USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. III > Part 27
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of Thomas L. Jennings, of Enterprise, Clarke county, and she was summoned into eternal rest on Oct. 22, 1904, leaving four children- James B., Jr., Walter J., Sarah L. and Katie C.
Everett, Robert Freeman, pioneer mer- chant and influential citizen of the com- paratively new town of Braxton, Simpson county, and president of the Braxton bank, is a native of this county and has here passed the entire course of his life, save for the period during which he was serving the Confederacy as a soldier. He was born Sept. 15, 1847, and is a son of Richard P. and Martha Caroline (Lacy) Everett, both of whom were born and reared in Alabama, the latter's place of nativity having been historic Fort Sumter. They came to Mississippi in the twenties and were numbered among the pioneers of Rankin county, where the father became an extensive planter, while both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in Simpson county, where they took up their residence more than sixty years ago. Robert F. Everett was afforded such educa- tional advantages as were offered in the schools of the locality and period, and when the Civil war cast its gruesome pall over the national horizon he was among those loyal sons of the South who tendered their services in defense of the cause and principles of the Confederacy. He enlisted in the Sixth Mississippi cavalry, which was commanded by Col. R. Y. Brown, and whose service was largely that of scouting and skirmishing in Mississippi, Ala- bama and Tennessee. Mr. Everett remained with his regiment until the close of the war, after which he resumed his association with the vocations of peace, engaging in farming in Simpson county, where he is now the owner of a fine landed estate of 200 acres, being one of the successful planters and stock growers of this section. In 1882, in connection with his agricultural enterprise, he opened a general store near the present town of Braxton, and in June, 1900, when the railroad line was completed through Braxton he transferred the headquarters of his mercantile business to the new town, with whose upbuilding he has been most prominently identified, while his mercantile establishment, conducted on the de- partment plan, controls a large and prosperous trade. He was one of the leading promoters of the organization of the Braxton bank, in 1903, the same having been then incorporated under the laws of the State, with a capital of $25,000, and of this solid and ably conducted institution Mr. Everett has been president from the inception of the enterprise ; D. C. Cox is vice-president and R. H. Everett, Mr. Everett's oldest son, is cashier. Mr. Everett has never wavered in his devotion to the cause of the Democratic party, fraternally is identified with the Woodmen of the World, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist church. On Nov.
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3, 1871, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Everett to Miss Mary A. Jones, who was born and reared in Rankin county, being a daughter of Henry and Pernicia (Crowder) Jones. Of the twelve children of this union eight are living. The names of the living children are here entered in the order of birth: Ida Lee, Richard Henry, Caroline P., Robert Arnold, Lily Cole, Lola Love, Clarence and Robert Freeman, Jr.
Ellis, George E., M. D., of Utica, is one of the leading physicians and sur- geons of Hinds county, and he is also engaged in the wholesale and retail drug business and identified with banking interests. The doctor was born in Copiah county, Miss., Feb. 17, 1856, and is a son of George and Elizabeth Ellis, the former of whom was born in Louisiana, Oct. 7, 1807, and the latter in Clarke county, Ala., July 11, 1818. The original American ancestors on both sides came from Wales. The paternal grandparents of the doctor removed from Georgia to Louisiana and thence to Mississippi. The maternal grandparents removed from North Carolina to Alabama and from the latter State came to Mississippi. William Wade, the maternal great-grandfather, was a valiant soldier in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution. George Ellis became one of the success- ful planters and business men of Copiah county, which he repre- sented in the State legislature for a term of two years. Dr. Ellis was afforded the advantages of Cumberland university, Lebanon, Tenn., and his medical course was taken in the medical department of Tulane university, New Orleans, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1880. He has been most successful in the practice of his profession and is one of the honored and in- fluential citizens of his section of the State. He has valuable plan- tation interests in Hinds county and is also concerned in important banking operations and in the wholesale and retail drug business. He was one of the organizers of the Peoples bank of Utica, Miss., in 1904, and has been its president since its organization. In politics he gives a loyal support to the Democratic party but he has never sought or held public office. He is a member of the Mississippi State medical association and the Hinds county medical society, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On July 5, 1882, Dr. Ellis was united in marriage to Mrs. Elizabeth Baldwin Nimms, daughter of Baldwin H. and Elizabeth Priscilla (Isom) Beauchamp, of Utica, and they have two children-George Beauchamp, born March 1, 1884; and William Kirby, born Sept. 27, 1886. By her first marriage Mrs. Ellis has one son, Eugene Baldwin Nimms, who was born Jan. 1, 1878.
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Enochs, A. C., M. D., president of the Vicksburg board of trade and of the Enochs-Harris Lumber Company, of the same city, is one of the representative business men of Vicksburg and has given up the work of his profession to devote his attention to his varied and important lumbering and capitalistic interests. Dr. Enochs was born at Crystal Springs, Copiah county, Miss., Nov. 2, 1859, and is a son of John F. and Rebecca J. (Black) Enochs, both of whom were like- wise born in this State, and both having died on the old homestead plantation, near Crystal Springs. The father was success- ful as an agriculturist and was essentially loyal to the cause of the Confederacy in the Civil war, in which he served as a member of a Mississippi regiment. He was a son of John R. Enochs, who was a soldier in the War of 1812. Dr. Enochs passed his youth on the home plantation and was afforded the advantages of the schools of his native county. In his twentieth year he left the farm and was matriculated in the medical department of Vanderbilt university, Nashville, Tenn., in which he was graduated in 1882, duly receiv- ing his degree of Doctor of Medicine and coming forth well equipped for the work of his profession. Soon after graduation he located in Belton, Tex., where he was engaged in successful practice for the ensuing eight years, at the expiration of which he returned to .Mississippi and located in Jackson, where he engaged in the lumber business, as a member of the firm of Enochs Brothers. Since 1889 he has given but little attention to professional work, by reason of the exigent demands of his other interests. In 1897 the doctor located in Vicksburg, where he organized the Enochs-Harris Lum- ber Company, of which he has since been president and manager, the concern controlling a large business. He has since organized the Enochs-Smith Lumber Company, of Jackson, Tenn., and the Carroll Lumber Company, of Lake Providence, La., as well as the Standard Brick and Coal Company, of Vicksburg, being president of each of these companies, all of which are incorporated. Dr. Enochs has served two years as a member of the directory of the Vicksburg board of trade and in January, 1905, he was elected its president. He is a stockholder in the Enochs Lumber and Manu- facturing Company, of Jackson, Miss., and the Fernwood Lumber Company, of Fernwood, this State. He is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. He and his wife are devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and he is a member of the board of stewards of the local organization, in which he also served five years as superin- tendent of the Sunday school. In 1886 Dr. Enochs was united in marriage to Miss Rosa Proctor, of Belton, Tex., and they have four
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daughters-Maggie L., Rosa C., Laura E. and Julia E., the family being prominent in the social life of the city.
Ellett, A. H., of Blue Mountain, Miss., was born in Tallahatchie county, Miss., and is the son of John and Sarah (Higginson) Ellett, the former of whom served in the ranks of the Confederacy during the Civil war. Prof. Ellett received his primary education in the public schools, after which he was graduated at the Iuka normal institute of Iuka, Miss., at which institution he was afterwards engaged as a teacher. In 1895, he accepted a position in Blue Mountain college, as professor in charge of the training school and teachers' normal. In addition to his school work, Professor Ellett is engaged in several literary undertakings and in lecturing on sub- jects concerning the "Old South." He is a member of the Baptist church and was married to Maggie Shaw.
Evans, Thomas Marshall, who is en- gaged in the practice of his profession in Gulfport, Harrison county, may consist- ently be designated as one of the founders and builders of the progressive city which has been evolved from the little village of about 500 population which represented the town at the time when he took up his residence here, less than a decade ago. Mr. Evans was born in Americus, Jack- son county, Miss., July 13, 1862, and is a son of Wesley G. and Susan (Carter) Evans, both of whom were likewise born in this State, the former in Greene county. Wesley G. Evans was numbered among those loyal men who donned the gray uniform and went forth in defense of the Confederacy when the Civil war cast its dark pall over the national horizon. He became a member of Company B, Stead's battalion of Mississippi volunteers, and during his term of service was principally engaged in skirmishing with his command in Mississippi and Alabama. While thus battling for the cause of the South he was elected to the legislature of his State, from Jack- son county, and resigned his place in the ranks to assume the no less important duties of the office to which he had been chosen. He followed the vocation of farming, timber getting, and saw milling during the greater part of his active career and was also a minister of the gospel in the Methodist Episcopal church, South, preaching in southeast Mississippi for more than sixty-five years. Both he and his wife are now deceased and are buried in Coalville cemetery, near Gulfport, Miss. Thomas M. Evans was born during the climacteric epoch of the Civil war and his boyhood days were passed under the conditions of the period of "reconstruction," when uncertain governmental and civic policies were in evidence here as elsewhere throughout the South. He, however, was able to secure such educational advantages as were offered by the public schools of the time, showing a marked predilection for study and making
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the best use of his opportunities. In his youth he was identified with farming and with the lumber industry, but in the meanwhile he determined to prepare himself for a wider sphere of endeavor. He accordingly took up the study of law at home, applying himself with diligence and marked power of assimilation and availing him- self of such preceptorage as could be secured in directing his techni- cal reading. He continued to be concerned with other lines of work until April 11, 1890, when he passed the examination which gained to him admission to the bar of his native State, said examination having been conducted before Judge Sylvanus Evans, of Enterprise, Miss. He began the practice of his profession at Purvis, Marion county, where he remained a short time and then located in Poplar- ville, Aug. 1, 1890, remaining there engaged in practice until 1893, when he removed to Scranton, where he continued his professional endeavors until 1896, passing the ensuing two years in Mississippi City. In the fall of 1898 Mr. Evans took up his abode in the embryonic city of Gulfport, which, as before intimated, had at that time about 500 inhabitants. Here he became one of the pioneer representatives of his profession, and in his office was held the first meeting of the mayor and board of aldermen of the newly chartered city. At this meeting he was elected city attorney, serving three years and being then re-elected, in 1901, for a second term of equal duration. He was one of the incorporators of the First National bank of Gulfport, which absorbed the business of the Bank of Gulf- port, of which he had likewise been one of the organizers. In all that has touched the prosperity and best interests of the city, Mr. Evans has manifested an insistent and helpful interest, and he is regarded as one of its most loyal and public-spirited citizens, while he also holds precedence as one of the leading lawyers of Harrison county, retaining a representative clientage and commanding the esteem of all who know him. For five years he was a member of the board of education, in which capacity he did much to forward the interests of education in Gulfport. On the first Monday of January, 1907, he was elected to and assumed the duties of the office of police justice of the city of Gulfport, Miss., for the two ensuing years. He is an active worker in the ranks of the Demo- cratic party and is an able advocate of its cause, while fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias. He was one of the organizers of the Twenty-fifth Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, South, of whose first board of trustees he was a member, as was he also of the building committee which had charge of the erection of the present attractive church edifice. On Dec. 17, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Evans to Miss Cora A. Abney, daughter of Dr. Henry C. and Sarah (Slade) Abney, of Poplarville, this State. Mrs. Evans was summoned into eternal rest, at Mosspoint, Jackson county, in 1894, and is survived by one child-Leah Abney. In March, 1895, Mr. Evans wedded Miss Mary C. Abney, daughter of Jessie M. and Sarah (Crosby) Abney, of Covington, La., and the three children of this union are : Stephen Glenn, Murcer Griffin and Mary Susan.
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Elliott, W. C., M. D., proprietor of a sanitarium and one of the leading practicing physicians of Holly Springs, was born in the State of Michigan. He is a son of Dr. W. G. Elliott, of Pontiac, Mich., who was one of the best known and most eminent physicians of the State. After completing a preliminary course in the common schools of his native State the subject of this sketch attended the medical department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and in 1889 was graduated at that institution with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Since that year he has been engaged in the practice of his profession with marked success. He has made a specialty of electrical gynæecology and of the hot air treatment of rheumatism. In 1899 he located in Holly Springs, attracted by the water supply, which he maintains is the finest in the world, and opened a sanitarium in the old Coxe residence, one of the historic places of the State, for the electrical treatment of gynæecology and for treatment of rheumatism. His fame has extended beyond the borders of the State and he has patients from all over the South. He has also carried on a general practice but his sanitarium practice is so continually increasing that it is probable that before very long he will have only time for that feature. The doctor is a prominent member of the Marshall county medical society and of the State medical association.
Faison, George W., Jr., an enterprising merchant of Shaw, was born in Rolling Fork Landing, Issaquena county, Miss., Feb. 23, 1861. His parents were George W. and Ellen R. (Fields) Faison, the former a native of Southampton county, Va., the latter of North Carolina. The Faison ancestry goes back to 1666, when Henryck Fayson Von Donrerack, senior, received a grant of land in York county, Va. Later the name was changed to Fayson and in 1824 we find it Faison, as it is recorded that James Faison was then living in Charles Parish, York county, Va. Subsequently this James Faison re- moved to Northampton county, N. C. George W. Faison, Jr., how- ever, belongs to the Virginia branch of the family, which settled in Southampton county. George W. Faison, Sr., the father of the subject of this sketch, was a Confederate soldier in the commissary department.of the Mississippi troops captured at Vicksburg. He is still living, operating a large plantation near Faisonia, Miss. George W. Faison, Jr., received his education in the common schools of Yazoo and Montgomery counties, Miss., and later took a course at Washington and Lee university in Lexington, Va. His first employment was as a clerk in a general store conducted by his father. In August, 1885, he located in Shaw and engaged in mer- chandising, which he has most successfully followed ever since. Like so many other Southern gentlemen he looks after the manage-
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ment of several plantations, and owns and operates a cotton gin and oil mill at Shaw. The Shaw Hardware Company, of which he is president, has an authorized capital of $25,000, and he is also a director and vice-president of the Bank of Shaw. In politics Mr. Faison is a Democrat, and as such he has served as alderman ever since the town was incorporated. In religious matters both he and his wife are affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church, South. On Feb. 28, 1893, he married Miss Willie C., daughter of William and Emma E. (Chamberlain) De Jarnette, of Tennessee, and to this union two children have been born-George W. and John De- Jarnette. Perhaps no man in Shaw has been more eminently suc- cessful in the commercial world than has Mr. Faison, and certainly no business man has a higher standing than has the subject of this sketch.
Feltus, James A. V., of Leland, is one of the prosperous planters of Washington county, is a native son of Mississippi, and one who did valiant service in the cause of the Confederacy as a soldier during the Civil war. Mr. Feltus was born in Wood- ville, Wilkinson county, Miss., Oct. 28, 1840, and is a son of Abraham M. and Eliza A. (Ventress) Feltus, the former of whom was born in New York city, and the latter in Clarksville, Columbia county, Tenn., from which latter State they came to Mississippi, passing the closing years of their lives in this State, where the father was a planter. James A. V. Feltus completed his educational training in the University of Mississippi at Oxford, and he had not yet attained his legal majority at the time when the great conflict between the North and South was in- stituted. Loyal to the inherent rights and institutions of the South, Mr. Feltus forthwith gave practical evidence of that fact since, in 1861, he enlisted in Company K, Sixteenth Mississippi infantry, with which he took part in all the battles of the army of Northern Virginia, except the first battle of Manassas. He enlisted as a private and rose to the position of acting aide-de-camp on the staff of Major-General Mahone, thus serving for the six months pre- ceding the final surrender at Appomattox Court House. In 1863 he was detailed in the signal service and stationed at the head- quarters of Gen. R. H. Anderson, while on July 30, 1864, he was appointed courier for Gen. William Mahone, whose aide he was during the last six months of the war, as already stated. Since the war Mr. Feltus has been identified with the agricultural industry of his native State, and he did his part in regaining the boon of prosperity to this section after its fair lands had been devastated and despoiled through the battles and maneuvers of the contending forces through the Civil war. He is one of the representative planters of his county and retains an abiding interest in all that
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concerns the material and civic welfare of his State. In politics he is an unswerving adherent of the Democratic party, but he has never been an aspirant for office of any description. On Sept. 12, 1892, Mr. Feltus married Miss Katherine N. Berkeley, daughter of Col. Edward and Mary L. (Williams) Berkeley, of Prince William county, Va., and they have three children-Katherine B., Martha R. and Aimee F.
Ferris, Philip T., who died at his home in the city of Macon, on Wednesday, May 10, 1905, was one of the oldest newspaper men of the State and was editor and publisher of the Macon Beacon at the time of his death. He was a man of distinctive ability and his public spirit prompted him to lend his aid and influence in the sup- port of all worthy measures for the general good of his home city, county and State. A polished gentleman, generous, kindly and tolerant, he gained and retained friends in all classes, and his name was a synonym of integrity and honor. Mr. Ferris was born in the city of Washington, D. C., in the year 1837, and was a son of Henry C. Ferris. The latter was born in Ireland and was seven years of age at the time of his parents' immigration to America. The family settled in Virginia, where he was reared and educated. His brother Edward, came to Macon, Miss., in the forties and established a paper known as the Noxubee Rifle, the first in that county. In 1849 Henry C. Ferris purchased the plant and business of his brother and changed the name of the paper to the Macon Beacon. He continued its publication until after the war, when he was suc- ceeded by his son Philip T., subject of this memoir, and the latter was succeeded by his son, Douglas C., the present editor and pub- lisher, so that the paper has been continuously published by the Ferris family for three generations and covering a period of nearly sixty years. Philip T. Ferris secured his educational training prin- cipally in the nation's capital city, and as a youth he became identi- fied with the publication of the Macon Beacon, owned by his father, as already stated. He brought the Beacon up to a high standard and the same enjoyed under his management a marked growth in circulation and wielded distinctive influence in shaping public opinion in its field. Mr. Ferris was a loyal and progressive citizen and the city of his home was specially dear to him and was the object of his solicitous interest during the years of his signally honorable and useful business career. At the inception of the war between the States he promptly tendered his services in defense of the cause of the Confederacy. He enlisted as a private in the Twentieth Mississippi infantry and was later promoted first lieu- tenant of his company. He was with his command in a number of the important battles of the great internecine conflict, and at Fort Donelson he was captured. He was held for several months in the Federal prison on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, and after his exchange was effected he rejoined his regiment, with which he was present at the surrender of General Johnston, at Greensboro, N. C., where he received his parole. In politics he was an uncompromising advocate of the principles of the Democratic party and he rendered
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able service in the party cause. He was never ambitious for office and held only those of minor and local order. He was county coroner and ranger at the time of his death. He was affiliated with the United Confederate Veterans. In 1867 Mr. Ferris was united in marriage to Miss Virginia B. Ferris, who was born in Winston county, Miss., a daughter of Eugene Ferris, who was one of the State's prominent and able educators. For many years he con- ducted a private school for young ladies and the same received a representative patronage. He was a resident of Macon during the Civil war and later removed to the southern part of the county, where he died. The wife of the subject of this memoir survives him, as do also their three children-two sons and a daughter.
Fisher, Frank J., undertaker and embalmer of Vicksburg, Miss., was born Feb. 1, 1855, near Quebec, Canada, the son of John and Theresa (Horn) Fisher. His father was a native of Germany and his mother of Ireland. Mr. Fisher came to Mississippi in 1867 and located in Vicksburg. In 1875 he connected himself in business with J. Q. Arnold and learned the undertakers' trade. In May, 1891, he established a similar business for himself, which he now conducts upon a large scale. He was chief of the fire department for five years ; was leader of the Vicksburg Southern band for nine- teen years, and is a member of the fraternal order of Knights of Pythias and Woodmen of the World, and chancellor in the Catholic Knights of Columbus. He was married to Miss Bell Kelley, a native of Mississippi, Feb. 1, 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have eight children : John, Frank, Arnold, Leo, Bernard, Elgie, L., and Ethel.
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