Baker County, Georgia - History

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Baker County, Georgia
Biographies

Perry, Edwin John, cashier of the Bainbridge State bank, and a member of the bar of Decatur county, was born near Bainbridge, on Sept. 14, 1864, and is a son of John O. and Sarah A. (Cole) Perry, the former born in Crawford county, Ga., and the latter in Clayton, Ala. William A. Perry, a brother of John Perry, was a soldier in the war of 1812. John Perry, father of John O., was a prominent citizen of Crawford, where he was called to serve in public offices, including that of tax collector. John O. Perry has been a public officer during practically his entire career since attaining his legal majority. He was marshal of the town of Bainbridge from 1858 to 1861; was deputy clerk of the superior court for six months, in 1862, while at home from service in the Civil war, having been incapacitated by rheumatism. In 1866 he removed to Mitchell county, and in 1870 located in Baker county, where he has since maintained his home. On April 1, 1876, he was appointed judge of the county court of Baker county by Gov. James M. Smith, and he has held commissions under every governor since that time, having thus been in office for nearly thirty consecutive years. His record on the bench has been a signally creditable one. He has never failed to hold court at the stated time, has never been reversed in any of his decisions, though he is not a lawyer. He was president of the county board of education for fifteen years; has been an elder of the Presbyterian church for thirty-five years, and for the past quarter of a century he has been president of the Baker county Sunday-school association. On March 18, 1861, John O. Perry manifested his loyalty to the Confederacy by enlisting as a private in Company G, First Georgia volunteer infantry, and in the autumn of 1862 he became a member of Abell's battery. He took part in the engagements at Green Briar River, W. Va., Ocean Pond or Olustee, Fla.; Pocataligo, and Salkahatchie, S. C, in January, 1865, and also in several engagements on the retreat from Savannah to Greensboro, N. C. He rose to the rank of gun-sergeant in the battery, and was mustered out under parole at Greensboro, N. C, April 26, 1865, after Johnston's surrender. Edwin J. Perry attended the common schools in his boyhood and supplemented this training by a course in the North Georgia agricultural college, at Dahlonega, after which he took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar at Bainbridge in 1889. In May, 1891, upon the organization of the Bainbridge State bank, he was elected its cashier, and has since retained this position, his ability as an executive having done much to conserve the upbuilding of the fine business controlled by the bank. Mr. Perry is a stanch Democrat, is a Presbyterian in his religious faith and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On Feb. 14, 1895, he was united in marriage to Miss Maude Springer Tompkins, daughter of William Greene Springer and Sallie (Jackson) Tompkins, of Grantville, Ga. They have one child, Edwin Jonathan, Jr.
Source: Cyclopedia of Georgia Transcribed by Friends for Free Genealogy