Taliaferro County, GA Biographies

Persons, Henry, farmer, soldier and member of Congress, was born in Monroe county in 1834. When he was about two years of age the family removed to Taliaferro county, where he grew to manhood. In 1855 he graduated at the state university, and then engaged in farming until the breaking out of the Civil war. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service as captain of a cavalry company and served until the final surrender. After the war he took considerable interest in public questions, and in 1878 was elected to represent his district in the lower branch of Congress. He served but one term.

Peters, Richard, was one of the founders and upbuilders of the present capital city of Georgia and one of the most honored citizens and pioneers of the state. He achieved notable success in temporal affairs, but all this was subordinate to the personal integrity and nobility of the man, whose life was one of signal usefulness and honor in all its relations. A cyclopedic compilation can not properly enter into exhaustive details, but in this work on the state of Georgia it is imperative that more than cursory consideration be given to the subject of this memoir. Mr. Peters was born in Germantown, Pa., now a suburb of Philadelphia, Nov. 10, 1810, and was a son of Ralph and Catherine (Couyughan) Peters. In Burke's Encyclopedia of Heraldy are indicated twenty different Peters families having coats of arms. In Burke's Landed Gentry the motto of the Peter, Peter and Peters families is the same. Burke inclines to the opinion that all sprang from the noble house of Peter, which was prominent in England prior to 1472. The coat of arms found in the home of William Peters, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, is virtually that of the present Baron Petre, of Essex, England. The name William was borne by Sir William Peter, LL. D., in the days of Henry VIII. In a most interesting and carefully compiled history of the ancestors and descendants of her father, Richard Peters, Mrs. Nellie (Peters) Black covers the field with almost reverent devotion. She traces the ancestral line to Ralph Peters, a clerk of the council, who died in Liverpool, England, in 1776. His two sons, Rev. Richard and William Peters, immigrated to America in the early part of the eighteenth century, taking up their residence in Pennsylvania, where Richard followed the work of the ministry and attained to venerable age, but left no descendants. William had married in England, where his wife died, and after coming to America he married Mary Brientnall, of a well known family near Philadelphia. Of this union were born three sons—Thomas, William and Richard. Thomas became a resident of Baltimore, Md.; William died young; and Richard, grandfather of him to whom this memoir is dedicated, became a man of distinction in Pennsylvania and in the history of the nation. He was secretary of war under General Washington and was judge of the United States district court in Philadelphia until the time of his death, in 1828. It has been said that "His services to the struggling confederation of colonies were of the highest and most unselfish order," and that "perhaps to him and Robert Morris, who was his friend and fellow townsman, the success of the war was more indebted than to any other two men among the civilians." He inherited from his father the valuable estate known as Belmont, just outside of the city of Philadelphia. His son Ralph, father of Richard, subject of this review, was not successful in financial affairs, and of him the son has said that while he married into the Couyughan family, which was at one time a prominent and wealthy one, his financial resources remained so meager that he was finally compelled to remove to what was then the backwoods country of Pennsylvania. George G. Smith, of Macon, Georgia, has written in regard to Richard Peters in practically the following words; apropos in connection with the foregoing statement: "Mr. Peters as a boy became fond of this wild life, but his kinsfolk were not willing for him to grow up under such conditions, and, against his will, he was sent to Philadelphia to grandparents, in order that he might attend school. He was not classically educated, but was fitted to enter the office of an architect. He became satisfied that the work of this profession would not suit him, and when the era of railroad Building was ushered in he went into the field as a rodman, at one and one-half dollars a day. Among his friends in the engineer corps was J. Edgar Thompson. When Mr. Thompson came to Georgia as chief engineer of the projected Georgia railroad he offered Mr. Peters, who was then about twenty-six years old, a place in the corps, with a salary of $1,000 per annum. Having saved no money, Mr. Peters borrowed $100 and through this means was enabled to come to Georgia. He located the line of the Georgia railroad and always considered this one of his best pieces of work. It was nearly eight years from the time the first engine rolled out of Augusta to the time it reached the terminus, now the city of Atlanta, and he was in the field from the start to the finish. The road reached Atlanta, which was then known as Marthasville, and Mr. Thompson said the name of the terminus should be Atlanta. None of the chiefs of the corps had had any hope for the upbuilding of Atlanta except Mr. Peters. He thought there was a future for the village, and what money he had to spare he invested in real estate. He married and bought a home, one of the best in the town at that time.
Then, as he had established a line of stages to Montgomery, he bought all that land stretching from Forsyth street down to South Broad, for a stable lot. He had never lost his taste for farming, and when on a visit up the state road at Octhcaloga station, he found a body of limestone land to be purchasable and bought a large estate there, having determined to establish a stock farm. He had rich friends who reposed implicit confidence in him, and his paper was gilt-edge, so he made many ventures and ran very narrow risks of failure, but he never failed. He did not make money farming. He spent it lavishly and did a vast deal for the up-country and the state by his experiments. He built a large flour mill, and to keep the fires roaring he bought 400 acres of land at five dollars an acre, more than a mile from the center of the little city. He said to me: 'Mr. Smith, few make fortunes by good judgment or hard work. Something they never foresaw takes place in their favor. Now here am I. I bought 400 acres of land merely to get wood from it, and it is in the heart of Atlanta.' He was always enterprising, and, associated with George Adair, he secured the charter and built the first street railroad in the city. He brought in Short-horns, Devons, Brahmin and Jerseys. He brought in Chester Whites, Berkshires and Essex swine. He brought in the Chinese sugar cane. He established nurseries, brought in fine dogs, planted clover and timothy, and had all that was rare and beautiful in floriculture. He spent no time on the streets. With his favorite servant man and his modest carriage he drove to the post office and the bank and back to his cosy, unpretentious home and his desk. From his study he attended to the work demanded. He was an Episcopalian of long descent. The bishops of that church made his house their home, and two of them, Quintard and Elliott, were so esteemed by him that he named his sons in their honor. He was my ideal of an old-time English gentleman. His mill venture did not prove a success, but was the real cause of his leaving an estate of nearly $1,000,000, since it led to the purchase of the land whose appreciation in value brought him a fortune. His family life, of which we have a beautiful picture in the book so lovingly compiled by his daughter, Mrs. Black, was ideal. His home was his paradise. He spent his leisure among his flowers and fruits and pigeons and poultry and fine cattle, and in his home he found all he wished for—realized his heart's desire. He was a slaveholder and true southerner in sentiment, but was opposed to secession. He was a blockade runner on a large scale, and nearly gained a fortune through his operations in this line.   Mr. Peters was united in marriage Feb. 18, 1848, to Miss Mary Jane Thompson, daughter of Dr. Joseph Thompson, of Atlanta. Living within six miles of where she was born, she has but one woe to fear in her honored age—'Woe be unto you when all men speak well of you/ Mr. Peters made by force and integrity his merits known. He never wrecked any railroads or turned any 'corners' in stocks. He modestly disclaimed any credit for his success, but he deserved much. He was as far removed from a snob as any rich and well born man I ever knew. He was really a great man and would have been a statesmen of no low order. He left seven children, of whom he was justly proud. Although not a Georgian by birth, much the larger part of his life was spent here, and he did as much for his adopted state as any man of his day. Mrs. Black, who edited and compiled the delightful volume from which these data are principally gleaned, is his second child. She was much noted during her young life for her tender care of the poor and for her strong individuality. She married General Black, of Screven county, who was in the legislature. He died and left her with three children. She is manager, and a capital manager, of the farm which was Mr. Peters' pride." Mr. Peters was summoned to the life eternal Feb. 6, 1889, and was laid to rest in Oakland cemetery, Atlanta. His widow, Mary Jane (Thompson) Peters, was born Dec. 31, 1830, a daughter of Dr. Joseph and Mary Ann Tomlinson (Young) Thompson, of Decatur, Ga. Mr. and Mrs. Peters became the parents of the following named children: Richard, Mary Ellen, Ralph, Edward Couyughan, Catherine Couyughan, Joseph Thompson, Stephen Elliott, Quintard, and Anna May. Richard is an influential citizen of Philadelphia. Mary Ellen (called Nellie) was born Feb. 9, 1851, and on April 17, 1877, married George Robison Black, who died Nov. 3, 1886, and who is survived by three children—Nita Hughes, Louise King, and Ralph Peters. Mrs. Nellie (Peters) Black is president of the Free Kindergarten association, and is a member of the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Ralph Peters, second son of the subject of this memoir, is a resident of New York and president of the Long Island railroad. Edward C. resides in Atlanta, is president of the Atlanta Savings bank and has the management of the Peters estate. Catherine C. is unmarried and resides in Atlanta. Joseph T. and Stephen E. died in infancy. Quintard was born in 1866 and died in 1894. Anna May is the wife of Henry M. Atkinson, one of Atlanta's leading capitalists.

Proctor
Anna Rebecca Proctor, wife of Lawrence Battle, derived, from both her father and mother, descent from long lines of distinguished ancestors, as will be seen by the following pedigrees, carefully compiled and verified by Mrs. H. D. Pittman. Her father, Hon. Beader Proctor, was lineally descended from the Byrds, the Willises, the Carters, the Screevens, the Beaders, and Landgrave Smith, afterward appointed governor of North Carolina. Her mother, Mildred Lewis, was the daughter of Dr. John Augustine Lewis and wife, Rebecca Ann Latimer; son of Fielding Lewis and wife, Nancy Alexander; son of Col. Fielding Lewis and wife, Bettie Washington; son of Major John Lewis and wife, Frances Fielding; daughter of Major Henry Fielding and wife, Frances Thompson, of Yorkshire. Through these lines the children of Anna Rebecca Proctor have a rich heritage in notable ancestors.
Hon. Beader Proctor, son of James Proctor, of Virginia, brother of William Proctor, was born in South Carolina, and later in life moved to Taliaferro County, Georgia, where he became a man of prominence and a leader in the affairs of the county. He was a man of refinement and culture and greatly beloved by all who knew him.   He married
Mary Mildred Lewis, daughter of Dr. John Augustine Lewis; son of Fielding Lewis and wife, Nancy Alexander; son of Col. Fielding Lewis and wife, Betty Washington, sister of President George Washington. (See pedigree.)
Dr. John Augustine Lewis married Mrs. Rebecca Ann Posey, a widow, nee Latimer, and had issue, .Mary Mildred, Elizabeth Ann, Fielding, Addison, Zachary Alexander, William Robert, and John Augustine.
Beader Proctor and wife, Mary Mildred Lewis, had issue, Ann Rebecca (Betty), Emily Mildred (Matilda), Virginia Elizabeth (Jenny), Nancy Alexander, George Washington and others. Of the daughters, all of whom were beautiful and accomplished women, Emily Mildred married Edmund S. O'Brien, a wealthy merchant of Georgia, and had a large family of children, among them: Marie Camille and Gladys. Virginia Elizabeth married Rev. Harrison Stubbs, of Georgia, and had children.
Edward S. O'Brien was a man of great ability; a co-trustee with Capt. James J. Battle of the large Battle estate in Georgia. He had a palatial home at Barnett, where he died a few years ago.
Ann Rebecca Proctor, the eldest daughter, married Lawrence Battle, of Barnett, Warren Co., Georgia, and had children: Claude Pierce, Marye Lulu, Minnie Adelaide, married James Frederick Allen; Maude Lillian, married Charles Rockwell Smith; Beader Lawrence married Marie Stella Allen; and John Hartwell Battle, married Bessie Cason.
Transcribed by Barbara Ziegenmeyer from materials provided from the research of Lynn Stephens Headley

Screeven—Bedan.
Header Proctor, through his mother, wife of James Proctor, derived descent from an English family seated at Wells, in Devonshire, England.
William Screeven, a Baptist minister, settled at Kittery, Maine, 1861 "So great was the persecution there that the greater part of the congregation, with their minister, fled, Oct. 16, 1682, and located on Cooper River, a few miles from Charlestown, and called the settlement Somerton, from their English home."   (Olden times of Carolina.)
James Screeven, his grandson, born 1704, married, 1736, Mary Hyrue Smith, born 1719, daughter of Thomas, and granddaughter of
Landgrave Thomas Smith, horn in Exeter, England. Came to South Carolina in 1691, where he received a grant of 40,000 acres of land. In 1698, he was appointed governor of the colony. His wife was a baronessin her own right. His brother, James, who accompanied him to America,went to Boston, and was the head of a large family of Smiths, one of whom, Abigail, married John Quincy Adams.
James Screeven, and wife, Mary Hyrne Smith, had six children; Ike fifth, a son, Col. John Screeven, who married, first. Patience Holmes;second, Mrs Elizabeth Bryan, daughter of Josiah Pendarvis, grand-daughter Of Col. Richard Bedan. They had many children. One of them, Elizabeth, born 1788, married —— Posey, and was the mother of Brig. Gen. Carnot Posey, C. S. A.
Another daughter, Mary Bedan, born 1794, married Stephen Proctor, and had children : Richard, James and Caroline. James Proctor moved to Taliaferro Co., Georgia, and was the father of Beader Proctor—this name, no doubt, a corruption of Bedan. Elizabeth Bedan having married a Posey and her sister a Proctor, establishes a close connection with the family of John Augustine Lewis, whose wife was a widow Posey, and their daughter, Mary Mildred Lewis, married Beader Proctor, son of James Proctor and Francis Byrd Willis, descended from the Screevens, the Bedans and Thomas Smith, governor of the colony of South Carolina, 1793.
Col, John Screeven, born November 23, 1750; died 1804; resided in Georgia.
Transcribed by Barbara Ziegenmeyer from materials provided from the research of Lynn Stephens Headley

Horace Moore Holden
Holden, Horace Moore, judge of the superior courts of the northern judicial circuit, maintains his home in Crawfordville, Taliaferro county, and has attained to distinction as one of the leading lawyers and jurists of that part of the state, while his was the distinction at the time of his first election to his present office, in 1900, of being the youngest judge on the circuit bench in the state. He was born on the homestead plantation of his father, in Warren county, Ga., March 5, 1866, a son of William Franklin Holden, of whom individual mention is made in this publication.
The future jurist assisted in the work on the home farm near Crawfordville in his boyhood days, and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the local schools. While he was still a boy his parents removed to Crawfordville, and here he began attending school in the autumn of 1872. His more fundamental discipline was supplemented by instruction in the academic schools at Harlem and Newnan. He attended a classical school taught by his cousin, Thomas Rhodes, in Newnan, Ga., in 1879. In the autumn of 1883 he was matriculated in the University of Georgia, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1885, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After his graduation he prosecuted the reading of law, with marked devotion and earnestness, and at the February term of the superior court in Taliaferro county in 1886 he secured admission to the bar, being nineteen years of age at the time. He began the practice of his profession in Crawfordville, and here he has continued the work, in which he has attained success and prominence. The grand jury of the county spoke of him at the time of his original candidacy for the circuit bench as a "man of lofty character and high integrity, a lawyer of eminent ability, and in every way qualified to fill this important position." Other endorsements of his candidacy throughout the circuit were equally unequivocal.
Judge Holden has always been a stalwart supporter of the principles of the Democratic party and in 1892 was the nominee of his party for representative of Taliaferro county in the state legislature. He has taken an active part in the work of his party and in 1898 was a member of the Democratic state executive committee, as representative of the tenth district. In 1896 he was a member of the Democratic campaign committee of the state, and in 1898 he also served as chairman of Democratic county committee of his county. In 1900, when but thirty-four years of age, he was elected judge of the northern judicial circuit, and his record on the bench has fully justified the confidence and support accorded him by the voters of the circuit. The appreciation of his efforts was exemplified in his having been chosen as his own successor in 1904, without opposition. His knowledge of law is broad and exact and this fortification, together with a naturally
judicial mind and an intelligent conservatism, eminently qualify him for the office of which he is incumbent.
Crawfordville was for many years the home of the "great commoner", Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, and in May, 1893, Judge Holden was master of ceremonies at the unveiling of the monument to the memory of this distinguished citizen of Georgia and of the nation, having previously been chairman of the committees which had charge of erecting the monument and preparing the inscriptions for the same. The monument was unveiled by Miss Mary Corry, a great-niece of Mr. Stephens, and a few days later this young woman became the wife of Judge Holden, their marriage being solemnized on June 1, 1893. Judge Holden is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church South, and his wife belongs to the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Holden is a daughter of Judge William and Mary (Stephens) Corry, of Greene county, where Judge Corry was a citizen of prominence and influence. Judge and Mrs. Holden have five children, namely: Frank, Howard Lewis, Mary Emma, Queen and Anna Frances.
[Georgia, Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form, Volume II, 1906, submitted by C. Danielson]

William F. Holden
Holden, William F., has been a man of distinctive influence in public affairs in Georgia and has filled various offices of trust and responsibility. He maintains his home in Crawfordville and is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Taliaferro county. His father, Thomas Holden, was born Jan. 10, 1811, at Greensboro, Ga., and was an infant at the time of his father's death, being carefully reared and educated by his devoted mother. He passed the greater portion of his life in Taliaferro and Warren counties. Of him it has been written that "He was a plain farmer, reasonably successful; a man of strong common sense, eminently pious but a member of no church." He died on Oct. 27, 1875. His wife, whose maiden name was Susan Akins, was a daughter of William Akins, of Taliaferro county. They became the parents of four children, all of whom are now deceased except the subject of this sketch.
William F. Holden was born in Taliaferro county, Ga., Sept. 15, 1830, and his youth was passed principally on the homestead farm. He received a fair academic education and as a young man he taught school for a time. In 1857 he was elected to the state legislature and was chosen as his own successor in 1859. He was in the general assembly when the state was passing through the fiery ordeal just preceding the dissolution of the Union, and was a prominent actor in the scenes that marked the strenuous deliberations in the capital of the state. He shared the views of Mr. Stephens and when the state was being urged to pass the ordinance of secession, was bitterly opposed to the action and was a zealous worker in the attempt to defeat the measure.
When his state finally seceded, however, he determined to give the Confederate cause the benefit of his services in the field, and accordingly raised a company of volunteers in Taliaferro county, of which he was made captain. The company was mustered into the Forty-ninth Georgia infantry and ordered to Virginia. Captain Holden was in service only a short time, physical disabilities compelling him to resign his commission and return home. President Davis afterward appointed him to a position in the quartermaster's department, in which he served until the close of the war.
In 1868 he was again elected to the legislature. It was at this session, it will be remembered, that the twenty years' lease of the state road was made. Mr. Holden was one of the prime movers in that connection. He introduced a bill to dispose of the state road, Aug. 30, 1868, and the final result was that the road was leased for twenty years, at $300,000 annually, half of the amount to be applied to educational purposes. Another measure which Mr. Holden introduced and was instrumental in bringing to enactment was the bill allowing defendants arraigned on criminal charges to testify not under oath on their own behalf. He introduced this bill on Sept. 5, 1868. Of this law the late and honored Gov. A. H. Stephen spoke in the following words, written in a personal letter to Captain Holden: "In my opinion this law will never be repealed or modified, and will therefore be far-reaching in its consequences to the poor and defenseless. Prisoners arraigned for crime will ever have the comforting assurance that, in conspiracies against them, they will have a chance to speak in their own behalf, and, perchance, many innocent persons may escape the penalty of the guilty. By this law the poor and defenseless have a guarantee of the dearest rights of the citizen." Again, when the legislature was in a turmoil and the people of the state were threatened with the domination of a general assembly composed of Negroes, backed by carpet-baggers and Federal soldiers, Mr. Holden was a member of the important commission which was sent to Washington to ask Congress not to interfere with their state affairs and to leave them to peaceful solution.
On April 21, 1882, Mr. Holden was appointed postmaster at Augusta, by President Arthur, this being one of the largest and most important offices in the state. He held the position three years, at the expiration of which he returned to Crawfordville, where he has since resided, giving his time and attention to the supervision of his extensive planting interests and resting secure in the confidence and esteem of the community.
On Sept. 1, 1853, he was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Moore, daughter of William B. Moore, a planter of Taliaferro county, and of this union were born five children, all of whom are living: William Oscar, Claude, John, Horace M. and Stella.
[Georgia, Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form, Volume II, 1906, submitted by C. Danielson]

William Henry Jones
Jones, William Henry, is a representative furniture dealer of Augusta, his finely equipped establishment being located at 1210 Broad street, where the enterprise is conducted under the title of the Jones Furniture Company. He was born in Taliaferro county, Ga., July 22, 1849, and is a son of Henry B. and Margaret (Rudisill) Jones, both of whom were likewise born in that county, where the mother died in 1871, and the father in 1895, the latter having been eighty years of age at the time of his demise. He was a soldier in the Confederate service during the war between the states, as were also three of his sons. Benjamin Jones, grandfather of the subject of this review, came to Georgia from North Carolina, as did also John Rudisill, the maternal grandfather.
William H. Jones was educated in the schools of his native county; was reared on the home plantation, where he remained until he had attained the age of twenty years, when he took a position as clerk in a general store, in Jefferson county. He later became proprietor of a general store in that county, thus conducting business from 1869 to 1897, when he removed to Augusta and established his present furniture business. He has succeeded in building up a most prosperous enterprise and is one of the reliable, progressive and popular business men of the city. In politics he is a stalwart adherent of the Democratic party, and both he and his wife are members of St. James church, Methodist Episcopal South, in which he is a steward.
On Feb. 17, 1876, Mr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Julia Elizabeth Palmer, daughter of William and Julia (Matthews) Palmer, of Jefferson county, and they have five children: Harry Hill Jones, the only son, is now associated with his father in business; Julia Matthews is the wife of Jesse Mercer Rainwater, their marriage having been solemnized Oct. 18, 1905; Estelle Lois is a student in LaGrange female college, at LaGrange, Ga.; and Susie Rae and Dollie Palmer, the younger daughters, remain at the parental home.
[Georgia, Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form, Volume II, 1906, submitted by C. Danielson]

Alexander H. Stephens
Alexander II. Stephens was born in Taliaferro County, Georgia, February 11, 1812, and graduated at Franklin College, Athens, Ga., in 1832, at the head of his class. Choosing and studying the law, he was admitted to the bar in 1834, and soon obtained a lucrative practice in the town of Crawfordville, in his native county.
After paying his debts, which he had incurred in obtaining his education, his first earnings were devoted to redeeming from the hands of strangers the home of his childhood, which had been sold after his father's death.
In 1836 he was elected to the Lower House of the State Legislature, where he served five years, devoting himself especially to the internal interests of his native State.
In 1839 he was chosen a Delegate to the Commercial Convention at Charleston, where he is said to have made a deep impression by his peculiar eloquence. In 1843 he was elected to the Senate of his State, and in 1843 he was elected a Representative in Congress from Georgia, as a Whig, retaining his seat until 1859, when he voluntarily retired. He served on many committees while in Congress, and delivered many speeches; and it was while he officiated as Chairman of the Committee on Territories, that the Territories of Minnesota and Oregon were admitted into the Union. After the first Kansas struggle in Congress, Mr. Stephens became a Democrat; and, in 1858, steadily sustained the Lecompton Constitution.
The disturbances following the Presidential election of 1860 called him from his retirement, and he made several speeches defending the Union and deprecating secession. The subsequent spring, however, having been chosen Vice-President of the Confederate States, he made a violent war speech at Atlanta, Ga., charging the responsibility upon the North, and declaring that the South would call out million after million, till the last man fell, rather than be conquered. In a speech delivered at Savannah in the spring of 1861, he says, " that slavery was the cause of the rupture; that the prevailing idea of Jefferson and most of the leading statesmen, at the time of the formation of the Constitution, was that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle—socially, morally, and politically wrong; that it would, in the order of Providence, soon pass away. But, said Mr. Stephens, “those ideas were fundamentally wrong. We propose to found the new Confederate Government on exactly opposite ideas. Its corner-stone rests upon the idea that slavery is the normal condition of the African; and this stone, which was rejected by the first builders, has become the chief stone of the corner of our edifice." Thus boldly admitting what had been always claimed by the North respecting the sentiments of the founders of the Republic.
Mr. Stephens's political life becomes consistent by remembering that he was a follower of Calhoun, as a champion of Southern interest and policy, throughout; He remained Vice-President of the Confederacy during the Rebellion; and, in May, 1865,after the surrender of General Lee, was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Warren, but soon after released. He has since written a book, entitled, "A Constitutional View of the Late War between the States, its Causes, Conduct, and Results."
Mr. Stephens is a shrewd and specious writer and debater, when on the wrong side of the question; and, for sagacity and devotion to the Southern cause, none has excelled him since Calhoun.
[Biographies of Two Hundred and Fifty Distinguished National Men, 1871, submitted by C. Danielson]

Holden, Horace Moore, judge of the superior courts of the northern judicial circuit, maintains his home in Crawfordville, Taliaferro county, and has attained to distinction as one of the leading lawyers and jurists of that part of the state, while his was the distinction at the time of his first election to his present office, in 1900, of being the youngest judge on the circuit bench in the state. He was born on the homestead plantation of his father, in Warren county, Ga., March 5, 1866, a son of William Franklin Holden, of whom individual mention is made in this publication. The future jurist assisted in the work on the home farm near Crawfordville in his boyhood days, and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the local schools. While he was still a boy his parents removed to Crawfordville, and here he began attending school in the autumn of 1872. His more fundamental discipline was supplemented by instruction in the academic schools at Harlem and Newnan. He attended a classical school taught by his cousin, Thomas Rhodes, in Newnan, Ga., in 1879. In the autumn of 1883 he was matriculated in the University of Georgia, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1885, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After his graduation he prosecuted the reading of law, with marked devotion and earnestness, and at the February term of the superior court in Taliaferro county in 1886 he secured admission to the bar, being nineteen years of age at the time. He began the practice of his profession in Crawfordville, and here he has continued the work, in which he has attained success and prominence. The grand jury of the county spoke of him at the time of his original candidacy for the circuit bench as a “man of lofty character and high integrity, a lawyer of eminent ability, and in every way qualified to fill this important position.” Other endorsements of his candidacy throughout the circuit were equally unequivocal. Judge Holden has always been a stalwart supporter of the principles of the Democratic party and in 1892 was the nominee of his party for representative of Taliaferro county in the state legislature. He has taken an active part in the work of his party and in 1898 was a member of the Democratic state executive committee, as representative of the tenth district. In 1896 he was a member of the Democratic campaign committee of the state, and in 1898 he also served as chairman of Democratic county committee of his county. In 1900, when but thirty-four years of age, he was elected judge of the northern judicial circuit, and his record on the bench has fully justified the confidence and support accorded him by the voters of the circuit. The appreciation of his efforts was exemplified in his having been chosen as his own successor in 1904, without opposition. His knowledge of law is broad and exact and this fortification, together with a naturally judicial mind and an intelligent conservatism, eminently qualify him for the office of which he is incumbent. Crawfordville was for many years the home of the “great commoner”, Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, and in May, 1893, Judge Holden was master of ceremonies at the unveiling of the monument to the memory of this distinguished citizen of Georgia and of the nation, having previously been chairman of the committees which had charge of erecting the monument and preparing the inscriptions for the same. The monument was unveiled by Miss Mary Corry, a great-niece of Mr. Stephens, and a few days later this young woman became the wife of Judge Holden, their marriage being solemnized on June 1, 1893. Judge Holden is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church South, and his wife belongs to the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Holden is a daughter of Judge William and Mary (Stephens) Corry, of Greene county, where Judge Corry was a citizen of prominence and influence. Judge and Mrs. Holden have five children, namely: Frank, Howard Lewis, Mary Emma, Queen and Anna Frances.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim Mohler)

Holden, William F., has been a man of distinctive influence in public affairs in Georgia and has filled various offices of trust and responsibility. He maintains his home in Crawfordville and is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Taliaferro county. His father, Thomas Holden, was born Jan. 10, 1811, at Greensboro, Ga., and was an infant at the time of his father’s death, being carefully reared and educated by his devoted mother. He passed the greater portion of his life in Taliaferro and Warren counties. Of him it has been written that “He was a plain farmer, reasonably successful; a man of strong common sense, eminently pious but a member of no church.” He died on Oct. 27, 1875. His wife, whose maiden name was Susan Akins, was a daughter of William Akins, of Taliaferro county. They became the parents of four children, all of whom are now deceased except the subject of this sketch. William F. Holden was born in Taliaferro county, Ga., Sept. 15, 1830, and his youth was passed principally on the homestead farm. He received a fair academic education and as a young man he taught school for a time. In 1857 he was elected to the state legislature and was chosen as his own successor in 1859. He was in the general assembly when the state was passing through the fiery ordeal just preceding the dissolution of the Union, and was a prominent actor in the scenes that marked the strenuous deliberations in the capital of the state. He shared the views of Mr. Stephens and when the state was being urged to pass the ordinance of secession, was bitterly opposed to the action and was a zealous worker in the attempt to defeat the measure. When his state finally seceded, however, he determined to give the Confederate cause the benefit of his services in the field, and accordingly raised a company of volunteers in Taliaferro county, of which he was made captain. The company was mustered into the Forty-ninth Georgia infantry and ordered to Virginia. Captain Holden was in service only a short time, physical disabilities compelling him to resign his commission and return home. President Davis afterward appointed him to a position in the quartermaster’s department, in which he served until the close of the war. In 1868 he was again elected to the legislature. It was at this session, it will be remembered, that the twenty years’ lease of the state road was made. Mr. Holden was one of the prime movers in that connection. He introduced a bill to dispose of the state road, Aug. 30, 1868, and the final result was that the road was leased for twenty years, at $300,000 annually, half of the amount to be applied to educational purposes. Another measure which Mr. Holden introduced and was instrumental in bringing to enactment was the bill allowing defendants arraigned on criminal charges to testify not under oath on their own behalf. He introduced this bill on Sept. 5, 1868. Of this law the late and honored Gov. A.H. Stephen spoke in the following words, written in a personal letter to Captain Holden: “In my opinion this law will never be repealed or modified, and will therefore be far-reaching in its consequences to the poor and defenseless. Prisoners arraigned for crime will ever have the comforting assurance that, in conspiracies against them, they will have a chance to speak in their own behalf, and, perchance, many innocent persons may escape the penalty of the guilty. By this law the poor and defenseless have a guarantee of the dearest rights of the citizen.” Again, when the legislature was in a turmoil and the people of the state were threatened with the domination of a general assembly composed of negroes, backed by carpet-baggers and Federal soldiers, Mr. Holden was a member of the important commission which was sent to Washington to ask Congress not to interfere with their state affairs and to leave them to peaceful solution. On April 21, 1882, Mr. Holden was appointed postmaster at Augusta, by President Arthur, this being one of the largest and most important offices in the state. He held the position three years, at the expiration of which he returned to Crawfordville, where he has since resided, giving his time and attention to the supervision of his extensive planting interests and resting secure in the confidence and esteem of the community. On Sept. 1, 1853, he was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Moore, daughter of William B. Moore, a planter of Taliaferro county, and of this union were born five children, all of whom are living: William Oscar, Claude, John, Horace M. and Stella.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim Mohler)

Jones, William Henry, is a representative furniture dealer of Augusta, his finely equipped establishment being located at 1210 Broad street, where the enterprise is conducted under the title of the Jones Furniture Company. He was born in Taliaferro county, Ga., July 22, 1849, and is a son of Henry B. and Margaret (Rudisill) Jones, both of whom were likewise born in that county, where the mother died in 1871, and the father in 1895, the latter having been eighty years of age at the time of his demise. He was a soldier in the Confederate service during the war between the states, as were also three of his sons. Benjamin Jones, grandfather of the subject of this review, came to Georgia from North Carolina, as did also John Rudisill, the maternal grandfather. William H. Jones was educated in the schools of his native county; was reared on the home plantation, where he remained until he had attained the age of twenty years, when he took a position as clerk in a general store, in Jefferson county. He later became proprietor of a general store in that county, thus conducting business from 1869 to 1897, when he removed to Augusta and established his present furniture business. He has succeeded in building up a most prosperous enterprise and is one of the reliable, progressive and popular business men of the city. In politics he is a stalwart adherent of the Democratic party, and both he and his wife are members of St. James church, Methodist Episcopal South, in which he is a steward. On Feb. 17, 1876, Mr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Julia Elizabeth Palmer, daughter of William and Julia (Matthews) Palmer, of Jefferson county, and they have five children: Harry Hill Jones, the only son, is now associated with his father in business; Julia Matthews is the wife of Jesse Mercer Rainwater, their marriage having been solemnized Oct. 18, 1905; Estelle Lois is a student in LaGrange female college, at LaGrange, Ga.; and Susie Rae and Dollie Palmer, the younger daughters, remain at the parental home.(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Tracy McAllister)

Robert R. Gunn.
    The feeling of self respect arising from the consciousness of talents well employed, is, in itself, an assurance of success. When a choice of the law is made by a young man, it means not only years of the most careful and diligent study but the assumption, later on, of responsibilities which mean as his life work, the balancing of might and right and often of life and death. There is little ease in the life of a busy lawyer and when a youth deliberately puts aside the allurements of a life of leisure that wealth and social environment make possible in order to devote every effort to become a useful and vital factor in the great scheme of life, he deserves some measure of credit and usually is abundantly rewarded. Among the thus situated young attorneys of Crawfordsville, Georgia, is Robert R. Gunn.
    Robert R. Gunn was born at Crawfordsville, September 23, 1893, and is a son of Ulysses S. and Olive Belle (Allford) Gunn. The father of Mr. Gunn was born in Georgia and for many years has been the leading merchant at Crawfordsville and a representative citizen. He is a member of the school board and is prominent in all local movements of moment. He married Olive Belle Allford and they have had six children, the eldest of whom was Robert R. and the other survivors, Mary Olive and Gladys, reside with their parents at Crawfordsville. On both sides the family connections are of high character, and the family home is a center of the pleasant social activities of the city.
    Following his graduation from the Crawfordsville High School, in September, 1910, Robert R. Gunn entered the University of Georgia at Athens, and in June, 1914, was graduated from the law department with credit. He was admitted to the bar in the same year and on returning to Crawfordsville went into the offices of Alvin G. Golucke. He has demonstrated his legal ability on many occasions individually, and enjoys an honorable reputation as a lawyer, and controls an important law business of this part of the county.
    Mr. Gunn is a Royal Arch Mason and belongs also to the Knights of Pythias. In college he enjoyed his connection with the Sigma Chi fraternity and retains his membership in the same. In politics he is identified with the democratic party but so far has given comparatively little attention to the field of politics, his profession closely claiming his time and interest. It is not too much to say that he seems to have a brilliant future before him.
A Standard History Of Georgia and Georgians by Lucian Lamar Knight Volume 3

B. R. Trotter. Proof is not wanting but rather abundant, that neither wealth nor influence are necessary in America to reach an honorable and independent position in life, and also that success comes more readily when natural inclination is given its way. Thus the well known journalist and publisher, B. R. Trotter, editor and proprietor of the Advocate-Democrat, at Crawfordsville, Georgia, might have been disciplined into becoming a fair agriculturalist had he remained on the home farm, but it is reasonably certain that he would have been a discontented one because all his inclinations directed to an entirely different field of effort. Had he not followed these natural leadings, even with some hardships, Georgia would have lost one of its earnest, capable, influential newspaper men.
    B. R. Trotter was born at Cleveland, Georgia, November 4, 1889, and is a son of B. and Jane (Reap) Trotter, the former of whom was born in Georgia in 1860 and the latter five years later. They are among the highly esteemed residents of Cleveland, the father formerly having been a well known farmer in White County. They have four children: 0. F., a resident of Atlanta, Georgia; B. R., of Crawfordsville; Mrs. Ernest Southard, of Decatur, Georgia; and Edward, of Cleveland, Georgia,
    In boyhood, at different places in White County, including Cleveland and Mossy Creek, B. R. Trotter had educational advantages, attending for a time the high school at the latter point. He then entered the printing office of the Cleveland Courier as an apprentice and afterward worked in other offices, first at Washington, then at Tifton, later at Eatonton and again at Washington, all in Georgia, subsequently establishing himself as a resident of Lincolnton, Georgia, where he was very active in public affairs and in 1914 was elected mayor of the place. From there he came to Crawfordville and purchased the Advocate-Democrat, the only paper of the county. Under his able management and with his introduction of improved machinery in the plant, its old prestige has not only been revived but its circulation is growing right along. Mr. Trotter conducts his paper as a democratic journal and his able editorials leave no doubt as to his opinions on both world-wide and local affairs. He is a man of considerable substance, owning entirely his electrically operated plant as well as a handsome residence property.
    On April 3, 1910, Mr. Trotter was united in marriage with Miss Ruby Dorsey, who is a daughter of W. H. Dorsey, her parents yet living in White County. Mr. and Mrs. Trotter have one child, Edith, who was born in November, 1914, at Lincolnton. Mr. Trotter is well known to members of the press in the state and his co-operation may always be counted on when movements are on foot looking toward further newspaper progress. Advertisers find his journal a fine medium, one of the important features of his office being all modern equipments for this branch of the trade.
A Standard History Of Georgia and Georgians by Lucian Lamar Knight Volume 3