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 81

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 81

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R. C. M'GOUGH, planter and member of general assembly of Georgia for Monroe county, 1894-95, son of Bob G. and Sandal (Cabaniss) McGough, was born Sept. 24, 1831. The McGoughs are of Scotch-Irish blood, whose ances- tors were colonized in the north of Ireland during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. About 1760, Matilda Carson McGough, a widow with five or six children, in company with other emigrants, relatives and neighbors, settled in North Carolina. John McGough, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, though still a minor, enlisted in the patriot army under Col. William Washington and participated in the battles of Brandywine, Eutaw Springs and Saratoga, where he saw the proud Burgoyne surrender to Gen. Gates. He was twice wounded, once on the head by a saber in the hands of a British officer, and once by a gunshot. Soon after the revolution he was married to Margaret Mill and settled in Edgefield district, S. C., from which place he moved to White Plains, Greene county, Ga., where he died in 1847, at the ripe age of eighty-six. Mr. McGough's maternal grandfather, George Cabaniss, was of a French Huguenot family, which settled in Maryland or Virginia early in the last century. About the beginning of this century he, G. C., came to Georgia, settled for awhile in China Grove in Oglethorpe county, from whence he moved to Jones county, where he farmed, merchandised and traded with the Indians from across the Ocmulgee river. Robert McGough, father of R. C., was born in Edgefield district, S. C., March 28, 1786, and was soon after brought by his father to White Plains, Ga., where he grew to manhood. In early life he settled in Jones county, where in 1810, he was married to Miss Sandal Cabaniss. To them were born ten children, six boys and four girls: John, merchant, Columbus, Ga., accumulated quite a fortune in ante-bellum days, now deceased; Matthew O., was never mar- ried, deceased; Sarah B., married to Jacob A. Clements, Buena Vista, Ga .; Matilda died unmarried: Elizabeth, wife of Ezekiel Hollis of Brundidge, Ala., deceased: William T., mortally wounded at the battle of New Hope Church, died in Atlanta, July, 1864; George L., merchant, Columbus, Ga., deceased: Mary A.,

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deceased, married to Robert Minten, Buena Vista, Ga .; Robert C., farmer, Marion county, Ga .; C. C., entered First Georgia regiment, 1861, and after his time of enlistment expired joined the Forty-fifth Georgia, was made first lieutenant for gallantry on the field of battle, in 1862, and was killed leading a forlorn hope at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. Robert McGough was a soldier in the war of 1812, and for his services drew a pension. He moved from Jones county, where he was married, to Monroe in 1823, clearing out a road through the primeval forest to his new home on Little Tobesofkee creek, where he opened a good plantation, reared and educated his children, and spent the remainder of his life. He was what is termed a good liver and accumulated a handsome property. Though he never connected himself with any church and did not believe in any creed except that of right conduct, he was always partial to the faith of his mother, who was a devout Presbyterian. He died without recantation, March 10, 1882, agcd ninety-six years, lacking eighteen days. R. C. McGough received a preparatory education in the schools of the state in 1852, graduated in 1855, taught school the next year at Brownwood academy, La Grange, then a flourishing institution under the management of Hooten & Cox, and the next two years at Russellville, Ga. He studied law under the Hon. Cincinnatus Peeples and was admitted to the bar in 1860; but war coming on immediately, he was engaged in the service of the Confederacy either as soldier, enrolling officer or tax assessor during its whole continuance, and after its close retired to his farm. He served as postmaster under President Cleveland's first administration, but resigned in favor of the present incumbent before the expiration of his term. Mr. McGough was married Jan. 10, 1860, to Maggie Hollis, daughter of one of the most successful farmers and earliest pioneers of Monroe county. His wife died April 9, 1871. To them were born five children: Thomas H., now a merchant at Leavenworth, Wash; Maud, Nelly and Robert at home; and May, wife of Dr. F. L. Cato, De Soto, Ga. Robert was graduated with the degree of A. B. at the Georgia university in 1890. Mr. McGough, after the death of his consort, devoted himself to the rearing and education of his children, endeavoring to supply the place of both father and mother. He has a good library and devotes much of his time reading and tries to keep in full accord with the progress of the age. He has an interesting family and kind and appreciative neighbors. He is a rationalist, believing that faith should be subordinate to reason. He is a true democrat, who thinks as long as reason is unfettered, humanity will advance; that all repressive laws that cannot be enforced are mischievous, the parent of crime, and the greatest government is the greatest individual liberty consistent with the rights of all others.

E. M. MOORE, planter, Forsyth, Monroe Co., Ga., son of John and Nancy (Curry) Moore, was born in Monroe county, June 15, 1827. His grand- father, Elijah Moore, migrated from Maryland to Georgia in the latter part of the last century, and settled in Baldwin county, where he died. His father was born in Maryland in January, 1792, came to Baldwin county with his father, where he grew to manhood; was married in Hancock county in 1813 to Miss Nancy Curry (of Irish descent), who was born and raised there. Ten children were born to them, of which eight were raised to maturity: James C., deceased; Narcissus, widow of David Davis, Stewart county, Ga .; Mary, widow of D. M. Davison, Pike county, Ala .; E. R., planter, Bossier Parish, La .; B. F., deceased; E. M., the subject of this sketch; Jemima, deceased wife of Robert McGinty; John C., enlisted in Confederate service, 1862, and was killed in the battle of Fredericksburg. Mr. Moore's parents lived in Baldwin county until 1826, when they removed to Monroe county and settled eight miles south of Forsyth, where

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they lived until their death-that of the father occurring in 1870, and that of the mother in 1871. Both were members of the Primitive Baptist church. Mr. Moore was of a quiet and retiring disposition, caring nothing for politics except voting for his democratic friends; had no use for courts, and was so good a manager as to accumulate a handsome estate. He is reputed to have seen some service in the war of 1812. E. M. Moore, the subject of this sketch, has passed his life in Monroe, at the homestead where he was born, and lived the life of a farmer. In November, 1855, he was married to Miss Ann, daughter of Duncan and Mary (Holmes) McCowen, Monroe county, by whom he has had ten children: Dodie, wife of J. R. Worsham, Monroe county; John T., cotton factor, Macon, Ga.,; B. M., planter, Monroe county ; James M., at home; Lelia, at home; Annie, deceased wife of J. A. Smith, Houston county, Ga .; Alice, wife of D. M. Owen, Athens, Tenn .; Gussie, at home. During the war he was in the state militia, for home defense, and was detailed to help on the farm. Mr. Moore has a fine 1,250-acre plantation-reduced to that by giving off tracts from time to time to his children. He is a quiet, sociable and sensible country gentleman, looks care- fully after his farm interest, and is companionable around his own hearthstone. His stock is sleek, his barns and corn cribs are never empty-"he lives at home." He is a democrat and a Primitive Baptist.

WILLIAM A. NORWOOD, planter, Culloden, Monroe Co., Ga., a son of Caleb M. and Jane (Manson) Norwood, was born in Charlotte, N. C., Dec. 3, 1819. His father was of English and his mother of Scotch parentage; and both were born in Tennessee. After their marriage the young couple moved to North Carolina, but after living there eight years went back to Tennessee. In 1824 they moved to Georgia and settled in Talbot county, where they lived and thrived, until 1837, when they moved to Culloden, in Monroe county. They lived there until they died-his father in 1854, and his mother Oct. 26, 1878. Mr. Norwood's father was a planter, but he operated a tannery and a shoe factory in addition, and was very successful in all. He was a man of great energy, enter- prising and thrifty. He was one of the trustees of the school. This couple raised six children, all yet living; all have done well; one or more distinguished: Mary A., widow of Philip J. W. Echols, Columbus, Neb .; Rebecca J., widow of James Alston, near Eufaula, Ala .; William A., the subject of this sketch; Oscar A., law- yer, Navasota. Texas; Elizabeth, widow of William Askins (with son-in-law, Rob- ert O. Banks), Forsyth, Ga .; Thomas M., lawyer, Savannah, Ga., ex-United States representative and senator. Mr. Norwood was a democrat, and a member of the Methodist church. After the death of his father, Mr. Norwood continued his enterprise until the war, when, the hands going into the war, he abandoned all except farming-a pursuit he has since very profitably followed. April 15, 1852, Mr. Norwood was married to Samantha E., daughter of William Askins-born near Culloden, Sept. 17, 1833. To them eight children have been born: Anna M., wife of James M. Ponder, Atlanta; Jane M., deceased, wife of John Colbert; Amelia, wife of O. Winn, Dallas, Tex .; Evelyn, wife of W. W. Griffin, Atlanta; Caleb M., and three others. Mr. Norwood is enjoying life on his fine 1, 100-acre plantation, near the old school town so famous in Monroe's history as an educational center, where many of Georgia's distinguished men were academically educated. Mr. Norwood is a democrat, a royal arch Mason, and a Methodist.

W H. PARKER, planter, Strouds, Monroe Co., Ga., son of Christopher and Sallie (Stroud) Parker, was born in Monroe county, March 29, 1832. The family is of Irish origin, and settled in North Carolina some years before the revolutionary war, in which Mr. Parker's grandfather, John Parker, was a soldier.

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He removed from North Carolina to Georgia and settled in Putnam county late in the last century, and after several years' residence there moved, about 1803, to Monroe county, where the family has since made its home. Of a family of six children, none are living. Mr. Parker's parents were born (his father about 1806) in Monroe county, where they were also married. To them twelve children were born: W. H., the subject of this sketch; Seaton, deceased; Frances, wife of Joseph Dennis, Ark .; Sarah, wife of James Rodney, Roanoke, Ala .; L. B., deceased; Mary, deceased wife of Fletcher Owens, Pike county, Ala .; Amanda, widow of a Mr. Fambro, Atlanta; Levi, enlisted in the Confederate army and killed in Pickett's famous charge at Gettysburg; John, deceased; Christopher, Ar- kansas; Owen, Arkansas, and Sallie, deceased; an unnamed infant, which caused the death of the mother in 1859. Mr. Parker's father was a man of great energy, very prominent and popular. He was a democrat, but such was his popularity that in the forties he overcame a whig majority of 200, and was elected to repre- sent the county in the general assembly. He was a "war" democrat, and though exempt by age from military duty, he enlisted and served through the war, becoming the adjutant of his regiment. He was a master Mason and

a member of the Primitive Baptist church. He died June 3, 1893. Mr. Parker was reared and educated in Monroe county, where he has made a life- business and a very successful one, of farming. He was married in Monroe county to Miss Nancy, daughter of Eleazor and Mary Adams, Nov. II, 1853, by whom he has had two children, one an unnamed infant, and Eunice, wife of E. C. Elder, Barnesville, Pike Co., who is the mother of five children: William, George, Samuel, Eunice and John. On a splendid 1,000-acre plantation, eleven miles south of Forsyth, 500 acres in cultivation, producing 150 bales of cotton, Mr. and Mrs. Parker are spending their declining years. He lived after the war a few years in Barnesville, but superintended his plantation. He is a very positive man, prominent in county affairs, a royal arch Mason and himself and wife are members of the Missionary Baptist church.

CAPT. A. L. PERKINS, planter and capitalist, Bolingbroke, Monroe Co., Ga., son of Alexander and Selete (Jernigan) Perkins, was born in Monroe county, Jan. 25, 1827. The family is of Scotch-Welsh origin, and have been in the main agriculturists. Capt. Perkins' grandfather, Archibald Perkins, was born in North Carolina, and before he was of age went to Virginia, where he lived during the revolutionary war, engaged as an overseer. There he married a Miss Gibbs, and not long afterward migrated to Georgia and settled in Greene county, where they raised a large family of children, and where they died, the grandfather at the age of ninety-six. As the children settled in life they remained mostly in Georgia. Alexander Perkins, the captain's father, was born in Greene county, Feb. 8, 1795. During the war of 1812-14 he was in the army on the Indian frontier. He met and married his wife, Miss Jernigan, in Hancock county, Ga. (where she was born and reared), Dec. 26, 1816. A brother of hers, Seaborn Jernigan, is now living at White Plains, Ga. Mr. Perkins lived in Greene county five years, then in Jasper two years, and thence in 1823 removed to Monroe county and settled about eight miles southeast of Forsyth on the road to Dame's ferry. Here they raised a family of eight children: Adeline, who married A. D. Steele, both deceased; Archibald, deceased at twenty-one; Elizabeth, wife of Henry Sharpe, Atlanta; A. L., subject of this sketch; W. H., deceased; Frances, wife of W. C. King, Monroe county; John, enlisted in the Fourteenth Georgia regiment, after serving in several campaigns, died of measles at Alum Springs, Va., and Albert C., Monroe county. Mr. Perkins was a systematic, painstaking and hard-working

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man, and accumulated considerable property, including land and slaves. He was also abstemious in his habits; chewed a little tobacco, but never smoked. He was a whig in politics, and a Methodist in religion. His wife died May 17, 1875, aged seventy-five years, and he died March 26, 1892, aged ninety-seven years. The family is remarkable for longevity, reaching years from eighty to ninety-seven. Capt. Perkins was married in Monroe county Dec. 20, 1849, to Miss Mary Jane, daughter of Amos and Nancy M. (Head) Ponder. She was born and raised in the county, her father having come to Monroe in 1824, and settled five miles north of Forsyth. To this happily-mated couple only two children have been born: Josephine Lee, at home, and Mary Lee, wife of S. B. Price, ex- mayor and present postmaster, Macon, Ga. He is one of the most popular and influential-indeed one of the foremost men in Georgia's "central city." At his large plantation of 3,300 acres at Bolingbroke, managed and cultivated under progressive, up-to-date ideas, his beautiful, modernly arranged home and elab- orately laid-off and beautifully adorned grounds, Capt. Perkins is enjoying his well-earned wealth and dispersing that lavish hospitality so characteristic of the "old-time" southern planter. Capt. Perkins is as public-spirited as he is wealthy, takes great interest in everything calculated to advance the community, and in political matters-local and Federal. In addition to his extensive farming in- terests, Capt. Perkins owns stock in the oil mills in Forsyth, in which he is the largest stockholder. He is a democrat and a Mason of forty years' standing.

CAPT. D. S. REDDING, planter, Juliette, Monroe Co., Ga., son of Thomas and Maria (Searcy) Redding, was born in Monroe county, July 5, 1832. The Redding family is of Irish descent and members of it came from Ireland to Ameri- ca about the middle of the last century. The grandfather of Capt. Redding, An- derson Redding, was a soldier in the patriot army during the revolutionary war, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He migrated from Virginia in 1782 and settled on land subsequently included in what is now Bald- win county, Ga. He lived on this land until late in the twenties, when he followed his son (the father of Capt. Redding) to Monroe county, where he lived the remainder of his life. He raised a family of six children-all now dead. One of his sons, W. C., represented his county in the general assembly. He was a Methodist and very devout. Mr. Redding's father was born in 1792 and was mar- ried in Baldwin county and moved to Monroe county in 1822 and settled near Pope's Ferry, on the Ocmulgee river. Later he moved to where Capt. Redding now lives, and the house he then built is still standing. Here nine children were raised, of whom two only are living. These children were: Martha, died in Macon; William A. and James M., killed at Griswoldsville, Ga .; Thomas A., killed at Jonesboro, Ga .; Charles, captain of Floyd rifles of Macon, Ga., killed at Gettysburg in Pickett's famous charge; Mary E., widow of Thomas Dougherty, Macon, Ga .; D. S., the subject of this sketch; Sallie M., deceased wife of Capt. Joseph H. White, who was killed at Manassas; John M., a member of Capt. Red- ding's company, killed in the battle of the Wilderness. Capt. Redding's father began life very poor, but by hard work, economy and good judgment he accu- mulated a good property. He was one of the first settlers in Monroe county, which was organized in 1821. His mother's father (Searcy) was a teacher quite prominent in his day and accumulated a fortune, and one of her brothers was a fine physician, and another was a Baptist preacher. She died in 1857. Mr. Red- ding was a democrat and a very pious member of the Methodist church. He died in 1877, aged eighty-five years. Excepting when absent during the war, Capt. Redding has passed his life on his plantation in Monroe county. He en-

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listed in March, 1862, in Capt. J. H. White's company, which became Company D, Forty-fifth Georgia regiment, and was made sergeant. The command went at once to the front, and subsequently participated in the great battles of Chan- cellorsville, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness and others. Having been detailed to guard prisoners, he was not in the Pennsylvania campaign. In 1864 he was appointed captain of the company, and was captured at Petersburg six days before the surrender. He was taken to Johnson's island, where he was kept about two months. It is an incident worthy of record that of six brothers in this family five of them gave their lives to the "lost cause." Few families can parallel this devotion, and such a sacrifice for what they deemed the right. Capt. Redding was married the year he was twenty-seven years old (1859) to Miss Clara P. Blantor, of Spalding county. She was a graduate of the Female college of Grif- fin, Ga., in 1860, was the valedictorian of her class and was a woman of a superior mind and much intelligence. Her education and refined habits enabled her to be of great aid to her children in their early training, and by them she was idealized. Her goodness endeared her to neighbors and friends and it can be truly said, "None knew her but to love her." She was a conscientious Christian and was president of the Woman's Missionary society of her church when she died. Twenty-five years of a happy married life and she passed to the other shore, leaving by her pure life, holy influences, goed lessons and bright works such im- pressions that even time can never obliterate. By this marriage there were born to him nine children: Charles D., physician, Bibb county, Ga .; W. B., teacher, Bibb county; Mamie, teacher, Bibb county; Julia, teacher, near home; Annie, at home; Alice, wife of Redding Howard, Houston county, Ga., and Rosa, Arthur T. and James A., all at home. The mother of these children died in 1885, and Capt. Red- ding was married in Jones county, Dec. 4, 1888, to Miss Addie J., daughter of J. C. and Addie C. White. Her grandfather, James White, migrated from Virginia to Georgia, and lived first in Meriwether county, and then in other counties, and died at the age of forty-eight years. Her father settled and lived in Jones county, where his father had lived before him, and where her parents raised ten children, of whom, besides Mrs. Redding, four are living: George B., William F., Thomas A. and Carrie, wife of F. C. Goolsby. Altogether the Redding family has a rather remarkable history in war and in peace, in its patriotic sacrifices through gen- erations, for country, and in its historic connection with the portion of the state in which they live. Among the first settlers in Baldwin and Monroe counties, on both sides, their names are connected with their historical records, and written in blood on battlefields. It is the pride of Capt. Redding that he gave all his children the best education in his power, that they are intelligent and useful mem- bers of the communities in which they live, and are honored and esteemed, the elder ones who have gone out into the world occupying honorable positions. Capt. Redding is a democrat and has served a term as county commissioner. He lives and is enjoying life on a fine 500-acre plantation nine miles east of Forsyth. He is a master Mason and is a member of the Methodist church, of which he has been a steward and class leader for forty years.

W. E. SANDERS, merchant and mayor of Forsyth, Monroe Co., Ga., son of Brown and Elizabeth A. (Smith) Sanders, was born in Jasper county, Ga., Oct. 13, 1851. The family came from England to South Carolina before the revolutionary war. Mr. Sanders' great-grandfather, Ephraim Sanders, a soldier in the patriot army, was killed in the battle of Eutaw Springs, S. C., Sept. 8, 1781. The latter part of the last century his grandfather, a planter, migrated from South Carolina to Georgia and settled in Jones county, where he raised a large family,

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whose members scattered and made homes elsewhere. Here Mr. Sanders' father was born in 1808 and grew to manhood. He then moved over into Jasper county, where he married in 1850. His mother's family were of Georgia birth, and she was raised by her grandfather, Aquilla Phelps, one of the oldest of the first settlers. After their marriage his parents moved to Jones county, where they lived seven years, and then returned to Jasper county to the old Phelps plantation, where they are living now, his father engaged in his lifetime business of farming. They had four children born to them: W. E., the subject of this sketch; Mary A., died at thirteen; Frances M., died when eighteen months old; Florence, died when sev- enteen years of age: Mr. Sanders was reared in Jasper county, and educated in the county schools and the Monticello high school, and took a course in the Macon Business college. In 1871 he clerked in Monticello, Ga., and beginning with 1872, he clerked for L. Greenwood & Bros., Forsyth, for several years- clerking in the fall and winter-making a crop in the summer in Jasper county. In 1877 he engaged with Solomon & Mount, remained with them until 1881, when he went into business with E. R. Roberts, under the firm name of Roberts & Sanders. The firm continued until 1883, when they were burnt out. Mr. Sanders then bought his partner's interest, and has since conducted the business with phe- nomenal success on his own account. He carried a fine assorted general supply stock. He was elected mayor of Forsyth in 1890, re-elected since in 1892, 1893 and 1894, and is mayor now. He is captain of the Quitman guards (Company K, Second regiment infantry, Georgia volunteers). This is a "crack" company, and he has been a member of it twenty years. He is also a member of the military advisory board of the state of Georgia. Mr. Sanders was married Dec. 13, 1876, in Forsyth, Ga., to Miss Ada O., daughter of W. B. and Mattie A. Chambers, who now live in Griffin, Spalding Co., Ga. To them seven children have been born: Florence; W. B., died in 1890; May; Charlie; an infant, died unnamed; W. E., Jr., deceased. Mr. Sanders is a democrat. He is very popular, ranks high for energy and business capability, and commercial integrity. His accomplished success gives assurance of a brilliant business future.

THOMAS G. SCOTT, planter, Brent, Monroe Co., Ga., son of Peter and Eliza S. (Gary) Scott, was born in Newton county, Ga., Dec. 12, 1828. The family is of Scotch descent, whose ancestors, as also those of Gen. Winfield Scott, were adherents of Charles Edward, the pretender. Persecution which followed the defeat at Culloden in 1745 compelled them to flee from England, and they came to America and settled on the Appomattox river in Dinwiddie county, Va., about the middle of the last century. Mr. Scott's grandfather and other members of the family were soldiers in the patriot army in the revolutionary war. Between 1790 and 1800 his grandfather, Thomas Scott, together with two brothers, Woodlief and Frederick, migrated with their families to Georgia and settled in Hancock county. Here Mr. Scott's father was born in March, 1800, and grew to manhood. He married his wife in Newton county, but he lived on and cultivated his plantation in Hancock county until his death. Six children were born to them: Thomas G., the subject of this sketch; H. G., who, after faithful service in the Confederate army, was killed at the battle of Chickamauga; Duke H., died at the age of twenty- six; Elizabeth, married William H. Means, who was killed at Sharpsburg. She afterward married W. W. Lawrence, and is now deceased. Peter W. died in his youth; Benjamin S. served in the Confederate army, now a planter, Monroe county. Mr. Scott's father was a very quiet man, conducted his planting interest with excellent judgment and success and was highly esteemed. Politically he was a democrat. In religion himself and wife were ardent, working Methodists;he a

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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 81

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