L. Curry, a Missionary Baptist minister, for- merly of South Carolina. Five children have blessed this union: Susie, Emily Toy, Henry Turner, William, and Julia, who died when three years old. Himself and wife are prominent and influential members of the Missionary Baptist church.

REV. JOHN L. UNDERWOOD, judge county court, Camilla, Mitchell Co., Ga., son of Launcelot V. and Martha Cobb (nee Thomas) Underwood, was born near Sumterville, Sumter Co., Ala., March 27, 1836. On his father's side he is of English ancestry, his grandfather, Levi Underwood, being descended from one of three brothers who came from England to the colonies before the revolu- tionary war and settled in Virginia and North Carolina. He was born in Nash county, N. C., where he farmed and married and had children born to him. In 1824 he moved to Rutherford county, Tenn., and died at an advanced age near . Murfreesboro. He married a Miss Due, who, through her father and the Viver- ettes, was of French blood, by whom he had several sons and daughters, all of whom are now dead. Judge Underwood's father was born in Nash county, N. C., in 1808, where he was raised and schooled until he was sixteen years old, when his father moved to Tennessee, where he grew to manhood. About this time he left Tennessee and went to Sumter county, Ala., and engaged as a clerk at the old Choctaw Indian agency, called the Factory, on Tombigbee river. The trade was principally with Indians. He was very successful as a merchant and planter, founded the town of Sumterville, and was rapidly accumulating a fortune when the panic of 1837 swept over the country and ruined him. But, nothing daunted, he went to work, resumed business, and by hard work, careful management and judicious investments again acquired a competency. He was a man of great energy and fine business capacity, coupled with unusual sagacity. Possessed of a very retentive memory, he kept well posted as to current events and prominent men, and became a leading man in the county. While never a candidate for civil office, he took a great interest in politics and was always an ardent whig. When tlie war between the states began he was in easy circumstances, and saved enough from the general wreck to buy a plantation when it was over-on which he died in 1873. He was a very strict member of the Presbyterian church, of which he was an elder. He was twice married, his first wife being Mrs. Martha T. Cobb, widow of John Cobb, and a daughter of F. Gabriel Thomas, a prominent and influential citizen of Hancock county, Ga., and afterward of Rupell county, Ala. She died at the age of forty-nine years, leaving four children by Mr. Cobb and one by Col. Underwood. His second wife was Miss Ruth C. Harwell, formerly of Pittsburg, Pa., by whom he had two children, a son and a daughter, both of whom are dead. Judge Underwood was raised in Alabama, where he enjoyed the best educational advantages afforded by the schools and academies of the county. A part of his boyhood was passed in a school in Mississippi, and in 1853 he entered Oglethorpe university and was graduated in 1855 with first honors. On his return home he was placed in charge of Newborn academy, in Greene county, where he had been prepared for college, retaining his position until 1857.

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That year he entered the Theological seminary at Columbia, S. C., then presided over by Dr. Thornwell, one of the profoundest and most distinguished divines of the south. After completing his studies at the seminary he went to Europe, where he spent the greater part of two years at the university of Heidelberg, Germany, and at the Sorbonne, Paris. While attending lectures at Sorbonne the war be- tween the states was precipitated and he returned home in 1861 to shoulder his musket as a matter of principle for the constitutional rights of the southern states, and enlisted as a private in the Twentieth Alabama regiment, Col. I. W. Garrett, then stationed at Mobile. With his command he participated in Kirby Smith's Kentucky campaign and in the memorable engagements at Baker's Creek and the siege of Vicksburg. Soon after reaching Vicksburg from Tennessee, in com- pliance with the urgent request of the officers and privates of the Thirtieth Ala- bama regiment (Col. Shelley), he was made chaplain of that regiment. In the fall of 1863, he was compelled to retire from the service and came home on account of failing health. Later he volunteered under Gen. Wright and did active service in front of Gen. Sherman when he was marching through Georgia. In 1865 he made his home in South Georgia for the sake of its balmy climate. Judge Under- wood founded the Camilla "Clarion," of which he was sole proprietor and editor, and conducted it with marked ability for eight years. He was foremost and ardent in the support of all movements calculated to promote the interest of his county and section, conspicuously prominent in support of the state railroad com- mission and tariff reform, vigorous and persistent in opposition to the populist (third) party movement, in advocacy of the local option prohibition policy, and favored the education and general advancement of the negro. Judge Underwood on his return from Europe was married to Miss Amy, daughter of Joel Curry, of Edgefield istrict, S. C., by whom he has had thirteen children-eight daugh- ters: Mattie, Mrs. W. C. Twitty; Holly, Mrs. W. C. Harris, Albany, Ga .; Amy, Mrs. R. E. Brown, Barnesville, deceased; Beffie, Ida, Bruce, Dona and Eugenia, and five sons: John L., William C., Robert M., Edwin and Joel. His daughters have a superior musical education, and Miss Bruce has a wide reputation as a pianist, and is the organist at the Baptist church in Albany. The judge and his wife have taken great pains to give their children the best possible education, mostly at home, and himself and family are exemplary members of the Baptist church. Judge Underwood professed religion in 1846, while at Black Hawk, Miss., and was baptized the following year, and received into the fellowship of the church by Rev. J. K. Clinton. In 1857 he was licensed to preach, since which time he has devoted the greater part of his time to the ministry. After the war he settled in Decatur county and accepted the pastorate of the churches at Bain- bridge, Milford and Red Bluff. During the years 1867-68-69 he was pastor of the Baptist church at Cuthbert, Ga., and then returned to his farm in Decatur county. In 1871 he was employed by the foreign mission board to travel four months in Texas. On his return he served the churches around him, or labored as an evan- gelist, until he accepted calls in 1872 to serve the churches at Camilla, Evergreen and Mt. Enon. He is now located on a farm about one mile south of Camilla, where he has a delightful home, is surrounded by his interesting family and hosts of admiring and appreciative friends, and dispenses a generous Christian hos- pitality. He is universally beloved, and is considered one of the ablest men in Mitchell county. In 1891 he was appointed judge of the county court of Mitchell county, an office he still holds and honors. He has been offered professorships in colleges and church work in higher latitudes, but has persistently clung to the piney woods, in a new section where he felt that he was needed. Naturally there was little pay, and he has always been too independent to ask for financial help

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from the mission boards. He feels it a privilege to support his own family, and to "make tents" by any honorable manual or brain work. However busy during the week, he is always found on Sunday preaching either to country or village churches, or to the poor and the negroes. Few men have ever had a stronger hold on the best class of colored people. His only eccentricity has been that as a minister he has avoided the public gaze and is contented to storm "forlorn hopes."

MONROE COUNTY.

I T. CASTLEBERRY, merchant, Cabaniss, Monroe Co., Ga., is a son of Jephtha and Susanna F. (Bass) Castleberry, and was born in Monroe county, April 24, 1845. His father was born in Warren county, Ga., and went to Mon- roe county about the time he reached his majority. He married soon afterward and engaged in farming, which he continued in Monroe county until 1856, when he removed to the vicinity of Indian Springs, in Butts county, where he died April 27, 1866. His wife survived him about twenty years, dying July 30, 1887. Of ten children there are now living: Mrs. Mary A. Tingle, Mrs. Martha E. Rob- erts, Jeptha T., Mrs. Susannah F. Scarborough, William P., John P., Theresa M. and Mrs. Carrie O. Scarborough. As the civil war was precipitated about the time Mr. Castleberry reached the age when the blood runs hottest and the im- pulses are strongest, he hastened to volunteer as a member of Company A, Thir- tieth Georgia regiment, and did his duty as a private in the western army. He participated in the battles about Jackson, Miss., at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and was with Gen. Johnston as he retired before Gen. Sherman. In the memorable and bloody battle of July 22, 1864, his brother was mortally wounded, from which he died at La Grange on July 28, and he was himself severely wounded in the right leg below the knee and left on the field of battle. He was taken prisoner and kept within the enemy's lines, most of the time at Chattanooga, until the surrender. Mr. Castleberry is the merchant at Cabaniss, a prosperous com- munity in the northeastern portion of Monroe county, where he has been doing business since the war. His fine business ability and his great popularity in that section has attracted to him the large trade he enjoys. He is also conducting a quite large planting interest and operating three public ginneries at different points. Mr. Castleberry began his business life in 1868 as a clerk for Steele & Watson. In 1871 he bought an interest in the business, the firm then being Steele, Watson & Castleberry. In 1873 Steele & Castleberry bought out Mr. Watson, and in 1874 he (Mr. Castleberry) bought out his partner, and for the last twenty years has been sole proprietor. He carries a $2,000 stock of merchandise and plantation supplies and does a nearly cash business. Mr. Castleberry was' married in Butts county, Nov. 28, 1872, to Miss Maggie L., daughter of Richard W. Willis, a pioneer and substantial citizen of Butts county. They have had but one child, James E., nineteen years of age and a law student at Forsyth. Mr. Cas- tleberry is an ardent democrat and a Missionary Baptist, and a reliable working member in each cause.

WILLIAM H. CASTLIN, planter, Culloden, Monroe Co., Ga., son of John and Eliza (Goodin) Castlin, was born near Taylorsville, Hanover Co., Va., Jan. 27, 1827. His grandfather, John Castlin, was a native of Wales, and came to

MONROE COUNTY SKETCHES.

America and settled in Virginia before the revolutionary war, he being a soldier in the patriot army. He had two sons, Andrew and John. Andrew died, and John, after his marriage, came with his family to Georgia and settled on the Flint river in Upson county. In 1845 he moved to Monroe county and settled where William, the subject of this sketch, now resides. In 1856 he removed to Macon, Ga., where he died in January, 1861, aged seventy-three years. He started a very poor boy, but was a model farmer and manager, and left a quite large estate. He reared a family of ten children: John, Gold Hill, Ala .; Sarah, widow of a Mr. Coffin, Thomaston, Ga .; W. H., the subject of this sketch; Fleming, physician, deceased; Ann, wife of Peyton L. Cocke, Bolingbroke, Ga .; Edwin, White Bluff, Chatham Co., Ga .; Bradford, Thomaston, Ga .; Marcellus, merchant, Thomaston, Ga .; Catharine, wife of Addison P. Cherry, South Mills, Camden Co., N. C .; Caro- line, wife of John S. Timberlake. His wife died June 10, 1887, aged eighty-seven. Mr. Castlin was reared, and has continued to be a planter. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in Company D, Thirteenth Georgia regiment, and went to Savannah with the regiment. His health failing he returned home, and went into a regiment of state troops. He was again discharged on the ground of disability. About 1852 he removed from Monroe to Upson county, where he lived some years, then returned to near Culloden. After a brief stay he went to his Upson plantation again, where he remained until 1870, when he moved back to his present location. Mr. Castlin was married on the line of Monroe and Crawford counties, Dec. 13, 1852, to Miss Mary A., daughter of Irvin H. Woodward. She was of an old and prominent family, and had two brothers of great influence, and who were high- toned, honorable gentlemen. To Mr. and Mrs. Castlin ten children have been born: Irvin H., drummer for Tidwell & Pope, Atlanta: Willie, wife of Charles Gray, Fort Valley, Ga .; John H., deceased; Eugene, deceased; Woodward, at home; Sallie M., deceased; Clifford and William, both at home. In the suburbs of the far-famed old school town, Culloden, in an old-time southern mansion, Mr. Castlin is spending his declining years on a plantation of 1,600 acres. He has another in Upson county of 300 acres. He is a democrat and a master Mason. He is a member of the Methodist church.

WILLIAM P. CLEMENTS, merchant and postmaster, Brent, Monroe Co., Ga., son of Wesley and Jane (Smith) Clements, was born in Muscogee county, Ga., March 19, 1855. His grandfather, Davis Smith, one of the earliest settlers of the county, was the son of Dixon and Elizabeth Smith, and was born in Washing- ton county, Ga., in 1793. Early in life he engaged in merchandising in Dublin, Laurens Co., in which he was very successful. During this period Mr. Smith married Mrs. Elizabeth Jordan, and, in 1820, moved to Forsyth. Soon afterward he acquired possession of the 400-acre tract of land on which William P. Clements

now lives, between five and six miles southwest of Forsvth. In 1825 he moved and settled upon it, and established a planting and mercantile interest which laid the foundation of a fortune. He carried on his business, and was a central figure in the community for a lifetime. He became one of the largest land and slave- owners in that locality, and attained to a strong and wide influence. At one time he owned 2,000 acres of land, and when emancipation was proclaimed had some hundred slaves. He was elected colonel of militia, then regarded a distinction, and being a strong whig partisan and politician was elected several times to represent the county in the general assembly. He was a Missionary Baptist, and began early in his Christian life to speak in public, and for the greater part of his lifetime was a local preacher of that denomination. Col. Smith died in 1867, and his wife in 1868. They reared nine children: Miranda, widow of Orlando Holland, Monroe county; Mary, deceased; T. T., retired merchant, living at the old home-

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stead; Davis, Habersham county, Ga; Elizabeth and John D., both deceased; James, Macon, Ga .; Judson, killed in the last battle of the war, at West Point, Ga .; Jane, married to Wesley Clements, who was killed while in the Confederate service. By Wesley Clements she had three children: William P., the subject of this sketch; Thomas, in railway service, Athens, Ga., and Lizzie, wife of J. E. Chambliss, Ma- con, Ga. After the war Mrs. Clements married Thomas Y. Brent, formerly of Louisville, Ky., but now a merchant, Macon, Ga. By this last marriage she has had two children: Taylor Y., planter, Monroe county, and J. I., merchant, Macon, Ga. William P. Clements was reared on a farm, in the community of which he is now a member. At the age of nineteen he embarked in the mercantile busi- ness, for which he has shown such remarkable aptitude, and in which he has been so successful. Besides the store he has large planting interests. Through his instrumentality the postoffice of Brent was established, of which he was made postmaster. The firm is Brent & Clements, and carries a stock of $3,000, but Mr. Clements has the sole control and responsibility. The management of these three interests-plantation, store and postoffice-requires good business capacity, energy, close attention and up-to-date information, and all those Mr. Clements gives and displays. He evidently inherits the superior business sagacity and judicious enter- prise of his grandfather Davis, combined with hustling activity, else he would prove unequal to his work. Politically Mr. Clements has always been devoted to the democracy, and feels that he is yet, so far as Jeffersonian principles are concerned. He ardently favors the reform embodied in the platform of the people's party, and is giving his influence to its success. Mr. Clements was married Oct. 28, 1885, to Miss Sallie, daughter of Mrs. Julia D. Thweatt, of Forsyth. She was born in Columbus, and by her name will be recognized as a member of an old and very prominent family. Four children have been born to them: John Brent, deceased; Julia Thweatt, Jennie Brent, and Marie Keto. Mr. Clements and his wife are active, enthusiastic Methodists; and he takes great interest in all church work, especially the Sunday school, of which he has been superintendent four years.

W C. CORLEY, planter, Forsyth, Monroe Co., Ga., son of Austin W. and Margaret N. (Matthews) Corley, was born in Troup county, Ga., Oct. 24, 1838. His grandfather, Austin V. Corley, of Irish descent, was born in South Carolina in 1745, and was a soldier in the revolutionary war. By his uprightness and thriftiness he attained to considerable influence, and was repeatedly elected a member of the legislature. Later in life he removed from South Carolina to Troup county, Ga., and thence, after some years, to Meriwether county, where he died in 1850 at the advanced age of 105 years. His wife, also very old, died about the same time. Both were devout, consistent members of the Missionary Baptist church. His father was born, reared and married in Richland district, S. C., and the next fall after his marriage he removed in wagons to Troup county, Ga., and settled. The Indians were still there, and he helped to move them. He was absent thirty-six days, during which time his wife and child were entirely alone. His parents lived in Troup county about twenty years, and then moved to Meriwether county, where they lived until after the war, when they removed to Dougherty county, Ga., where his father died in 1868 and his mother in 1872. Although his father began life quite poor, he succeeded by his industry and frugality and good management in accumulating a comfortable fortune. He was a democrat and a warm partisan ; himself and wife were active and prominent Missionary Baptists, and did much toward upbuilding and advancing the denomination wherever they lived. They reared seven children: J. E., planter, Baker county, Ga .; Martha E., deceased; W. C., the subject of this sketch; S. M., single lady, at home; Robert B., deceased; Simeon B., deceased: Austin V., enlisted in Confederate army, and was killed in

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battle of Perrysville, Ky. Mr. Corley was reared partly in Troup and partly in Meriwether counties. When eighteen years old he went to Cuthbert, Ga., and became one of the firm of John R. Hull & Co., wholesale grocers. Several years afterward he went to Dougherty county and engaged in planting in that and in Calhoun county. The war between the states occurred while he was in business in Cuthbert, and he enlisted in the Randolph Light guards, was made second ser- geant, and while stationed at Pensacola participated in the Santa Rosa fight. His command did guard duty about Savannah for a time, was in the conflicts of Chick- amauga and Missionary Ridge, was in the Georgia campaign, and finally sur- rendered at Bentonville, N. C. In 1877 he went to Monroe county, where, Oct. 24, he was married to Miss Ellen S., daughter of Thomas and Sena Dewberry. This family was among the pioneers of the county, having settled in it in 1825, moving from Warren county. He was a wealthy planter before the war, worth probably $300,000, largely in several valuable tracts of land. Their children were: Madison, deceased; Thomas, Jr., deceased; William F., planter, Monroe county; Martha, deceased; Mary, widow, in Alabama; Sarah F., deceased; Jane, deceased; Amanda, deceased; Ellen S., deceased; Moses J., Monroe county; Berry W.,

Monroe county. Capt. Corley's wife died childless, Feb. 25, 1894. Her demise was sudden and unexpected, occasioned by internal hemorrhage. She was reputed to have been one of the most beautiful ladies in the county, which was emphasized by a very delicate organization bordering on the ethereal. His delightful home is about six miles south of Forsyth, and contains 700 acress; and he has another tract of 800 acres near by. In addition he has 330 acres within half a mile of the city limits of Columbus, Ga. He is a great lover of fine stock, and is perfecting arrangements to establish a stock farm on the property near Columbus. Capt. Corley is a democrat in politics, and a Missionary Baptist. He is also a master Mason.

G. W. HEAD, planter and merchant, High Falls, Monroe Co., Ga., son of Dr. J. D. and Nancy H. (Underwood) Head, was born in Monroe county, Dec. 18, 1847. Mr. Head's great-grandfather emigrated from England to Georgia before the revolutionary war, during which he served in the patriot army. On one occasion a band of tories visited his home and drove off all the stock. The old patriot visited his home soon after, and being told of the raid went to the tories and at the point of a pistol made them return the spoils. William Head, his grandfather, raised his family in Clarke county, Ga. Mr. Head's father was a physician of no inconsiderable prominence, and married his wife in Putnam county. They raised a family of five children: Thomas J., planter, near Griffin, Ga., and a Primitive Baptist preacher; Savannah E., widow of Dr. L. J. Dupree, Milner, Ga .; G. W., the subject of this sketch; Hattie H., single; Emily E., wife of R. F. Strickland, Griffin, Ga. His father died in 1882, and his mother in 1888. When he was six years old Mr. Head's family moved to Butts county, where he was raised and educated. Not being old enough to enter the regular service during the war, he joined a cavalry troop of Georgia reserves, and was principally with the scouting forces, where his experience oftentimes was very exciting, to say the least of it. On one occasion, when out on a scout, he fell in with the Texas brigade that surrounded the Union Gen. Kilpatrick, and was present when he broke through. He was about Atlanta on the same duty when Gen. Shernian held the city, and would often run into his scouts. He took the measles a little later, and was at home at the time of the surrender. After the war Mr. Head spent four years in the west, from Texas to California and Mexico, in stock business and mining, and one year in Pike county. He then returned to Butts county and engaged in farming with the most satisfactory results. He started

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with very small means, but prospered beyond his most sanguine expectations. He has added merchandising to his planting interest, and is one of the largest land-owners in Monroe county, owning 2,200 acres, and occupying a spacious brick dwelling near High Falls. The immediate surroundings are wildly beauti- ful and romantic in the extreme-few localities in Georgia surpass this locality in this respect. The name "High Falls" is derived from falls on the Towaliga river near by, the scenery presented to view being thus described in W. C. Richards' Georgia Illustrated, published half a century ago: "So fine is the view afforded from many different points that it is difficult to decide which is the most attractive; and passing from rock to rock the beholder is ever delighted with new features. This variety is the greatest charm of the scene. The river above the falls is about 300 feet wide, flowing swiftly over a rocky shoal. At its first descent it is divided by a ledge of rock, and forms two precipitous falls for a distance of fifty feet." The Towaliga is a stream of large volume and constant flow, and at this point has a fall of 100 feet within one-fourth of a mile. Great as the water-power is there is but one small grist-mill on it. Mr. Head was married in Monroe county, March 14, 1875, to Miss Carrie, daughter of J. G. and Eliza (Stewart) Phinazee, who has borne him nine children: Lucy, Hattie, James P., Robert T., Nancy E., George D., Carrie, Philip and Benjamin. For many years Mr. Head has been afflicted with rheumatism, and has to use an invalid wheel chair. Notwithstanding his affliction he is genial, jovial and hospitable, and, hence, very companionable. He is an ardent populist, and a master Mason, member of Patillo lodge No. 360.

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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 80

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