Wilkinson County,
Georgia Biographies

 John William Lindsey

 John William Lindsey. The incumbent of the important office of commissioner of pensions of Georgia, John William Lindsey has occupied this position for sixteen years, but for much longer has he contributed of his energies in the service of the state. In his long connection with public affairs is contained a service that for variety and usefulness is notable, and in each of his official capacities he has maintained an enviable reputation for devotion to duty and conscientious labors in behalf of the public welfare.
 John William Lindsey is a Georgian by nativity, born on a farm four miles from Irwinton, Wilkinson County, August 1, 1843, a son of Isaac and Martha (Moore) Lindsey. The family is of sturdy Scotch-Irish origin, the first ancestor in America having emigrated from Ireland to America subsequent to the War of the Revolution and settled in South Carolina. A great uncle of John William Lindsey, John Lindsey, distinguished himself in the ranks of the patriot army during the winning of independence, particularly in the battles of King's Mountain and Cowpens. James Lindsey, the grandfather of John William Lindsey, was married in South Carolina to Sarah Frost, and in 1814 they moved from Edgefield County, South Carolina, to Wilkinson County, Georgia, where the family has since resided, its members for the most part being engaged in agricultural pursuits.
 John W. Lindsey grew up on the homestead of his father, who was a substantial farmer of Wilkinson County, and his early education was secured in the public schools of Irwinton, which he was attending at the outbreak of the war between the South and the North, in 1861. He was soon accepted in the Confederate army as a private in Company I, Third Georgia Regiment, A. R. Wright, colonel, this being a regiment of young men which gave a splendid account of itself in some sanguinary fighting. As a soldier, Mr. Lindsey displayed those qualities which in after years were to gain him high position, being never absent from his company except when wounded. At the battle of Spottsylvania, May 14, 1864, he was severely wounded, and even to this day feels the effects of his old injury. An elder brother in the Confederate service met a soldier's death on the awful battlefield of Gettysburg, and another brother, also in the service of the South, received a dangerous wound.
 When his military service was completed, Mr. Lindsey, then a young man of twenty-one years, having decided upon the law as the profession in which his life's success would be worked out, entered the law office of Col. Eli Cumming, as a clerk, studying law in the intervals of his work, and in November, 1868, was admitted to the bar by Judge Green Foster, then presiding over the Oemulgee Circuit. Mr. Lindsey entered actively upon the practice of his profession at Irwinton, and has continued to be engaged therein ever since. His present law partner is the Hon. G. H. Carswell, of Irwinton, who takes care of the practice while Mr. Lindsey is in public service.
 For many years Mr. Lindsey has devoted his energies and abilities to the public service. He served for a number of years as mayor of Irwinton, was a member of the General Assembly in 1884-5, chairman of the board of education from 1892 to 1899, appointed a visitor to West Point Military Academy by President Harrison, in 1892, was the democratic elector from the Tenth Congressional District of Georgia, in 1892, and cast the vote of that district in the electoral college for Grover Cleveland for president and Adlai Stevenson for vice president, was elected solicitor-general of the Ocmulgee Circuit in 1888 by the General Assembly to fill the unexpired term of Robert Whitfield, resigned, was appointed commissioner of pensions by Governor Allen D. Candler in 1899^ re-appointed by Governor J. M. Terrell, in 1903 and 1906, when the office became elective, and since that time has been regularly elected over his opponents for this office. His earnestness, honesty and unassuming ability have retained him in office, and the final result of his progressive and faithful service is not only to firmly establish him in the confidence of the local public, but to give him a national standing on all matters connected with the pension service of the United States.
 Mr. Lindsey has long been a devout member of the Baptist Church. He has been a lifelong democrat, and has always been stanch in his support of his party's principles, policies and candidates. A firm friend of education, he has done much to advance its cause, and other issues for which he has faithfully labored have been the extension and systematic development of internal waterways and the building of a complete system of public highways, thus giving to every section quick and direct transit for persons and commodities.
 On January 12, 1869. Mr. Lindsey was married to Miss Julia F. Tucker, the youngest child of Judge John R. and Mary Rutherford (Mathis) Tucker, of Washington County, where both the Tuckers and the Mathises have been known and honored for generations. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey, two who are deceased: Maj. Julian R., of the Eleventh Cavalry, United States army, graduated from West Point in 1892 and has seen active service in Cuba, China and the Philippines; Mary Gertrude, who is the wife of James A. Carswell, of Wilkinson, associated with Mr. Lindsey in his extensive farming interests; and Mrs. Annie Florea (Lindsey) Price, who is her father's capable and energetic assistant in the pension office.
A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 4 By Lucian Lamar Knight

McArthur, Thomas Jackson, M. D., one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Crisp county, and secretary of the South Georgia medical association, is engaged in the practice of his profession in Cordele where he is also associated in conducting a well appointed drug store.  He was born in Wilkinson county, Ga., April 30, 1868, a son of John and Winnie (Rivers) McArthur, both of whom were born in that county.  The father removed thence to Bibb county, where he remained thirty years and then returned to Wilkinson county where both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives.  He was a planter by vocation, a man of strong character and much public spirit, served several years as tax collector, and it as his to render valiant service to the Confederacy as a soldier in the war between the states.  Doctor McArthur secured his earlier educational training in the schools of Wilkinson county, and his professional education was secured mainly in the Southern medical college in Atlanta, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894, duly receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine.  He forthwith engaged in the practice of his profession in Unadilla, Dooly county, where he remained nine years, at the expiration of which, in 1903, he took up his residence in Cordele, now the county seat of Crisp county, where his success has been equally pronounced, his practice having wide ramification throughout that section.  He is one of the proprietors of the Cordele sanatorium established Jan. 1, 1906.  The drug store in which he is a part owner is the finest in the town and has a representative supporting patronage.  Doctor McArthur is a member of the Medical Association of Georgia, ex-president of the Dooly county medical society, and secretary of the South Georgia medical association.  He holds membership in the Primitive Baptist Church.  In September, 1895, Doctor McArthur was united in marriage to Mrs. Sannie Horne, nee, Henderson, daughter of Tillet Henderson of Dooly county.  They have three children.
[Source: Georgia Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons,  Vol 2, Publ 1906. Transcribed by Renae Donaldson]

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