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 91

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 91

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HON. WILLIAM A. LITTLE, who is probably the leader at the exception- ably fine bar at Columbus, Ga., was born in Talbot county, Ga., Nov. 6, 1839, and is a son of iWlliam G. and M. A. (Holt) Little. William G. Holt was born in Edgefield district, S. C. (1808), moved to Georgia in 1829 and settled at Milledge- ville, Baldwin Co. He was a physician by profession, having graduated from the old Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, Pa. He subsequently moved to Wil- kinson county, Ga., and represented that county and his district in the house of representatives and in the state senate. In 1837 he removed to Talbot county, Ga., wheer he died in March, 1877. He was a son of Thomas Little, of Scotch extraction, a native of South Carolina. Mrs. M. A. (Holt) Little was born in Put- nam county, Ga., in 1819, a daughter of William Holt, a native of Virginia, and of English extraction. William A. Little had no brothers and but one sister, now Mrs. Mary L. Bruce. He was taken to Macon, Ga., when ten years of age, but was principally reared and received his earlier education in Talbot county. He attended Franklin college, at Atliens, Ga., and Oglethorpe university, at Midway, near Milledgeville, Ga., graduating from the latter institution with the degree Bachelor of Arts, in 1859. He read law with Smith & Pou and was admitted to the bar, and began the practice at Talbotton, Ga .; but not being satisfied with his legal education he entered the law department of Yale university. He volun- teered as a private in July, 1861, in the Bibb county cavalry, Georgia state troops, and when his term of service had expired, joined Company C of the Third Georgia cavalry, but was subsequently transferred to Company E of the Twenty- ninth Georgia battalion. In the cavalry of the western army, under Gen. Joseph

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Henry Wheeler, he participated in all the battles of Bragg's campaign through Kentucky and Tennessee. He was made a prisoner at New Haven, Ky., and was carried to Louisville, where he was detained for thirty days and then regularly exchanged. During the latter part of the war he was transferred to duty on the Georgia and Florida coasts, and promoted to be a lieutenant of cav- alry. He was made a captain a little later, in which position he served until the surrender. When peace was declared he returned to his home in Talbotton and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1866 he was elected county solicitor for Talbot county, and served until 1868, and shortly afterward he was elected assist- ant secretary of the state senate. He was appointed by Gov. Smith solicitor- general of the Chattahoochee circuit in 1872, and removed to Columbus. In 1877, when the constitutional convention was called, he was elected as one of the mem- bers of that body from the Twenty-fourth district and served with distinction, having been the originator and champion of many of the reforms brought about by that instrument. In 1882 he was elected to the house of representatives from Muscogee county, and served as chairman of the finance committee, the most important in that body. He was re-elected in 1884, and upon the assembling of that body was chosen speaker. In 1886 he was again elected to the legislature and was again chosen speaker. In September, 1891, he was appointed attorney- general of Georgia, and served in that position until October, 1892, refusing to become a candidate for the office at the end of his term. Col. Little combines in a rare degree the qualities of a genial gentleman and those of a man of fine busi- ness capacity, possessing varied and extensive information, coupled with high integrity. Few men, indeed, have lived so long in political favor and made no enemies. The secret of his life, perhaps, rests in his stanch adherence to princi- ple, and a thorough performance of every official and social duty. He is modest, unselfish and thoroughly amiable in disposition. As a lawyer, he is profound, extremely quick of perception, firm, discreet, courteous to the opposition, and a thorough master of the science of the law and precedent. Politically he is a thorough democrat, is a master Mason and a member of the I. O. O. F. In November, 1866, Col. Little was happily married to Miss Jennie Dozier, a daughter of Emily (Huff) and John B. Dozier, a prominent planter of Muscogee county. This union has been blessed by the birth of two sons, viz .: William G., who was educated in the public schools of Columbus and at the celebrated Bingham school, North Carolina, and now in business in Columbus; and John D., a prominent young attorney in partnership with his father, in Columbus. He is a graduate from both the literary and the law departments of the university of Georgia, at Athens.

DR. J. H. M'DUFFIE, of Columbus, Ga., was born at Fayetteville, N. C., Dec. . 12, 1859, receiving his primary education in the town of his birth. In the latter part of 1879 he removed to Keyser, N. C., where he was engaged in the naval store and lumber business with his father and brother until 1884. An opportunity now presenting itself for carrying out the desire he had cherished for several years, he began the study of medicine under the tutorage of Dr. J. A. Sexton, of Raleigh, N. C., and in the fall of 1885 began his attendance upon lectures in the medical department of the university of Maryland. Here he remained, serving as resident student in the university hospital and attending lectures until March, 1887, when he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Immediately after his graduation he entered actively upon the practice of his profession at Keyser, N. C., where he resided until October, 1888, when he resumed the study of medi- cine at the New York Polyclinic Medical college, taking a post-graduate course.

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MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA.

From March, 1889, to July, 1892, Dr. McDuffie resided in Anniston, Ala., prac- ticing his profession, and at the end of that time he removed to his present home at Columbus and has resided there ever since. He is a member of the Georgia State Medical association, and while a citizen of Alabama was a mem- ber of the examining board of censors for Calhoun county and secretary of the Calhoun County Medical society. Dr. McDuffie was married in the year 1882 to Miss Sallie H. Page, a daughter of Lewis Page, a prominent citizen of Aber- deen, Moore Co., N. C., and five children have blessed their union. Dr. McDuffie is a Knight of Pythias and a consistent member of the Presbyterian church.

M ORGAN M'MICHAEL, deceased, attorney at law, of Columbus, Ga., was born in Schley county, Ga., in 1866, and was the eldest son of Dr. J. R. Mc- Michael and Ellen A. (Stephens) McMichael. His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm, entering the Buena Vista, Ga., high school in his fifteenth year. After completing the course at that institution he attended the select school of Prof. Mathes, at Americus, Ga., and later was graduated from the Southern Busi- ness university, Atlanta. He read law the following year under the tutorage of Judge M. Butt, Buena Vista, and was admitted to practice at the October term of Marion superior court (1887), Judge (ex-governor) James M. Smith presiding. So creditable was his examination that he was highly complimented by the mem- bers of the local bar. He practiced law successfully for three years at Buena Vista, removing to the city of Columbus in December, 1890, where he at once came to the front as one of the leading attorneys of that city as the junior member of the firm of Wimbish, Worrill & McMichael. He was an active and valuable member of the Georgia Bar association, served as a member of the city council of Columbus, and as chairman of the finance committee in that body, and devoted much study and labor to the preparation of a tax ordinance which has proved the most satisfactory ordinance the city of Columbus ever had. In 1894 Mr. McMichael was chosen as one of the representatives from Muscogee county to the state legislature, representing his constituency faithfully and honorably. He was a very zealous democrat and took a keen interest in all public matters. He was possessed of good judgment, steadfast convictions and was a lucid and forci- ble speaker. Mr. McMichael was happily married to Miss Minnie Shepherd, a beautiful and accomplished lady, who by his sudden death has suffered a crushing and irreparable bereavement.

DR. J. J. MASON was born in Greensboro, Ga., July 23, 1826. He was reared in Greene and Putnam counties to the age of fourteen, going with his father to Wetumpka, Ala. Mr. Mason lived in Wetumpka several years and later he went to the Louisiana Medical college, in New Orleans, and then to the Charles- ton (S. C.) Medical college in 1848. He had studied medicine four years before entering a medical college. After his graduation he located in Auburn, Ala., and resided there until 1866, acting as volunteer surgeon in the hospitals at Auburn during the civil war. In 1866 he came to Columbus, Ga., where he has since resided and practiced, and he is now the oldest physician of that city. Dr. Mason is a chapter Mason, an Independent Odd Fellow, and a consistent member of the Baptist church. His father was Wyley W. Mason, a native of Georgia, a lawyer, and for many years was chancellor of the middle judicial district of Alabama. He was also a member of the Georgia legislature when a young man.

JOHN SMITH MATTHEWS, city treasurer of Columbus, Ga., was born in Chambers county, Ala., Sept. 18, 1846, and resided there until the age of twenty-two. He is one of two sons of Ralph Matthews, who was born in Wilkes

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county, Ga., in 1808, and died in Opelika, Ala., in February, 1871. He was a farmer all his life. The brother of John S. Matthews is William H., who was in the Fourteenth Alabama regiment, C. S. A., and served throughout the late civil war. He is now a resident of Wooley, Ark. John Smith Matthews, the gentle- man whose name heads this article, was educated in the private schools of Cham- bers county, Ala., and farmed on the estate of his father until January, 1864, when he enlisted in Bonand's battalion of artillery, which battalion was afterward consolidated with the First Alabama regiment. Mr. Matthews went in as a private and served until the surrender of Gen. Johnston at Greensboro, N. C. He was in the battle of Olustee, and at the siege of Charleston, S. C., and then at Averasboro and Bentonville, N. C. After the war he returned to his home and attended school for a time. In October, 1868, he came to Columbus and entered the cotton firm of Allen, Preer & Illges as a clerk, remaining with them three years. He then began to buy cotton on his own account and carried on that business until 1878, when he formed a partnership with E. D. Swift under the firm name of Swift & Co., which business was continued until 1885. Mr. Matthews conducted the cotton business alone from September, 1885, until January, 1887, when he accepted a position in the Columbus postoffice as registry clerk, serving in that capacity until August, 1888. He then entered the employ of J. R. Holts & Co., cotton factors, and remained with them until September, 1889, at which time he was elected city treasurer and has been re-elected every year since that time. Mr. Matthews is a member of the Improved Order of Red Men and is the keeper of wampum of Pawnee tribe No. 27. He is a steward of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal church south, of Columbus, and also a teacher in its Sun- day school. He was married June 4, 1872, to Miss Mary F., daughter of the late Isaac McFarland, a prominent planter of Harris county, Ga., and this union has been blessed by the birth of two children: Mary, wife of Hayward J. Pearce, of Gainesville, Ga., and Ralph.

BRICK S. MILLER, of the law firm of Miller, Wynne & Miller of Columbus, Ga., was born in Marion county, Ga., Feb. 14, 1868. He is a son of Judge E. A. Miller of Buena Vista, Ga., who was one of the best known men in Georgia. He was born in Columbia county, but his family moved to Monroe county while he was yet a boy, and there he received his early education. In 1843 he moved to Marion county and commenced the study of law at Talbotton, in the office of George W. Towns (afterward governor) and L. B. Smith. His studies con- tinued five years, and in 1848, when the county seat of Marion was established at Buena Vista, he moved there and went into partnership with John Campbell, who was at that time solicitor-general of the Chattahoochee circuit. The partnership continued several years, and when the firm dissolved the young lawyer formed an association with Mark H. Blandford, who later became one of the justices of the supreme court, and who now lives in Columbus, Ga. His next partnership was with Judge William B. Butt, who also now lives in Columbus. In 1852 he was elected the first ordinary of Marion county. In 1855 Judge Miller determined to try a new business, and he became the owner and editor of the "Buena Vista Advertiser," which he continued to conduct with great success until the war broke out. As a major of militia, Judge Miller distinguished himself during the war, and at the battle of Griswoldville he lost a great number of his command. When peace was declared Judge Miller settled down as a lawyer and farmer, and resided at Buena Vista until his death. On several occasions Judge Miller represented his county in the general assembly to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. He was a democrat from the time he was

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a young man until the time of his death, and was always foremost in the battle for the supremacy of democratic principles. In 1868 Judge Miller joined the Baptist church. Judge Miller's family consisted of three sons and three daugh- ters. The sons are: Mr. Edward Miller of Americus, and B. S. and T. T. Miller of Columbus. The daughters are: Mrs. Andrews Ashurst of Florida, and Mrs. C. H. McCaul and Mrs. William Crawford of Buena Vista. Brick S. Miller was reared and received his earlier education in the town of Buena Vista, and was graduated from the university of Georgia, Athens, with the degree of bachelor of law, in the class of 1888. During his college course he established a fine reputation as an orator and in consequence was chosen one of the champion debaters of the Demosthenean Literary society. He also delivered a eulogy on the life and character of Dr. Patrick H. Mell, the deceased chancellor of the university, which is classed as the finest tribute ever paid to the memory of that remarkable man. Soon after his graduation Mr. Miller returned to his home in Buena Vista and entered upon the practice of law, giving up his practice a year later in order to travel and thus broaden his views by actual contact with the population of the different sections of the country. In August, 1890, he located in Columbus and formed a partnership for the practice of law with his brother, T. T. Miller, to which firm Mr. E. J. Wynne was admitted in September, 1893. This law firm now does an extensive practice and its members are regular retained attorneys of some of the most important corporations and largest wholesale houses in Columbus. Mr. Miller was president of the Young Men's Democratic league of Muscogee county in the spring of 1894, and took an active part in securing the registration of the voters of that county. He secured the actual registration of 3,572 voters out of a total of about 3,600, which is regarded as the best piece of political strategy ever enacted there. Mr. Miller was selected as a delegate to the convention which nominated William Yates Atkinson as govern- or of Georgia, and took a very active part in the campaign for Atkinson prior to the convention. He was also a delegate to the congressional convention, at Warm Springs, Ga., in August, 1894. Mr. Miller has never sought political preferment; he was urged to be a candidate for the legislature in 1894, but sacrificed his own opportunities in favor of a friend. He is unmarried, a member of the Improved Order of Red Men and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

MONTAGUE M. MOORE, clerk of the city council of Columbus, Ga., was born in that city Oct. 14, 1837, the son of James S. and Martha M. A. (Tarver) Moore. He is the eldest of three surviving sons, the other two of whom, James B. and George T., reside in the state of Texas, four sisters and four brothers being dead. The gentleman whose name heads this article had four brothers who saw service in the Confederate army during the civil war, viz .: Tiffany T. Moore, a member of the Columbus volunteers, and afterward in the Confederate service on the Chattahoochee river; James B. Moore, who was a member of the Seventeenth Georgia regiment, and was made a major of infantry and served throughout the war; Douglas C. Moore, who enlisted in January, 1861, served three months at Pensacola, Fla., and then enlisted in the Columbus volunteers, was made an orderly sergeant, and was killed in a railroad accident when that company left Columbus, Aug. 14, 1861; and George T. Moore, who enlisted in Gen. John H. Morgan's command and served under that renowned cavalryman to the close of hostilities. Montague M. Moore received a good education in the schools of Columbus, but before finishing his studies accepted a position in the Columbus postoffice under Col. Robert C. Forsyth, where he remained from 1855 to 1863. In 1861 he enlisted in the Columbus volunteers and was assigned to the Seventeenth Georgia

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regiment, but, owing to ill health, he saw no service. Later he was a lieutenant in a company of the militia reserve of Georgia and did service at Macon and Atlanta. In July, 1863, he was elected clerk of the city council of Columbus, and retained that position while in the military service of his state, and since then to the present he has been re-elected by the people or by the city council to the same position. He married, June 16, 1869, Miss Sarah E., daughter of John and Elizabeth (Jordan) Peabody, of Columbus, and this union has been blessed by the birth of five children, viz .: James M., Mary P., Lulu D., John P., and Ethel T. Both Mr. and Mrs. Moore are members of St. Luke's Methodist Episcopal church south. Mr. Moore

is a Knight Templar Mason and was recorder of St. Aldemar commandery for many years, and until it ceased to exist was master of Adoniram Lodge of Perfec- tion. He is also a member of these fraternal orders: Knights of Honor, K. of L. of Honor, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Royal Arcanum, National Union, and the Improved Order of Red Men. Of the ancestors of Mr. Moore, Killian Hogeboom came to this country from Holland about the year 1712, and settled in the state of New York, in what is now Columbia county, where the original manor house is still standing and in the possession of his descendants, the present owner being the uncle of the gentleman whose name heads this article. Jeremiah, the eldest son of Killian, was born in Holland, April 5, 1712. He married Janita Van Allen, Nov. II, 1741, and to them were born six children, the second of whom, Stephen, was born Aug. 16, 1744, and married Nov. 24, 1763, Hellitje Muller. He was for several terms a member of the assembly and senate of the state of New York, and of its constitutional convention in 1801; he died April 2, 1814, and his wife died March 10, 1812. To them were born six children, one of whom was the mother of Gen. James Watson Webb, and one, Nancy, born July 22, 1774, married Benjamin Moore, and was the mother of nine children. She died April 14, 1844, and he, born Jan. 28, 1766, died Nov. 29, 1829. James S. Moore, the father of Montague M. Moore, was the sixth child of Benjamin and Nancy (Hogeboom) Moore, and was born May 6, 1800, in Coxsackie, Greene Co., N. Y .; came to New Orleans in 1831 and to Columbus, Ga., in 1832; married March I, 1835, and died in Lee county, Ala., near Columbus, Ga., on March 24, 1879, a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He followed merchandising in Columbus, Ga., and Girard, Ala., until 1858, when he removed to Auburn, Ala., and kept a public hotel eight years, thence removing to Lee county, Ala., where he followed the business of agriculture until the year of his death. Prior to the civil war he was postmaster at Girard, Ala., for many years. Mrs. Martha M. A. Moore, wife of James S. Moore, was born in Clinton, Jones Co., Ga., Nov. 3, 1815, and was a daughter of Elisha and Maria L. (Sanders) Tarver. Her father, Elisha, son of Billison and Selah Tarver, was born Dec. 25, 1787, and died March 18, 1860. Her mother, Maria L. Tarver, was born Aug. 6, 1793, and died Sept. 9, 1851. Of the ancestors of Mrs. M. M. Moore, Francis Peabody, of St. Albans, England, born 1614, came to New England in 1635. He married Mary Foster, daughter of Regi- nald Foster, whose family is honorably mentioned in the Lay of the Last Minstrel and in Marmion bv Sir Walter Scott. She died April 9, 1705. He died Feb. 19, 1697. They were the parents of fourteen children, of whom the eldest, John, was born in 1642; married, first, Hannah Andrews, Nov. 23, 1665; she died Dec. 4, 1702, and he married Sarah Moseley, Nov. 26, 1703. To his first wife were born ten children, of whom David was born July 12, 1678, and married Sarah Pope, of Dartmouth, Mass. He died April 1, 1726, and his widow died Sept. 29, 1756. They had eleven children, the first, Thomas, being the direct ancestor of Mrs. Moore, while the tenth, David, was the grandfather of George Peabody, Esq., of London. Thomas was born Sept. 22, 1705, and married Ruth Osgood, of Andover, Mass., Nov. 2, 1738. He died in April, 1758. His widow married Isaac Osgood,

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and died in February, 1803. Thomas was the father of nine children, the last, Nathan, born Aug. 31, 1756, married Polly Baker, July 30, 1786. Nathan was the father of John, the father of Mrs. Moore, who was born in Boston, Dec. 13, 1790, married in Washington county, Ga., Elizabeth Coles Jordan (afterward Hodges), June 7, 1826, and died in Columbus, Ga., Sept. 17, 1842. His wife, daughter of Jesse and Jane Jordan, was born in Washington county, Ga., June 25, 1809, and died Nov. 5, 1878, in Columbus, Ga.

DR. JOHN NORWOOD, of Columbus, Ga., was born in Hillsboro, N. C., in 1836. He received his primary education in the town of his birth, afterward becoming a student in the university of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, but never received a literary degree. He was graduated from the old Jefferson Medical college at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1859, and located soon thereafter in Russell county, Ala., entering actively upon the practice of his profession. During the fall of 1861 Dr. Norwood volunteered as assistant surgeon to the Sixth Alabama regiment, Confederate states army, and the following year was commissioned assistant sur- geon to Waddell's artillery, serving as such until after the siege of Vicksburg. After the capture of Vicksburg by the Federals Dr. Norwood was made surgeon to the Sixty-fourth Georgia regiment, with the rank of major, though he failed to receive his commission, and several months later rejoined Waddell's battery, re- maining with that command until it was mustered out of service at the close of the war. After the cessation of hostilities Dr. Norwood returned to his home in Ala- bama and was actively engaged in the practice of his profession until 1884, at which time he removed to his present residence in Columbus, and has since been continuously engaged in the practice of medicine at that city. He sustains a desirable rank among the members of his profession. He is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. His father, John W. Norwood, was a native of North Carolina, a lawyer, and practiced many years at Hillsboro, in that state.

FRANCIS D. PEABODY, a noted lawyer of Columbus, Ga., was born on his father's farm near that city, Nov. 24, 1854, and was the youngest of nine children of Charles A. and Frances Harrict (Williams) Peabody. His parents were born in Connecticut -- his father in Bridgeport and his mother in Hartford -- but came to Georgia and settled in Columbus in 1833. Mr. Peabody was prepared for college, by that distinguished educator, Prof. Otis D. Smith, in one of the famous "old field schools" of the day. His attendance upon school though was irregular, as he was often called upon to help get the crop "out of the grass." At fourteen he was compelled to stop school and to go regularly to work on the farm. For three years he made a regular and steady "hand," doing all kinds of work done on a farm; but he specially liked to plow, and could do more plowing in a day than any man on the farm. At seventeen he rented his father's farm and stock, and made a fine crop, much to the amusement, and somewhat to the astonishment of his father, who was rather disposed to predict a failure at the

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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 91

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