Putnam County Biographies

WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERS, lawyer, was born October 17, 1826, at Eatonton, Putnam County. Ga., and died July 6. 1881, at Auburn. Ala.; son of James McCoy and Martha Jones (Alexander) Chambers, the former also a native of Putnam County, Ga., who lived at Eatonton until 1839, and then removed to Columbus, Ga. The father was a man of broad learning, high culture, strikingly handsome In person and filled positions of great usefulnens In the state. In society and In the church. For many years he was asociate editor of the Soil of the South, a loading agricultural journal, and before the War of Secession was a constant contributor to Harper's Magazine and other leading periodicals. He was a son of Henry and Mary Chambers, the former migrating from Virginia to Georgia about the time of the Revolutionary war. His ancestors came from England and were Immediately related to the distinguished family to which Sir William and Sir Robert Chambers, onspicuous In political and literary history f England, belong. The town of Chambersburg, Pa., was settled by three brothers, one of whom later went to Virginia and from that brother the Georgia and Alabama Chambers families are descended. William Henry Chambers' maternal grandparents were William and Elizabeth Alexander, who lived in Putnam County, Ga., and for many years before their deaths in Russell County. Ala. The Alexander ancestors came from Ireland some years before the Revolutionary war and were recipients of magnificent royal favors In Virginia grants or land. The city of Alexandria, Va., received its name from that family.
William Henry Chambers received his early education In the common schools of Eatonton, Ga., and the Manual Labor School at Covington, Ga. He was graduated at Emory College. Oxford, Ga., In 1845. receiving the A. B. degree and taking first honors In his class; later he attended the Law School of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., graduating there with distinction In 1847. He Immediately began the practice of law in Columbus, Ga.. and rapidly rose to a high position In his profession. In 1854 he removed to Eufaula, Barbour County, Ala., and became associated In practice with Gov. John Eli Shorter and Col. Eli Shorter, under the firm name of Shorter. Chambers & Shorter, which had a large and lucrative practice until the War of Secession called them Into different fields of service of the Confederate government. After only a few years' residence In Barbour County he was elected to the state legislature, serving In 1859 and 1863. He was a life long Democrat and always active In promoting the party's welfare. After the War of Secession, upon retiring to his plantation in Russell County, he was elected to the state senate from the district then composed of Russell and Lee Counties. At the first call for volunteers he raised a company, "The Pioneer Guards," of which he was commissioned captain, at Eufaula, and promptly left for the front. Due to the loss of an eye he had to retire from the active service. He was a Mason; an Odd Fellow; and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. South; always Identified with its movements, serving In the capacity of steward, trustee and Sunday school superintendent and many times a delegate to annual and general conferences.
     Mr. Chambers was one of the most polished scholars of his day In the state. While not the author of books, he was a constant contributor to papers and periodicals. During the first three years of his practice In Columbus, Ga., he was editor of The Sun, an aggressive Democratic paper In the midst of a Whig constituency. For several years during his residence in Eufaula, Ala., he was editorial contributor to the Eufaula Times, and for many years while residing on his estate In Russell County was editor In chief of the Southern Cultivator, published In Montgomery County. For the last few years of his life he was professor of English literature and agriculture In the Alabama polytechnic institute at Auburn. He was a safe, conservative, conscientious counselor, an orator of force and eloquence, a lawyer of conspicuous ability and success at the bar, an earnest and ever active Christian, a gentleman of the highest refinement. In all the domestic and family relationships a perfect type, a man without guile. Married: May 19, 1847, to Anne Lane Flewellen, a daughter of Dr. Abner Holloway Flewellen, who was of Welsh parentage and lived in Columbus, Ga.. was a well educated man of broad culture and attained a high position In his profession. Children: 1. James Henry, of Atlanta, Ga., m. Mary Flournoy Abercromble; 2. William Lea, of Washington, D. C, m. Laura Ligon Clopton; 3. Porter Flewellen, of New York city, m. Alice Ely; 4. Martha Alexander, of Atlanta, Ga.. m. William Henry Alexander; 5. Robert Jones, of Montgomery, Ala., m. Ella Peet; 6. John Barbour, of St. Louis, Mo., m. Byrd Baker. Last residence: Auburn, Ala.
[Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921; Transcribed by C. Anthony ]

Hon. John Samuel Reid
No family in Putnam County has merited a higher place in general esteem on account of individual and collective worth and usefulness than that of Reid, of which the member mentioned above is now serving with admirable efficiency in the office of probate judge. Judge Reid is a Confederate soldier, and after the issues of the war were decided spent many years as a farmer and business man in Putnam County. He is now living at a good old age in Eatonton and has devoted a number of years to the public service, formerly as a member of the Legislature, and now in the wise and careful handling of the chancery matters that come before his jurisdiction.

John Samuel Reid, was born at Eatonton in Putnam County, Georgia, December 21, 1839, a son of Edmund and Elizabeth (Terrell) Reid. His mother was a cousin to Governor Joseph Terrell of Georgia and a daughter of Richmond and Kitty (Butler) Terrell. The Terrell family has a widespread membership throughout the South, and has been almost equally prominent in Virginia, Georgia and Texas. The Reid family came from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and to Georgia. It was established by the great-grandfather of Judge Reid, Samuel Reid. This "ancestor, Samuel Reid, came from the Northern part of Ireland or Scotland about the middle of the eighteenth century, and first settled in the Piedmont region of Pennsylvania. Some time during the Revolutionary war he raised a company and led it as captain in numerous skirmishes and engagements. Previously he had been a member of the Mecklenburg Convention which framed the original Declaration of Independence. He was prominent as a planter. The grandfather, Alexander Reid, was born in North Carolina, was reared and educated there, and became a farmer and slave owner. He was one of the early settlers of Hancock County, Georgia, and in 1806 moved to Putnam County, where he continued his activities as a planter and owned a large retinue of slaves. He served one term in the State Legislature, and was an active state's rights democrat. His death occurred at the age of sixty-three, and his wife passed away in 1860 at the same age.

Edmund Reid, father of Judge Reid, was the fifth among ten children. He was born in 1802 and died in 1881. As a young man he read law in Putnam County, but gave most of his attention to the business of planting. He sent five sons to the Confederate army.. Prior to the war he was a strong Union man, but after secession he did all in his power to promote the interests of the Confederacy. In 1855 he was a member of the Legislature, and his life was an important contribution to the upbuilding of Putnam County. His wife died in 1882 at the age of eighty. The family were all members of the Presbyterian Church. The eight children of Edmund and Elizabeth Reid were: Captain Richmond A. Reid, who served in the quartermaster's department of the Twelfth Georgia Regiment until the end of the war and died in Putnam County in 1881; James S., who was a lieutenant colonel of the Third Georgia Regiment, later a farmer in Morgan County, and died there in 1885; Ann C., wife of Maj. W. A. Wilson, lives in Morgan County, Georgia; Mary Frances is the widow of Judge Thomas G. Lawson of Eatonton; William T., who served in the Twenty-second Georgia Battalion of the State Troops, was a farmer in Putnam County until his death in 1912; the next in order in the family is Judge Reid; Edward T. Reid was killed at the Battle of McDonald, Virginia, while in the Twelfth Georgia Division;' Susan is the wife of P. W. Walton of Madison, Georgia.

Judge Reid spent his youth on his father's plantation in Putnam County, attended the public schools of Eatonton, and before the war was a student in the Georgia Military College at Marietta. At the age of twenty-one he enlisted in Company B of the Third Georgia Regiment, Wright's Brigade, and was present in a number of notable engagements in Virginia and elsewhere. He was severely wounded September 17, 1862, at Sharpsburg, Maryland, and was again wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg on Cemetery Heights, where he was left lying on the field and was taken prisoner. He was sent to Johnson's Island in Lake Erie and was held a prisoner there until the close of the war.

With the close of the war came the duties of peace in a devastated country, and for twenty-five years he was successfully identified with farming in Putnam County. In the meantime civic honors came to him, and in 1880 he was elected to the State Senate and in 1886 sent to the Lower House of the Legislature. While in the Legislature he proved a strong but generally conservative influence, and was more interested in the quality of legislation than in the quantity. In 1906 he was elected ordinary or probate judge, and his administration of that office has been characterized by a tendency to settle disputes among heirs without resorting to costly litigation, and in this office as in all other relations he has won hosts of friends and admirers.

Judge Reid is a Jeffersonian democrat, and is a member of the Methodist Church. In 1866 he married for his first wife Louise Dennis of Putnam County, daughter of William Dennis. Mrs. Reid died in 1879, the mother of five children, three of whom died in infancy. One of the survivors was Dr. E. Hunter Reid, who graduated from the Baltimore Dental College and was connected with the Georgia State Sanitarium when he died. William Dennis Reid, the only one living of the first marriage, is a scholar and educator, graduated A. B. from the Georgia State University, took his master's degree at the University of Wisconsin, and has also pursued post-graduate studies in Columbia University at New York. In 1881 Judge Reid married Miss Mary Johnston, who was born in Texas, a daughter of William and Mary (Reece) Johnston. Mrs. Reid died in 1910, without children.
Source: "A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians" by Lucian Lamar Knight, 1917 - Submitted by Brenda Wiesner

Maddox, Robert F.---Atlanta was an enterprising town of some 15,000 inhabitants when Col. Robert Flournoy Maddox, attracted by the wide-awake spirit of the progressive young metropolis, came up from Lagrange to identify himself with the forces of development which were then busily at work at his place at this place.  If the change of residence was fortunate for Col. Maddox it was equally as fortunate for Atlanta, because of the person in this resourceful and robust business man, Atlanta secured an important acquisition.  Even before the war, Col. Maddox was an active agent in promoting whatever promised to advance the welfare of the city, but it was not until after the war that his influential position in the world of finance enabled him to do his best work in this respect.  Public-spirited and enterprising he was always ready to put aside his own personal interests to serve the cause of his fellow citizens, while out of his private means he always responded cheerfully and generously to every call which the community made upon him.  Men like Col. Maddox have made Atlanta what she is today.  They have blazed out her pathway of progress and have been her pillars of strength.  Happy for Atlanta that she has had so many of them.  Col. Maddox was born in Putnam county, Ga., on Jan. 3, 1829, of sturdy Scotch parentage.  His father was Edward Maddox, an enterprising planter, who moved from Troup county to Putnam early in the century and married Mary F. Sale, of Lincoln county, Ga.  Notley Maddox, his paternal grandfather, was an officer in the war for American independence.  From his parents, Col. Maddox acquired the traits of character which are usually strongly accentuated in the Scotch, viz., integrity, sturdiness and piety, and throughout his long career he illustrated them with peculiar force.  On the farm he laid the foundations of the vigorous health, which he enjoyed for so many years of his life, and which enabled him to accomplish so many difficult undertakings, requiring physical capacity of endurance as well as mental and moral equipment of the very highest order. He was given the benefit of excellent academic advantages, and he supplemented what he learned at school by keeping his eyes open and cultivating his powers of observation.  He possessed the rare faculty of being able to assimilate what he learned, and when he started out in life he was well-equipped for success.  Locating in Lagrange, Ga., in 1851, he was shortly afterward elected sheriff, but subsequently gave up this office to become county treasurer.  But his chief interests were centered in manufacturing and he was more than ordinarily successful in conducting his business affairs.  During his residence in Lagrange, he served in the city council with such men as Benjamin H. Hill, John E. Morgan, Judge Bigham and others who were destined some few years later to figure with prominence in state politics. Being impressed with the idea that Atlanta was the coming metropolis of the state, Col. Maddox made the place his home in 1858, and until the outbreak of the war in 1861 he was actively identified with the interests of his adopted home, having taken his place from the start in the forefront of Atlanta’s enterprising business men. 
As soon as hostilities began, he closed up his store with patriotic promptness and organized the Calhoun Guards, of which he was made captain.  Shortly afterward, Governor Brown placed him temporarily in charge of 6,000 troops at Camp McDonald. In 1862 he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Forth-second Georgia regiment and in 1863, colonel of the Third Georgia reserves.  Intrepid as an officer, he was distinguished throughout his four years’ service at the front by his uncompromising devotion to the cause of the South as well as by his daring gallantry in defense of the flag.  On either side of the line there were few better soldiers than Col. Maddox and none braver.  Returning to Atlanta at the close of the war he was confronted with the necessity of starting life anew without one cent of money in his pocket, but, undismayed by the outlook, he went to work with characteristic determination, resolved to pluck success from the ruins which everywhere confronted him, and how well he succeeded, let the story of his subsequent life tell.  Rapidly getting on his feet again, he was elected in 1866 to represent Fulton county in the legislature, and while serving in this capacity, was appointed by Governor Jenkins as state agent to buy food for the destitute sufferers under an appropriation of $200,000 made by the state, and in return for his faithful performance of this duty he received the cordial personal thanks of the chief executive.  Subsequently, Col. Maddox rendered the city important service in both branches of the council, especially in the lower, where he served as chairman of the finance committee, and besides wiping out the city’s floating debt, succeeded in reducing the rate of interest from 18 to 7 percent.  Until 1879 he was engaged in the cotton business, and dealt in such side lines as tobacco and fertilizers, but in 1879 he organized the Maddox-Rucker Banking Company, which was eventually built up into one of the strongest financial institutions of the South and which he served as president until the time of his death.  But while the banking business absorbed most of his time, he was interested in various other enterprises, all of which brought him successful results. From 1889 to 1891 he was president of the Atlanta & Florida railroad.  Punctilious in all of his business engagements, he enjoyed the confidence of his business associates and the esteem of his fellow citizens.  He never swerved from the path of the strictest rectitude, and though he accumulated an immense fortune, there were no dirty shillings in the splendid legacy which he bequeathed to his children, no stain upon the honored record which he left behind him at the close of his long and useful career.  
In 1860 Col. Maddox was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Reynolds, daughter of Col. Permedus Reynolds, one of the leading citizens of Newton county.  Mrs. Maddox died in 1890.  Two children, both of whom survive, were the fruit of this union: Robert F., Jr., now vice-president of the Maddox-Rucker Banking Company, and Eula M., wife of Henry S. Jackson, son of the late Justice Howell Jackson of the United States supreme court bench.  Col. Maddox died at his home in Atlanta on June 6, 1899, having reached his seventy-first year, and the entire community was plunged in the deepest grief over the loss occasioned by his death.  He was an active member in the First Methodist church and was as liberal in his religious benefactions as in the support of public enterprises.
   (Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Joanne Morgan)

Maddox, Robert F.---Atlanta was an enterprising town of some 15,000 inhabitants when Col. Robert Flournoy Maddox, attracted by the wide-awake spirit of the progressive young metropolis, came up from Lagrange to identify himself with the forces of development which were then busily at work at his place at this place.  If the change of residence was fortunate for Col. Maddox it was equally as fortunate for Atlanta, because of the person in this resourceful and robust business man, Atlanta secured an important acquisition.  Even before the war, Col. Maddox was an active agent in promoting whatever promised to advance the welfare of the city, but it was not until after the war that his influential position in the world of finance enabled him to do his best work in this respect.  Public-spirited and enterprising he was always ready to put aside his own personal interests to serve the cause of his fellow citizens, while out of his private means he always responded cheerfully and generously to every call which the community made upon him.  Men like Col. Maddox have made Atlanta what she is today.  They have blazed out her pathway of progress and have been her pillars of strength.  Happy for Atlanta that she has had so many of them.  Col. Maddox was born in Putnam county, Ga., on Jan. 3, 1829, of sturdy Scotch parentage.  His father was Edward Maddox, an enterprising planter, who moved from Troup county to Putnam early in the century and married Mary F. Sale, of Lincoln county, Ga.  Notley Maddox, his paternal grandfather, was an officer in the war for American independence.  From his parents, Col. Maddox acquired the traits of character which are usually strongly accentuated in the Scotch, viz., integrity, sturdiness and piety, and throughout his long career he illustrated them with peculiar force.  On the farm he laid the foundations of the vigorous health, which he enjoyed for so many years of his life, and which enabled him to accomplish so many difficult undertakings, requiring physical capacity of endurance as well as mental and moral equipment of the very highest order. He was given the benefit of excellent academic advantages, and he supplemented what he learned at school by keeping his eyes open and cultivating his powers of observation.  He possessed the rare faculty of being able to assimilate what he learned, and when he started out in life he was well-equipped for success.  Locating in Lagrange, Ga., in 1851, he was shortly afterward elected sheriff, but subsequently gave up this office to become county treasurer.  But his chief interests were centered in manufacturing and he was more than ordinarily successful in conducting his business affairs.  During his residence in Lagrange, he served in the city council with such men as Benjamin H. Hill, John E. Morgan, Judge Bigham and others who were destined some few years later to figure with prominence in state politics. Being impressed with the idea that Atlanta was the coming metropolis of the state, Col. Maddox made the place his home in 1858, and until the outbreak of the war in 1861 he was actively identified with the interests of his adopted home, having taken his place from the start in the forefront of Atlanta’s enterprising business men. 

As soon as hostilities began, he closed up his store with patriotic promptness and organized the Calhoun Guards, of which he was made captain.  Shortly afterward, Governor Brown placed him temporarily in charge of 6,000 troops at Camp McDonald. In 1862 he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Forth-second Georgia regiment and in 1863, colonel of the Third Georgia reserves.  Intrepid as an officer, he was distinguished throughout his four years’ service at the front by his uncompromising devotion to the cause of the South as well as by his daring gallantry in defense of the flag.  On either side of the line there were few better soldiers than Col. Maddox and none braver.  Returning to Atlanta at the close of the war he was confronted with the necessity of starting life anew without one cent of money in his pocket, but, undismayed by the outlook, he went to work with characteristic determination, resolved to pluck success from the ruins which everywhere confronted him, and how well he succeeded, let the story of his subsequent life tell.  Rapidly getting on his feet again, he was elected in 1866 to represent Fulton county in the legislature, and while serving in this capacity, was appointed by Governor Jenkins as state agent to buy food for the destitute sufferers under an appropriation of $200,000 made by the state, and in return for his faithful performance of this duty he received the cordial personal thanks of the chief executive.  Subsequently, Col. Maddox rendered the city important service in both branches of the council, especially in the lower, where he served as chairman of the finance committee, and besides wiping out the city’s floating debt, succeeded in reducing the rate of interest from 18 to 7 percent.  Until 1879 he was engaged in the cotton business, and dealt in such side lines as tobacco and fertilizers, but in 1879 he organized the Maddox-Rucker Banking Company, which was eventually built up into one of the strongest financial institutions of the South and which he served as president until the time of his death.  But while the banking business absorbed most of his time, he was interested in various other enterprises, all of which brought him successful results. From 1889 to 1891 he was president of the Atlanta & Florida railroad.  Punctilious in all of his business engagements, he enjoyed the confidence of his business associates and the esteem of his fellow citizens.  He never swerved from the path of the strictest rectitude, and though he accumulated an immense fortune, there were no dirty shillings in the splendid legacy which he bequeathed to his children, no stain upon the honored record which he left behind him at the close of his long and useful career.  

In 1860 Col. Maddox was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Reynolds, daughter of Col. Permedus Reynolds, one of the leading citizens of Newton county.  Mrs. Maddox died in 1890.  Two children, both of whom survive, were the fruit of this union: Robert F., Jr., now vice-president of the Maddox-Rucker Banking Company, and Eula M., wife of Henry S. Jackson, son of the late Justice Howell Jackson of the United States supreme court bench.  Col. Maddox died at his home in Atlanta on June 6, 1899, having reached his seventy-first year, and the entire community was plunged in the deepest grief over the loss occasioned by his death.  He was an active member in the First Methodist church and was as liberal in his religious benefactions as in the support of public enterprises.

   (Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Joanne Morgan)

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