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Georgia Genealogy Trails "Where your Journey Begins" |
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Liberty County Biographies
ANDREW,
Benjamin LAYTON, Thomas Spencer Thomas Spencer Layton, M. D. The various prosperous and thriving communities of Liberty County have their full quota of able physicians and surgeons, and among this class of professional men is found, located at Hinesville, Dr. Thomas Spencer Layton. In contemplating the career of a physician, the first and most important thoughts which present themselves are derived from the great value of the knowledge which is in the possession of the well trained practitioner of the healing art, and the intense desire he must have, especially if he be at all philanthropic, that all the people should be well acquainted with the laws of health. In this connection Doctor Layton is particularly deserving of mention. Born in Laurens County, South Carolina, April 11, 1858, Doctor Layton is a son of George Washington and Adeline (Todd) Layton. His father, born at Spartanburg, South Carolina, followed farming until the outbreak of the war between the South and the North, when he enlisted in the Eighth Georgia Battalion of Volunteer Infantry, and served therewith until his death at Vicksburg, Mississippi, just before the fall of that city in 1863. His wife, Adeline (Todd) Layton, was born in Laurens County, South Carolina, and they had three children, of whom Thomas Spencer was the first born. She was later married a second time and had seven children, and her death occurred in Bartow County, in 1892. At the age of six years Thomas Spencer Layton was sent to school, and from then until he was sixteen years old he attended school somewhat irregularly. It was necessary that he contribute largely to his own support, and for some years he was engaged in various enterprises, but he never gave up his cherished desire of entering the medical profession, and with this aim in view took every opportunity of studying the science. In 1889 he entered the medical department of the University of Georgia, at Augusta, and after one term went to the Southern Medical College, at Atlanta, where he finished his course and graduated with his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1891. He had a very creditable record as a student and finished fourth in a large class. Doctor Layton entered upon his professional career at Stilesboro, Georgia, but after six or eight months moved to the community of Pine Log, Georgia, where he also spent a short time. Desiring a broader field, he came to Hinesville, in Liberty County, where he has since steadily advanced to a leading place among medical men. He has a large practice of the most desirable kind, being family physician for a number of the representative families of the county. He belongs to the various organizations of medical men in Georgia, keeps fully abreast of the numerous advancements of his calling, and has a high reputation among his professional brethren. Doctor Layton has prospered in a material way and has interested himself in a number of successful business ventures, among which are the Hinesville Bank, of which he is a director, the Flemington, Hinesville & Western Railroad of Liberty County, of which he also holds a position on the directing board, and the Liberty County Herald, one of the leading newspapers of this section. He owns his own home at Hinesville, as well as other real estate, and is considered one of the substantial men of the Liberty County seat. Politically a democrat, he has taken some interest in public affairs, although not as an aspirant for personal preferment. With his family, he belongs to the Presbyterian Church at Flemington. Fraternally, Doctor Layton is affiliated with the Masons. On July 3, 1890, Doctor Layton was married to Miss Leila M. Boulinean, daughter of B. L. and Maria Beal (Dove) Boulinean, of Richmond County, Georgia, and a member of an old and prominent family of Savannah. They have no children. [A
Standard History of Georgia and
Georgians Volume 5, by Lucian Lamar Knight, 1917 - Submitted by Brenda
Wiesner]
Le Conte, John, physician and educator, was born in Liberty county, Ga., Dec. 4, 1818, of Huguenot ancestry. His father, Louis Le Conte, was a distinguished naturalist, and from him the son inherited a love for scientific investigation. One of his early teachers was Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, who prepared him for college, and in 1838 he graduated at the University of Georgia with high honors. In 1841 he received the degree of M. D. from the college of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York, and the following year began the practice of medicine in Savannah. In 1846 he was elected to the chair of physics and chemistry in the state university, where he remained until 1855, when he became professor of chemistry in the medical college in which he had graduated fourteen years before. He only remained one year in New York, resigning to accept the professorship of physics in the South Carolina college, at Columbia. During the war he had charge of the Confederate nitre works, with the rank of major. When the University of California was established in 1868 Dr. Le Conte was made professor of physics in that institution, and in 1876 became its president. He continued with that university until his death, which occurred at Berkeley, Cal., April 29, 1891. Dr. Le Conte was the author of a number of works on medical and scientific subjects. His most valuable production—"A Treatise on General Physics"—was destroyed while in manuscript, by the burning of Columbia in 1865, and he never found time to rewrite it. Source:
Georgia:
comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, edited by Allen Daniel Candler, Clement
Anselm Evans Source: Georgia: comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, edited by Allen Daniel Candler, Clement Anselm Evans
Source:
Georgia:
comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, edited by Allen Daniel Candler, Clement
Anselm Evans Wilson, Claudius
Charles, one
of Georgia's distinguished sons, was a man of signal nobility of
character and left his impress upon the annals of the state. It was his
destiny to sacrifice his life in the cause of the Confederacy during
the Civil war, in which he rose to the rank of brigadier-general. He
had been one of the most prominent and honored members of the bar of
the city of Savannah prior to entering the Confederate service. He was
born in Effingham county, Ga., Oct. 1, 1831, a son of Dr. Josiah
Stewart Wilson, who was born in Liberty county, as was also the
latter's father, Maj. Josiah T. Wilson, who served in the war of 1812.
Gen. Claudius C. Wilson was a great-grandson of Gen. Daniel Stewart, of
Liberty county, Ga., who served in the war of the Revolution, was a
member of the Committee of Safety for St. John's parish, and was a
valiant soldier in the war of 1812, in which he served with the rank of
brigadier-general. In the summer of 1848 General Wilson entered
the sophomore class of Emory college, Oxford, Ga., and in this
institution he was graduated in 1851, with the highest honors of his
class. In the following winter he read law under Col. James M. Smith,
and was admitted to the bar at Savannah in 1852. Possessing
a mind naturally analytical and rarely cultivated, and having
exceptional powers of eloquence, he soon rose to a position of eminence
in his profession. In 1860 he was elected solicitor-general
of the eastern circuit of Georgia, but resigned this office after a
short period to resume the practice of his profession in Savannah as a
member of the firm of Wilson, Norwood & Lester, with which he
continued to be identified until the Civil war was precipitated on a
divided nation. In August, 1861, he entered the military service of the
Confederate States, and was elected colonel of the Twenty-fifth
regiment of Georgia volunteers, which had been raised through his
personal efforts, and in the spring of 1862, upon the reorganization of
the regiment under the conscript law, he was reflected its colonel. The
regiment was stationed at Tybee island until its evacuation by the
Confederates, after which the command did service on the coast of North
and South Carolina and around Savannah during the remainder of 1862 and
the early part of 1863, Colonel Wilson acting as brigadier commander
during the greater part of this time. In May, 1863, he was
ordered to Mississippi with his regiment, which there became a part of
Gen. W. H. T. Walker's brigade. On the promotion of General
Walker to the rank of major-general, Colonel Wilson assumed
command of the brigade, comprising the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-ninth and
Thirtieth Georgia regiments. In this position he served
with distinction in the movements for the relief of Vicksburg and in
the battles around Jackson, Miss., as well as during the retreat of
Johnston's army. In August, 1863, General Walker was
ordered to join General Bragg's forces with his command in the
Chattanooga campaign, and it was on the sanguinary field of Chickamauga
that Colonel Wilson, in command of his brigade, won for himself
imperishable honor. John Allen Wyeth, in his "Life of General
Forrest," thus speaks of Wilson's command in the battle of Chickamauga:
"It was Col. Claudius C. Wilson's brigade which came to the rescue, and
at Forrest's request the Georgians swung into line immediately on his
left and never waited a moment. They were not going to
yield the palm to Forrest's and Pegram's horsemen. These veterans of
other bloody fields moved forward rapidly and with directness to close
range before they delivered their well aimed volleys into the Union
line, which yielded under pressure and was pursued by all." Forrest was
elated at the conduct of Wilson's men, and in his general report spoke
as follows: "They advanced in gallant style, driving back the enemy,
capturing a battery of artillery, my dismounted cavalry advancing with
them, and I must say that the fighting and gallant charges of the two
brigades (Wilson's and Ector's) excited my astonishment. They broke the
enemy's lines and could not be halted nor withdrawn until nearly
surrounded." Maj. Gen. W. H. T. Walker says in his official report of
this battle: "I may be permitted in my own division, which was
commanded on Sunday by General Gist, to state that Colonel Wilson, who
commanded a brigade on both Saturday and Sunday and who is the oldest
colonel from Georgia, is entitled, from long service with the brigade
and from gallant conduct, to the command of the Georgia brigade he now
commands, in the capacity of brigadier-general." The gallant conduct of
Colonel Wilson in this battle caused his promotion to the rank of
brigadier-general, but he was not long permitted to enjoy the
distinction. His commission as such was signed by President Davis on
Nov. 16, 1863, just ten days before the death of Colonel Wilson,
reaching the headquarters of General Walker after the recipient of the
honor had passed to the eternal life. This commission, as well as his
commission as colonel of the Twenty-fifth Georgia, is in the Georgia
room of the Confederate museum in Richmond, Va. Immediately after the
battle of Chickamauga, General Wilson succumbed to camp fever, and
while he was being removed to a place of greater safety he died, near
Ringgold, Ga., Nov. 26, 1863, leaving to his state the precious legacy
of a noble record of valor and devotion to duty. On Sept. 14, 1852, he
married Miss Katharine McDuffie Morrison, daughter of John Morrison, of
Augusta, Ga. Her death occurred in May, 1904. Of the four children, two
are living, both being residents of Savannah—John M. and Anna Belle,
the latter being the wife of Maj. Edward Karow. Hillyer, Rev. Shaler Granby, D. D., was one of the distinguished clergymen of the Baptist church in Georgia and was also prominent as an educator and writer, particularly in connection with religious topics. He was a man of exalted character and fine scholarship, leaving the impress of his strong and noble individuality upon all who came within the sphere of his influence. It is most suitable, in view of his life and achievements, as represented in his labors in Georgia that a tribute to his memory be perpetuated in this cyclopedia. He was born on his father's plantation in Wilkes county, Ga., June 20, 1809. His life span compassed only a decade less than an entire century, as his death occurred in Atlanta, Ga., Feb. 19, 1900. His father, Shaler Hillyer, was born in Granby, Conn., Aug. 2, 1776, and his mother, Rebecca (Freeman) Hillyer, was born in Wilkes county, Ga., July 12, 1786. She was a daughter of John Freeman, a soldier of the continental line, during the war of the Revolution, and served in the campaigns of South Carolina and Georgia. Asa Hillyer, paternal grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was likewise a loyal soldier in the War for Independence, having first served as a private in the ranks, and later as post surgeon. Dr. Shaler G. Hillyer was graduated in Franklin college, of which the University of Georgia is the direct outgrowth, as a member of the class of 1829. He joined the Baptist church June 12, 1831, and after due preparation in his divinity studies was ordained to the ministry on Aug. 6, 1835. After his ordination he continued in the work of the ministry until the Autumn of 1892. His labors were thus protracted over a period of nearly sixty years and were attended with large and grateful fruitage. In the year 1845 he was elected to the chair of rhetoric in Mercer university, and in 1850 the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by that institution. In 1855 he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Baptist church at Rome, Ga., and remained there until 1859, when the professorship of theology in Mercer university was offered him. He retained this position until the summer of 1862. After the close of the Civil war he was, for several years, president of Monroe college. Doctor Hillyer made many valuable contributions to various religious periodicals, and in 1897, he published his book entitled "Bible Morality," a work of lofty tone, sincere in thought and forcible in style. The subject matter of one volume of his writings, "Reminiscences of Georgia Baptists," appeared first in serial form in the Christian Index, and has been published in book form since his death. In his ministerial capacity Doctor Hillyer served many churches in the state, taking a prominent part in the various phases of church work at large, ever showing himself imbued with the faith that makes faithful. Three of his sons served as soldiers of the Confederacy in the Civil war, and his second son, Lieut. Francis Lorraine Hillyer, lost his life from a wound received on the field of the times. In December, 1836, he wedded Miss Elisabeth Thompson, second battle of Manassas. Doctor Hillyer was married there of Liberty county, Ga., and they became the parents of three children who were left to their father's care, at a very tender age, by the death of their mother. Mary Elisabeth married Dr. John William Janes, Shaler Granby died Oct. 3, 1905, and the death of Francis Lorraine occurred July 23, 1863. The second marriage of Doctor Hillyer was to Miss Elisabeth Dagg and was solemnized on May 12, 1846. She was the daughter of John Leadly and Elisabeth (Thornton) Dagg. Her summons came to enter upon the life eternal in 1870. The following are the names of the children of this union: John Leadly Dagg Hillyer, Sarah Jane (Mrs. Jessie Campbell McDonald), Junius Freeman, Frances Rebecca (Mrs. Wm. Alden Towers), Katharine Carlton (Mrs. Thomas Lawrence Robinson), Emily Irene (Mrs. Robert Gregory Owen), and Llewellen Philo. In May, 1871, Doctor Hillyer married Mrs. Dorothea Lawton, daughter of Dr. Samuel Furman, of South Carolina. Source Georgia: comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and ... edited by Allen Daniel Candler, Clement Anselm Evans AUGUSTUS OCTAVIUS BACON, lawyer, legislator, United States Senator, is the second son of Reverend Augustus O. Bacon, a Baptist clergyman, a native of Liberty county, Georgia, himself the third son of Thomas Bacon, of that county. His ancestors upon one side were a colony of Puritans who settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630, and who removed to Georgia and founded the Midway settlement in 1753. His great-great-grandfather, Samuel Bacon, and Richard Baker arrived in that year, and were the advance guard and the first of the Midway Colony, afterwards the community of Liberty county. Upon this stxx-k was engrafted a Virginia branch springing from the Holcombes of Cavalier ancestry. Augustus O. Bacon was born in Bryan county, Georgia, October 20, 1839, although his mother's home at the time was in Liberty county, where he was reared from his infancy. Her maiden name was Mary Louisa Jones, and she was her father's only child. Through her he is a grandson of Samuel Jones, of Liberty count}', (himself the only son of Samuel Jones, an officer in the Revolutionary Army), and a grandnephew, through his maternal grandmother, of Judge William Law, of Savannah, Georgia, one of the most distinguished jurists of his time in the South- His parents were residents of Liberty county, and here and in Troup county he spent his childhood and boyhood in a typical Georgian environment, chiefly marked by the fact of his early bereavement through the untimely death of both parents, his father having died July 3rd, 1839, at the early age of twenty-three, before the birth of the son, and his mother at twenty years of age, before he was a year old; while his only brother died within a week after the death of his mother. The father and mother and brother are buried in the old cemetery of historic Midway Church in Liberty county. His paternal grandmother, by whom he was adopted when thus doubly orphaned, was a daughter of the Rev. Henry Holcombe, D.D., a native of Virginia, and a Captain in the Colonial Army of the Revolutionary War, and thereafter a resident of Savannah. Under her fostering and devoted guardianship he received careful training and a good elementary education, and, at the age of sixteen, he entered the University of Georgia, at Athens. He was graduated from the collegiate department of that institution in 1859, and immediately thereafter entered the law school and as a member of the first law class ever graduated by the University, received a degree therefrom in the following year. He selected Atlanta as the place in which to begin his professional career; but scarcely six months elapsed before he joined the Confederate forces as Adjutant of the Ninth Georgia regiment, with which he served in Virginia during the campaigns of 1861 and 1862. Subsequently he was commissioned as Captain in the provisional army of the Confederate States and assigned to general staff duty, serving at different times upon the staff of Gen. Henry R. Jackson, Gen. Alfred Iverson, and General Mackall. He was mustered out of service at the close of hostilities with the rank of Captain. Returning to the law after having for a year reviewed his legal studies, he for the first time began practice at Macon in 1866, from which date he has been actively identified with the bar of Georgia. His success in his profession was immediate, and he quickly assumed a ranking place as a trial lawyer in both the State and Federal courts. He possessed oratorical talents of a high order, as well as legal learning; and these soon led him into the political arena of his State, gave him growing influence, and marked him as one of the coming men. In 1868, when twenty-eight years of age, Mr. Bacon was nominated by the State Democratic Convention for presidential elector from the then fourth congressional district . Two years from that time he was elected from Bibb county to the Georgia House of Representatives, and was returned to that body, at each successive election, for twelve years, and was subsequently again elected for a term of two years. During this period, he was speaker pro tempore for two years, and speaker for eight years, an unusual parliamentary experience, especially in the fact that no other Georgian has ever been speaker for so long a time. He served in this position of honor with distinction and dignity, and displayed an executive ability, skill as a parliamentarian and a knowledge of legislative procedure that subsequently gave him immediate prestige when he entered the United States Senate. Several times, in the face of the most powerful adverse political influences, he was brought forward as a candidate for the governorship of his State, and in the State Democratic Convention in 1883 he lacked but one vote for a nomination, when the nomination was equivalent to an election. This was one of the famous convention contests of Georgia, in which there was a three days deadlock before a nomination was made. Mr. Bacon was frequently a member of the State Democratic conventions, was president of the convention in 1880, and was delegate from the State at large to the National Democratic Convention at Chicago in 1884. Although his party was not without sharp rivalries, he was always considered a stalwart, aggressive leader, and, in 1894, after an exciting and remarkable campaign before the people in which there were four active and influential candidates, he was elected by the Georgia Legislature to a seat in the United States Senate. In 1900, after an endorsement in the State Democratic primary, he was unanimously reelected to a second term in the Senate by a legislature in which there were Democratic, Republican and Populist members. In 1906, after another endorsement in the State Democratic primary, in which he had no opposition, he was at the succeeding session of the Legislature again unanimously re-elected to a third term in the Senate. In this election he has the marked distinction of being the first Georgian who, since the foundation of the Government, has been elected from the State to a consecutive and uninterrupted full third term in the Senate. In the Senate, Mr. Bacon has steadily grown in influence. He is a member of both the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees, and the ranking Democratic Senator on each of them. He is easily entitled to rank among the leaders of the minority, ind as a graceful, fluent speaker, and ready debater, he is hardly excelled by any one of its members. His speeches are characterized by richness of diction, and by good literary form, and strength of argument. One of his most notable efforts was in opposition to the acquisition of the Philippines. During the contest over the question he made several extended speeches, some of which now read like prophecy. He was at that time the author of the Bacon resolution "declaring the purpose of the United States not permanently to retain the islands but to give the people thereof their liberty." The vote on this resolution was a tie in the Senate and it was defeated by the casting vote of the Vice-President—the only occasion in many years when there has been a tie vote in the Senate upon any question, and upon which a Vice-President has voted. Mr. Bacon has made in the Senate, in addition to others, a number of speeches on constitutional questions which have attracted marked attention. Among them are those on the power of the President to recognize the independence of a revolting province of a foreign nation; the power of Congress by joint resolution and without a treaty to acquire foreign territory as in the case of Hawaii; the authority of theSenate to require upon its order the production of any and all papers in any of the executive departments; the power of Congress to exercise extra-constitutional power in the Philippines; the constitutionality of a bill to charter an international bank; the constitutional powers of the President and the Senate respectively in the negotiation and making of treaties; and the constitutionality of the bill entitled, "A Bill to protect the President of the United States." The design of this last proposed law was to provide a different and greater penalty for an act of violence against the President and certain other specified officials, than for the same act of violence when committed against any other citizen. This bill Mr. Bacon resisted to the uttermost, contending that "there should not be one law for one man, even though he be President of the United States, and a different law for another man, even though he be the lowliest citizen of the Republic. He fought it through two Congresses in the face of the most strenuous advocacy by Senator Hoar and other Senators, and finally defeated it. Many other speeches could be specified, but it is sufficient to say that he has taken an active part in every debate upon all important questions discussed in the Senate since 1894. Referreing to one of these debates which occurred in February, 1906, the following comment was made editorially by the Hartford (Conn.) Courant: "Take down an old volume of the Congressional Olobe and read one of the rebates on foreign affairs in which Ijewis Cass and John M. Clayton were pitted against each other—for instance,the debate (famous in its time) on the merits of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Then take Monday's Congressional Record and read the report therein of the debate between Mr. Bacon of Georgia and Mr. Spooncr of Wisconsin on the constitutional powers of the President and Senate in treaty making. It would be scant praise to say that the Bacon-Spooner debate is the more readable of the two. For intellectual vigor, grip of the matter in hand, compactness and lucidity in statement, brisk alertness in the give and take of dialectic fence, and last but not least, good English, the Bacon-Spooner debate is the abler of the two. Daniel Webster would have listened to every word of it attentively, with keen interest and pleasure; Calhoun and Clay also." Senator Bacon was married in 1864 to Miss Virginia Lamar, of Macon, Georgia. He is a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and is also, as he has heen for many years, a Trustee of the University of Georgia. Source: Men of mark in Georgia: Volume 4 edited by William J. Northen, John Temple Graves Howley, Richard, lawyer and
governor, was born in Liberty
county about 1740. After completing his literary education he studied
law and
became a leading member of the Liberty
county bar. In 1780 he was elected governor, but served only a short
time when
he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Cong Mell, Patrick Hues,
clergyman and educator, was born
at Walthourville, Liberty county, Ga., July 10, 1814. In
1833 he entered Amherst college at Amherst, Mass.,
but left the institution two years later to become a teacher. In 1837
he
returned to Georgia,
where he engaged in teaching and also commenced preaching, having
united with
the North Newport Baptist church in 1832. In 1856 he was simultaneously
elected
president of Cherokee college; principal of the boys’ high school at
Columbus;
principal of the Baptist female college at Talladega, Ala.; pastor of
the
Talladega Baptist church, and professor of ancient languages in the
University
of Georgia, but declined all except the last. About the same time he
was
elected president of the Georgia Baptist convention and served
continuously
until 1888. In 1858 Furman university
of South Carolina conferred on him the
degree of D.D. and in 1860 he was elected to the chair of ethics and
metaphysics in the University of Georgia, holding it
until it was abolished in 1872. When the citizens of Athens organized
for defense in 1863 he was
elected colonel, the chancellor and nearly all the students enrolling
their
names for military service. His command served until the close of the
war. When
the exercises of the university were resumed in 1866, he returned to
his old
position and subsequently was made chancellor of the institution, a
position he
filled with signal fidelity and ability. He died on Jan. 12, 1888. Baker, Daniel, clergyman, college president author, was born Aug. 17, 1791, in Midway, Ga. His services were in demand as a revivalist. After 1830 he continued as an evangelist, traveling in the south; and at last settled in Austin, Texas, where he founded a college and became its first president. He was the author of A Scriptural View of Baptism; An Affectionate Address to Mothers, and one to Fathers; Baptism in a Nutshell; and Revival Sermons. His memoirs, prepared by his son, were published in 1859. He died Dec. 10, 1857, in Austin, Texas. [Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar] Brownson, Nathan, physician, surgeon, colonial governor. He was a member of the provincial congress in 1775; was for some time a surgeon in the army; and speaker in the legislature of 1781. In 1781-82 he was colonial governor of Georgia. In 1776-78 he was a delegate from Georgia to the continental congress; speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1788; president of the senate in 1789-91; and in 1789 was a member of the convention that framed the state constitution. He died Nov. 6, 1796, in Liberty county, Ga. [Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar] JONES, Joseph, physician: b. Liberty county, Ga., Sept. 6, 1833; d. New Orleans, 1893. He was graduated from Princeton in 1853 and two years later from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. He held professorships in the medical department of the University of Georgia, the University of Nashville, in the Medical College of Georgia and in Tulane University. During the war he was a surgeon in the Confederate army. From 1880 to 1884 he was the influential president of the Louisiana State Board of Health. He was considered an authority on yellow fever and wrote numerous articles for medical journals. [Source: THE SOUTH in the Building of the Nation Volume XI; Edited by James Curtis Ballagh, Walter Lynwood Fleming & Southern Historical Publication Society; Publ. 1909; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack] JOHN BAKER. THE State of Georgia honored herself when, in 1825, she named one of her greatest agricultural counties for that affluent farmer, partisan soldier, and useful citizen, Colonel John Baker. He was a son of Benjamin Baker, who was a soldier under the illustrious Oglethorpe in his expedition against St . Augustine in 1740, and who was very active in securing a proper constitution for the Province of Georgia. He was also clerk of M id way Church for twenty-seven years, and his manuscripts are valuable historical documents. Colonel John Baker served the colony of Georgia as a Lieutenant in the King's Troops. Our subject was elected a delegate to the Georgia Provincial Congress, which met in the Long Room at Tondee's Tavern in Savannah on the 4th of July, 1775. He was also a member of the Georgia Council of Safety. In January, 1776, he was elected by a company of St. John's parish as their captain, and on January 8, 1776, was commissioned as "Captain of the Saint John's Riflemen." Being assigned to the fort at Sunbury, he took charge and repaired the entrenchment around the fort and assisted in putting this important work in first-class condition with the materials that could be procured. He marched with seventy-five militiamen and made an attack on Fort Wright on the St. Mary's River; but, owing to the treachery of the McGirths and other members of his company who deserted and carried off nearly all his horses, he was obliged to retreat. The McGirths left a record of cruelty and bloodshed during the war that would cause the most savage to blush. McCall says: "At the White House in Liberty County, 1779, at the head of a few militia, he defeated the enemy. Among those of the enemy killed was Lieutenant Gray; his head was almost severed from his body by one blow from the saber of that relentless and fearless hard fighter, Robert Sallette." A short time after this, Colonels Baker and Twiggs, commanding the Georgia Militia, made an attack upon McGirth's men at Midway Meeting House, where they captured some prisoners. Colonel Baker, learning that some Continental officers and prisoners on parole were going from Savannah to Sunbury, went in search of them and overtook them at Mrs. Arthur's house. Captains Mosby, Nash, Booker, Hicks, and Templeton and Lieutenants Mosely, Davenport, and Mitchel were captured and with the other prisoners were sent up to Cannouchee. On March 3, 1776, we find Colonel Baker in Savannah with Captain James Screven, demanding the release of Captain Rice and his crew who had fallen into the hands of the British while attempting to dismantle some vessels at Savannah wharf. Meeting with disappointment, Colonel McIntosh with three hundred men marched to Yamacraw Bluff and threw up some breastworks. The space between Montgomery and Williamson streets is thought to be the exact location where the fortifications stood. Here he mounted three four-pounders. Lieutenant Daniel Roberts and Mr. Raymond Demere were sent with a flag of truce to demand the release of Rice, and were themselves taken prisoners. A demand from shore being made for the prisoners, and an insulting reply being given, two shots from the battery were fired at the vessels. When the signal from the British read that if two others of proper rank were sent they would treat with them, Colonel John Baker and Captain James Screven were sent. Upon arriving close to the vessels the British returned insulting replies to their demands, and Colonel Baker fired upon the speaker, and he and Captain Screven beat a hasty retreat to the shore. Fortunately no one in the boat was killed. Our battery opened fire and kept it up for four hours, during which time Commodore Bowen and others fired the rigging of the Inverness, when she drifted upon the Nelly, setting her and other vessels on fire. The British officers and men fled and crossed Hutchinson's Island, but many were killed; three vessels were destroyed, six dismantled and two escaped. Colonel Baker was wounded at Bull Town Swamp, where he fought General Prescott with a few militiamen. Colonel Baker and Maj. John Jones, having had a disagreement, were about to fight a duel. They were both to fight in full uniform on horseback and with their broadswords; the hour arrived, when, unexpectedly, General James Screven appealed on the ground. He knew the determined courage of these men, and, approaching them, he said: "My friends and companions in arms! Can it be, when your country is bleeding at every pore and needs the support of her sons in her defense, that you are about to sacrifice your lives to feelings of personal hostility and revenge? If you cannot extend to each other the hand of confidence and friendship, for your country's sake, do not destroy each others lives." The appeal was heard; the drawn swords were returned to their scabbards; and the spirit of patriotism in these great heroes triumphed over the desire for private revenge. To live and war for dear ones and country was more noble than to die for themselves. After the Revolution Colonel Baker served against the Indians with General James Jackson. Colonel Baker died June 3, 1792, in Liberty county, the place of his birth, and his sacred ashes rest at Sunbury. Among his honored descendants are Win. Harden, member of the Georgia Legislature and librarian of the Georgia Historical Society for the last thirty years, and Hon. Marcus S. Baker, tax receiver of Chatham county. Wm. Bekkien Burroughs, M.D. [Men of mark in Georgia; Volume 1; Edited by William J. Northen and John Temple Graves; Publ. 1906; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack 2011] BENJAMIN ANDREW BORN in Dorchester, South Carolina, about 1730, Mr. Andrew led the life of a planter. He came of that sturdy Puritan congregation which, abandoning England in 1630, after a residence of some sixty-five years in Massachusetts, removed to South Carolina and formed a settlement on the northeast bank of the Ashley River about eighteen miles above Charles Town. In 1754 Mr. Andrew, bringing his family with him, left Dorchester in South Carolina, and made a new home in the Midway District, subsequently constituting a part of St. John's Parish in the Colony of Georgia. Here he became the owner of a swamp plantation and engaged in the cultivation of rice. In the preliminary discussions and demonstrations which eventuated in a declaration of independence on the part of the parish of St. John and afterwards of the Colony of Georgia, Mr. Andrew allied himself with the revolutionists, and, in company with Lyman Hall, Button Gwinnett, Daniel Roberts, Samuel Stevens, Joseph Wood, Daniel Baker, and other local patriots, was earnest in the support of the rights of the American provinces in their struggle with Great Britain for liberation from kingly rule. In the spring of 1773 William Bartram, the naturalist, who, at the request of Dr. Fothergill, of London, had undertaken a visit to the Florida’s "for the discovery of rare and useful productions of nature, chiefly in the vegetable kingdom," gives us this glimpse of the home of Mr. Andrew, then not many miles distant from Midway Meeting House in St. John's Parish. "In the evening," writes Mr. Bartram, "I arrived at the seat of the Hon. B. Andrew, Esq., who received and entertained me in every respect as a worthy gentleman would a stranger, that is, with hearty welcome, plain but plentiful board, free conversation, and liberality of sentiment. I spent the evening very agreeably, and the day following (for I was not permitted to depart sooner) I viewed with pleasure this gentleman's exemplary improvements in agriculture, particularly in the growth of rice, and in his machines for shelling that valuable grain, which stands in the water almost from the time it is sown until within a few days before it is reaped, when they draw off the water by sluices, which ripens it all at once; and when the heads, or panicles, are dry ripe, it is reaped and left standing in the field in small ricks until the straw is quite dry, when it is hauled and stacked in the barnyard. The machines for cleaning the rice are worked by the force of water. They stand on the great reservoir which contains the waters that flood the rice-fields below. "Towards the evening we made a little party at fishing. We chose a shaded retreat in a beautiful grove of magnolias, myrtles, and sweet bay trees, which were left standing on the bank of a fine creek, that from this place took a slow serpentine course through the plantation. We presently took some fish, one kind of which is very beautiful; they call it the red-belly. It is as large as a man's hand, nearly oval and thin, being compressed on each side; the tail is beautifully formed; the top of the head and back of an olive green, besprinkled with russet specks; the sides of a sea-green, inclining to azure, insensibly blended with the olive above, and beneath lightens to a silvery white or pearl color, elegantly powdered with specks of the finest green, russet and gold; the belly is of a bright scarlet red or vermilion, darting up rays or fiery streaks into the pearl on each side; the ultimate angle of the branchiostega extends backwards with a long spatula, ending with a round or oval partial colored spot representing the eye in the long feathers of a peacock's train, verged round with a thin flame-colored membrane, and appears like a brilliant ruby fixed on the side of the fish; the eyes are large, encircled with a fiery iris; they are a voracious fish, and are easily caught with a suitable bait. "The next morning I took leave of this worthy family, and sat off for the settlements on the Alatamaha, still pursuing the high road for Fort Barrington, till towards noon, when I turned off to the left, following the road to Darian, a settlement on the river twenty miles lower down and near the coast." We offer no apology for making this quotation, because it conveys a pleasant impression of person and place. Of the first Executive Council convened upon the election of John Adam Treutlen as Governor of Georgia in 1777, Benjamin Andrew was chosen President, with Samuel Stirk as clerk. Three years afterwards Mr. Andrew was elected a member of the Continental Congress. His associates were Edward Telfair, George Walton, Lyman Hall, and William Few. Upon the conclusion of the war of the Revolution Mr. Andrew became an Associate Justice for the county of Liberty, and in that capacity sat for several terms with Chief Justice Walton. One of his sons bore arms in the primal contest for freedom, and subsequently removed from Liberty County to Washington, Wilkes County, where, on the 3d of May, 1794, a son was born unto him—James Osgood Andrew by name—who acquired some prominence as a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. The honorable Benjamin Andrew died in Liberty County, Georgia, toward the close of the last century. C. C. Jones, Jr. [Men of mark in Georgia; Volume 1; Edited by William J. Northen and John Temple Graves; Publ. 1906; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack 2011] Brownson, Nathan, physician, surgeon, colonial governor. He was a member of the provincial congress in 1775; was for some time a surgeon in the army; and speaker in the legislature of 1781. In 1781-82 he was colonial governor of Georgia. In 1776-78 he was a delegate from Georgia to the continental congress; speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1788; president of the senate in 1789-91; and in 1789 was a member of the convention that framed the state constitution. He died Nov. 6, 1796, in Liberty county, Ga. [Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar] Allen, Moses, clergyman, patriot, was born Sept. 14, 1748, in Northampton, Mass. In 1777 he took charge of the church at Midway, Ga. The British forces under General Prevost burned his church and devastated the district in 1778. He officiated as chaplain to the Georgia brigade; and was captured when Savannah was reduced by the British in December. His eloquent, patriotic appeals and energetic exertions in the field had rendered him obnoxious to the British, and they refused to release him on parole with the officers. He was confined in a loathsome prison-ship, and was drowned in attempting to escape, Feb. 8, 1779. [Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar] STONE, THOMAS OSWALD, physician, lieutenant colonel, 40th Alabama infantry regiment, was born April 3, 1834, in Mobile, and died May 5, 1864, at Dalton, Ga.; son of William De Saix and Elizabeth (Lewis) Stone, a resident of Liberty County, Ga., who removed to Alabama and died in Mobile in 1855; grandson of Thomas and Ann (Maxwell) Stone and of John and Elizabeth (Kennon) Lewis; brother of Lewis Maxwell Stone (q. v.). The grandparents were all residents of Georgia. The Lewises and Kennons were of well known Virginia families. Dr. Stone studied medicine under Dr. Levert. and was for four years at the Charity hospital, Mobile; took a course in New Orleans and graduated from the Medical college in Philadelphia. He began the practice of his profession at Fairfield, Pickens County, January 1, 1856; entered the Confederate States Army, in the spring of 1862 as a lieutenant of Co. G, 40th Alabama infantry regiment, and was elected major of the regiment. Later he was promoted lieutenant colonel, which rank he was holding at the time of his death. He was a Democrat; and a Presbyterian. Married: in November 1855, to Ellen, daughter of John Drakeford and Elizabeth (Goodwin) Sanders, who lived in South Carolina; granddaughter of Daniel and Sarah (Owens) Goodwin, of South Carolina, later of Pickens County, and descendant of Gen. Robert Lewis of the Revolutionary Army. Children: 1, Elizabeth Rebekah, m. Woodson Kennon Saulsbury, of Birmingham; 2. Mary Frances, m. George S. Root; 3. Thomas Oswald, daughter, m. (1)—Williams, (2) Arthur C. Sharpley. Last residence: Pickensville. [History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume 4 By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, 1921 - Transcribed by AFOFG] CURTIS, Elder WILLIAM, L.L.D. was the son of that venerable and distinguished man, Elder Thos. Curtis, D. D. He was born in Cumbuwell, England, April 23d, 1817, and in 1832 was baptized into the fellowship of the Baptist church. At what time he was ordained by the church at Columbia, S. C, we are unable to tell. He was for a few years pastor of that church. In the year 1845 he, with his father, moved to Limestone Springs. This place was purchased by them in that year, and they established the "Limestone Female High School," which proved to be a great success; having as principals two men so well qualified, their fame spread throughout the entire South, and even beyond. There are now living hundreds of ladies who were educated there. - Elder Wm. Curtis was untiring in any good work. When he became a member of the Broad River Association a large majority of its members opposed missions, which to him was very mortifying. In 1847 a society was organized at Limestone Springs by Wm. Curtis, his father, and a few other brethren, which was called the "Broad River Society, in aid of the spread of the Gospel." Through the noble efforts of this society the missionary spirit increased, and darkness gave way to the light until the society was merged into the Association. Through the untiring efforts of William Curtis and his father, the church called now Limestone was constituted, and for more than fifteen years he was pastor of this church. Some two or three years previous to his death he had a slight attack of paralysis, which impaired both his body and mind, and both gradually gave way until the 30th of October, 1873, he breathed his last. His remains now lie interred at Walthoursville, Liberty County, Georgia. Elder Barnett, the associational historian, speaking of the abilities of Dr. Thomas Curtis; adds: "Yet candor compels me to say that, although Dr. Curtis was a most able divine, both as a preacher and writer, yet as a debater he was decidedly inferior to his son, William Curtis. Dr. Wm. Curtis was of quicker perception, more ready to meet a debate in every turn it would take; and with a facility for anticipating his competitors' strong points, and weakening them before he arrived at them, he was evidently superior to his father.'' Sketches, historical and biographical, of the Broad River and King's Mountain Baptist Associations. By John Randolph Logan 1887 (South Carolina) Veneta McKinney Sheppard, Walter W., a successful member of the Savannah bar and an exmember of the state senate, was born in Liberty county, Ga., Aug. 31, 1866, a son of David B. M. and Marian C. (Fraser) Sheppard, both natives of Georgia, the former born in Screven county in 1812, and the latter, in Liberty county, Jan. 10, 1830. The paternal grandfather served as a soldier in the Continental line during the Revolution, principally in North Carolina, and the maternal grandfather was a soldier in the war of 1812. David B. M. Sheppard was judge of the inferior court of Liberty county for a number of years, and there resided until his death. His wife, who is now deceased, was a daughter of Simon Fraser, who was born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1782, came to America in 1801, first locating in Nova Scotia, whence he soon afterward removed to the United States, taking up his residence in Georgia in 1806, and serving as a representative of this state in the war of 1812. William Sheppard, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, participated in the battle of Cowpens in the Revolution. After the close of the war he removed to Georgia and settled in the parish of St. George, which later became Screven county. Two uncles of Walter W. Sheppard, Alexander and Donald Fraser, were soldiers in the Confederate service during the Civil war, as was also one of his brothers, William A. Sheppard. Walter W. Sheppard se cured his preparatory educational discipline in Bradwell institute, Hinesville, Ga. In 1889 he graduated at the University of Georgia, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1893 he secured from the law department of the same institution the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1894 the degree of Master of Laws was conferred upon him at the close of a post-graduate course in George town university, Washington, D.C. Mr. Sheppard was identified with agricultural pursuits in Liberty county for a number of years, and was also there engaged in the practice of his profession until 1896, when he removed to Savannah, where he now controls a very satisfactory law business, being known as one specially well fortified for the successful work of his exacting profession. He is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party and in 1804-5 represented the second district in the state senate. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church, and he is identified with the Masonic fraternity, Knights of Pythias, Independent Or der of Odd Fellows, Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and the Phi Theta college fraternity. Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Transcribed by Kristen Bisanz
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