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Warren
County, Georgia
Biographies
Fort, Tomlinson, physician and
legislator was born on July 14, 1787, in Warren county, where his
father, Arthur Fort, settled some time before the Revolution. He
received his education at home, subsequently graduating at the Medical
University of Pennsylvania, under the celebrated Dr. Rush, and began
the practice of his profession at Milledgeville. In the War of
1812 he commanded a company and received a wound in the knee that made
him a cripple for life. For twelve years he served in the state
legislature; edited the old Federal Union for several years; was
elected representative in Congress in 1823 and served one term; was for
some time president of the Central bank of Georgia, and for twelve
years one of the trustees of the state university. In 1819 he
published a work called “Fort’s Medical Practice,” in which he attacked
many of the old errors of his profession and which marked him as a
progressive man. His valuable collection of books and papers was
destroyed by the Federal army on its march to the sea. He died at
Milledgeville on May 17, 1859.
(Source: Georgia
Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II,
by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Renae Donaldson)
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)
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