Berrien County Georgia Biographies

Emmett Ball, MD

Ball, Emmett V., M. D. a successful medical practitioner of Ocilla, Irwin county, was born in Camilla, Mitchell county, Ga., on May 8, 1870, and is a son of John A. and Sophronia Ball, the former of whom was born in North Carolina and the latter in Meriwether county, Ga. John A. Ball came to Georgia in 1840, and became a successful stock dealer and manufacturer of turpentine. He died in 1904, at the patriarchal age of ninety-seven years, and his wife passed away in 1900. He was a loyal soldier of the Confederacy during the Civil war, serving under General Gordon, and continuing in the ranks until the close of the great fratricidal conflict. Dr. Emmett V. Ball secured a due preliminary education and then entered Mercer university, in the city of Macon, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1890, receiving the degree of Master of Arts, while in the same year he was graduated in the Macon commercial college.

He then took up the study of medicine, entering the Georgia college of Eclectic Medicine, under Dr. John H. Hammond, of Macon, completing a thorough course in medicine and surgery and being graduated with first honors in the class of 1894. His first year of practice work in his profession was passed in the village of Enigma, Berrien county, after which he located in Ocilla, where he now has a large and lucrative practice and where he is held in high regard as a physician and as a citizen. He is a member of the Georgia state medical association and is medical examiner for the Knights of Pythias, of which organization he is an appreciative member. The Doctor is an uncompromising advocate of the principles of the Democratic party but has never had aught of ambition for public office, and he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. On Oct. 14, 1894, Doctor Ball was united in marriage to Miss Emma L. Perkins, of Banks county, Ga., and they have one daughter, Iris Versacolor.
[Source: "GEORGIA, Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form" by ALLEN D. CANDLER and General CLEMENT A. EVANS; pub. by State Historical Association, ATLANTA, 1906 - Transcribed by K. Torp]

Berrien, John MacPherson, was born in New Jersey, Aug. 23, 1781. His father was Maj. John Berrien, a Revolutionary soldier. In 1796 the son graduated at Princeton and after studying law settled in Georgia, where he was admitted to the bar before he reached his majority. At the age of twenty-nine he was made judge of the eastern district of the state and held the position for two years. In 1822 he was elected state senator, and after serving in this capacity for one term was sent to the United States senate, where he served for four years, when he was appointed attorney-general of the United States by President Jackson. The troubles long brewing in the cabinet culminated in the resignation of the whole body and Mr. Berrien returned to Georgia. He was elected to the senate again in 1840 and served for twelve years. He was a Clay delegate to the Baltimore convention in 1844. He died at Savannah Jan. 1, 1856.
[Source: "GEORGIA, Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form" by ALLEN D. CANDLER and General CLEMENT A. EVANS; pub. by State Historical Association, ATLANTA, 1906 - Transcribed by K. Torp]

Griffin, William H. - born July 18, 1853, in that portion of Lowndes County which is now included in Berrien; educated in the common schools of Nashville, Georgia, was clerk of the Superior Court of Berrien, 1874-75, and ordinary 1882-85. While holding the latter office he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1884. Having moved to Valdosta in 1885, he began the practice of law, was Mayor of Valdosta in 1892, serving two consecutive terms, then judge of City Court 1897-1905. In 1905 Judge Griffin formed a partnership with Col. E.P.S. Denmark, dying in 1916. [Source: "History of Lowndes County, Georgia, 1825-1941" by Mrs J G Cranford, pub. Valdosta, Ga.: General James Jackson Chapter, D.A.R., 1942 - Transcribed by K. Torp]

Parrish, Ansel A.
Among the active and prosperous business men of Valdosta is Ansel A. Parrish, born in that part of Lowndes county that is now Berrien county, Georgia, and a representative of one of the prominent pioneer families of this section. The family originated here with Henry Parrish, the grandfather of Ansel A., who took a leading part in the public affairs of his community and at one time was a member of the Georgia state legislature. Ansel A. Parrish was one of the many brave and loyal youth who, yet in their teens, so gallantly went to the defense of their beloved Southland in 1861-65, and he is one of the few remaining actors in that great struggle. Henry Parrish, who was of North Carolinian stock, was reared and married in Bulloch county, Georgia, and removed from thence into southern Georgia in a very early day, locating in that part of Irwin county which later was transferred to Lowndes county and still later became Berrien county. He bought land about six miles east of the present site of Cecil and entered actively and prominently into the public life of this section. He died in middle life. His wife, who was a Miss Nancy Williams before her marriage, bore him twelve children and survived him fifty years, passing away at a remarkably advanced age.
Ezekiel W. Parrish, born February 16, 1818, in Bulloch county, Georgia, son of Henry and father of Ansel A., was very young when his parents removed to southern Georgia and after his father's death he remained with his mother until his marriage, when he bought land one mile from where is now located the town of Cecil and there engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1864 he sold his farm and received its value in Confederate money, which he still held when the war, which he still held when the war closed, but fortunately he had retained about seventeen hundred acres east of Hahira in Lowndes county. He settled on the latter estate, erected the necessary buildings and made it his home until his death on September 1, 1887. Martha C. (Wootten) Parrish, his wife, born in Taliaferro county, Georgia, had preceded him in death, her demise having occurred in June, 1871. She was a daughter of Redden Wootten and wife, the latter of whom was a Miss Bird before her marriage. Ezekiel W. and Martha C. (Wootten) Parrish were the parents of twelve children, namely: Nancy E., Redden B., Susan, Ansel A., James H., Joel W., Matthew R. A., Mary A. A., Ezekiel W. J., Martha M., John E. W. and Absolom B., Ansel A. Parrish, born February 20, 1846, the fourth in this family, was reared amid pioneer scenes, for in his youth there were no railroads in this section of Georgia and his father went to Albany, Georgia, sixty miles away, to market his cotton. All cooking was done before the open fire and his mother would card, spin and weave the wool into homespun cloth which her deft fingers would then convert into garments for her family. Mr. Parrish received such educational advantages as the public schools of his day afforded, and when old enough took up duties on the farm. In May, 1864, he enlisted in Company B of the First Florida Special Battalion for service in the Confederate army and was assigned to the commissary department, where he continued until the close of the war. Returning to his Georgia home, he took up farming and also taught school to earn money, the money with which to advance his education. He was a student in the Valdosta Institute when occurred the death of Professor Varnedoe, then president of the institution. For sometime after concluding his studies there he clerked and then engaged in the mercantile business independently, continuing thus for seven years. He then took up the sale of sewing machines and when bicycles came into use he engaged in their sale and repair. One of the first in his city to see the future of the automobile, he opened a garage for the repair, storage and sale of automobiles and has continued in that line of business to the present time.
On July 16, 1874, Mr. Parrish was united in marriage to Mary Emma Peeples, a native of Berrien county, Georgia, and a daughter of Judge Richard A. and Sarah (Camp) Peeples, more specific mention of whom will be found in the sketch of C. B. Peeples appearing on other pages of this volume. Seven children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Parrish, namely: Carrie May, Maggie Allino, Charles E., Irene A., Ansel A., Richard E. and Edwin Willard. Carrie May is now Mrs. Francis H. Ramsey, of Valdosta, Georgia, and has one son, Francis H.; Maggie A., now Mrs. Albert N. Swain, resides in Richland, Georgia, and has three children, Albert N., Ansel Parrish and Emeliza; Charles E., married Julia Collier and has two children, Collier E. and Margaret; Irene married Dr. A. L. Smith, of Empire, Georgia and they have three children, Mary E., Dorothy and Samuel A.; and Ansel A., married Nona Hester and has a daughter, Caroline. Mr. and Airs. Parrish are members of the Tabernacle Baptist church at Valdosta and both are ardent advocates of temperance. [Source: "A history of Savannah and south Georgia" by William Harden, Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913 - Transcribed by K. Torp]