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Denny, Walter M.
Denny, Walter M., of Pascagoula, is one of the leading members of the Mississippi bar and has been a prominent figure in public affairs, having represented his native commonwealth in congress and having lent dignity and honor to the State through his services in public office and in the practice of his profession. Mr. Denny was born at Moss Point, Jackson county, Miss., Oct. 28, 1853, and is a son of Walter and Nancy (McKennon) Denny, both native of Greene county, Miss. At the outbreak of the Civil war the father of the subject of this review enlisted for service in a company of Mississippi volunteers, but as he was too old for active field service he was transferred to a clerical position in the Confederate military department. He served as sheriff of Greene county, which he also represented in the State legislature. He was engaged in lumber manufacturing during the major part of his active business career, and the closing years of his life were passed in Moss Point, Miss., where his wife also died. Of their four children all are living. After duly availing himself of the advantages of the public schools, Walter M. Denny entered Roanoke college, Va., where he continued his studies for one year, while his technical discipline preparatory to entering the work of this profession was secured in the law department of the University of Mississippi, at Oxford, where he was graduated, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In earlier life he was engaged in the mercantile trade, at Moss Point, and in November, 1883, he was elected chancery clerk of Jackson county, continuing in tenure of this office for the long period of eleven years and resigning the same upon his election to congress, in November, 1894, from the Sixth congressional district of the State. During his term in congress Mr. Denny accomplished a most important work for his native State, securing an appropriation for the surveying of the channel for the port of Pascagoula. This survey was later completed and led to governmental appropriations for the work of deepening the channel to seventeen feet in the river and to twenty-one feet in the Pass. This work is now in process of completion and will be of inestimable value as a public improvement. Mr. Denny was a delegate from Jackson county to the State constitutional convention of 1890, and he has at all times shown a lively interest in the welfare of his home State, while he is an influential factor in the councils of the Democratic party in Mississippi. Since retiring from congress Mr. Denny has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession, in which he is now associated with his elder son, Walter M., Jr. Mr. Denny is a member of the Presbyterian church, as was also his wife, whose death occurred June 24, 1903. On March 30, 1875, Mr. Denny led to the marriage altar Miss Hulda Randall, who was born and reared in Jackson county, Miss., having been a daughter of Lyman and Celeste (Delmas) Randall, of Moss Point. Of this union were born eight children, all save one of whom survive their mother, their n(rest missing)
[Mississippi: Contemporary Biography Edited By Dunbar Rowland, 1907 - Transcribed by Therman Kellar]
Evans, Thomas Marshall
Evans, Thomas Marshall, who is engaged in the practice of his profession in Gulfport, Harrison county, may consistently be designated as one of the founders and builders of the progressive city which has been evolved from the little village of about 500 population which represented the town at the time when he took up his residence here, less than a decade ago. Mr. Evans was born in Americus, Jackson county, Miss., July 13, 1862, and is a son of Wesley G. and Susan (Carter) Evans, both of whom were likewise born in this State, the former in Greene county. Wesley G. Evans was numbered among those loyal men who donned the gray uniform and went forth in defense of the Confederacy when the Civil war cast its dark pall over the national horizon. He became a member of Company B, Stead's battalion of Mississippi volunteers, and during his term of service was principally engaged in skirmishing with his command in Mississippi and Alabama. While thus battling for the cause of the South he was elected to the legislature of his State, from Jackson county, and resigned his place in the ranks to assume the no less important duties of the office to which he had been chosen. He followed the vocation of farming, timber getting, and saw milling during the greater part of his active career and was also a minister of the gospel in the Methodist Episcopal church, South, preaching in southeast Mississippi for more than sixty-five years. Both he and his wife are now deceased and are buried in Coalville Cemetery, near Gulfport, Miss. Thomas M. Evans was born during the climacteric epoch of the Civil war and his boyhood days were passed under the conditions of the period of "reconstruction," when uncertain governmental and civic policies were in evidence here as elsewhere throughout the South. He, however, was able to secure such educational advantages as were offered by the public schools of the time, showing a marked predilection for study and making the best use of his opportunities. In his youth he was identified with farming and with the lumber industry, but in the meanwhile he determined to prepare himself for a wider sphere of endeavor. He accordingly took up the study of law at home, applying himself with diligence and marked power of assimilation and availing himself of such preceptorage as could be secured in directing his technical reading. He continued to be concerned with other lines of work until April 11, 1890, when he passed the examination which gained to him admission to the bar of his native State, said examination having been conducted before Judge Sylvanus Evans, of Enterprise, Miss. He began the practice of his profession at Purvis, Marion county, where he remained a short time and then located in Poplarville, Aug. 1, 1890, remaining there engaged in practice until 1893, when he removed to Scranton, where he continued his professional endeavors until 1896, passing the ensuing two years in Mississippi City. In the fall of 1898 Mr. Evans took up his abode in the embryonic city of Gulfport, which, as before intimated, had at that time about 500 inhabitants. Here he became one of the pioneer representatives of his profession, and in his office was held the first meeting of the mayor and board of aldermen of the newly chartered city. At this meeting he was elected city attorney, serving three years and being then re-elected, in 1901, for a second term of equal duration. He was one of the incorporators of the First National bank of Gulfport, which absorbed the business of the Bank of Gulfport, of which he had likewise been one of the organizers. In all that has touched the prosperity and best interests of the city, Mr. Evans has manifested an insistent and helpful interest, and he is regarded as one of its most loyal and public-spirited citizens, while he also holds precedence as one of the leading lawyers of Harrison county, retaining a representative clientage and commanding the esteem of all who know him. For five years he was a member of the board of education, in which capacity he did much to forward the interests of education in Gulfport. On the first Monday of January, 1907, he was elected to and assumed the duties of the office of police justice of the city of Gulfport, Miss., for the two ensuing years. He is an active worker in the ranks of the Democratic party and is an able advocate of its cause, while fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias. He was one of the organizers of the Twenty-fifth Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, South, of whose first board of trustees he was a member, as was he also of the building committee which had charge of the erection of the present attractive church edifice. On Dec. 17, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Evans to Miss Cora A. Abney, daughter of Dr. Henry C. and Sarah (Slade) Abney, of Poplarville, this State. Mrs. Evans was summoned into eternal rest, at Mosspoint, Jackson county, in 1894, and is survived by one child-Leah Abney. In March, 1895, Mr. Evans wedded Miss Mary C. Abney, daughter of Jessie M. and Sarah (Crosby) Abney, of Covington, La., and the three children of this union are: Stephen Glenn, Murcer Griffin and Mary Susan.
[Mississippi: Contemporary Biography Edited By Dunbar Rowland, 1907 Transcribed by Therman Kellar]
Ramsay, Charles Horace, M. D.
Ramsay, Charles Horace, M. D., a skilled physician and surgeon of Collins, Covington county, and an interested principal in the Williamsburg Drug Company, in the county seat, was born in Jackson county, Miss., Dec. 6, 1858, and is a son of Alfred H. and Jane (Fairly) Ramsay, the former native of Jackson county and the latter of Greene county, this State. The father of the doctor was a stanch supporter of the cause of the Confederacy when the inevitable conflict was precipitated between the North and the South, having become a member of Company B, Fourth regiment of Mississippi cavalry, in which he served with all of devotion and loyalty until the close of the war. He devoted the greater part of his active career to the lumber industry and died at Mt. Olive, Miss., Sept. 14, 1862, in the service of the Confederate army. His wife is now living at Gulfport. Doctor Ramsay secured excellent advantages in the schools of his native State, and for some time was a successful teacher in the free schools of Covington county, in the meanwhile deciding to prepare himself for the profession of medicine and surgery. With this end in view he was matriculated in the medical department of Tulane university, in New Orleans, La., where he was graduated and received his degree in 1886. He forthwith located in Jaynesville, Covington county, where he built up a fine practice and where he continued his labors most successfully until 1899, when he removed to Collins, discerning the superior advantages of this place and identifying himself intimately with its business, civic and social affairs, while his practice is of the most representative character and constantly increasing in scope, so that he finds his time and attention fully occupied. He is a valued member of the Covington county medical society and also that of the State, is a stalwart Democrat in his political adherency and has been both a member of the board of aldermen and a director of the school board since the town of Collins was incorporated. He is affiliated with the Masonic order, in which he has taken the ancient craft degrees, and with the Knights of Pythias, while both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church. On Sept. 6, 1893, Doctor Ramsay was united in marriage to Miss Lela Hubbard, daughter of William J. and Ella (Magee) Hubbard, of Simpson county, Miss., and they have four children, Ella Hubbard, Archie Carr, Granville Storey and Jane Fairly.
[Mississippi: Contemporary Biography Edited By Dunbar Rowland, 1907 - Transcribed by Therman Kellar]