Haygood, Atticus G., clergyman and educator, was born at Watkinsville, Ga., Nov. 19, 1839. At the age of twenty years he was graduated at Emory college, having been licensed in his senior year to preach. During the Civil war he was a chaplain in the Confederate army, afterward served as presiding elder, and in 1870 to accept the presidency of Emory college, where he continued until 1884. This position he resigned in 1875 was elected editor of the Sunday-school publications of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. During his administration the institution was cleared of debt, and the endowment fund increased from $13,000 to $100,000. This happy condition of the institution was brought about mainly through the gift of George I. Seney, of New York, who was so favorably impressed with the good work of Dr. Haygood, that he gave $150,000 to the college. In May, 1882. Dr. Haygood was elected one of the bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church South, but declined because he felt that he could do more good by remaining at the head of the college. The following fall he was made the agent for the “Slater Fund,” and after resigning the college presidency in 1884 devoted his attention exclusively to this work. In May, 1890, he was again elected bishop, and this time he accepted. Subsequently he removed to Los Angeles, Cal., where he continued his labors as a bishop. He died in 1896. Before his death a writer said of him: “The South reveres him; the negroes love him; the North respects him; Methodism is proud of him, and the republic regards him as one of its strongest conservators.” He published a number of works, among which was “The Man of Galilee,” an argument for the divinity of Christ, which is said to have been the best utterance on the subject of the nineteenth century.
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Angelia Carpenter)

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