Mcintosh County, Georgia biographies

THE REV. FRANCIS ROBERT GOULDING had the distinction of being a son of the first native born Presbyterian minister in Georgia. He came from the celebrated Midway colony which gave to the country eighty-three clergymen, besides a large number of lawyers, doctors, authors, statesmen, soldiers and scientists. His father was the Rev. Dr. Thomas Goulding, a very eminent Presbyterian minister, who was born in Liberty county, in 1786, a son of Thomas and Margaret (Stacy) Goulding. He was an eminent man in his church, one of the founders of the theological college at Columbia, S. C., held many appointments and was for thirty-five years one of the most useful ministers of the South. Francis R. Goulding had the best educational advantages and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1830. He then entered the theological school at Columbia, and after two years was graduated into the ministry. Immediately after entering the ministry he married Mary Wallace Howard, of Savannah, a woman of great piety and accomplishments, with a beautiful soprano voice. She it was who induced Dr. Lowell Mason to put music to Bishop Heber's famous hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," and it was first sung by her in the Presbyterian church at Savannah. Mr. Goulding served the church at Sumter, S. C., for two years and then became an agent for the American Bible Society. This position gave him an extended field of service, and being a close observer, he accumulated much information which later in life he made use of in his books. Of an inventive turn of mind, in 1842 he built a sewing machine a year or two before Howe's great invention was patented, but having no mercenary motives, he did not take the trouble to patent it. In 1843 he accepted a pastorate at Bath, Ga., the duties of which were light, and he put in his leisure time in writing a story which was published in the American Sunday School Union and well received. He then engaged in writing the book, upon which chiefly his literary reputation rests, "The Young Marooners." He spent three years in revising and correcting it, and submitted it to a New York publisher, only to have it rejected. He then sent it to a Philadelphia publishing house. The reviewer gave the manuscript to his little girl, and the child literally devoured it. Noting this he took it up himself and began to read it. The interest was so absorbing that he was not able to lay it down until he had finished it. The book ran through many editions in this country and was reprinted by six different publishers in Great Britain. It rivaled "Robinson Crusoe" in its fascination for the young, and even older persons found great entertainment in its pages.
Mr. Gouding then moved to Kingston, Ga., where for a time he taught school and put in his leisure hours on a work, "The Instincts of Birds and Beasts." His excellent wife, with whom he had lived in great happiness for twenty years, died in 1853, leaving him with six children. In 1855 he married again, Matilda Rees, who owned a beautiful home at Darien, Ga. This resulted in their moving there, and he resumed pastoral work, but still gave much time to literary pursuits. On the outbreak of the Civil War, though in poor health from malaria and hard study, he became a chaplain in the Confederate Army, and gave much time and service to the sick and wounded. In 1862 when Darien was evacuated by the Confederates, his beautiful home was burned, and his excellent library with a large mass of manuscripts was destroyed. At the close of the war he found himself an elderly man, with a family, and absolutely without means. He then resumed his pen as a means of support for his family, and wrote several other popular books, among them, "Marooner's Island," a sequel to "Young Marooners," "Woodruff Stories," "Frank Gordon," "Cousin Aleck," "Adventures Among the Indians," and "Boy Life on the Water." He died at Roswell, Ga., on August 22, 1881, nearly seventy-one years old, after a ministry of forty-eight years, leaving behind a record of a life spent in well doing, and the character of a purely spiritual man, with a literary reputation of a high order.
[Source: "Men of Mark in Georgia: a complete and elaborate history...", Volume 2 By William J. Northen - Transcribed by Barb Ziegenmeyer]