Macon County, Georgia Biographies

ANDERSON, Clifford Le Conte, lawyer, was born at Macon. Ga., July 7, 1802. son of Clifford and Anna (Le Conic) Anderson. His father was for many years attorney-general of Georgia and professor of law in Mercer University, Macon, Ga. He was graduated in the academic department of Mercer University in 1880, and in the law department in 1883. when he was admitted to the bar. He practiced law at Macon until March, 1886, when he removed to Atlanta, Ga. Since Jan. 1,1890, he has been in partnership with Porter King. Mr. Anderson became prominent in his profession early in his career, and has a law practice, particularly in corporation cases. Since June, 1899, he has been a member of the board of commissioners for roads and revenues of Fulton, Ga. He was a lieutenant of the Gate City guard in 1886, and a captain of the Gate City guard in 1887 and 1888. He resigned his captaincy in 1889 to become a military aid, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, on the staff of Gov. William J. Northon. He is a frequent contributor to newspapers on scientific and other topics. Mr. Anderson was married. Sept. 10, 1884, to Kittie, daughter of Wilson J. and Mary J. Van Dyke, of Minneapolis, Minn. They have a son and a daughter.

Lanier, Sidney, educator, poet, and musician, was born at Macon, Feb. 3, 1842, and graduated at Oglethorpe university in 1860. He served during the war in the Confederate army. When peace was restored he taught and for a time practiced law. His literary career began in 1876. In 1877 he settled in Baltimore, gave popular lectures on literary subjects and in 1879 became professor of literature in the Johns Hopkins university. Among his principal poems are "A Song of Love," "The Revenge of Hamish," "The Song of the Chattahoochee" and "Sunrise." He died at Lynn, N. C in 1881. He was buried at his request in Macon, and a marble bust has been erected to his memory in that city.
Source: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form
EDITED BY Ex-Governor ALLEN D. CANDLER AND General CLEMENT A. EVANS Vo. 3 1906

Lochrane, Osborne A., was one of the most genial and magnetic of men, as well as one of the most learned and accomplished of legal scholars, and it may be gravely doubted if his superior as an advocate before the jury has ever appeared in this state. Such was his happy faculty for weaving poetic sentiment and Irish humor into the fabric of his arguments that he easily made his hearers captive to the mesmeric charm of his eloquence. But he was equally at home in any public arena which brought his wonderful oratory and rare powers of mind into full play, and some of his occasional speeches and addresses have been preserved as models of exquisite English. Judge Lochrane exemplified his Irish lineage in his impassioned appeals as well as in his racy anecdotes and lightning like displays of repartee, and the combination of qualities which he possessed made him the idol of his fellow citizens. Had he chosen the arena of public life for the exercise of his brilliant gifts there is no telling to what heights of distinction he might have reached. He preferred the congenial labors of the law to the most tempting seductions which the forum of politics could offer him and he remained in the professional harness throughout his entire career. Judge Lochrane was born in County Armagh, Ireland, Aug. 22, 1829, the son of Dr. Edward Lochrane, an eminent physician, from whom he derived many of his distinguishing mental traits. Equipped with the best educational outfit which the university life of his native country could give him, the ambitious young Irish lad, feeling that his oppressed birthland offered him no prospects commensurate with his cravings for usefulness and distinction, came over to America at the age of eighteen and finally, after many buffetings and adventures, located in Athens, Ga., where he became a clerk in a drug store. This kind of work was not in the least suited to the tastes of the future jurist, nor was it at all in accord with the rosy anticipations which filled his mind when he sailed from the shores of Ireland, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances and it enabled him to keep body and soul together until he could find better employment. While still engaged at his post behind the counter, he managed to make the acquaintance of the best people of the cultured town and to improve his opportunities for showing the outside world what was really in him. Many of the college students became strongly attached to the young drug clerk and as an evidence of the esteem in which he was held on the campus he was elected an honorary member of the Phi Kappa society. Every moment which he could spare from his work was devoted to his mental culture and many were the compositions both in prose and verse which he produced in the solitude of his room, when the inspiration to write seized him. Being chosen on one occasion as an anniversary temperance orator he acquitted himself with such marked success in this initial effort that he was encouraged to take up the study of law. After duly equipping himself at odd intervals he was admitted to the bar at Watkinsville, Ga., at the spring term of the court of 1850. Chief-Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin was one of the number of entranced listeners who enjoyed Judge Lochrane's temperance speech and he strongly urged the young orator to turn his attention to the law, assuring him that success awaited him in this direction. How completely his prediction was verified may be noticed from the fact that Judge Lochrane was eventually elevated to the same high judicial bench on which the chief justice then sat. Judge Lochrane's first achievement as an orator before the temperance society in Athens was soon followed by another as orator of St. Patrick's Day in Savannah, and with the prestige gained from this second success, he located in Macon, Ga., for the practice of his profession, and soon became distinguished as one of the foremost young lawyers of the state. At the beginning of the war Judge Lochrane was elevated to the superior court bench and was given the first appointment made under the Confederate government. On the bench he developed marked judicial powers, showing an equipoise of mind and an acumen for penetrating to the marrow of every issue in dispute, wholly unsuspected by those who had witnessed his triumphs as an advocate, and in this capacity also was shown his uncompromising courage and his robust strength of character, traits which were always manifest in his dealings with men, but never more strikingly apparent than when he assumed the ermine to sit in judgment upon his fellows. Shortly after the war he resigned his judicial office and took an active part in reorganizing civil government. Though an ardent friend of the South, he took the course which was the least popular at the time, but which seemed to him the wisest in the end, and by making use of his influence at Washington he succeeded in softening many of the hardships of reconstruction. When the state capital was located in Atlanta Judge Lochrane transferred his place of residence to that city and was shortly afterward made judge of the Atlanta circuit, but soon resigned the place and accepted an appointment from Governor Bullock to the bench of the supreme court. Though his career as associate justice in this august tribunal was comparatively short, it was conspicuously able and some of the clearest decisions handed down during this period came from his scholarly pen. Chief Justice Logan E. Bleckley is quoted as saying that he never knew a mind in which fancy and logic were more happily yoked together than in the mind of this brilliantly gifted jurist. On retiring from the bench Judge Lochrane resumed the active practice of his profession in Atlanta, and until the time of his death was constantly engaged in the courts, devoting himself exclusively to civil business and figuring in many important cases. The following extract from his commencement address which he delivered at the University of Georgia in 1879, and which evoked the warmest encomiums from such competent authorities as Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs, is an example of his style of oratory: "The most unhappy men on this continent are those who have sacrificed most to fill conspicuous positions. The heart burnings and envies of public life are too often the results of ambition. What a sorrowful lesson of the instability of human grandeur and ambition may be found at the feet of the weeping Empress of Chiselhurst. Just as the star of the prince imperial was rising to the zenith, like a flash from Heaven, it falls to the ground; just as he was gathering round him the hopes of empire the assegai of the savage hurls him to the dust. Born on the steps of a throne, amid the blazing of bonfires and congratulations of kings, he fell in the jungles of an African wilderness without a friend to close his eyes; born to rule over thirty millions of people, he was deserted by all and went into the chill of death without the pressure of a friendly hand. Although royalty carried flowers to deck his bier, and princes were his pall bearers, and maishalls knelt by his coffin, and cabinet ministers bowed their heads, and his empress mother clung over him in an agony of grief, alas, the glory of his life had passed, and out of the mass of sorrowing friends, his spirit floated away, leaving to earth but a crimson memory. Life's teachings admonish us that the pathway of ambition has many thorns, and the purest happiness oftenest springs from the efforts of those who sow for the harvesting of peace and joy at home. And this lies at your feet in your own state, although she has suffered by desolation, although millions of her property has been swept into ruin and thousands of her bravest been huiried to their graves; although Georgia has been weakened and bled at every pore; although she has been impoverished and dismantled ; although she has been ridden through and trampled over by armies; although she has seen in folded sleep her most gallant sons, and spirit arms reach to her from the mound of battle fields, she still has the softest skies and the most genial climate, and the richest lands and the most inviting hopes to give to her children. And this is not the hour to forget her. The Roman who bought the land Hannibal's tent was spread upon when his legions were encamped before the very gates of Rome, exhibited the spirit of confidence and pride of country which distinguishes the great patriot. Although disaster stared him in the face, and the bravest hearts were trembling at the future destiny of their country and from the Pincian hill, the enemy, like clouds could be seen piled around, charged with the thunder of death and desolation, and the earth was reeling with the roll and tramp of armies, his heart was untouched with fear of her future. He knew that Rome would survive the tempest of the hour, and her future would be radiant with the splendid triumphs of an august prosperity, and confident of that future whose dawn he felt would soon redden the east, he never dreamed of abandoning her fortunes or abandoning her destiny. This was more than patriotism. It was the heroism of glory. It was sowing a rich heritage of example on the banks of the Tiber for the emulation of the world. One of the mistakes men make is their leaning on too sanguine expectations without labor, waiting for the honors to pursue them, scarcely reaching out their hands to gather the fortunes that cluster at their feet. Well did one of the old poets of Salamanca express the thought:

If man come not to gather

The roses where they stand,
They fade away among the foliage—

They cannot seek his hand.

And if you do not come to the honors of life they cannot go to you; if you don't come to gather the roses they will fade upon their stems and their leaves be scattered to the ground. The rose of fortune Georgia holds out to you is rich with hope and sentiment, and in its folded leaves are more honors for her sons than there is in the rose of England, the lily of France or the nettle leaf of Holstein. Then come together in close and solemn resolve to stand by her destiny and soon the tide will run rich and riotous through the jewelled arches of hope, flushed with her prosperity; soon will come into her borders newer and stronger elements of wealth; manufactories will spring from her bosom and the hum of industry resound throughout her borders; the glorious names of her present statesmen will take the places of those who have gone up higher into glory, and will soon behold her banner waving to the sky. Come spirit of our Empire State, come from your rivers that seek the sea, from the waves that wash your shores and run up to kiss your sands, come from the air that floats over your mountain tops; come from

Lakes where the pearls lie hid

And caves where the gems are sleeping;

come, spirit of glorious ancestry, from beyond the cedars and the stars; come from the history that wraps you in its robes of light, and let me invoke the memories that hang around you like the mantle of Elijah and will be the ascension robes of your new destiny. Touch the chords in these young hearts, these proud representatives of your future fame, that they may rise in the majesty of their love and clasp you with a stronger and holier faith, and raise monuments to your glory higher than the towers of Baalbec. Let them warm to the fires of an intenser love, and brighten with the light of a more splendid glory; let them swear around the altar to be still fonder and still prouder that they were Georgians. As an adopted son who has felt the sunshine of your skies, who has been honored with your citizenship and with positions far beyond his merits, I bow to the majesty of your glory, here in the temple of your fame, and to your spirit I would breathe out the fondest affection and pour prayers upon your pathway; I would clothe you with light, and bathe you in a rain of summer meteors; I would crown your head with laurels, and place the palm of victroy in your hands; I would lift every shadow from your heart and make rejoicing go through your valleys like a song. Land of my adoption, where the loved sleep folded in the embraces of your flowers, would that today it were my destiny to increase the flood tide of your glory, as it will be mine to share your fortunes; for when my few more years tremble to their close I would sleep beneath your soil, where the drip of April tears might fall upon my grave and the sunshine of your skies would warm Southern flowers to blossom upon my breast."
Source: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form
EDITED BY Ex-Governor ALLEN D. CANDLER AND General CLEMENT A. EVANS Vo. 3 1906

Fish, William Hansell.—The history of the state, as well as that of a nation is chiefly the chronicles of the lives and deeds of those who have conferred honor and dignity upon society, whether in the broad sphere of public labors or in the more circumscribed realm of individual activity. Georgia has ever had reason to be proud of the standing of its bench and bar and by William H. Fish, the present chief justice of the supreme court of the state, has this high prestige been maintained. He was born in the city of Macon, Ga., May 12, 1849, a son of Judge George W. and Martha E. (Hansell) Fish. His paternal grandparents are William and Sarah (Harvard) Fish, who removed from Washington county to Baldwin county, Ga., where they continued to reside until their death. His maternal grandparents, William Y. and Susan (Harris) Hansell, passed the closing year of their lives in Cobb county, Ga., whither they removed from Baldwin county. Judge Fish is a nephew of Judge Augustin H. Hansell, of Thomasville, Ga., and a grandnephew of Judge Iverson L. Harris, a former justice of the supreme court of Georgia. Judge Fish was reared in Oglethorpe, Macon county, where he received his early education. After due preparation he entered the University of Georgia, from which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1869, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Subsequently he took a course in the law department of the University of Virginia, but by reason of the death of his father he was forced to discontinue his studies in that institution before receiving a degree. He was admitted to the bar, at Oglethorpe in 1871 and he built up an extensive practice in the southwestern judicial circuit. In January, 1877, he was appointed judge of the county court in Macon county, which office he held continuously until September, 1891, when he was elected to the bench of the superior court of the southwestern circuit, to fill an unexpired term. Subsequently he was twice elected judge of that circuit, without opposition. In 1896, just after his second reelection to this office, he was elected associated justice of the supreme court of the state, and in the allotment of terms he drew the short term, of two years. In 1898 and again in 1904 he was reelected as associate justice, for full terms. In September, 1905, upon the death of Chief Justice Thomas J. Simmons, he was appointed to his present office, that of chief justice. He spares neither time nor labor in his legal investigations and preparation, handling legal questions with marked clearness of illustration, strength of argument and fullness and variety of learning. Judge Fish was a trustee on the University of Georgia from 1893 until 1905, when he requested the governor not to reappoint him, as he felt that his duties on the supreme bench precluded him from giving the proper attention to those demanded by his incumbency as trustee of the university. For many years he has been a trustee of Wesleyan Female College, at Macon. He has never held or aspired to any political office. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, in which he has served as steward for many years. In 1876 Judge Fish was united in marriage to Miss Mary P. Hines, of Sandersville, Ga., and they have one child, Nina, who is now the wife of Henry S. McCleskey, of Americus, Ga. Chief Justice Fish lived at Oglethorpe, until 1891, when he removed to Americus, Sumter county, where he has since maintained his home, though his duties as a member of the supreme court have demanded that he pass the greater portion of his time in Atlanta.
[Source: Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions & People, Vol. 2, Publ. 1906 Transcribed By: Maggie Coleman]

Flash, Henry Lynden, was born in Ohio, but spent his early life in New Orleans. He attended the Western military institute of Kentucky, and after graduating went to Mobile, Ala., where he engaged in business. He entered the Confederate army at the beginning of the war and served until the last year, when he became editor of the Macon Daily Telegraph and Confederate, in which many of his poems first appeared. In 1886 he moved to Los Angeles, California.
[Source: Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions & People, Vol. 2, Publ. 1906 Transcribed By: Maggie Coleman]

Hilton, Lee H., has gained precedence as one of the leading business men of Screven county, where his interests are varied and important and where he has gained success through the application of his fine energies and marked initiative and executive talents. He is president of the L.H. Hilton Company, of Sylvania, conducting one of the largest and most metropolitan mercantile establishments in this section of the state; is president of the Screven county bank, of Sylvania and of the Screven county oil mills. It will thus be seen, even at a cursory glance, that he has lent his aid and co-operation in the promotion of enterprises which greatly conserve the general welfare of the community, while he has also served in various office of public trust and distinction. Mr. Hilton is a native of the county in which he has attained to so notable success, having been born on the home plantation, about twelve miles distant from Sylvania, April 20, 1865, and is a son of James L. Hilton, who was born in Macon county, Ga., and who has resided in the West since 1875, -- now making his home in the city of Denver, Col. The mother of the subject of this sketch bore the maiden name of Mary Lanier and was born and reared in Screven county. She died in 1876, at Kearney, Neb., whither she had accompanied her husband in the preceding year. Lee H. Hilton secured his rudimentary education in the schools of Screven county and was ten years of age at the time of his parents’ removal to Nebraska, where he completed his educational discipline in the public schools and remained there until he had reached the age of eighteen years. He then returned to Georgia, and for the ensuing three years was employed as a salesman in a Savannah mercantile establishment. In 1886 he located in Sylvania and engaged in the mercantile business on his own account. Concerning the upbuilding of the magnificent business of the L.H. Hilton Company, it is found consistent to quote, with somewhat of elimination, from an article recently published in a local paper: “Upon locating in Sylvania Mr. Hilton established himself in the general merchandise business in a comparatively small wooden building, on Main street. There he remained about twelve years, during which his business increased so materially that he found it necessary to seek more commodious quarters and to call to his assistance a partner in business; this was in the year 1897. It was about this time that a one-story brick store was built by Mr. Hilton, in a more central location on Main street, and it was here, in the spring of 1897, that the L.H. Hilton Company was organized and commenced business as a chartered corporation, with a paid-in capital stock of $10,000. Mr. Hilton is president of the company and George M. Hill is its secretary and treasurer. With its constantly increasing facilities the concern grew more and more in favor with the people, and the planters in particular, owing largely to the fact that it made a specialty of buying every bale of cotton that could be purchased from the growers. When the company first commenced business in Sylvania the annual shipments of cotton from this place amounted to only about 1,500 bales. It is almost entirely through the efforts of this enterprising company that the cotton shipments from Sylvania have reached so notable an amount in the past few years, nearly 5,000 bales having been shipped in the season of 1905.” In 1903 the L.H. Hilton Company found it imperative to increase its capital stock to $25,000 and to build, opposite of the east front of the court-house, on Main street, one of the largest and finest business blocks in southeastern Georgia. The building is constructed of pressed brick and has trimmings of George marble, while all equipments and accessories are of the most modern sort. The block is two stories in height, with basement, is lighted with acetylene gas and supplied with artesian water. This building and the company’s warehouse afford an aggregate floor space of 26,000 square feet. The article from which the preceding quotations were made, continues as follows: “Here is the permanent home of the L.H. Hilton Company, truly one of the most enterprising and energetic business firms to be found in the territory between Savannah, Augusta and Macon. Within its walls is carried a stock of goods that would do credit to a city of 50,000 inhabitants, instead of a county site like Sylvania, the population of which barely exceeds 1,500. The retail trade of this concern is something enormous, and it is acquiring an enviable reputation as a wholesale house.” In addition to the various departments devoted to general merchandise, the company also handles all kinds of farming implements and machinery, buggies, furniture, hardware, etc. Mr. Hilton, the head of this great concern, which is a monument to his energy, discrimination, courage and financial acumen, is in the very prime of useful manhood and his reputation is without spot or blemish, as he has ever been actuated by the highest principles of integrity and honor, and is liberal and public-spirited in his attitude. In addition to his interests in this company he is president of Screven county bank and the Screven oil mills, and is the owner of valuable plantation property in the county. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Sylvania high school and is chief of the local fire department. He is an unswerving adherent of the Democratic party, and in 1900-01 represented his native county in the state legislature. No man in the county has done more to further its advancement and development and he merits the high esteem in which he is so uniformly held. On Dec. 2, 1886, Mr. Hilton was united in marriage to Miss Bessie Hill, daughter of E.H. Hill, of Screven county, and they have six children, viz.: Maud L., Corson L., George H., Louise, Dorothy, and L.H., Jr. The eldest daughter is now a student in the Wesleyan college, in Macon.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim Mohler)

Hinkle, Albert B., M.D., who is engaged in the practice of his profession in Macon, was born in that city, Dec. 9, 1865. His father, Dr. James B. Hinkle, a distinguished physician and surgeon of Southwestern Georgia, served during the Civil war in the Confederate army, enlisting in an Alabama company known as the “Montgomery True Blues” and afterward rising to the position of surgeon with the rank of major. He was known as the fighting surgeon; was for a time in charge of the prisoners at Camp Oglethorpe, and later had charge of hospitals at Mobile and Camden. Dr. Albert B. Hinkle was reared at Americus, Sumter county, Ga., in whose high school he graduated in 1883. Three years later he was graduated at Mercer university, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then began the study of medicine under the able preceptorship of his father. In the fall of 1887 he entered the medical department of the University of the City of New York, and at the same time further fortified himself in his technical work by taking special instructions in the various branches of the sciences of medicine and surgery under the most eminent teachers of the national metropolis. He was graduated, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on March 12, 1889, and immediately entered the New York post-graduate medical school and hospital, where, in addition to a regular course, he took a special course of study on the eye, ear, nose and throat and the treatment of their diseases. In June, 1889, he returned to Americus and entered into practice with his father, with whom he formed a partnership. In the autumn of that year he again entered the New York post-graduate college for more extensive study, and in September, 1897, after most successful work in his former field of endeavor, he came to Macon, where he has built up a fine practice, having well appointed offices, equipped with the most modern electrical and surgical appliances. In June, 1889, he received the degree of Master of Arts from his alma mater, Mercer university. Ever since graduating he has been engaged in general practice and special work, always keeping in touch with new discoveries relating to the science of medicine and surgery. He is now an assistant United States surgeon, with the rank of captain, being stationed at Macon, and is examining physician for a number of secret orders. Doctor Hinkle is a firm believer in the tenets of the Democratic party, and in religious matters is a member of the Mulberry street Methodist Episcopal church. He is prominent in fraternal circles, being treasurer of Fort Hawkins Lodge No. 418, Free and Accepted Masons; a member of all the branches of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; a past chancellor commander in the Knights of Pythias; a member of the Improved Order of Red Men, in which he has passed through the chairs, and belongs to the Independent Order of Beavers. On Sept. 4, 1890, he was united in marriage to Miss Nita O., daughter of Maj. A. Lewis, of Thomaston, Ga. Her father lost a leg during the military operations around Chattanooga in the fall of 1863. He now resides at Dawson, Ga. Doctor and Mrs. Hinkle became the parents of three children. Anita died at the age of six years, and James Burney and Carolynne Elizabeth are still living.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim Mohler)

Lyon, Richard F., lawyer and politician, was born in 1817. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and soon won a place among the leading attorneys of the state. He was elected by the legislature to a place on the supreme bench in 1860, to succeed Judge Benning. At the expiration of his term in 1866 he was succeeded by Judge Walker. He was a delegate to the national Union convention at Philadelphia in 1866, and to the stormy state Democratic convention of 1880. He continued to practice his profession at Macon , until his death in 1892.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Joanne Morgan)

Massee, Marion H., is one of the representative business men and honored citizens of Macon, where he is identified with industrial enterprises of wide scope and importance. He was born in Marshallville, Macon county, Ga., Dec. 31, 1869, and is a son of Oliver J. and Laura C. (Jordan) Massee, the former of whom was born near Marshallville, in 1849, and the latter near Reynolds, Taylor county, this state, in 1852. The paternal grandfather, Dr. D.W. Massee, came to Georgia from North Carolina, about the year 1827, having been a lad of seven years at the time. He became a successful planter and large slave-owner prior to the Civil war and was also an able physician and surgeon. He was a surgeon in the Confederate service and for a time in service professionally at Andersonville prison. The mother of the subject of this review, is a daughter of Henry Jordan, who likewise served valiantly as a soldier of the Confederacy. Her mother was a daughter of James Carson, who was prominent and influential in the Baptist church, having been one of the leading spirits in the “Missionary” wing when the separation from the “Primitive” Baptist organization took place, in the early part of the nineteenth century. Marion H. Massee was afforded the advantages of an excellent private school in his native town of Marshallville, the institution having been under the supervision of Prof. J.W. Frederick, and he has duly profited in later years by the lessons gained under the direction of that wisest of all headmasters, experience. In 1888, at the age of nineteen years, he came to Macon, where he gained his initial experience in the lumber business, as an employee of the firm of Hendrix & Williangham. He made rapid advancement, finally becoming vice-president of the Willianham Sash & Door Company, which position he retained three years, at the expiration of which he sold his interest in the business, in 1900. He then became one of the interested principals in the Massee Lumber Company, the province of operations being enlarged and a reorganization taking place, under the title of the Massee & Felton Lumber Company, of which he was made president, an office which he still retains. From a small retail business this concern’s enterprise has grown to be one of distinctive importance. The company now has a capital stock of $280,000 and a surplus fund nearly as great. Its business extends into almost every state east of the Mississippi river, with an especially large trade along the Atlantic seaboard. Mr. Massee is also president of the Redmond-Massee Fuel Company and vice-president of the Georgia Spool & Bobbin Company, both of Macon. He was one of the promoters and organizers of the now flourishing organization known as Yellow Pine Sash, Door & Blind Manufacturers’ association, and was its first president. He is aligned with the Democratic party, and while he takes no active or aggressive part in political affairs he never fails to vote on every question touching the general weal, always following the dictates of conscience in this respect, as in all other relations of life. He is a devoted adherent of the Missionary Baptist church, of which he has been a member since he was sixteen years of age. He makes his religion a part of his everyday life, ever endeavoring to observe the Bible motto, “Zealous in business, serving the Lord.” Such lives must ever offer both lesson and incentive. On Nov. 13, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Massee to Miss Annie Laurie Cleveland, daughter of Thomas S. and Annie (Wright) Cleveland, of Wartrace, Tenn. Of the three children of this union two are living – Thomas Cleveland and Marion Francis. Augustus Felton, the youngest, died in November, 1904, at the age of two years. Mrs. Massee is a niece of the late Judge Wright, of Rome, Ga., in the maternal line, and in the paternal line is descended from Jeremiah Cleveland, of South Carolina, who removed thence to Wartrace, nearly a century ago who was one of the promoters in the building of the North Carolina & St. Louis railroad, from Nashville to Chattanooga, Tenn.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim Mohler)

STONE, BARTON WARREN, planter, was born March 24, 1800, at Oglethorpe, Ga., and died January 14, 1884, in Montgomery; son of Warren and Martha (Bedell) Stone; grandson of John and Mary (Warren) Stone, the former a Revolutionary soldier. After her husband's death Mrs. Stone removed to a farm near the Dan River, Pittsylvania County, Va., below the Blue Mountains, carrying her children and servants. Her sons, Boston, Absalom and Warren, settled at a very early date west of Montgomery. Barton establishing himself upon a large plantation ten miles from the present city of Montgomery and built a handsome residence which he furnished suitably. He was a Methodist. Married: (1) to Caroline Walton, widow, of Macon County, Ga.; (2) to Carolina, daughter of Henry and Louisa (Houser) Whetstone, of Autauga County; (3) to Beatrice Wall of Coosa County. Children: by the first wife: 1. Mary, m. John Harris; 2. Sarah, m. Robert Motley of Texas; 3. Warren, m. Helen Benton; 4. Callie, m. Joe Harris; 5. George, killed at the battle of Seven Pines; 6. Eliza, m. James M. Lewis; by second wife; 7. Henry Lewis, physician, m. Willie Eliza Frazier; 8. Barton William. No children were born of the third marriage. Last residence: Montgomery County.
[History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume 4 By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, 1921 - Transcribed by AFOFG]