WILLIAM
HARRIS CRAWFORD
WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD, lawyer and statesman, who in his day was the
foremost man in Georgia and ranked high up in the national councils,
was then and is now considered by many thoughtful students of our
history to have been the greatest man credited to Georgia in all
of its history. He was born in Amherst county, Va., on
February 24, 1772, and died near Elberton, Ga., on September 15,
1834, in the sixty-third year of his age.
In 1779 his father, Joel Crawford, removed with his family to Stephen's
Creek, Edgefield district, S. C., about thirty miles above Augusta. The
next winter the British troops having overrun all of Georgia and most
of South Carolina, Mr. Crawford moved for better security into the
Chester district. Soon after that he was seized and thrown into Camden
jail as a rebel. There he remained the greater part of the summer and
was released on some of his neighbors becoming his security. In 1783 he
removed to Georgia and settled on Kiokee Creek, Columbia county, where
the family has since resided to this day, a period of one hundred and
twenty-five years.
Young Crawford had very limited school advantages. He went to school a
few months in South Carolina and showed such aptitude that his father
determined to send him abroad to Scotland for a complete education.
This plan fell through owing to untoward circumstances, and he was then
trained in the best of the country schools, obtaining a fair English
education until 1788, when his father died and the lad was compelled to
resort to school teaching to aid his mother in supporting a large and
almost helpless family. In 1794 the Rev. Dr. Waddell opened a classical
school in Columbia known as Carmel Academy. Ambitious to complete his
classical education, Mr. Crawford entered this academy and remained two
years, studying Latin, Greek, French, and Philosophy. The last year he
was an usher in the school and received for his services one-third of
the tuition money. In 1796 the young man went to Augusta in the hope of
securing such knowledge as would fit him for a profession. He obtained
a situation in the Richmond Academy, where he remained in the dual
character of student and instructor until the year 1798, when he was
appointed rector of that institution. During his residence in Augusta
he studied law and was admitted to practice.
In the spring of 1799 he removed to Oglethorpe and entered upon the
practice of his profession at Lexington in what was then called the
Western and was later known as the Northern Circuit. His industry and
talents soon attracted the notice of Peter Early, at that time one of
the foremost statesmen and great lawyers of the State, and a warm
friendship sprang up between the veteran lawyer and the ambitious
youth. He forged to the front as a lawyer so rapidly that when in 1802
Mr. Early was elected to Congress, Mr. Crawford became practically the
head of the bar in his circuit. Such a man as William H. Crawford could
not have kept out of public life, even if he had so desired, and
Oglethorpe county sent him for four years to act as its representative
in the legislature. In these four years he made such reputation as a
public man that in 1807, at the age of thirty-five, he was elected to
the United States Senate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of
the great and good Abraham Baldwin. He completed that term and in 1811
was reelected without opposition, and served until 1813. In these six
years he gained so rapidly in reputation that he was recognized by the
leaders at Washington as one of the strong men of the Nation, and in
1813 was tendered the office of Secretary of War by President Madison.
This position he declined, and he was then tendered the position of
Minister to France. He accepted this tender and resigned from the
United States Senate, and filled the position of Minister to France for
two years, from April, 1813, to April, 1815. He made a profound
impression on the great Emperor Napoleon, who said later that he was
the only man that he ever felt constrained to bow to when first
presented to him, and that he was the ablest man he ever met. On his
return from France in 1815 he found that he had been appointed
Secretary of War, and served a few months in this capacity. In October
following he was made Secretary of the Treasury by President Madison,
and during that winter was strongly solicited to allow his name to be
put in nomination for the presidency. This he declined, because he was
yet a young man comparatively and did not care to antagonize Mr.
Monroe. Notwithstanding his declination and the absence of a number of
his strongest and most intimate friends, who refused to attend when the
caucus was held, out of the one hundred and nineteen votes cast
fifty-four of them went to Crawford and sixty-five to Monroe. It was
believed at the time that if Mr. Crawford had consented to allow his
name to be presented that he would have been nominated without
difficulty. Mr. Monroe came to the presidency in 1817 and asked Mr.
Crawford to retain the treasury portfolio, which he did, and held it
during Monroe's two terms, which expired in 1825. When the election
came on toward the close of Monroe's second term Mr. Crawford was a
candidate, but a paralytic stroke received about that time so disabled
him that a combination made against him by other candidates was able to
defeat him, and John Quincy Adams was chosen President. President Adams
promptly tendered the treasury portfolio to him, but after nearly nine
years of service in that position under two presidents, and years of
very hard service they had been, with his impaired health Mr. Crawford
felt unequal to the duties and returned to Georgia.
In 1827, after the death of Judge Dooly, Governor Troup appointed Mr.
Crawford Judge of the Northern Circuit. In those days the position of a
circuit judge in Georgia was one of great honor and dignity, and Mr.
Crawford did not hesitate to accept. In 1828 the Legislature elected
him to the same office without opposition, and three years later,
though there was n candidate against him, he was again elected on the
first ballot.
He died while serving this last term and in the active discharge of the
duties of the office. He set out from home on his way to court on
Saturday, was taken ill that night at the house of a friend, Mr.
Valentine Meriwether, near Elberton, and died at 2 o'clock on the
succeeding Monday morning. His physicians were of the opinion that his
disease was an affection of the heart, and he died apparently without
pain. He was buried at Woodlawn, the family seat, now known as
Crawford, with no one near him but a little grandson of two years, who
had preceded him by about fifteen month.
Such is a brief outline of the life of this remarkable man. It is
proper, however, to take up in more detail certain phases of his
character and certain occurrences of his life.
The Crawford family is of Scotch origin and has an honorable history in
that country for the past seven hundred year. The seat of the family
was in county Lanark. The mother of the great hero of Scotland, William
Wallace, was a Crawford of the Lanark family. In America the Crawfords
seem to have settled in Virginia in the earlier days, and from there in
the Revolutionary period of our history, several branches of the family
migrated to Georgia. During the nineteenth century at least four
members of the family won great distinction in Georgia. George W.
Crawford was a Congressman, cabinet minister and Governor of Georgia.
Joel Crawford was a lawyer, soldier, planter and Congressman. Martin J.
Crawford was a lawyer, a judge. Congressman, and later a Congressman in
the Confederacy, and became a judge after the Civil War. In addition to
these was William H. Crawford, the greatest of them all. They were all
of the same ancestry in Virginia and were all cousins in some degree.
William H. Crawford was a man of most imposing appearance. He stood six
feet three inches in height, of large build, muscular and well
proportioned. His contemporaries state that his head and face were
remarkably striking in appearance and impressed every one who met him
with the belief that he must possess more than ordinary powers of
intellect. He was of fair complexion and, until late in life, ruddy.
His features indicated firmness and perseverance. His eyes were clear
blue and mild, though bright. He was affable in deportment, erect and
manly in his gait, but never ostentatious. Profoundly democratic in his
beliefs, he abhorred show and vulgar display. On one occasion late in
life he stated that during his entire life he had never met but two
dandies who were men of real ability, and he took little thought of
personal raiment beyond the necessity of neatness and cleanliness. He
was warm in his attachments and vehement in his resentments, prompt to
repel insults and equally prompt to forgive when an appeal was made to
his clemency. No personal labor was too great for him and his
perseverance was remarkable. To unsuccessful appeal was ever made upon
his charity. Entirely free from penuriousness and generous in money
matters, he yet lived a life of simplicity, and most cordially disliked
extravagance in dress or in living
Mr. Crawford's success as a lawyer was almost phenomenal. Through the
mischances of early life he was rather late in getting into practice,
but his success was immediate. This was due, first, to his thorough
preparation of his cases. He mastered a case before he went to court.
And, secondly, to the remarkable force with which he could set his case
before either judge or jury. He was not an orator in the usual sense of
the word, but he had a clear, concise, strong, logical method of
expression which impressed upon both judge and jury the merit of his
case, and it is said of him that he never lost a case where he had the
closing speech. Always brief in argument, he rarely exceeded half an
hour in presenting a case, and the fact that he could boil down into
plain, strong, terse sentences his argument to thirty minutes is
undoubtedly an evidence of wonderful legal ability. His success at the
bar and the certain fact that he would get into public life at once
attracted to him both friends and enemies. At that time the State was
still feeling the effects of what was known as the Yazoo Fraud, and
though the act had been rescinded and burned in a public bonfire, a
large number of men in the State were known to have been compromised by
it, and the majority of these men were in sympathy, with the political
faction led by John Clarke, son of the Revolutionary general, Elijah
Clarke.
The friends of the men implicated in the Yazoo Fraud made overtures to
Mr. Crawford, as a rising man. These overtures he rejected, but from
this grew the famous feud between Mr. Crawford and John Clarke, and
which later was taken up by Mr. Troup, as Mr. Crawford's successor in
politics, and was known as the "Crawford and Clarke Feud" or the "Troup
and Clarke Feud." Mr. Clarke was a strong and vindictive politician,
rude and unlettered, a good soldier of the most audacious courage, and
the idol of the common people. Any man of note who did not give him his
support became at once his enemy, and seeing in Mr. Crawford an
opponent to be feared, his hatred toward him was absolutely vitriolic.
Out of this bitter feud grew the two most distressful incidents of Mr.
Crawford's life. Mr. Clarke's friends put forward as a champion one
Peter Van Allen, a New Yorker by birth, but at that time
solicitor-general of the Western Circuit of Georgia. Mr. "Van Allen
fastened a duel upon Mr. Crawford, and Mr. Crawford, not above the
prejudices of his time, went upon the so-called field of honor with Mr.
Van Allen, on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, and Mr.
Van Allen was killed. Mr. Clarke then personally challenged Mr.
Crawford, who accepted, and in that duel Mr. Crawford had his left
wrist shattered by the pistol ball. It is distressing to think that a
man of the mental caliber of William II. Crawford should have allowed
himself to be dragged into affairs of this kind, but in considering
these things allowances must be made for the customs of the time in
which he lived.
This feud, which lasted for twenty-five years, influenced during those
twenty-five years every move in the public life of Georgia. Every
candidate was known as a Crawford or a Clarke candidate, and later on
as a Troup or a Clarke candidate. Mr. Crawford and Mr. Troup were both
accomplished men of letters aside from their natural ability, but
notwithstanding this for many long years Mr. Clarke held his own and
was twice elected Governor. After a few years Mr. Crawford got out of
the field of State politics into the larger field of Federal affairs at
Washington , and while this took him out of active conflict with Mr.
Clarke it seems merely to have been an additional cause of em-
bitterment in Mr. Clarke's mind. It must be conceded that Mr. Crawford
himself felt the same sort of animosity toward Mr. Clarke tempered only
by the fact that he was a man of larger measure.
In 1807 he entered the United States Senate. He was then a man of
thirty-five. He came immediately into collision with that veteran
debater, William B. Giles, of Virginia. In this contest he made such a
creditable showing that his reputation as a man of first-class ability
was at once established, and in the six years of his service in the
Senate he stood up in the front rank of the strong men of that body. At
first, like many men of his time, doubtful about keeping up a strong
navy, he later saw the wisdom of this, and when the troubles began to
thicken with Great Britain he became a warm and strong advocate of an
early resort to arms, as shown by his votes in the Senate upon every
question leading up to the declaration of war throughout 1811-12. As he
was made President pro tempore of the Senate during the session of
Congress in which the war was declared, and as it is contrary to the
custom for the presiding officer of the Senate to take the floor, he
does not appear as one of the speakers at that imminent moment, but his
position had already been made clear.
On two great public questions of interest at that time, the embargo and
the bank, his position was prompt and fearless and independent. He
opposed the embargo in the face of a popular and powerful
administration, and supported the United States Bank vigorously. It is
said, however, that later on he made it known to his intimate friends
that a careful perusal of the secret debates of the convention which
framed the Constitution, and the debates upon the adoption of that
instrument by States, produced a change in his opinion upon the
constitutionality of the bank.
Early in 1813, after declining the office of Secretary of War, he
resigned from the Senate and accepted the position of Minister to
France, and was never again a member of the lawmaking body of the
republic.
He was a minister to France during two very trying years for that
country, and upheld in every way the rights of his country, and made a
profound impression at Paris on those with whom he came in contact,
from the Emperor Napoleon down, and when the allies entered Paris in
1814 it is said that he was the only foreign minister who had held the
ground and remained in the city. Returning from France in 1815, he
served for a few months under President Madison as Secretary of War,
but in October of that year changed over to be Secretary of the
Treasury, which position he held during the remainder of Madison's term
and the full eight years of Monroe's two terms. In this position Mr.
Crawford rendered his greatest public service. He was one of the few
really great secretaries of the treasury that the country has ever had.
He came in office at a time when a thinly settled and undeveloped
country was struggling to overcome the losses of a severe and expensive
war. A wide and exposed frontier had to be cared for continually at
large expense. Domestic relations were disturbed and the people were
oppressed by monetary difficulties ; commerce, both home and foreign,
constantly fluctuating; commercial capital was deranged and a large
debt had to be managed, and above all he had to deal with a miserably
depreciated currency. The able men of that day agreed that it required
a ceaseless vigilance and profound ability to preserve the national
estate from bankruptcy. To the credit of Mr. Crawford it must be said
that at no period of the Republic was the public credit better than
during his administration of the treasury. All the national debt
obligations were faithfully met and the burdens of government upon the
people were made for the most part light and easy. It is said that the
difference between his estimated and actual receipts only varied as
much as ten per cent, while the estimates of his most distinguished
predecessors had varied from seventeen to twenty-one per cent. During
the nine years that he served in this most responsible and difficult
position he strengthened and builded the national credit in larger
measure than had yet been accomplished by the able men who had preceded
him, and held during the period the unlimited confidence of both
Presidents Madison and Monroe under whom he served. Albert Gallatin, a
former Secretary of the Treasury, at that time the most famous
financier in the United States, was extremely anxious that Mr. Crawford
should retain the office longer, and President John Quincy Adams was
evidently of the same way of thinking, as immediately upon his taking
office he asked Mr. Crawford to retain the treasury portfolio. This he
was compelled to decline, owing to the condition of his health.
With his retirement from the treasury Mr. Crawford's public life as it
affects the Nation at large ceased. Many people at that time thought if
his health had not been so bad he would have been elected at the time
Mr. Adams was chosen. As it was, he received an honorable vote, leading
Mr. Clay and coming next to Mr. Adams. Whatever may have been the
reason it is certain that Mr. Crawford's family hailed with great
pleasure the result, as it meant that they would be able to go back to
the delightful life of the home plantation in Georgia.
In 1804, after the seven years engagement which had been prolonged by
his financial situation, he married Susanna Gerdine (or Girardin), of
Augusta, and in that year settled at Woodlawn, which was his home until
the day of his death. Mrs. Crawford was as plain and unaffected in her
tastes as her distinguished husband, so that all through life there was
absolute harmony between them as to their methods of living. An
intimate personal friend of Mr. Crawford, in writing after his death,
said: "Mr. Crawford's house has often been styled 'Liberty Hall' by
those familiar with the unrestrained mirthfulness, hilarity and social
glee which marked its fireside and the perfect freedom with which every
child, from the oldest to the youngest, expressed his or her opinion
upon the topics suggested by the moment, whether these topics referred
to men or measures. His children were always encouraged to act out
their respective characters precisely as they were, and the actions and
sentiments of each were always a public subject of commendation or good
humored ridicule by the rest. They criticized the opinions and the
conduct of the father with the same freedom as those of each other, and
he acknowledged his errors or argued his defense with the same kind
spirit and good temper as distinguished his course toward them in every
other case. The family government was one of the best specimens of
democracy that the world had ever seen. There was nothing like faction
in the establishment. According to the last census before marriage and
emigration commenced the population was ten, consisting of father,
mother and eight children, of whom five were sons and three daughters.
Suffrage on all questions was universal, extending to male and female.
Freedom of speech and equal rights were felt and acknowledged to be the
birthright of each. Knowledge was a common stock to which each felt a
peculiar pleasure in contributing according as opportunity enabled him.
When affliction or misfortune came each bore his share in the common
burden. When health and prosperity came each became tremulous of
heightening a common joy."
As a husband Mr. Crawford was kind, affectionate and devoted. He never
made much show of his attachments to any one, preferring to show his
regard by his actions. His children were devoted to him as thoroughly
as those of any parent could be. He constantly instructed them at home
and made them stand, as long as his health would permit it, daily
examinations to see how they were getting along in their studies. The
Bible was his chief class-book, and the books of Job and Psalms were
his favorite portions. "It was not within the knowledge of any of his
children that he was ever guilty of profane swearing. He never made a
profession of religion, but was a decided believer in Christianity, a
life member of the American Bible Society, a vice-president of the
American Colonization Society, and a regular contributor to the support
of the gospel."
Both in his public and his private life Mr. Crawford was clean and
honorable. His faults were such as grew out of and were accentuated by
the bitter political strife in his home State which was not of his
making. His virtues were those of a high- minded and patriotic citizen
of the first rank as to ability. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina,
his contemporary, and himself rated as one of the first men of his day,
regarded Mr. Crawford as the ablest man he had ever met. Thomas H.
Benton, of Missouri, for thirty years a member of the United States
Senate, a strong man himself and a good judge of strong men, put Mr.
Crawford up in the front rank of the statesmen of his generation. As
previously stated, Napoleon said that he was the ablest man he had ever
met. These opinions are from men of his own day who were certainly
capable judges.
It is entirely fair to say that if one were to pick out the twenty-five
ablest American statesmen of the nineteenth century that William H.
Crawford would be well up in the first half- dozen names selected.
Through the toils and conflicts and bitter animosities of thirty years
of political strife not a stain ever rested upon his integrity, and
this of itself, when the period is considered, is the highest possible
testimonial to Mr. Crawford's character as a good citizen and a
patriotic public servant.
Source Men Of Mark In Georgia
Phinizy,
Ferdinand.
A true, noble and altogether worthy citizen was lost to the city of
Athens and the State of Georgia when the mortal life of Ferdinand
Phinizy merged into the immortal, Oct. 20, 1889. He was a member of one
of the honored and distinguished families of Georgia, and this
compilation exercises a consistent function when it enters tribute to
such a man. The memoir here appearing is an abridgment of one issued in
a private way shortly after his death, slight changes in phraseology
being made, in order that the sketch may be brought to the compass
demanded in a work of this nature. "Ferdinand Phinizy, the eldest child
of Jacob and Matilda (Stewart) Phinizy, was born at Bowling Green,
Oglethorpe county, Ga., Jan. 20, 1819. Bowling Green was the home of
his father and grandfather. Here they had lived honorable and useful
lives and here, in time and season, were gathered to their fathers. At
Bowling Green the subject of this sketch spent his boyhood days,
attending the schools of his native county. Here he imbibed that love
of nature and its works that ever remained with him, and here, amid the
rural scenes of that simple country neighborhood, enjoying the innocent
pastimes of that old-fashioned southern society that is gone and can
never be replaced or equaled, he laid the foundation for that healthful
and robust constitution that made in after life sickness a stranger to
him. While he was still a mere lad his father removed to Athens, where
Ferdinand was entered as a student in Franklin college, now the
University of Georgia.
For three years he pursued his studies in this venerable institution,
his career as a student being marked by diligence and honor, and he was
graduated as a member of the class of 1838. He thereafter passed a few
years on his father's plantation, at Bowling Green, but the Georgia
railroad being then in process of construction from Augusta to Athens,
he obtained the contract to grade the first eleven miles of the road
from Athens. This work he prosecuted to a successful completion, and he
may be said to have here achieved his first business success. Soon
afterward he moved to the city of Augusta, where he had numerous
relatives, and formed a co partnership with the late Edward P. Clayton,
an old college class-mate, and engaged in the cotton trade. The firm of
Phinizy & Clayton soon became one of the largest and best known
houses in the south. This firm being finally dissolved after some years
of prosperous life, he took with him as partners his two kinsmen,
Charles H. Phinizy and Joseph M. Burdell, establishing the cotton house
of F. Phinizy & Co. This was the name of the firm when he retired
from business, but up to the day of his death he was connected in some
way with the cotton houses of C. H. Phinizy & Co., F. B. Phinizy,
and Phinizy & Co. He was for many years a director and leading
spirit in the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company, an organization
he always loved and one in whose safety he had absolute reliance. He
was a director also in the Atlanta & West Point railroad, the
Augusta & Savannah railroad, the Northeastern railroad of Georgia,
the Augusta factory, the Bank of the University, the Southern Mutual
Insurance Company, and the University of Georgia.
For a long period he was the resident agent of the Southern Mutual
Insurance Company in Augusta, and even at his death the business of the
agency was conducted in his name. Some years before his death he
retired from the directorship of the various companies, retaining only
his seat at the council board of the Southern Mutual. Ferdinand Phinizy
did not enter the Confederate armies in the struggle of 1861-5, but
served the cause he loved well, ably and honorably, as a financial
agent of the Confederate government. As such he successfully handled
large amounts of cotton that ran the blockade of Union war vessels, and
succeeded in floating large blocks of Confederate bonds. He
lost heavily by the failure of the Confederate arms. He was married on
Feb. 22, 1849, to Harriet H., the only child of Hayes Bowdre, a well
known citizen of Augusta. On Feb. 7, 1863, his wife died, leaving to
the care of her husband eight children, all of whom survive their
parents except the eldest, Ferdinand Bowdre. The others are Stewart,
Leonard, Mary Louise (wife of Dr. A. W. Calhoun, of Atlanta), Jacob,
Marion Daniel, Billups, and Harry Hayes. On Aug. 11, 1865, he was
married the second time—to Anne S., the second daughter of Thomas and
Savannah (Glascock) Barrett, of Augusta. This union resulted in the
birth of three children, Savannah B., deceased, Barrett, and Charles
Henry. Thus it will be seen that eight sons and a daughter, together
with the sorrowing widow, were left to mourn the loss of the kindest
and most generous of men, the post affectionate father a family ever
had; and they cherish as the richest of their possessions the unsullied
life and untarnished name of him who in life was honored and respected
of men and in death was sincerely mourned by rich and poor, high and
low the name he bore and he loved and respected his ancestry. He was a
gentleman by birth and training and in all his long life he never
forgot that fact. He was proud of his paternal grandfather, the Italian
refugee, who landed penniless on American shores and by indomitable
will and persevering industry built up a large fortune. On both his
paternal and maternal sides he belonged to the best families in Virgina
and Georgia. He loved his home as men rarely love their domestic
habitations. He was happiest there. Generous, hospitable, cordial and,
above all, sincere, no guest ever crossed his threshold who was not
genuinely welcome. No man living or dead can or could say that
Ferdinand Phinizy ever deceived him in word or deed, and no one, be he
prince or peasant, who ever enjoyed his hospitality was ever welcomed
for formality's sake. Though for many years actively engaged in
business, his standard of commercial ethics was high, his hands were
ever clean. He was never known to say aught against any man, even his
most intimate friends can not recall one hard expression he ever
uttered against his fellow man. His charity and generosity were
boundless, known only to his God, for he literally allowed his right
hand to be in ignorance of what his left bestowed." At the time of his
death words of high appreciation and of definite regret found place in
leading newspapers in all parts of the state, and to his wide and
cherished circle of personal friends his death brought the fullest
sense of bereavement and loss. His name merits enduring place on the
pages of Georgia history.
Source: Cyclopedia of Georgia
Chief Justice Joseph Henry
Lumpkin was born in Oglethorpe County, on December 23, 1799, and
died at Athens, Georgia, on June 4, 1867. He graduated from Princeton
College in 1819 and was admitted to the bar at Lexington, Georgia, in
1820. In 1824 he was a member of the General Assembly. In 1833, in
connection with John H. Cuthbert and William Schley (later governor of
Georgia) he framed the state penal code.
In 1845 the Legislature created the State Supreme Court, He was at that
time in Europe, and without his knowledge was elected one of its three
judges. He was re-elected three different times, and served
continuously until his' death, a period of about twenty-two years.
EDWARDS, Allen Fullton,
railway
official;
born,
Crawford,
Ga., (Oglethorpe Co) June 14, 1876;
son of James M. and Elizabeth (Scudder) Edwards; educated in public
schools of Memphis, Tenn., private school, Charlotteville, Va., and
Columbia University; married at Detroit, Jan. 21, 1904, Christine Muir
Russel. Began active career as cashier in offices of the Yonkers
Railroad, Yonkers, N. Y., 1896, and became superintendent and general
superintendent of the road; went to Petersburg, Va., 1898, as general
manager of electric light and railway properties; removed to Detroit,
1900, to become general manager Toledo & Monroe Railway, also, in
1900, was made general manager Detroit & Toledo Shore Line R. R.,
of which became receiver, 1902; has been purchasing agent Detroit
United Railway since 1904. President National Pipe and Hose Coupler
Co., Monroe Roller Coaster Co.; treasurer Detroit, Jackson &
Chicago Ry.; director Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Short Line Railway,
Newport Stone Co., Monroe, Piers & Park Resort Co. Republican.
Presbyterian. Clubs: Detroit, Country, University. Recreations: Golf,
shooting and fishing. Office: 12, Woodward Av. Residence: 212 Seminole
Av.
Submitted by Christine Walters Source: The Book
of Detroiters by Albert Nelson Marquis 1908
Felton, William H.,
one of Georgia’s distinguished citizens, was born in Oglethorpe
county. He graduated at the University of Georgia and the Georgia
medical college at Augusta, and after practicing his profession for
some time became a planter in what is nor Bartow county. In early
life he united with the Methodist Episcopal church South and was
ordained a minister. Always interested in public questions, he
was elected a member of the legislature in 1851; was elected to
represent his district in the lower branch of Congress in 1876,
reelected in 1878; was elected to the legislature in 1884 and again in
1890, and was for ten years one of the trustees of the University of
Georgia. He is still living in Bartow county at an advanced age.
[Source: Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions &
People, Vol. 2, Publ. 1906 Transcribed By: Maggie Coleman]
Lumpkin, John Henry,
lawyer and legislator, was born in Oglethorpe county June 13,
1812. After graduating at the state university he attended Yale
college, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1834. The
following year he was elected to the lower house of the state
legislature; was made solicitor general in 1838; was chosen to
represent his district in Congress in 1842; was twice re-elected;
became judge of the superior court in 1849; was a member of the
Charleston convention in 1850; was elected to congress again in 1854,
and in 1857 was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor,
but was defeated by a small majority. He died at Rome in 1860.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by
Joanne Morgan)
Lumpkin, Samuel, was
one
in
whose
mortal tenement burned the flame of loftiest
manhood. He was known as one of the distinguished citizens of
Georgia and as a member of a family whose name has been one of
prominence in the annals of American history. He was presiding
justice of the supreme court of the state of Georgia at the time of his
death, and no more consistent memorial can be entered in the present
connection than that which was furnished in the report of the committee
appointed to prepare a tribute to his life, character and career for
presentation to the supreme court, in whose proceedings the same is
recorded. The memoir is here reproduced with but slight change:
“Samuel Lumpkin was born in Oglethorpe county, Ga., Dec. 12,
1848. He was reared and educated in his native state. He
came of excellent stock. The name of Lumpkin adds luster to the
political annals of the state of Georgia, and to the records of the
bench and bar of this commonwealth. One member of this
illustrious family was John Lumpkin, great-grandfather of the late
Justice Samuel Lumpkin. John Lumpkin was a man of force and
ability such as one would expect to find as the progenitor of men like
the Lumpkins. This John Lumpkin had nine sons, two of whom achieved
marked distinction. They were Wilson Lumpkin, Governor of Georgia
and United States senator from the state, and Joseph Henry Lumpkin,
first chief-justice of Georgia, whose judicial brilliance contributed
so largely to our admirable system of jurisprudence. Their brother,
Samuel Lumpkin, was the grandfather of the late Justice Samuel Lumpkin,
whose father, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, though he died at the early age of
twenty-six years, had already won an enviable position at the bar of
this state. The untimely death of this gifted man left young
Samuel, then of tender years, to care for his widowed mother and
sister. The father’s estate was not large, and no doubt this
young man encountered great difficulties in carrying the
responsibilities forced upon him by the loss of his father. His
mother, formerly Miss Sarah Johnson, of Oglethorpe county, however, was
an admirable woman, of fine discretion and earnest Christian character,
highly fitted to rear and train her talented son. He bore
manfully and bravely the responsibilities of early life, and if ever he
grew tired or faltered in his trust, the secret died with him. To
the day of her death the mother never ceased to ‘praise God for the
noble son given her,’ and the testimony of the sister is, ‘He was the
best and noblest of brothers.’ Those of us who knew him
intimately knew of the tender affection and anxious solitude which he
ever manifested for both of them. We might pause here and
profitably point a moral of well-nigh universal observation, that
responsibilities are essential to the development of true manhood; and
when to other responsibilities are added the care and support of mother
and sister, how immeasurably potent in that development are such
influences. Truly no man was ever completely great, nor can be,
who did not love his mother. Young Samuel Lumpkins attended both
the state university at Athens, and Mercer university at Penfield,
Ga. He was an apt student and ranked easily among the leaders of
his class. At the time of his graduation in the state university
he was seventeen and one-half years old. He was graduated in
1866, with first honor, sharing it with Carlton Hillyer and Frank
A. Lipscomb. The friends he made in college he retained through
life, and it may be said no man ever valued friendship more or
surpassed him in loyalty to that pure and precious relation.
Following his graduation from college, the young man taught school,
both in Georgia and Mississippi, for a brief time. While engaged
as a teacher he applied himself outside of school hours to the study of
law, and in 1868 he was admitted to the bar in Lexington, Ga. His
first partnership was with Col. Robert Hester, of Elberton, and he
afterward became a partner of Col. C. T. Goode, during the years
1870-1871, residing in Americus. He 1871 he retuned to
Lexington. About this time he was appointed a clerk in the house
of Representatives, the first public office he ever held. From
this on until his death he was for the most part in public
service. In 1872 he was appointed solicitor-general of the
northern circuit. In 1877 he was elected to the state senate from
his district. In 1884 he was elected by the legislature judge of
the superior courts of the northern circuit, and in 1888 he was
unanimously re-elected. His elevation to the supreme bench took
place in 1890, and seven years later he was appointed by the
chief-justice as presiding justice of the second division, which
position he held up to the time of his death. It will be noted
from the foregoing, that his legislative career covered only a brief
period, but it was of sufficient length to demonstrate that he was an
able and useful legislator. He served on the judiciary committee
and as chairman of the railroad committee, taking, in the latter
capacity a chief part in creating and establishing the railroad
commission of this state, now still existing. As
solicitor-general of the northern circuit he won great reputation as a
fair, able and fearless prosecuting officer. He was exceedingly
accurate and painstaking--characteristics that indicated him in every
walk of life. He made an admirable circuit judge, possessing
executive ability and at all times administering the law impartially
and wisely. He tempered justice with mercy. His charges to
trial juries were models of clearness and were marked by a fairness of
which the losing side could never justly complain. Another
characteristic of this great judge was his readiness to certify to
bills of exceptions imputing error in his official action. No
lawyer, we believe, will say that Judge Lumpkin would not give a fair
bill of exceptions. His judicial life as associate justice of the
supreme court, the last scene of his official service, will ever be his
life’s crowning glory. He served on this bench with preeminent
ability, justly winning reputation and renown. He was devoted to
legal truth and followed his matured convictions wherever they
led. He took no thought as to the effect of his decision upon
friend or foe and was never concerned beyond the inquiry, ‘what is the
law?’ but for this he was always deeply concerned. No case having
a legal claim upon his attention was unworthy of his best labor nor so
intricate his master mind could not untangle, simplify and solve
it. He was vigorous, strong intellectually, persistent in
purpose, steadfast in moral integrity, and untiring in the performance
of duty. He possessed in a remarkable degree the power of
statement, and that gift, coupled with his wonderful power of
discrimination, analysis and condensation made him truly a great judge
in his day. His opinions, found in the Georgia Reports, volumes
86 to 117, render him secure of judicial immorality. He was
married Oct. 17, 1878, at Lexington, to Miss Kate Richardson, daughter
of Walker Richardson and granddaughter of Col. A. M. Sanford, both of
Alabama. Judge Lumpkin left no descendants, his only child, a
son, having died at the age of four years. Mrs. Lumpkin survives
her distinguished husband and is the recipient of sympathy from his
multitude of friends throughout the state. She is a woman of rare
attraction, and her gentle influence over her husband, no doubt, was
most potent, contributing largely to his success. Judge Lumpkin
recognized in her more than a helpmeet; she was his constant
inspiration and he had the greatest admiration for her judgment and
high sense of justice. He has been heard to say that he
frequently discussed with her questions of abstract right and justice
and was much aided in the solution of such questions as a result of
these discussions. He was a most devoted husband In
this relation he showed his brightest and most attractive side.
In the language of the broken-hearted widow, in a letter written to a
member of this committee, ‘he was always so cheerful, never despondent
or discouraged; even during his last illness, through the long months
of pain and suffering, he saw only the brightness ahead; his face
always turned toward the sunshine.’ And the committee may add, she has
spoken truly, for he loved the light. This was
characteristic of the man,--to look always toward the sunshine, ever
and always in search of light, and those of us who knew him best,
hopefully believe, as the shadow of death’s wing shut all the sunshine
of this life from his mortal eyes, on the 18th day of July, 1903, a new
‘light’ opened up to his immortal vision, eternal light which bringeth
in and sustaineth the life everlasting.” Justice Cobb responded
to the committee’s report on behalf of the court, which fully concurred
in the report, a page of the minutes of the tribunal were devoted to
the memory of the deceased brother and the proceedings were ordered
published in the official reports.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by
Joanne Morgan)
Lumpkin, Thomas Beggs,
general
agent
in
Atlanta of the New England Mutual Life Insurance
Company, was born in Oglethorpe county, Ga., Sept. 10, 1868. At
the age of fourteen years he removed to Athens, where he soon found
employment. Coming to Atlanta in 1891 he engaged as traveling
salesman with the wholesale dry-goods firm of Ridley-Ragan Company,
remaining with them for thirteen years. During the last seven
years of this time he was a junior partner. Retiring from this
business in 1903 he took up life insurance, in which he has been very
successful. He has never been an aspirant for any office, but has
preferred to devote his time to his business and leave to others all
political ambitions. He is a member of the Piedmont Driving club
and of the Athletic club of Atlanta.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by
Joanne Morgan)
Lumpkin, Wilson, one
of
Georgia’s
most
noted sons, was born in Virginia, Jan. 14,
1783. While he was still very young the family removed to
Oglethorpe county, Ga., where for a time he attended the common schools
of the neighborhood, but his best education was obtained through
assisting his father as clerk of the superior court. He entered
politics very early in life, being elected to both branches of the
state legislature before 1815, when he was elected to the lower house
of Congress. In 1823 President Monroe selected him as a member of
the commission to fix the boundary between Georgia and Florida; he was
again elected to Congress in 1826; was re-elected in 1828, and in 1831
was elected governor of the state. He was one of the first
commissioners to serve under the Cherokee treaty and as a member of the
board of public works, appointed by the Georgia legislature, he
recommended the building of nearly all the lines of railroad now in
operation in the state. He died at Athens, Dec. 28, 1870.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by
Joanne Morgan)
Matthews, George,
one of the governors of Georgia under the constitution of 1777, was
born in the year 1739, in Augusta county, Va., where his father, John
Matthews, had settled upon coming from Ireland two years before. The
son distinguished himself in the wars with the Indians, and at the
battle of Point Pleasant in October, 1774, commanded a company of
Virginians, every man of whom was over six feet in height. This
company, with those of Captains Shelby and Stewart, made the successful
flank movement by way of Crooked creek that drove the Indians from the
field. The following year he was made colonel of the Ninth Virginia
regiment, and joined the American forces under Washington. He fought at
Brandywine; was captured at the battle of Germantown; after his
exchange he served with General Greene until the close of the war, and
in 1785 removed to Georgia, locating at Goose Pond, on the Broad river
in Oglethorpe county. In 1786, after only one year’s residence in the
state, he was elected governor to succeed Edward Telfair. In 1788,
after Georgia had ratified the Federal constitution, he was elected a
member of the First United States Congress. In November, 1793, he again
succeeded Edward Telfair as governor, was reelected in 1794 and again
in 1795. During his last term he approved the famous “Yazoo Land Act,”
and while he doubtless signed it with honest intentions the act always
remained a blot upon his otherwise irreproachable public career.
President Adams nominated him for governor of the Mississippi
Territory, but recalled the appointment on account of the “Yazoo act.”
Matthews went to Washington to chastise the president, but the matter
was compromised by Adams appointed Governor Matthews’ son supervisor of
public revenues in Georgia. In 1811 he was appointed by President
Madison to negotiate a treaty for the annexation of Florida. He
succeeded, but Madison refused to sanction the treaty and a second time
Matthews started for Washington to inflict summary punishment upon the
chief executive of the nation. On his way he was taken ill and died at
Augusta, Aug. 12, 1812.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim
Mohler)
Barrow, Pope,
soldier, lawyer, United States senator, was born Aug. 1, 1839, in
Oglethorpe County, Ga. He served in the confederate army. He was a
member of the state constitutional convention of 1877; and was a
representative in the Georgia state legislature in 1880-81. In 1882-83
he was United States senator to fill a vacancy.
[Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography: Contains
Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life
and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 –
Transcribed by Therman Kellar]
Gilmer, George Rockingham,
sixteenth governor of Georgia, was born in what is now Oglethorpe
county, April 11, 1790. He obtained his education at Abbeville
and at Waddell’s Carmel academy, after which he studied law and was
admitted to the Georgia bar. He served in the wars with the
Creeks and the second war with England; was elected to both branches of
the legislature, served several terms as a representative to Congress
and in 1828 became governor of the state. In 1836 he was
presidential elector on the Hugh L. White ticket and in 1837, when
internal affairs were in a delicate condition that required wisdom and
tact in handling, he was again called to the gubernatorial chair.
He was president of the electorial college in 1840 and for many years
served as a trustee of the University of Georgia. He died at
Lexington, Nov. 15, 1859.
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions,
and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906.
Transcribed by Marilyn Clore)
