Hon. Walter Colquitt Carter. A public service that is notable both for its length and for its high quality has been that rendered by Judge Carter, now United States commissioner at Atlanta. He has been commissioner of the United States Court in the city for many years, and at the present time is the only Federal official of that class in the city. Beginning with the year 1885 he has been continuously in the service of the United States Government at Atlanta, first as assistant in the office of the United States district attorney, then as clerk of the United States District Court, and finally as United States commissioner. With each year of increasing experience and familiarity with his duties the individuality of his service has come to mean more than his office ordinarily signifies.

Born in Murray County, Georgia, June 22, 1855, he is of old and substantial Georgia stock. His father, Col. Samuel M. Carter, was the son of Farish Carter, and both of them successively lived upon a plantation in Murray County where Judge Carter spent a portion of his early life. Before the war Colonel Carter operated an extensive plantation with many slaves. Judge Carter's mother was a Colquitt, daughter of Walter T. Colquitt, and a sister to the late United States Senator Alfred H. Colquitt.

For his early education Judge Carter was sent to Nelson County, Virginia, and afterwards was under the instruction at Baltimore of Richard Malcolm Johnson, who later became famous as a southern character writer. He finished his education in the noted old business college at Poughkeepsie, New York, and then returned to Georgia to take up his active" career. At the age of twenty-two he was elected a member of the State Legislature. Not long afterward he was appointed to a clerkship in the office of the United States district attorney under Ben H. Hill, Jr., who was then United States district attorney, and in 1891 was appointed clerk of the United States District Court, an office he held until 1911, a period of twenty years.

In November, 1898, he married Miss Nannie Sue Hill, daughter of Col. John M. Hill of Newnan, Georgia. Mrs. Carter's mother, whose maiden name was Susan Calhoun, was a member of the prominent Georgia family of that name. Judge Carter and wife have one son, Walter Colquitt Carter, Jr., born June 12, 1904.

Judge Carter has many genial qualities which manifest themselves both in his official and social relations. His steadfast loyalty to his public duties has brought him general public esteem, and at the same time he enjoys the friendship of a host of men prominent in politics, business and the professions. He is a member of the Capital City Club and the Piedmont Driving Club and in politics is a democrat.

Henry W. Grady, notable as a newspaper man and an orator, was born in Athens, Georgia, May, 1851, and died in Atlanta on December 23, 1889. His parents were Capt. William S. and Anne Elizabeth (Gartrell) Grady. He came of good stock. His father was of Irish blood, and his mother was Scotch. Through his mother he was related to quite a number of notable Georgia families, such as the Lamars, the Cobbs, the Moores, and the Bennings. His father—-a man of large estate, who inherited a full measure of the fighting blood of his Irish ancestry, promptly joined the Confederate army on the outbreak of the war between the states, and fell upon one of the battlefields of Virginia.

Mr. Grady's early boyhood was spent in Athens. Immediately after the war he entered the State University, and later took courses in the University of Virginia. The brilliancy which characterized his later life was shown even in early youth; and while a college student he made his mark and was prominent both at Athens and the University of Virginia, especially in an oratorical way in the various societies to which he belonged, and in the columns of the college papers. After leaving the university he bought an interest in The Rome Commercial, which he speedily made one of the brightest papers in the state. But after the loss of his investment, the young editor moved to Atlanta, where he bought an interest in The Herald. Financially that, also, was a failure and Mr. Grady's next move was to the New York Herald. He became Georgia correspondent of the Herald and editorial writer on the Atlanta Constitution. In 1880 he bought an interest in the Constitution and was a firm supporter of Governor Colquitt. He had become widely known as a Southern journalist, and in 1886 leaped into fame as an eloquent orator by his response to the toast, "The New South," at the dinner of the New England Society of New York.

Had Henry Grady been so disposed he could have spent the remainder of his life on the platform; but he accepted only a very few of the invitations which poured in upon him from every side. He took an active part in the local prohibition campaign in 1887, and made some of his greatest speeches in opposition to the liquor traffic. He delivered notable addresses at Dallas, Texas, in 1887; Augusta, Georgia, in November, 1887; at the University of Virginia in June, 1889; at Elberton, Georgia, in the same month; and at Boston, Massachusetts, in December, 1889—this last being but a very short time before his death.

 

A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 4 By Lucian Lamar Knight