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Pulaski County,
Georgia
Biographies
Hon.
H.
A. Haskins. The personal
influence and financial stability of Hon. H. A. Haskins are the result
of patient application to farming, prudent investment and conscientious
discharge of life's responsibilities. After a life of probity and
industry, in October, 1913. he was elected to the office of ordinary of
Pulaski County, a position in which he has displayed marked judicial
capacity and high ideals of public service. Judge Haskins was born in
Pulaski County, Georgia, December 9. 1848, and is a son of Ottowa and
Elizabeth (Burkholt) Haskins. His father, a native of North Carolina,
came to Pulaski County as a child, was here educated, reared and
married, reared a family, and passed his active life in farming
operations, in which he was engaged up to the time of his death, in
1857. Mrs. Haskins survived her husband for some years, passing away in
1870. and both were buried in Pulaski County. They were the parents of
four children, of whom two now survive, and Judge Haskins was the third
in order of birth.
H. A. Haskins was given the benefits of a country school education in
Pulaski County and grew up on his father's farm. He was not sixteen
years of age when he left home and joined the army of the Confederacy
during the struggle between the forces of the South and the North,
becoming a member of Anderson's battery, in the Georgia Light
Artillery. He is said to have been one of the youngest artillerymen in
the army of the wearers of the gray, and saw some of the heaviest
fighting of the war, being in the siege of Savannah and in numerous
engagements in North and South Carolina. When his duties as a soldier
were honorably, bravely and faithfully discharged, the future judge
returned to his home in Pulaski County and took up farming, a vocation
which occupied his energies unreservedly until 1895. In that year he
was elected tax collector for Pulaski County, a position which he held
without intermission until 1908, when he again took up civilian
pursuits on his well-developed property, which by this time had grown
to large proportions and which necessitated his resignation from
office. In October, 1913, he was again prevailed upon to enter public
life by his many friends, and was at that time elected ordinary, an
office in which he has since become one of the most popular officials
of Pulaski County. Judge Haskins has always given his political support
to the democratic party. He has long been a member of the Masonic
fraternity, belonging to both Blue Lodge and Chapter, and has many
friends in that order. Although nearing his sixty-seventh year, he is
hale and hearty, fond of outdoor life, energetic in body and active in
his mental faculties, facts which show that he has led a life of
probity and clean living. In matters of public import the judge has
always been in favor of movements which make for progress and
advancement, and few men have lent more helpful support to the
enterprises resulting in an elevation of the standards of education,
morality and good citizenship.
Judge Haskins was married in Pulaski County, October 29, 1868, to Miss
Nancy J. Flemming, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Flemming, pioneers of
this county, and to this union eleven children were born, of whom only
one is deceased: William Bunyon, who is married, resides in Pulaski
County, and has five children; Miss Inez, who is unmarried and resides
with her parents; Mrs. Leah Holmes, who resides in Florida and has four
children ; Mrs. Frankie Turner, who lives in Pulaski County and has
four children; Lawrence, of this county, the father of three children;
Mrs. Katie Trice, who resides in Pulaski County, Georgia; Mrs. Bianca
Dykes, a resident of Alabama; Mrs. Bertie Lawson, of this county; H.
A., Jr., who resides in Pulaski County; and Mrs. H. A. Knight.
Source: A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 6 By Lucian
Lamar Knight
Joseph Mc. Hancock. There is
perhaps no public office involving more delicate responsibilities than
that of judge in ordinary, known in most states as the office of
probate judge. For its efficient administration there are required not
so much a technical understanding of law as a patience, industry,
commonsense judgment and a knowledge of humanity and impartiality which
inspire confidence in those who come before the court. These qualities
have been well exemplified in the Turner County ordinary, Joseph Mc.
Hancock, who has efficiently looked after the duties of the office for
a number of years, and who is recognized in that section of the state
as a man of unimpeachable rectitude and of the highest personal and
civic standing.
He was born in Pulaski County, Georgia, September 11, 1859, a son of
Joseph J. and Sarah (Watson) Hancock. His father was born in South
Carolina, and his mother in Georgia, the latter being of Irish
parentage, her parents having come from Ireland to Georgia many years
ago. Joseph J. Hancock became well known both as a minister and as a
farmer and planter, and died in 1879 at the age of sixty-two. The
mother passed away in 1895 at the age of seventy-three.
Judge Hancock is the youngest in a large family of eleven children. As
a boy he spent his days on the home farm, attended country schools, and
acquired a practical training for life on his father's plantation.
Subsequently he engaged in farming on his own account in that part of
Wilcox County that is now Turner County and it was as a farmer that he
laid the foundation for his successful career. He is still interested
in agriculture and has considerable land in Turner County.
His first important office was that of justice of the peace, and he
administered its duties in his home district for a number of years. In
1908 he was elected ordinary and has since been reelected, so that he
is now in his fourth successive term. Judge Hancock is a Royal Arch
Mason and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
His church is the Missionary Baptist, and he has always been a loyal
democrat.
In February, 1880, in Wilcox County he married Miss Mary W.
McCall, daughter of John and Missouri McCall, of a pioneer family in
that section of the state. To their union have been born eight
children. John, born in 1881, is now postmaster at Pinetta, Florida.
David, born in 1884, died in 1915. Miss Essie, born in 1887, is a
resident of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Charles, born in 1889, lives in
Turner County. Samuel was born in 1891 and lives in Wilcox County. Miss
Estelle was born in 1893 and now resides at Booneville, Indiana.
Joseph, Jr., was born in February, 1894, and is still living in Turner
County. Domer was born in 1899 and is attending school at Ashburn,
Georgia. All these children were born in Wilcox County.
Source: A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 6 By Lucian
Lamar Knight
Louis W. Mobley, M. D. One of
the oldest physicians in active practice in Dooly County is Dr. Louis
W. Mobley, who is a veteran of the Confederate war and has been in
active practice at Vienna for more than forty years.
He was born in Crocker County, Georgia, near Macon, March 4,
1842, a son of M. H. and Margaret (Owen) Mobley, his father a native of
South Carolina and his mother of Georgia. Grandfather H. A. Mobley
emigrated to Georgia and located in Crocker County, settling on a tract
of land on the east side of the Okmulgee River. M. H. Mobley, his son,
subsequently became a well known planter in that locality and died in
1892 at the age of eighty-one. His wife passed away in 1893 at the age
of seventy-one.
The oldest of three children, Doctor Mobley as a boy attended the
country schools and afterwards took a course in the Richmond Medical
College, where he graduated M. D. in 1873. His first practice as a
physician was done in Pulaski County, but after a year, in 1874, he
moved to Dooly County and established his home at Vienna.
During the war he enlisted in Company E of the Sixth Georgia Regiment
under General Colquitt, and was in many of the stirring battles and
campaigns of the war, principally in Virginia, North and South Carolina
and Georgia. He was never wounded, and was mustered out at the close of
the war.
He has also played his part in public affairs, and was elected a member
of the State Legislature in 1876, and was again elected in 1882 and in
1905. He is an active democrat, a member .of the Masonic Order, and
belongs to the Dooly County Medical Society.
In October, 1862, he married Miss Sarah V. McAfee who died September
14, 1867. In 1868 Doctor Mobley married Miss S. J. Cone, a daughter of
Judge W. B. Cone. Mrs. Mobley died September 5, 1905. Source: A standard history of Georgia and
Georgians, Volume 6 By Lucian Lamar Knight
W. L. Roebuck for the past
thirteen years has been one of the leading business men of Cordele,
where he is one of the executive officials in the Cordele Sash, Door
and Lumber Company. This is probably the largest and most important
industry of the kind in South Georgia.
He was born in Cochran, Georgia, April 3, 1874, the sixth in a family
of eleven children whose parents were W. T. and Priscilla (Dykes)
Roebuck. Both parents were born in Georgia, and his father served with
a Georgia regiment throughout the period of the Civil war, and was once
wounded in battle. For many years he was a farmer and planter in
Pulaski County, where he died in 1898 at the age of sixty-seven, and
his wife passed away in the same year at the same age.
As a boy W. L. Roebuck attended grammar and high schools at Cochran,
and at a comparatively early age entered the lumber business at
Mitchellville. He was first employed in a clerical capacity but rapidly
mastered all the details of the lumber trade and industry, and was with
one firm, five years. In 1903 he came to Cordele and became identified
with the Cordele Sash and Door and Lumber Company. He has for a number
of years been its vice president and treasurer. This company was
organized in 1898, and the first president was W. C. Acock, while Mr.
E. P. McBaraey is now president. The industry is one of the important
assets of Cordele, since it employs about seventy-five men, and has a
product which goes all over the Southeastern states. The company ship
many carloads annually of both finished and rough lumber and also sash,
door and general house building materials.
Mr. Roebuck has also made himself a factor in other affairs of that
city, is a director of the Cordele National Bank, and at the present is
serving as an alderman. He is deacon in the First Baptist Church, is a
Mason and Shriner, a Knight of Pythias and also an Elk.
On September 2, 1897, at Tifton he married Miss Lola Jessup, daughter
of Dr. P. A. Jessup, a well known Baptist minister at Tifton. Mr. and
Mrs. Roebuck have four children: Miss Evelyn, born at Cordele in 1898
and now a student in the high school; Mildred, born in 1903 and also in
school; Edwin born in 1908; and Barnwell, born in 1910.
Source: A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 6 By Lucian
Lamar Knight
HISTORICAL SKETCH BY COL. W. W. PAINE
The following sketch of the early history of this section was read
recently by Hon. W. W. Paine, of Savannah, before the Georgia
Historical Society of that city:
In the spring of 1818 the Indians appeared in force on the west side of
the Ocmulgee River, opposite the Telfair line, and murdered in cold
blood several families.
The citizens of Telfair County immediately armed and organized a
company, under the command of Capt. John Willcox. an old and much
respected citizen, and the father and grandfather of a family which has
made its impress on Southern Georgia, and for whom and in honor of whom
a county was named by the Legislature.
Captain Willcox and his lieutenant, Mitchell Griffin, crossed the river
with a force of thirty-six men at Jordan's Bluff, who came up with the
Indians, one hundred strong, a few miles in the interior.
In those days it did not take many hours to organize a force; every man
had his own rifle and his shot bag, containing his balls, patching and
flints, and attached powder horn; and with three or four days' rations
of parched corn and jerked beef in a haversack, he was ready for a
march.
The Indians had done much mischief, and, besides the murder of several
families, they had gathered a large number of cattle and were in full
retreat when this company came up with them in the open forest. A
battle was fought in real Indian style, each man behind a tree. The
firing was warm for an hour, when the Indians, from their numerical
strength, outflanked the whites, and compelled them to fall back. This
they did in good order at first, but a part of the whites became panic
stricken and fled, leaving the remainder of the command to contend with
five times their number. Mitchell Griffin fell while bravely trying to
rally his men, and in his death the county lost a good and true
citizen. He was senator-elect from Telfair County to the
Legislature. The killed, besides Lieutenant Griffin. were
William Mooney, Mike Burch, William Morrison, and-Nobles. The seriously
wounded were Moses Rountree, John Lawson, and the late Gen. Mark
Willcox, then a youth not over eighteen years old.
When the whites were compelled to retreat, Willcox was lying where he
had fallen, wounded with a ball in his head. Nat Stateham found that he
was alive, took him on his back and retreated after the rest, supported
and relieved by Wiley Ellison. These two men, although encumbered with
the form of their friend, made good their retreat, and by cautious
firing kept the Indians at a distance, and succeeded in reaching the
river afler a run of five miles with iheir wounded comrade.
The Indians lost many killed and a large number wounded. General
Willcox recovered from his wound, and lived many years, and was one of
the leading political spirits of his day.
Nat Stateham was a noted Indian fighter and a lieutenant in the army.
He distinguished himself on several occasions. During one of the
engagements it was necessary that a messenger be sent to inform the
officers in command of several companies of cavalrymen stationed eight
miles away of certain maneuvers by the Indians. The captain called for
a volunteer to bear the dispatch, and, no one stepping from the ranks,
Stateham, taking off his sword and handing it to a friend, said:
"Captain, I will go." "But you are my lieu-tenant," responded the
captain, "and will be needed." The reply of Stateham was: "Any of the
men can play the part of lieutenant, although they appear unwilling to
act the part of scout and courier."
Stateham mounted his horse, dashed through a heavy fire from the
Indians, reached the company in safety, and piloted the reinforcements
back in time to save the company.
The other survivor, old Daniel Campbell, "is a Scotchman, is as honest
as the day is long, and is as hospitable as he is honest."
Source: History of Pulaski County, Georgia : official history. Atlanta,
Ga.: Press of W.W. Brown Pub. Co., c1935.
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