DORTCH, Miss Ellen J.,
newspaper
editor and publisher, was born in Georgia, 25th January, 1868. She is
descended from Virginia families on both sides, and her ancestors have
figured conspicuously in affairs of state. Her father, James S. Dortch,
who died in August, 1891, was for a quarter of a century a prominent
lawyer. Miss Dortch received a thorough education, which, with her
progressive and enterprising spirit, has enabled her to take high rank
as a journalist. She became the owner and editor of the Carnesville,
Ga., "Tribune" in 1888, when the establishment consisted of
one-hundred-fifty pounds of long primer type, mostly in "pi," a few
cases of worn advertising type and a subscription book whose credit
column had been conscientiously neglected. Now the old presses and worn
type are replaced by new and improved ones, and the circulation of the
paper has increased to thousands, and the energetic, spirited woman who
has been typo, editor and business manager, who has solicited and
canvassed the district for subscribers, because she wasn't able to hire
any one to do it for her, has the satisfaction of seeing her efforts
crowned with a full measure of success. Beginning the work when only
seventeen years old, she has fought the boycotters and Alliance
opponents and overcome the southern prejudice against women who use
their brain in making their way in the world. After working for two
years, she went to Baltimore, Md., where she studied for two years in
the Notre Dame school. She resumed her work on the "Tribune" in June,
1890.
(American Women, Frances
Elizabeth Willard, Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Volume 1 Copyright
1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow.)
John H. Tehrell, M. D.
Doctor Terrell is another of the ambitious and self-reliant native sons
of Georgia whose steadfast purpose has been one of action and
achievement, and he has gained secure vantage-ground as one of the able
and representative physicians and surgeons of Stephens County, his
residence being in the attractive little City of Toccoa.
Dr. John Henry Terrell was born in Franklin County, Georgia, on
the 11th of January, 1878, the fourth in order of birth of the nine
children of William M. and Martha Ann (King) Terrell, both natives of
Habersham County, this state, and members of sterling pioneer families
of Georgia. William M. Terrell followed the vocation of planter during
virtually his entire active career, and was a resident of Franklin
County at the time of his death, in January, 1908, his age having been
seventy-three years when he was summoned to eternal rest. He made a
most gallant and distinguished record as a soldier of the Confederacy
in the Civil war, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant and in
which he participated in many important engagements. His devoted wife
died in April, 1907, at the age of fifty-six years, and her parents,
William Petter King and Eliza King passed their entire lives in
Habersham County, both having attained to the psalmist's span of three
score years and ten. Alexander Terrell, a great-uncle of the doctor,
served as a member of the Georgia Legislature in the early days of the
history of this commonwealth.
Reared to adult age under the conditions and influences of the
homestead plantation in Franklin County, Doctor Terrell gained in the
public schools the preliminary discipline which made consonant his
initiation of his professional education. In April, 1901, he was
graduated in the Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons, and after
thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he engaged in practice
at Plumb, Franklin County, where he remained four years. In 1905 he
established his residence and professional headquarters at Toecoa,
where he was associated in practice with Dr. Henry M. Freeman until the
latter's death, three years later. Since that time he has continued in
the control of a substantial and successful independent practice, and
he continues a close student of his profession, so that he is in close
touch with the advances made in both medicine and surgery. He not only
avails himself of the best in the standard and periodical literature of
his profession, but has taken also effective post-graduate courses in
the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and the Jefferson
Post-Graduate Medical College, in the City of Philadelphia. The doctor
is an active member of the American Medical Association, the Georgia
State Medical Association, the Ninth District Medical Society and the
Stephens County Medical Society, of which last mentioned he has served
as president. He defrayed the expenses of his educational training of
professional order by his preliminary identification with agricultural
pursuits, and such effort implies the greater appreciation of the
success which has attended his labors in his exacting and humane
vocation.
Doctor Terrell is aligned as an uncompromising advocate and
supporter of the cause of the democratic party and while he
subordinates all else to the demands of his profession his civic
loyalty and progressiveness led him to respond to popular demands and
he served from 1910 to 1914 as a member of the city council of Toecoa.
Both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church and he is
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the temple of the
Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine in the City of
Atlanta. Doctor Terrell had the distinction of performing the first
post-mortem operation in Franklin County, the subject of the operation
having walked a distance of eleven miles only a few days prior to his
death. He had been treated for "black-tongue fever," but after a
thorough autopsy conducted by Doctor Terrell it was found that the
decedent had succumbed to typhoid fever, the diagnosis having shown a
very unusual condition of the bowels. All other members of the family
were attacked by tire same disease and none of the number survived.
On the 2d of November, 1910, at the Liberty Hill Church, in
Stephens County, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Terrell to Miss
Lula Hayes, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Hayes, who still reside
at Toecoa. The occasion was a noteworthy one, in that there was a
double marriage ceremony, in which the other contracting couple were
Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Knight. Doctor and Mrs. Terrell have one child,
Martha Ella Celeste, who was born March 5, 1913.
A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 6 By Lucian Lamar
Knight
Jeremiah S. Ayers.
After this well known Jefferson lawyer had completed his high school
education, he was obliged to rely upon his own efforts to promote him
further in the world, and qualifying for a state license as a teacher
he spent several years in that vocation and used the earnings to pay
his way through law school. Mr. Ayers has for many years been a lawyer
with rising reputation and influence in Jackson County, and is a man of
considerable landed property and city real estate.
He was born in Habersham County, Georgia, March 23, 1870, a son
of R. W. and Mary (Guest) Ayers. In the maternal line the
great-grandfather was Sanford Guest, who served as a captain of cavalry
in the Revolutionary war, lived in South Carolina for a number of years
and finally removed to Franklin County, Georgia, where he died. The
grandfather was also Sanford Guest, a lifelong farmer of Franklin
County, who married Elizabeth Addison. The paternal grandfather,
Nathaniel Ayers, was born in Virginia and early in life removed to
Georgia. He married Mackann Walters, and both died in Franklin County.
R. W. Ayers was born in Habersham County and his wife in Franklin
County. The father is now living in the Town of Cornelia at the age of
eighty-five years. During the Civil war he enlisted from Habersham
County, served as a private with the Thirty-seventh Georgia Regiment,
and was wounded on the field of Manassas, and still carries the bullet
in his shoulderblade. For many years he lived and prospered as a farmer
at Ayersville Station. His wife is also living at the age of
eighty-four. The nine children born to their union were: Joseph B.
Ayers; Robert Pleasant Ayers; Mrs. Lucy Garrard; William J. Ayers; Mrs.
Eliza King; Mrs. Cynthia Hughes; Jeremiah S.; George Ayers, deceased;
and Mrs. Beulah Loudermilk. All are still living except George.
Jeremiah S. Ayers acquired his early education in Habersham
County, and also attended school at Toccoa and Carnesville. Then came
the interval during which he taught school and earned the money
necessary to put him through the law department of the University of
Georgia, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1895. After his admission to
the bar he moved to Jefferson in Jackson County, and has been
identified with the local bar for twenty years. During 1911-12 Mr.
Ayers was honored by the people of Jefferson with the office of mayor,
to which his administration lent dignity. He has recently been elected
a member of the General Assembly of Georgia by the largest majority
over his opponent and leading the ticket in the county over his
associate elected at the same time.
Mr. Ayers is a member of the County Bar Association, and for many
years has been prominent in fraternal circles. He is past master of the
Blue Lodge, a member of the Royal Arch Chapter, is a past master of the
Knights of Pythias, ^ past grand of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, and a past sachem of the Improved Order of Red Men. His church
is the Baptist.
On December 12, 1905, he married Miss Eva McNeill, of a well
known Henry County, Tennessee, family. Her father was N. W. McNeill,
who served with the rank of captain in the Confederate army. Her mother
is still living. At their home in Jefferson three children have been
born to Mr. and Mrs. Ayers: Sanford, born in September, 1906, and
attending school; Nathan, born in 1908, and also in school; and Richard
Winston, born in November, 1910.
A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 6 By Lucian Lamar
Knight
Mr. McBrayer was born
in Forsyth County, Georgia, on July 18, 1861, and is a son of Samuel R.
and Luvinia (Milford) McBrayer, having been the second in order of
birth in a family of eight children. Samuel R. McBrayer was born in
North Carolina and was a child at the time of his parents' removal to
Forsyth County, Georgia, where he was reared and educated and where he
still maintains his home. He became one of the prosperous
agriculturists of the county and is now one of its most venerable and
honored citizens, he being eighty years of age, and his wife being
seventy-eight years old. In the gracious evening of their lives they
are enjoying the well earned rewards of former years of endeavor, and
they are surrounded by friends who are real and loyal, Mrs-. McBrayer
having been born in Forsyth County, where her father, James Milford,
settled upon his removal from his native State of South Carolina, both
he and his wife passing the residue of their lives in that county.
Samuel R. McBrayer gave most valiant and loyal service as a soldier of
the Confederacy in the Civil war. He enlisted as a member of a Georgia
volunteer regiment, served during the entire period of the war, took
part in many engagements, including a number of important battles, and
though he was slightly wounded he was never incapacitated for duty. He
perpetuates the more gracious memories of his military career through
his affiliation with the United Confederate Veterans, is a stalwart and
lifelong democrat and both he and his wife are earnest members of the
Baptist Church.
Reared to the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the home
farm, John B. McBrayer early gained appreciation of the dignity and
value of productive toil and endeavor, and in the meanwhile he duly
availed himself of the advantages of the common schools of the locality
and period. In his twentieth year he engaged in the mercantile business
in Gwinnett County, where he continued to be successfully identified
with this line of enterprise for a period of fifteen years.
In 1912 Mr. McBrayer removed to Lavonia, Franklin County, where
he purchased the Lavonia Roller Mills, the plant being of essentially
modern order and equipped effectively for the grinding of both wheat
and corn. He has since increased to a large extent the business of the
mills, the products of which find a steady and appreciative demand, and
his progressive policies have made this one of the most substantial
industrial concerns of Franklin County, the mills having been erected
in 1900 and having since received numerous improvements.
In politics Mr. McBrayer pays staunch allegiance to the
democratic party, both he and his wife are members of the Baptist
Church, and in the local organizations of the Masonic fraternity he is
secretary of the Blue Lodge and junior deacon of the chapter of Royal
Arch Masons in 1915.
In January, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McBrayer to
Miss Effie E. Kirby, daughter of Permelia Kirby, a representative
citizen and business man of Cumming, Forsyth County. Concerning the
children of Mr. and Mrs. McBrayer brief record is entered in conclusion
of this review: Guy Nolan, who was born in 1886, resides at Forsyth and
is employed in the railroad service; Fay Julian, who was born in 1890,
is in the service of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Bnford.
Gwinnett County; Elise, who was born in 1893, is the wife of Russell D.
O'Kelley, of Atlanta, and they have one child, Fred; Madge, who was
born in 1897, is the wife of Hoyt Thomas and they reside in South
Carolina; and Mary Leslie, who remains at the parental home, is
attending the public schools. All of the children were born at Buford,
Gwinnett County, except the eldest, who is a native of Forsyth County.
A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 6 By Lucian Lamar
Knight
Dorsey T. Davis.
Close study, indefatigable application and steadfast purpose have
significantly characterized the career of this representative younger
member of the bar of Franklin County, and his success and prestige have
been gained entirely through his own efforts and well recognized
ability. He is engaged in active general practice at Lavonia, has one
of the best law libraries in the county, the same being approximately
valued at fully $2,000, and his work as an advocate at the bar and as a
counselor has fully attested his broad and exact knowledge of the
science of jurisprudence as well as his purposeful ambition to achieve
the greatest possible precedence in an exacting profession that demands
of its votaries undivided fealty.
Mr. Davis was born in Banks County, Georgia, on the 14th of June,
1881, and is a son of James P. and Frances Serepta (Wells) Davis, both
likewise natives of Georgia, where the father still continues a
substantial farmer and highly esteemed citizen of Banks County; he has
attained to the age of sixtythree years, and his wife died in 1893, at
the age of forty-eight years, the subject of this review having been
the seventh in order of birth of their ten children. The paternal
grandfather, Robert Davis, passed his entire life in Stephens County,
this state, and the maiden name of his wife was Manton. The maternal
grandfather, Samuel Wells, was a substantial agriculturist in Banks
County, where he and his wife continued to reside until their death,
the family name of the latter having been Scales.
Depending almost entirely upon his own resources in defraying the
expenses of higher education, Dorsey , T. Davis acquired his early
scholastic discipline in the schools of his native county. Diligent
attention to his studies gave him proper fortification for more
advanced work, and he finally was enabled to enter Mercer University,
in the City of Macon. There he pursued both academic and technical
studies, and in 1909 he was graduated in the law department of the
university, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Virtually coincident
with graduation was his admission to the bar of his native state, and
he has been from the beginning engaged in the general practice of his
profession at Lavonia. He is an appreciative and popular member of the
Franklin County Bar Association, is an effective and unwavering
advocate of the principles of the democratic party, and is affiliated
with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
in the latter of which he has passed the various official chairs in the
lodge at Lavonia.
On the 16th of February, 1911, Mr. Davis married Miss Ruby
Lester, daughter of Newton A. and Lula (Wages) Lester, the former of
whom passed the closing years of his life in the City of Athens, this
state, where his widow still maintains her home, his vocation during
his active career having been that of farming. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have
two children, Dorsey T., Jr., who was born January 29, 1912. and
Miriam, who was born February 28, 1915. Mr. Davis owns his attractive
residence property in Lavonia and also has other real estate
investments.
A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 6 By Lucian Lamar
Knight
Looney, George C.,
principal of the Sunny South institute, a
private school of high grade, located at 97 Washington street, Atlanta,
Ga., was born in Carnesville, Franklin
county, Ga.,
Feb. 6, 1836. His father, Judge Noah
Looney, was a son of Robert and Betsey (Quinn) Looney, and a nephew of
John
Looney, both Robert and John having been soldiers of the Revolution,
belonging
to the patriot band of Col. Ben Cleveland, whose successful destruction
of
Ferguson’s command of British and Tories at King’s mountain had an
important
effect in determining the conclusion of the war in the south. Professor
Looney’s mother, Frances Cleveland (McNeil) Looney, was the
granddaughter of
Rev. John Cleveland, a clergyman of the Baptist church and a brother of
Col. Ben Cleveland, whose monument was unveiled
in Greenville, S.C., Oct. 7, 1880, at the centennial
celebration of the important and heroic battle above mentioned. A peculiar family characteristic of both the
Looneys and Clevelands was the fitness and tact for teaching which they
developed early in Georgia
and South Carolina. Abednego Franklin, son
of Mary Cleveland, who
was a sister of Col. Ben Cleveland and a cousin of Frances Cleveland
Looney,
was the founder of Franklin college at Athens, now the University of
Georgia. In the records of the Cleveland
family it is also stated that it was in the early settlement that a
teacher by
the name of Looney established one of the first schools taught on
Georgia
soil. It is quite natural, therefore,
that the three sons of an intermarriage between the Looney and
Cleveland families, Morgan
H., George Cleveland and Martin V., should have become prominent
teachers from
their earliest manhood. The lives of
many of the most successful men of the south, in all the learned
professions
and of the various southern states, attest the superiority of the
training
received from these educators. George
C., the subject of this sketch, was in charge of a very excellent
school at
Palmetto, Ga.,
with many young men in attendance, when the war between the north and
south was
precipitated. Early in 1862 his “boys”
and other young men of the vicinity organized a cavalry company and
elected him
their captain. They at once went into
camp at what was then called Big Shanty, reported to Governor Brown,
who
instructed the company to remain there and drill for service until he
should
make a call for cavalry volunteers. They
had not long to wait until Col. W. F. Lawton, of Albany, Ga.,
was authorized to raise a cavalry regiment, the Second Georgia cavalry,
into
which Captain Looney’s company was taken, as Company I.
But a short time elapsed till they were a
part of Forrest’s brigade, with the Third and Fourth Georgia and Eighth
and
Tenth Texas cavalry regiments. Before
the close of the war Captain Looney had become a commander of the
regiment, and
Capt. Sim Zellars, a most gallant young soldier, had command of the
famous
invincible old Company I. Upon Johnston’s
surrender Colonel Looney received paroles for
himself and regiment at Salisbury, N.C. and at once resumed his status
as a quiet citizen of
Georgia. After a happy month with parents,
brothers
and sisters at home, he exchanged his military titles for the old,
familiar,
much abused but honorable appellation of “Professor,” and opened a
school at Fayetteville, Ga., which
had been rendered famous before the war by his brothers and himself and
which
was known as Fayetteville
seminary. From this institution, both
before and after the war, went forth many prominent men and women into
prosperous
and successful high life, and from it he acquired mostly the reputation
as an
educator that clings to him to-day. He
has been thrice married,--first to Miss Maggie Tomlinson, a cousin of
Samuel
Taliaferro and of Judge Adam S. Poole, of Fulton county, and they
became the
parents of one child, Sarah Frances, who is now teaching in a very fine
school
near Atlanta. His second marriage was to
Miss Evelyn Camp, granddaughter of John and Sarah (Jennings)
Camp and a niece of Narcissa Jennings Bryant, all of Virginia.
Of the several children of this union only one is
living, Mrs. Eva
Cleveland Thorton, who is a successful teacher in Atlanta.
His present wife, Mrs. Minnie Looney, whose fine ability
as a teacher
and disciplinarian, renders teaching a pleasure to her husband, her
school and
herself, was a widow at the time of her marriage to Professor Looney,
having at
the time two little daughters, Lois and Eunice Ellis.
Mrs. Looney is the daughter of J.W. and N.M.
(Bishop) Duffee, who are highly respected and popular residents of
Campbell county, residing
near Fairburn. Professor Looney
still
retains unimpaired his activity, vivacity and enthusiasm in the school
room and
puts, perhaps more than ever, his whole soul into his work---that of
encouraging,
lecturing to, leading and educating young men and women for useful and
happy
lives.
(Source: Georgia
Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions,
and Persons, VOL II, by
Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Joanne Morgan)
