Colquitt County

He had a desire for success in the broadest and best acceptation of the term, and he made such success possible. His animus was not merely one of self-advancement but was marked by full appreciation of the responsibilities which success imposes, and he lived up to these responsibilities. He was a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of Georgia, and he gave to the state the full benefit of his finely matured powers, with the result that he became one of its really eminent and influential citizens. These statements will be uniformly supported by all who know aught of the character and services of the late Walter T. Colquitt, lawyer, jurist, state official and representative of Georgia in both branches of the United States Congress. His son Alfred H. Colquitt added further honors to the family name, especially through service as governor of Georgia and a member of the United States Senate, and concerning him definite mention is made on other pages of this work.

Hon. Walter T. Colquitt was born in Halifax County, Virginia, on the 27th of December, 1799, a scion of one of the representative colonial families of that historic old commonwealth, and within a short time after his birth his parents came to Georgia and became pioneer settlers in the vicinity of Mount Zion, Carroll County, where he passed the period of his childhood and early youth and where he acquired his preliminary education. Later he was sent to the College of New Jersey, now familiarly known as Princeton University, but before he had completed the prescribed course leading to graduation he was called to his home, owing to the illness of his father. Later he prosecuted the study of law under the preceptorship of Col. Samuel Rockwell, of Milledgeville, Baldwin County, and in 1820 he was admitted to the bar of the State of Georgia, and his novitiate in the work of his profession was served at Sparta, Hancock County, whence he later removed to the now extinct Village of Cowpens, in Walton County. In the meanwhile he not only made advancement in professional prestige and success but was also elected by the Legislature to the office of brigadier general of the state militia when he was but twenty-one years of age.

Alert and ambitious, with a fine mind and with well fortified convictions concerning matters of public import, he early became influential in political affairs, and in 1826 he was a candidate for Congress, on the Troup ticket, as it was familiarly known. In a district which had a majority that tallied for the opposition a majority of fully 2,000 votes in a normal way, he was defeated by only 32 votes, his opponent having been Hon. Wilson Lumpkin. At the age of twenty-seven years he was elected judge of the Chattahoochee Superior Court. In 1836-7 Judge Colquitt represented Muscogee County in the State Senate, and in 1838 he was accorded further official distinction, in that he was elected to Congress, as candidate on the whig ticket and as a supporter of the policy of individual state rights. He resigned his seat in the national Legislature at the time of the nomination of Gen. William Henry Harrison for the Presidency and in the ensuing campaign he ardently supported Martin Van Buren, the democratic candidate. His course met with the unequivocal commendation of his constituency, and he resumed his seat in Congress, in the lower house of which he continued to serve until March, 1843, when he became a member of the United States Senate. He gave stanch support to the Polk administration and to the government policies concerning the Oregon question and the issue of the Mexican war, and he conscientiously and insistently opposed the historic Wilmot Proviso.

Apropos of the professional ability of Judge Colquitt the following consistent estimate has been given: "As an advocate he stood alone in Georgia and perhaps in the whole South. No man could equal him in vigor and brilliancy where the passions of the jury had to be led."

Senator Colquitt's entire life was guided and governed by a fine sense of personal stewardship and by deep Christian faith, both he and his wife having been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Though of splendid physical constitution, this distinguished Georgian was notably improvident in fortifying his health, and he died in the prime of his strong and useful manhood, at the age of fifty-six years.

Senator Colquitt was thrice married. On the 23d of February, 1823, he wedded Miss Nancy H. Lane, daughter of Joseph Lane, of Newton County, and they became the parents of six children. In 1841, a number of years after the death of the wife of his early manhood, he married Mrs. Alpha B. Fauntleroy, whose family name was Tood, but she survived her marriage only a few months. In 1842 was solemnized his marriage to Miss Harriet W. Ross, daughter of Luke Ross, of Macon, this state, and she survived him by a number of years, no children having been born of this union.

Walter T. Colquitt. Few names have been more prominently and worthily identified with the history of Georgia than that of the family of which this representative lawyer and influential citizen of Atlanta is a scion. He bears the full patronymic of his distinguished grandfather, the late Hon Walter T. Colquitt, who represented Georgia in the United States Senate and whose career is briefly reviewed in an article of memorial tribute appearing on other pages of this publication. He whose name initiates this paragraph has not stood in the shadow of ancestral or paternal greatness but is ably upholding the prestige of the family name, his father, the late Alfred H. Colquitt, having been one of the really great and eminent citizens of Georgia, of which commonwealth he served with distinction as governor and which, like his father before him, he represented in the United States Senate. To him likewise a special memoir is dedicated in this History of Georgia, and thus in the present connection it is incumbent only to consider the salient points in the career of Walter T. Colquitt II, a most appreciative and loyal citizen and able lawyer of his native state and a member of the Atlanta bar since 1895.

Walter T. Colquitt was born at Kirkwood, DeKalb County, Georgia, on the 5th of March, 1874, and during a period of six years, in his boyhood and youth, his father was governor of Georgia, so that the family home was established in the meanwhile in the City of Atlanta, the capital of the state. While with his parents in the gubernatorial mansion he attended the public schools of Atlanta, and at the age of twelve years he entered the Georgia Military Institute, an excellent institution maintained in Atlanta under the direction of Prof. Charles M. Neal and Capt. Lyman Hall. In pursuance of higher academic discipline Mr. Colquitt finally was matriculated in Emory College, at Oxford, one of the leading educational institutions of Georgia, and in the same he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1895 he was graduated in the law department of Columbian University, in the City of Washington, District of Columbia, this institution, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, being now designated as George Washington University, the change of. title having been made to avoid connection of its identification owing to its original name being so similar to that of the equally celebrated Columbia University, in New York City. For the purpose of fortifying himself even mere fully in a preliminary way Mr. Colquitt completed an effective postgraduate course in the law department of the historic old University of Virginia, where he was signally favored in studying under that distinguished law preceptor, Prof. John B. Minor.

Late in the year 1895 Mr. Colquitt was admitted to the bar of his native state and engaged in the practice of his profession in Atlanta, in which city he now controls a substantial and important law business and in a professional way, as well as a loyal and progressive citizen, he is proving a worthy successor of his distinguished father and grandfather. Mr. Colquitt was appointed United States commissioner by Judge William T. Newman, of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, and he retained this position several years, with marked ability and efficiency. ' Mr. Colquitt is a member of the Atlanta Bar Association and the Georgia State Bar Association, and though he is a stalwart in the camp of the democratic party he has manifested no ambition for political office.

Mr. Colquitt is affiliated with the Chi Phi college fraternity and holds membership in the Capital City Club, the Atlanta Athletic Club and the _ Druid Hills Golf Club. He is a specially appreciative and influential member 'of the Society of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of the national organization of which he has had the distinction of serving as commander in chief, having been elected to this office at the Confederate reunion held in the City of Charleston, South Carolina, and his popularity in the organization having been significantly indicated on this occasion, since his opponent for the office was Robert E. Lee, Jr. He served one term and is still active and enthusiastic in the affairs of this admirable organization, through the medium of which are perpetuated the more gracious memories of the great Civil war.

On the 24th of June, 1914, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Colquitt to Miss Julia Dunning, of Atlanta, and it may readily be understood that they are prominent and popular factors in the leading social activities of the capital city.

Source: A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 5 By Lucian Lamar Knight

 RETURN

©Genealogy Trails