John Augustus Lovett, M. D.
Prominent among the practitioners of
medicine and surgery in Liberty county is found Dr. John Augustus
Lovett, who has been engaged in the practice here since 1898. Although
he has reached a high place in his profession and devotes the greater
part of his attention thereto, he is almost as equally well known in
business circles, being particularly interested in the development of
oil fields. He belongs to the class of
pushing, virile men who have done so much to promote the welfare of
Eastern Texas. Dr. Lovett was born January 14, 1852, in Holmes
county, Florida, and is a son of Dr. Thomas Jefferson R. Lovett
Joshua Lovett, the grandfather of Dr. John
A. Lovett, was the son of a Welshman who emigrated to America with
several brothers. The grandfather was a shoemaker by trade and an
emigrant from Georgia to Alabama where he settled at Geneva and there
passed the balance of his life working at his trade, bearing the
reputation of being a sober, industrious man and steadygoing citizen.
He married Miss Covel and they reared a family of children, among them
being: Alexander Covel, Thomas Jefferson R., Mrs. Sarah Brigman,
Frank, who enlisted in the Confederate army during the Civil war
from Louisiana, and subsequently became a school teacher;
George, who served in the army of the Gray and met a soldier's death on
the battle field; Elmira who married Mr. Broxton and lived in
Florida, and one who became the wife of Mr. Creel and spent her life in
Florida.
Dr. Thomas Jefferson R. Lovett was born at
Montgomery, Alabama, in 1828, received good educational advantages and
early chose the profession of medicine for his life work. He was
married in Coffey county, Georgia, to Ellen Knight, daughter of Speer
Knight, a native of that county, and after their marriage moved to
Holmes county, Florida. There they resided until 1855, when they went
to Vernon Parish, Louisiana, in which locality Dr. T. J. R. Lovett
passed away in 1876, the mother surviving until 1888. They were the
parents of two children: Dr. John Augustus, of this notice, and
William, who died as a boy in Louisiana in 1866.
Dr. John
Augustus Lovett was three years of age when taken by his parents to
Vernon Parish, Louisiana. He received his education in the public
schools of Pennington, Texas, and began his independent life as a
teacher in the public schools of Louisiana. As a youth of seventeen
years he commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship
of his father and subsequently took lecture courses in the University
of Alabama, at Mobile, being graduated therefrom March 17, 1876. He
immediately entered practice in his home community in Louisiana, but in
1888 came to Hill county, Texas, and opened an office at Abbott, which
was his field of endeavor for some ten years, his advent in Liberty
occurring in 1898, since which time he has continued to carry on his
profession here. Through extensive reading and investigation he keeps
in touch with the modern trend of thought, experiment and advancement
in the medical profession, and is today recognized as one of the most
able and learned physicians in Liberty county. He comes of a democratic
family and took the Gold Standard end of that organization when the
party split in 1896. He was in the Palmer and Buckner state convention
as a delegate from Hill county, and voted for delegate to the national
convention. He has served as county health officer in Liberty county, Texas, and in Louisiana he
was surgeon for the T. and P. Railway Company. He is local surgeon of
the Southern Pacific Railway Company here in Liberty. Dr. Lovett is a
Mason and belongs to the Chapter at Dayton. He and his wife are
Methodists and were brought up in the faith of that church.
On September 14,
1876, Dr. Lovett was married to Miss Berrilla Word, daughter of James
H. and Berrilla (Sanders) Word. Mr. Word was born in Bedford county,
Tennessee, and his wife in Barwell District, South Carolina. He was a
stockman and died in 1884 in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, where he settled
in 1844. Mrs. Word died in 1895 and was the mother of five children, as
follows: Hugh W., James H., Thomas, Mrs. Lovett and Samuel, of whom
Thomas and Samuel are deceased. Dr. and Mrs. Lovett have the following
children: Stella, wife of Jesse Beaver, of Hillsboro, Texas, with a
daughter—Helen; Thomas Word, of Cuero, Texas, who married Eloise Lusk,
and has. one child—Thomas Lusk, and Miss Berrilla Beatrice, of Liberty,
a teacher in the public schools of Dayton.
In the
development of this Liberty section for oil Dr. Lovett is president of
the West Liberty Oil Company, a director in the Quintett Oil Company
and president of the Trinity Oil Company. He was the discoverer of the
Patson Oil field of Hardin county and also discovered the Dayton field.
He was interested there with the Parafine Oil Company and has holdings
in that field at this time. He was the promoter of the First State Bank
of Liberty and the first bank to be established at Cleveland, but
withdrew from both. He was also the establisher of the first bank at
Smiley, Gonzalas county. A glance over his history will show that his
life has been one of untiring industry and consecutive progress.
Endowed by nature with keen intellectual powers, he has so developed
his talents as to grow in usefulness as well as in learning and in a
profession which many regard as the most important to which a man can
give his energies, he has made for himself a creditable name, gaining a
goodly measure of professional and financial success.
[Source: "A history of Texas and Texans",
Volume 3, By Francis White Johnson, Ernest
William Winkler, 1914 -
Submitted by K. Torp]
Osteen,
Levi, judge of
the city court of Douglas, Coffee county, is an able jurist and lawyer,
and a man who has won success and prestige through his own efforts. He
was born in the town of Qinch, Clinch county, Ga., Sept. 1, 1870, a son
of Benjamin and Mildred O'Steen, the former born in Waycross, Ware
county, this Osteen, Levi, judge of the city court of Douglas, Coffee
county, is an able jurist and lawyer, and a man who has won success and
prestige through his own efforts. He was born in the town of Qinch,
Clinch county, Ga., Sept. 1, 1870, a son of Benjamin and Mildred
O'Steen, the former born in Waycross, Ware county, this Osteen, Levi,
judge of the city court of Douglas, Coffee county, is an able jurist
and lawyer, and a man who has won success and prestige through his own
efforts. He was born in the town of Qinch, Clinch county, Ga., Sept. 1,
1870, a son of Benjamin and Mildred O'Steen, the former born in
Waycross, Ware county, this state, in 1849, and the latter in Coffee
county, in 1851. The paternal grandfather of Judge O'Steen was Capt.
John Riley O'Steen, who went forth in the service of the Confederacy
upon the outbreak of
the Civil war, as captain of Company G,
Fiftieth Georgia volunteer infantry, in which he served with
distinction until his death, in September, 1862. He was killed in the
battle of Boonsboro, Maryland. Judge Levi O'Steen was afforded the
.advantages of the common schools in his boyhood days, but depended
upon his own resources in broadening out his education to symmetrical
proportions. He completed a course of study in Jasper normal institute,
at Jasper, Fla., and thereafter devoted four years to successful
pedagogic work, teaching in the public schools of Florida and Georgia.
He then took up the reading of law, in the office of Quincy &
McDonald, of Douglas, Ga., and was admitted to the bar of his native
state in 1897, after which he was engaged in practice one year at
Homerville, Clinch county. He then returned to Douglas, where he
entered into a professional partnership with his former preceptors,
with whom he was associated in practice until his appointment to the
office of solicitor of the city court of Douglas, on June 6, 1899, this
appointment having been conferred by Gov. Allen D. Candler. Judge
O'Steen proved an able public prosecutor, and continued incumbent of
the office noted until his appointment to preside on the bench of the
same court, Aug. 31, 1903. He has exercised his judicial functions with
much discrimination and wisdom, is an able and popular official and a
representative member of the bar of Coffee county. For two years he was
associated with M. A. Candler in the practice of his profession. He was
the first man to experiment with peach culture in his section, and is
now the largest individual grower of this fruit in Coffee county. Judge
O'Steen is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, and he and his
wife are prominent members of the local organization of the Methodist
Episcopal church South, in which he is a steward. He is affiliated with
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, in the
local lodges of which he has passed the various official chairs. The
Judge has not been denied a due reward for his earnest and honorable
efforts, having gained both professional prestige and material
prosperity. He provided the means for his own education, and at the
time of his marriage had practically no financial resources. Today his
capitalistic status is indicated, in a conservative way, by an estate
valued at $15,000. He now resides on his beautiful farm of 490 acres,
one mile from the city, having as a homestead a fine old colonial
mansion. On Nov. 27, 1897, he was united in marriage to Miss Fannie
Smith, daughter of Robert S. and Mary (Gaskin) Smith, of Coffee county,
and of the five children four are living, namely: Herbert Quincy,
Edith, Myrtie, and Alton Tilden, Mildred, the third in order of birth,
died in early childhood.
Source: Cyclopedia of
Georgia Transcribed by Friends for Free Genealogy
Hendricks,
J.
Walter, is
principal of that valued institution, the Southern normal institute, at
Douglas, and is recognized as one of the able and popular factors in
the educational circles of Georgia. He is a native of Bulloch county,
Ga., where he was born Oct. 21, 1873, a son of Marida and Mary (Durden)
Hendricks, the former born Feb. 26, 1851, and the latter Sept. 23,
1847. The paternal grandfather, John Hendricks, was born Dec. 9, 1804,
died in July, 1890, and was laid to rest in the family cemetery in
Bulloch county, beside that of his wife, Elizabeth, who died in 1878.
The maternal grandparents of Professor Hendricks were Eleazer and Roxie
(Rountree) Durden, and both passed their whole lives in Emanuel county,
Ga. John Hendricks was a soldier in the Seminole and Creek Indian wars,
and Eleazer Durden was a valiant soldier of the Confederacy in the
Civil war, having taken part in the various and sanguinary engagements
in which the Army of Northern Virginia was involved. The subject of
this review secured his preliminary education in the common schools of
Bulloch county and also attended the high school at Millen. In
September, 1893, he was matriculated in the University of Georgia, in
which he was graduated in June, 1897, receiving the degree of Bachelor
of Arts and standing third in a class of forty-five members. In
September of the same year he took a position in the Millen high
school, where he taught one year, after which he was engaged in
successful pedagogic work in the state of Tennessee until 1900, when he
went to Douglas, Ga., as first assistant in the Southern normal
institute, being elected principal of that institution two years later
and having since served in this capacity, giving a most admirable
administration both in an academic and executive sense. In politics
Professor Hendricks is a stanch supporter of the principles of the
Democratic party; is a member of the Primitive Baptist church and his
wife is a Methodist. On June 5, 1901, was solemnized his marriage to
Miss Nina V. Lively, daughter of Dr. M. M. Lively, of Statesboro, Ga.,
and they have three children—J. Walter, Jr., born Aug. 14, 1902;
Charles Ellison, born July 4, 1904; and Martha Marguerite, born Feb.
11, 1906.
Source Georgia: comprising sketches of counties, towns,
events, institutions, and ... edited by Allen Daniel Candler, Clement
Anselm Evans
Erwin
Spivey,
Erwin Spivey, known by the Armies North and South as "Gordon's Bull,"
was in Company E. 26th, Georgia. Mr. Spivey had a tremendous voice,
loud, wild and weird. He could squeal and yell and bellow like a bull
and be heard for miles around. He trained his voice in such a way
as to give it "Carrying Power." He was the talk of both Armies. He
belonged to Gordon's Brigade, which was a terror to the Northern Army.
The Yankee Army could recognize the strange voice of Erwin Spivey and
they knew that Gordon was after them. When the Yankees would hear him
it is said that the soldiers would look at each other and say, "Boys,
there is trouble ahead. Gordon's Brigade is on the move and Gordon's
Bull is giving the alarm." It is said that many of the weak-kneed
Yankees would break ranks and run for their lives when they heard the
yell of "Gordon's Bull."
Captain Jefferson Wilcox He was born March 20th,
1860. His father was Mark Wilcox and his mother was a Lott.
He attended the Southern Medical College in Atlanta,
Georgia, and graduated with second honor in a class of 37 young men in
the Capt.ii. Htt Wocox elass of 1883" He was the first native of Coffee
County to receive a degree of Doctor of Medicine. August 16, 1883, he
married Miss Marian Hinson, daughter of James Hinson of Coffee County,
Georgia. There were three children born to that marriage, Ira E.
Wilcox, who is a prominent business man of Birmingham, Alabama, and J.
Mark Wilcox, who is a prominent attorney of West Palm Beach, Florida.
On December 1st, 1888, he located in Willacoochee,
Georgia, his present location and where he has re-mained ever since. He
was elected Mayor of Willa-coochee in 1891. He was elected
Representative of Coffee County to the Legislature in 1892. In 1896 he
was elected to represent the 5th Senatorial District in the State
Senate.
At the outbreak of the war with Spain he recruited a
company of volunteers at his own personal expense. He tendered their
service to the Government and President McKinley commissioned him
Captain and placed him in the 3rd regiment U. S. Vol. Infantry, where
he served through the Santiago Campaign and was honorably discharged
from service January 10th, 1899.
October 22nd, 1923, his companion who had stood by
him all of these years was taken to her eternal home. He married Mrs.
Annie Belle Parker Adams of Orlando, Pla., eldest daughter of the
sainted William Parker.
The great American Republic and the Cuban Republic
decorated him last year for services rendered in the Spanish-American
War.
Source: Ward's history of Coffee County by Ward, Warren P.
Dunk Douglas (Communicated)
Editor Breeze—I have just learned of the death of my fatherly old
friend, Dunk Douglas. When mother was left a widow and her three little
boys needed a father's help, we found a never failing friend in Mr.
Douglas. He made the first pair of shoes I ever wore.
He helped in a large measure to build the school and church where I
first attended school and church. He built the church house at Lone
Hill where I joined the church. The first public confession I made of
Christ, the was the first to bid me God-speed. He taught me how to
work. Impressed my young mind with the dignity of labor. He idolized
the honest man, and laziness with him was a crime.
Dunk Douglas was no ordinary man. He had a good strong logical mind and
a good memory. He was a good story teller and a good conversationalist.
He never lost the thread of his story and knew just when to laugh. He
could tell stories all day and then tell a good one after he lay down
at night.
Dunk Douglas was a good farmer and a lair mechanic. He made what he
needed for his own farm and made plows and plow stocks for the
neighbors. In a word, he was "The professor of odd jobs," for the whole
country, and for many years after the war our neighbors would have
missed his services very much.
Dunk Douglas was one of the most hospitable men I ever knew. I think
there was a time when he fed more men and horses free than the ordinary
hotels of the country fed for pay. In any matter of business he was
close and exacting. He paid his debts and expected the other people to
do the same; but he tried to help every one in need of help. All the
public workings, such as fodder pullings, log rollings, etc., he always
got there soon and put in a good day's work, and was especially helpful
in seeing that others did a good day's work, too.
Dunk Douglas was a good man with a strong personality. He was a good
husband and a good father and a good neighbor indeed. I have known him,
on many occasions, to stop his own work and help a neighbor. He was
kind and forbearing and slow to resist an insult or an injury. He had
unbounded faith in God, but he lacked confidence in men. He did not
believe in any secret societies and often denounced elans, and combines
of every kind.
In religion Dunk Douglas was an enigma. No one could fully understand
him at this point. On three different occasions I was very much
concerned about his religious life, and at each time I tried to help
him all I could. He joined the church late in life but that does not
show that he was not a child of God. He had a spiritual mind and loved
the word of God.
His life was an exponent of the "pure and undefiled religion/' and when
Dunk Douglas stands before the judgment seat of Christ I am strongly of
the opinion that he will hear the welcome plaudit, "Come ye blessed of
my father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation
of the world, for I was hungry and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and
ye gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye
clothed me, I was sick and ye visited me."
I do not write this as an obituary, but I have only given expression to
a few thoughts of the man as I have seen him all my life. And now that
he is gone, I desire with his family and friends to drop a tear and a
flower upon his grave, trusting that our faith in Him who is the
resurrection and the life will some sweet day bring us all together
again. Ward's Scrapbook, 1896.
Source: Ward's history of Coffee County by Ward, Warren P.
Old
Man
Billy
Ward
In going from Baxley to Douglas you
cross the Seventeen-Mile Creek at the bridge at Reed
Lake. Just on the other side to the left, is a little log
house. There is where Uncle Billy lives. He is now
nearly seventy years old and lives all alone by the side of this big
old creek where the "Hoot" of the owl and the "Chip "Willow" of the
whippoor-will greets his ear, but these wild, weird surroundings, no
doubt, are congenial to his strange nature. He has raised a large
family of children, but none are now with him. He will not live with
them but prefers his little hut alone where he can brood over his past
life and have all the world to himself.
In his better days he was doing well, had plenty and
was a kind neighbor. He was a blacksmith, preacher, and a doctor, and a
useful man in our beat. By some means or other he did not go to war and
was one of the few men left in our community during that dread-ful
period. He used to come to our house to kill beef. Our cows were not
used to seeing men folks in those days and they hated them more than
dogs. But Uncle Billy knew how to fool them. He put on a sun
bonnet and an apron, and then he could keep them still long enough to
shoot one.
He had plenty of cows himself but seldom had beef.
He said if he knew which cow he would lose in the winter he would kill
her in the summer and thus economize. He was not a stingy man, but
seemingly curious, and so he is yet. He hardly ever sent corn to mill
like other folks, but did his own grinding on a steel mill. I have
often seen them gather corn from the field and grind it for dinner.
I never saw a table cloth on the table but once, and
then Monroe Wilcox was there. They had a big turtle for dinner. I was a
small boy but they let me eat at the first table and I enjoyed the
cooter hugely.
Uncle Billy was a kind old man to the sick and was
often called to the bedside of the suffering. He be-lieved in moving
pains by hard rubbing. By some accident or other one of his hands had
been burned, his little finger was stiff, just half closed. It was
badly in the way about rubbing, because it scratched more than it
rubbed.
Uncle Billy had no use for shirt buttons on his
shirt for he never buttoned one; still he had a fancy for ladies, and
would do and say many funny things while in their presence. His wife,
he called "Old Doman," poor old thing! I never saw her laugh, but she
always wore a broad smile when Uncle Billy was about. She always looked
like she was ashamed in his presence.
I have never heard him preach, but those who have
heard him say there was a lot of fun in it. He could draw some amusing
pictures and make very striking illustrations. Here is a sample: "If
all the water was in one place and all the trees in one tree, all the
men in one man and all the axes in one axe—Then if the big tree stood
by that big water and if that big man should take that big axe and cut
down that big tree in that big lake of water, whoopee! wouldn't it make
a splash."
He never had family prayer, and never asked a
blessing at his table, and has now given up preaching altogether. He
never doctors anything now unless it is his cat or his pig. All of his
property is gone, his wife is dead and his children all grown. Poor old
man. I am sorry for him, but he doesn't want any sympathy, mine nor
yours, and he doesn't think any more of me for writing this article
either. But his life is a curious one and provides much food for
thought. When you pass his home you will more fully realize what I have
told you. Ward's Scrapbook, 1885.
Source: Ward's history of Coffee County by Ward, Warren P.
Tribute to Monroe Wilcox
I see by the last issue of your paper that another
good man is gone. Monroe Wilcox is dead.
"Friend after friend departs— Who has not lost a
friend? There is no union here of hearts But that we find an end."
He was my friend and your friend and everybody's
friend. Coffee County never had a more useful citizen than he, as
doctor and preacher, singing master and school teacher and Christian
neighbor. His field for usefulness was wide.
He was a self-made man in the true sense of the
word. He educated himself. He read many good books and had a practical
knowledge of the sciences, history, theology and medicine.
His influence for the good was widespread and
lasting. At one time every office in Coffee County was filled by men
who had been to school to him. As a local Methodist preacher he was
indeed a model. Like a weeping prophet, he went from place to place,
preaching, praying and singing. He seldom led a prayer meeting or
addressed a class of Sunday school children that he did not weep over
them as he warned them of the awful consequences of a sinful life. The
next moment, with happy face and streaming eye, he would sing some
glad, sweet song. I can see him now as he appeared to me in 1875, hymn
book in hand, and hear his sad sweet voice as he tenderly reads, "How
sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear."
His first sermon was preached at old Lone Hill
Church, in 1872, from the text, "Remember thy Creator in the days of
thy youth." Under that sermon and on that day this writer joined the
church. His song and his sermon and his very presence was always a help
to me in my Christian life. I think I knew him as well as any one, for
it was my privilege to live in his home and attend school. Twice a day
he re'iSd the Bible and had prayer with his family. Often he was called
to see the sick and visit the dying. His presence brought hope and
comfort.
But he is gone. How much we shall all miss him!
There was but one Monroe Wilcox. Is there any one anywhere who can take
his place? Let us who knew the man profit by his life. May the memory
of his words, his sweet songs and his weeping face inspire us all to be
faithful until one by one we cross over the river to be forever for the
Lord.
W. P. WARD. From Ward's Scrapbook, 1897.
Source: Ward's history of Coffee County by Ward, Warren P.
Allen,
Benjamin
Thomas, lawyer, public official, was born Feb. 23,
1852, near Thomasville, Ga., where the thriving village of Metcalf is
located. He was educated at the Fletcher institute of Thomasville, Ga.;
and at the Valdosta institute of Georgia. Since 1877 he has been
engaged in the practice of law, and for one session was reading clerk
in the Florida state legislature. He now practices his profession in
Pearson, Coffee County, Ga.; and is prominently identified with the
business and public affairs of his community. His paternal ancestors
came to Georgia from North Carolina in the early nineteenth century,
and were of Irish extraction.
[Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography: Contains
Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life
and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 –
Transcribed by Therman Kellar]
McDonald,
Willis W., is one of the representative members of the bar of
Coffee county, being a member of the firm of Quincy & McDonald, of
Douglas, and he is also one of the largest cotton-growers and
landowners of that section of the state. He was born in Lumpkin
county, Ga., July 8, 1871, and is a son of Angus J. and Annie (Gee)
McDonald, the former of whom was born in Union county, Ga., in 1844,
and the latter in Fannin county, in 1854, having been a daughter of
Walter L. Gee, who was a valiant soldier of the Confederacy in the
Civil war. Angus J. McDonald is now a resident of Oglethorpe
county, his wife having died in 1898. The subject of this review
attended Martin institute, in Jackson county, and thereafter was a
student for three years in the North Georgia agricultural college, at
Dahlonega. He then entered the Florida state normal school, at
DeFuniak Springs, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of
1891. For the ensuing four years he was principal of the high
school at Starke, Fla., and was very successful in his pedagogic
work. In the meanwhile he had given careful attention to the
study of law, and was admitted to the bar, at Starke, in the spring of
1894. In May of that year he located in Douglas, where he entered
into a professional partnership with John W. Quincy, under the firm
name of Quincy & McDonald, and they have built up a very large and
representative practice and stand high among the legal firms of this
section of the state. The firm are attorneys for practically all
the corporations in Coffee county. They were among the organizers
and incorporators of the Douglas, Augusta & Gulf railroad, of which
they are the general counselors, being also local counsel for the
Atlantic & Birmingham, the Atlantic Coast Line, and the Southern
railroads. Mr. McDonald is vice-president of the Citizens’ bank,
of Douglas, and he is the largest grower of cotton in Coffee county,
where he has extensive plantation interests. He is aligned as a
stalwart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party; was several
years a member of the city council, and in 1900 was elected mayor,
serving in this capacity for three years. He is affiliated with
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and
both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church
South. On June 22, 1892, Mr. McDonald was united in marriage to
Miss Irene Grantham, daughter of Capt. James P. and Mary F.
(Wooten) Grantham, of Waukeenah, Fla., and they have four
children-Irene, Mildred, Carlisle, and Ryder.
[Source: Georgia Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events,
Institutions, and Persons, Vol 2, Publ 1906. Transcribed by Renae
Donaldson]
