Mercer University | Ray City History Blog

Reverend Edwin B. Carroll

March 6, 2021 at 12:05 am (Baptists, Faith and Begorrah, Uncategorized)
Tags: Adiel Sherwood, B.F. Elliott, Benajah Harvey Carroll, Berrien Minute Men, Cairo Academy, Camilla Academy, Camilla Literary Club, Campbell Carlton Carroll, Carrollton GA, Charles Adiel Lewis Totten, Charles Gaulden Dilworth, China Grass, Columbian Exposition, Company G 29th Georgia Regiment, Confederate Memorial Day, Cora Ethel Carroll, E. L. Thomas, Edwin B. Carroll, Edwin B. Carroll Jr, Elisha Peck Smith Denmark, Elizabeth Carroll, Friendship Church, Gary Pittman, George I. Jones, Georgia Baptist Convention, Green Street Baptist Church, Hickory Head Baptist Church, Hickory Head GA, Hotel Georgia, J. A. Carey, J. T. Fender, James Albert Carroll, James Carroll, James H. Carroll, James S. Harris, Jesse Carroll, John Lane, John T. Carroll, Johnson's Island, Jonesboro GA, Josphine A. Carroll, Julia E. Chastain, Julia E. Hayes, Julia Emma Carroll, Luther Rice Christie, Madison FL, Mary Elizabeth Carroll, Mercer Baptist Association, Mercer University, Mount Enon Church, N. W. Waterman, Nettie Sherwood, Norman Institute, Ocklocknee Light Infantry, Okapilco Baptist Church, P. H. Murray, Patterson Carroll, Penfield Baptist Church, Pittsburgh Ramie Manufacturing Company, Ramie, Raymond S. Harvey, Robert Hamilton Harris, Robert T. Myddleton, Southern Baptist Convention, Stockton GA, Tenant Mack Robinson, Vineville Baptist Church, William Carey Willis, William J. Carroll, Young Female College

Edwin B. Carroll, Captain of the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th Georgia Regiment.

Reverend Edwin B. Carroll

Rev. Edwin Benajah Carroll was born March 3, 1841 in North Carolina and died at his home in Carrollton, GA on October 13, 1903. He is buried in the Hickory Head Baptist Church Cemetery, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia.

Edwin B. Carroll was a son of James Carroll and nephew of Jesse Carroll, brothers who were pioneer settlers of that area of old Lowndes County, GA cut into Berrien County in 1856, and which is now Lanier County, GA. Edwin was eight years old when they arrived. The Carrolls were prominent in establishing the Missionary Baptist church in this area.

“In 1857 Daniel B. Carroll (James’ son [and brother of Edwin B. Carroll]) and James S. Harris (James Carroll’s son-in-law) deeded land for a Missionary Baptist Church. Trustees to whom the deed was made were James Carroll, James Dobson, James’ sons John T. [Carroll] and James H. [Carroll], and James S. Harris. Rev. Caswell Howell, who had recently settled here, is said to have been its first pastor. [Rev. Howell was a brother of Barney Howell, who was a mail carrier on the Troupville route.] The church, directly north of today’s courthouse [present day site of Mathis Law office, 64 W. Church Street Lakeland, GA], was built of hand-split lumber with hand-hewn sills, and put together with wooden pegs. The ten-inch-wide ceiling boards were planed by hand.” – Nell Roquemore, in Roots, Rocks and Recollections

After attending local country school Edwin’s father sent him to Marshall College. In 1860 he entered Mercer University where he was a classmate of Robert Hamilton Harris; Both men left the college for service in the Confederate States Army and served in the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment.

Edwin B. Carroll left the school in 1861 to join the Berrien Minute Men, a Confederate infantry unit in the 29th GA Regiment. He served on coastal artillery in Savannah and in the Atlanta Campaign. He was captured in July, 1864 and spent almost a year in Johnson’s Island Military prison before renouncing Confederate citizenship and taking the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America. When he was released in June 1865 he 24 years old.

When the War ended, and he returned home, he could find no employment but teaching, in which he has been engaged almost every year since… In October, 1865, he was married to Mrs. Julia E. Hayes, of Thomasville, Georgia. She is all that a preacher’s wife should be.

Minutes of Penfield Baptist Church show he was granted a letter of dismission on April 15, 1866.

The church at Stockton, Georgia, where he was teaching, gave him, unsought, a license to preach, and in 1868, he was ordained at Macedonia Church, without having requested it, by a presbytery consisting of Revs James Williamson and R.S. Harvey. He does not seem to have enjoyed preaching much, however, until 1873. He often made failures, as he thought, at times not speaking more than five minutes before he would take his seat. He has always felt it a cross, but one that he must take up.

The 1870 census of Berrien County, GA shows he was living in Milltown (now Lakeland), GA and working as a school teacher.

His first pastorate was in 1873, at Ocapilco. The same year he accepted a call to Hickory Head, of which he has ever since been pastor. For two years he preached two Sabbaths in the month for the church at Madison, Florida, and for the same length of time, at Valdosta, Georgia. He is now (1880) pastor of Hickory Head and Quitman churches. In these seven years, he has baptized about two hundred persons.

In 1874, he was tendered a professorship in the Young Female College, Thomasville, Georgia, but declined for fear he could not fill it satisfactorily, thus modestly distrusting his own abilities… He is a cousin of Rev. B.H. Carroll [Benajah Harvey Carroll] of Waco, Texas, and of Rev. J.L. Carroll, of Virginia.

Reverend Carroll served as pastor of the Okapilco Baptist Church from January 1873 to November 1875. He served as pastor of Hickory Head Baptist Church from 1873 to 1890. In July 1874, Rev. Carroll conducted a great revival at Hickory Head.

At the 2nd annual session of the Mercer Baptist Association, October 2, 1875 convened at Friendship Church, Brooks County, GA, he was elected clerk of the association. He was also preaching at Madison, FL and occasionally at Valdosta, GA. In addition to preaching, E. B. Carroll was principal of the Hickory Head Academy near Quitman, GA. In politics he favored increasing state funding for education and year round school.

In 1876, E. B. Carroll, along with James McBride, N. A. Bailey and R. W. Phillips formed the presbytery for the ordination of Richard A. Peeples; At the time, Peeples was judge of the County Court of Lowndes County, GA and had previously served as Clerk of the Court in Berrien County.

At the commencement of Mercer University in July 1876 the Board of Trustees conferred on Edwin B. Carroll the degree of Master of Arts. In 1878 he became pastor of the Valdosta Baptist church and preached his first sermon in that capacity on Sunday, February 3, 1878. The Christian Index reported, “He has charge of two churches, and a school, and controls, also, a fine farm.”

He is now [1880] living on his farm, in Brooks County, Georgia, preaching to his two churches and superintending his planting interests, quiet and contented. He is ever full of praise and gratitude to the Giver of all good, and seems to desire only the privilege of living to the glory of God and the good of his fellow-men.

Reverend Carroll and Julia Carroll were the parents of eight children.

James Albert Carroll (1867–1941)
Campbell Carlton Carroll (1870–1899) 1 September 1870 • Berrien County, GA
Mary Elizabeth Carroll (1873–1945) 24 June 1873 • Thomas County, GA
Julia Emma Carroll (1875–1881) 12 October 1875 • Brooks County, GA
Cora Ethel Carroll (1878–) Jan 1878 • Georgia
Edwin B. Carroll, Jr (1879–)Oct 1879 • Georgia
Josephine A. Carroll (1882-1966)
Patterson Carroll (1883-)

From 1879 to 1881 Reverend E. B. Carroll was pastor of the Quitman Baptist Church, preaching in the original frame building which stood on West Screven Street, Quitman, GA.

Reverend E. B. Carroll was one of the 71 Georgia delegates in attendance at the 1879 Southern Baptist Convention convened at Atlanta, GA, May 8, 1879. Among the other delegates were P. H. Mell, E. Z. T. Golden, and C. S. Golden. Rev. Carroll preached the Saturday service at the 1880 Sunday School Convention of the Mercer Baptist Association at Grooverville, GA; Rev. R. A. Peeples preached the Sunday service to a packed church. Reverend E. Z. T. Golden was president of the convention.

For the November 1880 term of the Superior Court of Brooks County, GA, Edwin B. Carroll served as foreman of the Grand Jury.

In early August 1881, the Carroll’s six year old daughter Julia came down sick. After an illness of five weeks, she passed away on a Saturday morning, September 17, 1881 at Hickory Head, GA.

In 1882, Rev. E. B. Carroll preached at the Thomasville Baptist Church, filling in for Rev. Mr. Golden who was on vacation. The town’s other clergy were Rev. Mr. Wynn, Methodist; Rev. Mr. Fogartie, Presbyterian; Rev. Charles C. Prendergast, Catholic; Rev. N. Waterman, African Baptist Church, Rev. J. A. Cary, African Methodist Episcopal.

By 1884, Rev. E. B. Carroll had given up management of the Hickory Head Academy, but continued to serve as pastor of the Hickory Head Baptist Church. He was also preaching at the Baptist Church in Boston, GA

In 1885 Edwin B. Carroll participated in the organization of a Farmer’s Club at Boston, GA. As an investment, he purchased ten acres of land from Mr. G. W. Garrison on the Jones Road near the Thomasville city limit.

In May 1885, he was a delegate at the Southern Baptist Convention held at Green Street Baptist Church, Augusta, GA. On July 4, 1885 it was announced that he had accepted the pastorate of the Baptist Church at Camilla, preaching there the first and third Sundays each month. He was also appointed Principal of the Camilla High School. Later that year he moved his family to Cairo, GA, there taking up the former residence of Mr. Griffin. He was appointed to manage the Cairo Academy, his predecessors being Rev. John Byron Wight and Robert Hamilton Harris, who wrote about his experiences as a lieutenant of the 29th Georgia on Sapelo Island where the Berrien Minute Men had stationed in 1861.

In January 1886 Edwin B. Carroll resigned the pastorate of Hickory Head Church, Brooks County, and accepted a call from Friendship Church in Thomas County. By June of 1886, the Baptist Church at Camilla had raised a salary sufficient to induce Reverend Carroll, of Cairo, to make Camilla his home, and there preach two Sunday’s a month. He also resumed teaching in Camilla with a school of some 70 students.

In Camilla, the Carroll’s social engagements included sponsoring the Camilla Literary Club which met in the parlor of their residence. Rev. Carroll’s school also put on an annual exhibition at Bennett Hall, and he was involved in organizing the Camilla lodge of the Knights of Honor. The Knights of Honor (K. of H.), a fraternal order and secret society in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, was one of the most successful beneficiary societies of its time. The order was created in 1873 specifically to charter lodges idolizing Confederate leaders, which other fraternal organizations had refused to do.

A year later, the Camilla Baptist Church provided Rev. Carroll an annual salary of $900 to preach four Sunday’s a month. He, with Rev. Powell continued to teach at the Camilla Academy. Rev. Carroll tendered his resignation from the pastorate at Hickory Head Church and moved his family into the Hotel Georgia at Camilla, renting some six or seven rooms on the second floor. The newly opened Hotel Georgia was said to be elegantly furnished, constructed at a cost of $68,946.84. It was a three-story, 68 room affair, situated on Broad Street in Camilla, GA. The hotel’s rooms included a gentlemen’s Parlor, a drummer’s sample room, and a very large dining room with the table setting of silver-ware costing $1856.16. The hotel was under the management of Col. George G. Duy and his wife, with assistant manager Capt. C. R. Parrish. The kitchen was staffed with three cooks and equipped with a $1,200 range. The carpet on the parlor floor cost $3.15 per yard. Rev. Carroll continued to host the meetings of the Camilla Literary Club in his parlor at Hotel Georgia.

The Pittsburgh Ramie Manufacturing Company planned to erect a large factory at Thomasville, GA to process ramie plants into fiber.

On April 28, 1888, the Thomasville Times announced that Reverend Carroll had sold the ten acre tract in which he had invested three years earlier. The land was purchased by the Pittsburgh Ramie Manufacturing Company for the purpose of cultivating ramie. Ramie, or China Grass, is one of the oldest fiber crops, having been used for at least 6,000 years, and is principally used for fabric production. It was anticipated that ramie would become an important agricultural crop in the U.S., but the fiber found limited acceptance for textile use.

About the first of May, 1888, Rev. Carroll moved his family into houses owned by W. A. Hurst at Camilla, GA. Mr. Hurst moved into the Hotel Georgia. By October, the Carrolls moved into the new Baptist parsonage. Rev. Carroll’s preaching schedule changed to two Sundays a month at Camilla Baptist Church, and two Sundays a month at Flint and some other church.

In 1889 he took over preaching at Mount Enon Church, Cumming County, GA.

In 1890, Reverend E. B. Carroll was chosen as pastor of the First Baptist Church at Albany, GA. The Carrolls traveled by train to Albany. Arriving at the Albany depot on Tuesday February 18, 1890, the Carrolls were received by a large crowd. They occupied the residence of Mr. Gary Pittman. That year, Rev Carroll traveled to Jonesboro, GA to visit the Civil War battlefields where he had been a prisoner of war 25 years earlier, and where his brother died.

Rev. E.B. Carroll of Albany had a brother killed at the battle of Jonesboro in the “late unpleasantness,” and while there last week visited the old battle fields. The relic hunter has made but few invasions on this spot, and Mr. Carroll picked up an old musket barrel and bayonet, both marked by the ravages of the elements during the twenty-five years of peace, and will preserve them as relics of sacred memory.

♦

Rev. E. B. Carroll, of Albany, has found some interesting relics on the battlefield of Jonesboro. They consist of the barrel of a muzzle-loading musket that was pulled from the breastworks in a dilapidated condition, a bayonet, that has been placed on the muzzle of the barrel, and several bullets, battered by their contacts with objects on the field.

On April 26, 1890, he gave the invocation at the Albany, GA cemetery for the Confederate Memorial Day observation and fundraiser for a monument “to the sainted memory of the dead.”

“In 1874, the Georgia General Assembly [had] approved legislation adding as a new public holiday ‘The 26th day of April in each year – commonly known as Memorial Day.’ April 26 marks the anniversary of the end of the Civil War for Georgia, for it was on this day in 1865 that Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s surrender to General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina became official. Johnston had been in charge of Georgia’s defense, so this day marked the end of the war for Georgia…The day of observance may trace to the women of Columbus, Georgia, who on April 12, 1866 organized a memorial association and began a campaign to have a special day for “’paying honor to those who died defending the life, honor and happiness of the Southern women.’”

Rev. E. B. Carroll’s brother, Dr. William J. Carroll, was pastor of the Baptist church at Milltown, GA.

Edwin B. Carroll

In May 1891, Rev. Carroll attended the Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham, AL representing the Mallary Association. In October that year the Baptist Church of Dalton, GA sought his services, but he remained in Albany. He was a leading figure in fundraising for the construction of a new church building for Albany. The Albany News and Advertiser reported, “Rev. E.B. Carroll deserves especial commendation for the interest he takes in this affair and the indomitable energy with which he is pushing the work.” The building was completed in February, 1892.

Rev. Carroll gave the introductory sermon at the Georgia Baptist Convention which convened in LaGrange, GA in 1892. The delegate from Valdosta was Reverend P.H. Murray.

When the Columbian Exposition was about to open in 1892, Rev. Carroll led a petition drive opposing the opening of the Exposition gates on Sundays. Public funds for the Exposition had been appropriated by U.S. Congress on the condition that the Expo would be closed on Sundays, but the organizers and the Chicago Women’s Club were lobbying to have that condition removed.

Followers of Totten’s prophecies…

Charles Adiel Lewis Totten is listed in Who Was Who in America (1: 1247) as a professor of military science at Yale from 1889 to 1892, who resigned to spend more time on his religious studies. He was a British-Israelist, believing that the Anglo-Saxons were the lost tribes of Israel, and an Adventist, who predicted the reign of Antichrist would occur in the seven-year period from 1892 to 1899.

Rev. Carroll again represented the Mallary Association at the 1893 Southern Baptist Convention, met at Nashville, TN.

In 1894, Rev. Carroll accepted the pastorate of Vineville Baptist Church, Macon, GA, which had been founded in 1891 just a couple of miles from the campus of Mercer University.

In February 1895, a 10 acre parcel of land owned by Rev. Carroll on the Bainbridge Road in Thomas County was seized by the Superior Court and sold at auction to satisfy a debt he owed to Alice D. Tiller. On June 23, 1895, Rev. Carroll made a return visit to Camilla, GA where he gave the commencement sermon for the Camilla High School. That summer Mrs. E.B. Carroll was among the women of Macon who pledged to boycott stores that kept clerks working after 6:00 PM. The petition was published in the Macon Telegraph:

“Believing that for the sake of humanity that clerks who are on their feet all day should be allowed some recreation during the long summer days, and knowing that no merchant could possibly lose a cent if they will agree to close at 6 o’clock in the afternoon, we, the undersigned ladies, agree not to trade with any dry goods merchant who does not close his store at 6 o’clock p.m. (Saturdays excepted) from June 24 to September 1, 1895”

At the 1896 State Baptist Convention at Cedartown, GA, Rev. Carroll was elected to the Board of Trustees of Mercer University. From that membership, he was elected Chair of the Executive Committee of the Board. In October he issued the following:

The executive committee must have help or the young men who are in Mercer preparing for preaching the gospel must be told not to return after the Christmas holidays.
There are more than twenty of them receiving aid from the committee. Will not the churches send us money to keep these men here through the entire session?
The committee is greatly interested in this work, and indulges the hope that the brethren will respond to the call made.
Brother C.B. Willingham is treasurer of the committee, and he will be glad to receive your checks.

The Superior Court of Bibb County on December 14, 1896 appointed Rev. E.B. Carroll chair of a council of white church members of the First Baptist Church of Christ and the Vineville Baptist Church to supervise the election of a pastor at the African-American First Baptist Church, where a dispute had emerged among the congregation regarding the selection of a pastor.

The First Baptist Church on Cotton Avenue was established by African-Americans more than a quarter of a century before the adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation, which called for the freedom of all slaves on United States soil. Its origin was in the Baptist Church of Christ at Macon. For the first eight years, whites and African-Americans worshiped in the same building. Records indicate that at the time, there were two hundred eighty-three African-Americans and one hundred ninety-nine whites. In 1835, E.G. Cabiness, an early historian, wrote: “It’s thus seen that a majority of the church are slaves.” As members of the racially mixed church, the African-Americans were to a great extent, a distinct body. Alternate services were led under the direction of a licensed minister and deacons of their own color. Members exercised authority to receive and exclude persons as members of their church body. The ordinances, however, were administered by the pastor of the whole church. On March 1, 1845, land and building were deeded to the colored portion of the Baptist Church at Macon, “for religious services and moral cultivation forever.” -http://firstbaptistmacon.org/history.php

Through the Civil War the African-American First Baptist Church was under the pastorship of white ministers. Black congregations were required by law to have white ministers and supervision. The church’s first ordained African-American minister was not called until Reconstruction. In 1886, the church became a charter member of the National Baptist Convention. In this period, Black Baptists in the former Confederacy overwhelmingly left white-dominated churches to form independent congregations and get away from white supervision. Following the death of Reverend Tenant Mack Robinson in 1896, a disagreement among the deacons resulted in the church being closed by court action in November, 1896 and the appointment of Reverend Carroll to the supervising council.

In February, 1897 he made a visit to Griffin, GA, scene of his boyhood education and baptism:

The Macon Telegraph

February 16,1897
GRIFFIN.

A Macon Minister Preached to a Large Congregation Sunday.

Griffin, Feb 15. – Yesterday the pulpit of the First Baptist church here was filled by Rev. E. B. Carroll of the Vineville Baptist church, and a large and appreciative congregation gathered to hear him, and some who were unable to attend had their residence connected by telephone and listened to his discourse in the quiet of their homes. Mr. Carroll is not a stranger to Griffin, for it was here that he received a portion of his education and was converted and joined the Baptist church thirty-nine years ago, and, as a singular fact, he was the guest of the only man that was present in the congregation who had been a member as long, and that gentleman was Col. George I. Jones. Other singular coincidences connected with his visit are these: The first night here was spent under the first roof that ever sheltered him in Griffin in 1858, when he came to enter the school as a pupil at the old Marshall College. His Sunday was spent at the home of Mrs. R. C. Jones, whom he boarded with for two years and a half, and he found that not a death in the family in all those years. The organist of the Baptist church was Miss Nettie Sherwood, a niece of Rev. Adiel Sherwood, who was pastor of the church at the time that he joined, and also president of the Marshall College. Mr. Carroll’s visit here was the occasion of recalling many pleasant reminiscences of his school days, and the tenor of them seemed to mark the beginning of the future of the minister. Among those who he had known then he was simply the Ed Carroll of boyhood days, lovable and companionable; but to the younger generation that listened to the after-dinner talk, he was the grand man that he is – a worthy minister to the court of heaven.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Convention. In April 1897, the Baptist and Reflector shared the amusing anecdote.

Edwin B. Carroll catches train in Macon, GA, April 29, 1897 Baptist and Reflector

In May 1897 he was a Georgia delegate at the Southern Baptist Convention at Wilmington, NC. And in 1898 he attended the convention at Norfolk, VA.

He was a delegate in attendance at the 1899 Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, KY. In September 1901, he accepted a call to preach at the Baptist Church at Carrollton, GA.

In 1903 Rev. Carroll served on the Nominations Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, convened at Savannah, GA. The pastor of the Ray City Baptist Church, Reverend H.C. Strong, was among the delegates. Other delegates from the area included: E. L. Thomas, J.T. Fender, attorney Elisha Peck Smith Denmark, planter John Lane, Robert T. Myddleton, Reverend Luther Rice Christie and William Carey Willis, Valdosta; B.F. Elliott, Adel; Reverend Charles Gaulden Dilworth, Tifton. On May 24, 1903 he preached the commencement sermon at Norman Institute, Norman Park, GA. While there he made a visit to Berrien county, his old home. In July he returned to hold services in some of the old churches he had served in this section.

On Sunday, April 10, 1904 memorial services were held at his old church at Hickory Head, GA with his widow in attendance.

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Edwin B. Carroll, Captain of the Berrien Minute Men

August 23, 2020 at 12:50 am (Berrien Minute Men, Civil War, Uncategorized)
Tags: Adiel Sherwood, anti-semitism, Battery Lawton, Berrien Minute Men, Camp Debtford GA, Company E 54th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Company G 29th Georgia Regiment, CSS Ida, Duplin County NC, Edward Clifford Anderson, Edwin B. Carroll, Elizabeth Carroll, Ezekiel Roberts, George Anderson Mercer, James Carroll, Jesse H. Campbell, Johnson's Island, Julia E. Chastain, Lakeland GA, Marshall College, Mercer University, Milltown GA, Ocklocknee Light Infantry, Penfield Baptist Church, Savannah Bread Riot, Smith's Island GA, Thomas S. Wylly

Updated

August 21, 2023

Captain of the Berrien Minute Men
The Atlanta Campaign
POW on Johnson’s Island
Missionary Baptist

E. B. Carroll was born in Kenansville, North Carolina, on the 3rd of March, 1841. His parents [James and Elizabeth Carroll of Duplin Co., NC,] were both Baptists – his father an active deacon and his mother a consistent Christian woman. They came to Georgia when he was eight years old and settled at a place now known as [Lakeland, in preset day Lanier County.] He was a cousin of Mary E. Carroll, who later married 1) William Washington Knight and 2) William J. Lamb. His brother, Daniel B. Carroll, donated land for the construction of the Milltown Baptist Church in 1857.

According to Wiregrass historian Folks Huxford, the Carrolls were among several families that moved to Berrien County, GA from their home community in Duplin County, N. C. “Among these families were those of William J. Lamb, James Carroll, Jesse Carroll, William Godfrey, Andrew J. Liles, William Best, James W. Dixon and others. These all settled in or around the village then called Alapaha but now named Lakeland, Lanier County… John Bostick and family moved to what was then Lowndes County not long after.”

Edwin B. Carroll ~ Early Life

The early years of his life, up to seventeen, were spent on the farm, sometimes attending school and at other times, tilling the ground. At that age his father sent him to Marshall College, in Griffin, Georgia, then conducted by Dr. Adiel Sherwood.

Adiel Sherwood, slave owner and outspoken Baptist advocate for slavery.

Sherwood, probably the most important spiritual influence in the founding of Mercer University, owned enslaved people and was an outspoken advocate for slavery in the southern states. Sherwood and other Southern Baptists defended slavery as a biblical institution, and asserted that enslaved people in the south were better off than white northern farmers. Sherwood claimed that enslaved people had plenty of free time to work for their own profit, and “not infrequently, by the privileges granted them, they are enabled to purchase their own freedom.“

He [Edwin B. Carroll] entered the preparatory department, but in the autumn was admitted into college proper.

Reverend Jesse H. Campbell was a slave owner and volunteered as an "evangelist" in the Confederate States Army. — Reverend Jesse H. Campbell influenced Edwin B. Carroll to preach the gospel. Campbell was a slave owner and volunteered as an “evangelist” in the Confederate States Army.

When [Edwin B. Carroll] had finished his Freshman studies, he determined to gain a year. This he succeeded in doing, carrying on the course of both Sophomore and Junior classes at the same time. At the opening of the spring term of the Sophomore year, it was announced by the faculty that he was a regular member of the Junior class. He made this effort, not because his necessities forced him to it, but because he wished to do it and felt that he could. The year that he entered college, 1858, a revival wave swept over almost the entire country. In Griffin, there were numbers added to all the churches – to the Baptist Church, nearly one hundred – and he was among them. Dr. Sherwood, as pastor, of the church, baptized him. The night after his baptism, during an earnest prayer offered by Dr. Jesse H. Campbell, he felt impressed with a strong desire to preach the Gospel. The struggle between this desire and a sense of his own unfitness was fierce, and resulted in his putting the work away from him. To use his own language, he “fought against” this impression for fourteen years, and is now in the work because he feels he can not help it, and the cry of his soul is, “Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel!” In 1860, he entered the Junior class in Mercer University, and pursued studies there until May, 1861, when he returned home, and, though only twenty years old, joined a Regiment “for the War”, which was then just beginning.

On Sept. 8, 1860 Edwin B. Carroll was received into Church membership at Penfield Baptist Church by letter from the Baptist Church at Griffin, GA. Penfield was the old chapel of Mercer University.

At Mercer University, Edwin B. Carroll was a classmate of Owen Clinton Pope, who after the Civil War, would come to Milltown (now Lakeland), GA to teach at the Milltown Academy.

In the Confederate States Army

Edwin B Carroll served the Confederacy in the Berrien Minute Men, Company C (later Company G), 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment. This was the original company of Berrien Minute Men, formed by Captain Levi J. Knight, even before the election of Lincoln. Company Rolls show Edwin B. Carroll was mustered into Confederate States service in Savannah, GA on August 1, 1861. Enlisting as a private, he rose through the ranks.

At Savannah, the campfires of the Berrien Minute Men were initially made at Causton’s Bluff, overlooking St. Augustine Creek and Whitmarsh Island. By August 20, 1861 the Berrien Minute Men were sent to Brunswick, GA with the 13th Georgia Regiment at Camp Semmes, Brunswick. In due course, the Berrien Minute Men were placed in the 29th GA Regiment. On October 11, 1861 three companies of the 29th Regiment, including the Berrien Minute Men, were stationed on Sapelo Island. They were manning Sapelo Battery, an earthworks and gun emplacement on the south end of Sapelo Island defending Doboy Sound. The Civil War letters of Private John Hagan described Battery Sapelo as armed with five cannons, the largest of which was a 160 pounder.

Sketch of Civil War Earthwork on Sapelo Island

By November 1861 Edwin B. Carroll was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant of the Berrien Minute Men. Thomas S. Wylly was Captain. Their coastal Georgia posts included Stations on Blackbeard Island; Camp Spalding on Sapelo Island; and Camp Security at Darien, GA. By early 1862 The Berrien Minute Men, having gotten “regulated” into the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment , were sent to Camp Wilson, near Savannah. On the night of February 21, Captain Wylly’s Company of Berrien Minute Men were ordered from Camp Wilson to Fort Jackson to relieve the Savannah Republican Blues. By March 7, 1862 “Captain Wylly’s Company” was on Smith’s Island at Battery Lawton supporting Fort Jackson, defending Savannah against incursions by the ships of the U. S. Navy. Most of Edwin B. Carroll’s Confederate service would be in the Savannah River batteries at Battery Lawton on Smith’s Island,

Colonel Edward Clifford Anderson (November 8, 1815 – January 6, 1883) was a naval officer in the United States Navy, Mayor of Savannah, Georgia and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He commanded Fort James Jackson near Savannah before its capture in 1864. He was elected mayor of Savannah eight times, before and after the war, and on December 6, 1865, he became the first mayor to be elected after the war. — Colonel E. C. Anderson, (November 8, 1815 – January 6, 1883) was a naval officer in the United States Navy, Mayor of Savannah, Georgia and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He commanded Fort James Jackson near Savannah before its capture in 1864. He was elected mayor of Savannah eight times, before and after the war, and on December 6, 1865, he became the first mayor to be elected after the war.

At the reorganization of the regiment on May 7, 1862 Edwin B. Carroll was appointed 1st Lieutenant with the notation that he was “deficient in battery and artillery drill.” In that same election of officers, May 1862, Levi J. Knight, Jr was elected Captain of Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th GA Regiment following the resignation of Captain Thomas S. Wylly.

All the Savannah River Batteries, including Company G’s position on Smith’s Island were under the command of Col. Edward Clifford Anderson. A product of the U.S. Navy, Col. Anderson was a disciplinarian, critical of subordinates and superiors alike. Captain L. J. Knight, Jr., in particular, drew the censorious scrutiny of Col. Anderson.

Throughout May, June and July of 1862 Lieutenant Carroll, Captain Knight and Berrien Minute Men, Company G garrisoned Battery Lawton on Smith’s Island. In the summer time the soldiers’ daily routine at Battery Lawton, Fort Jackson and other Savannah River batteries under Anderson’s command began at 4:30 am and ended after sunset, approximately 8:30 pm. The conditions of summertime service on the mud island must have been among the worst in the Georgia coastal defenses. The annoyance of mosquitoes, sand flies, and fleas multiplied the discomfort. Captain George A Mercer, after visiting Smith’s Island on Sunday, June 22, 1862, wrote of the miserable experience.

[The] men, on Smith’s Island, are particularly uncomfortable; their tents are pitched on the muddy ground, beneath the blazing sky; not a dry spot of earth, not a shade tree is near; the tide frequently rises above the platforms of their tents, soaks their bedding and washes away all they have; they have positively been obliged to anchor their cooking utensils to prevent their being carried away. And yet these brave fellows must stay — and do stay cheerfully in this dreadful spot, where every comfort is denied them, and sickness and death must add their horrors to the scene…Indeed a sad necessity is imposed upon our troops; they must garrison spots where a white man can hardly live.

The Regimental Return for July 1862 shows Lieutenant Carroll at Camp Debtford, an encampment established by Col. Anderson near Causton’s Bluff to serve as a convalescent camp and respite for troops serving on the Advance River Batteries under his command. In August and September 1862, Lt. Carroll was present at Camp Anderson along with others of the 29th Georgia Regiment. Among Lt. Carroll’s more unpleasant duties, ordering coffins for deceased soldiers.

By October 1862 the Berrien Minute Men Company G were back at Lawton Battery on Smith’s Island, where they were again under the direct observation of Col. Edward C. Anderson. An animosity developed between Captain Knight and Col. Anderson. Anderson saw Levi J. Knight as an incompetent officer, an irresponsible and demoralizing “evil example” to the men. By December 1862, Levi J. Knight, Jr was relieved of command. Knight was brought before an Officers Examining Board on December 4, 1862 and was “suspended from rank and commission by order of General Beauregard.” Knight’s rank was reduced to private.

Captain Carroll

With Knight busted to private, Edwin B. Carroll was promoted to Captain of the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th GA Regiment. Under Captain Carroll, Berrien Minute Men Company G remained on post on the Savannah River through the end of 1862.

March 1, 1863 found the company at Camp Young, Savannah.

In March, deserters from Causton’s Bluff and Thunderbolt batteries at Savannah were communicated in Union newspapers as reporting that Confederate troops were on subsistence rations.

The daily rations of sesesh soldiers. A Hilton Head letter of the 27th says: We have received into our lines several deserters from rebel defences at Causton’s Bluff and Thunderbolt, who affirm that the daily rations of troops consist only of four ounces bacon and seven of cornmeal. Many of the rebel troops are falling sick and all are fearing illness. Deserters assert that only for the fact that they are kept on inside post duty the entire regiments to which they belong would desert. From what is deemed a source entirely trustworthy, I learn that all the women and children have been ordered out of Savannah. – They left the city on Monday and Tuesday. This measure is induced not more by fear of attack than by the inability of commanding General to subsist his troops while there are so many non-combatants to be fed. -Fall River Daily Evening News 01 Apr 1863

In April,1863 food shortages in Savannah drove profiteering and inflation. In the market for enslaved people profiteers were getting $1100 to $2200 per person. Conditions for white civilians worsened. An appalled Lieutenant George Anderson Mercer, Assistant Adjutant General, 1st Georgia Infantry, blamed immigrants, northern sympathizers, draft dodgers and especially Savannah’s Jews.

“A mad fever of speculation – a rabid thirst for wealth – appears to have seized those who are not in the service; a fearful, gambling, corrupt spirit is abroad which is sufficient to call down the denunciations of the Judge of the Universe; all “make haste to be rich,” and they are not innocent. These speculators have done, and are doing, us incalculable harm. They are depreciating our currency and starving the poor…Think of a suit of fatigue uniform clothes costing over $200 in Savannah, and of a Barrel of Whiskey selling for $1600…the sordid speculators, composed chiefly of German Jews, of Aliens, of Yankees, and of our own people who have bought substitutes [to take their place in military service]…The Jews, who nearly all claim foreign protection, and thus avoid service, are the worst people we have among us; their exemption from military duty, their natural avarice, and their want of principle in this contest, render them peculiarly obnoxious; they are all growing rich, while the brave soldier gets poorer and his family starve.

April 1863 newspapers reported food shortages, hoarding and profiteering in Savannah, GA (Lancaster Gazette [Enland], April 18, 1863) — April 1863 newspapers reported food shortages, hoarding and profiteering in Savannah, GA (Lancaster Gazette [England], April 18, 1863)

The Savannah Republican says: – The want of provisions in Savannah is becoming most important. The city authorities have requested the railways to refuse to carry provisions out of the town. This may do good as far as rice is concerned, but it is questioned whether there is anything else in Savannah. For the last few days it has been difficult for families to buy bacon, and many persons could not find Indian corn meal even in small quantities. The evil is that retailers of provisions have been forced to go or send up the country for supplies. They succeeded in buying small quantities, but their entry was stopped by government agents at the Gulf road. Even small parcels remain. Families require them.

♦

“By the summer of 1863, conditions in Savannah were horrendous. Scarlet fever, typhoid, and small pox ran rampant, and corpses piled in the streets. The Union blockade created a powder keg among the urban poor. Food ran low while enterprising merchants and blockade runners kept warehouses full to the brim.” – David T. Dixon

Eventually “bread riots” would erupt in Savannah and other southern cities.

Berrien Minute Men Drill on Coastal Artillery

On November 10, 1863, Edward C. Anderson reported a cold front moved through Savannah in the morning with ice and bitter cold winds out of the northeast. Monday, Nov 23, 1863 was a blustery day on the Savannah River, with cold winds from the north east. Col. Anderson visited Fort Lawton on Smith’s Island and “Drilled Carroll’s men [Berrien Minute Men, Company G] at the guns & fired shell from the 10 & 8 inch guns & blank cartridge from the latter only.” Morris’ company moved up from Proctor’s Point to join the Berrien Minute Men on Smith’s Island.

Civil War soldiers practice firing artillery cannon. — Civil War artillery drill.

With warmer weather and cloudy skies, on November 24, 1863 Col. Anderson ordered that the ordnance magazine at Battery Lawton be overhauled and the gun cartridges be arranged; he sent over all the ordnance men to assist with the work. The following morning, a dreary, rainy day, the men on the Savannah River batteries heard that the Confederate States Army had abandoned Lookout Mountain and was retreating before Sherman’s assault.

On December 18, Captain E. B. Carroll requested a leave of absence.

Lawton Battery
December 13th, 1863

Brig, Genl Jordan
Chief of Staff

General
I have the honor to apply through you to the General Comdg. for twenty (20) days leave of absence. I would not make the application for so long a time, could I do what I wish in a shorter period and I promise, if Savannah is attacked during my absence to return immediately. All the officers of the company are present & able for duty.
Very Respectfully
Your Obt Svt
E.B. Carroll
Capt. Co G. 29th Ga.

Captain Carroll got to spend his Christmas at home. He was absent with leave From December 19, 1863 to Jan 19, 1864. Around this time, late 1863 to early 1864, it appears the Berrien County Company E, 54th Georgia Regiment returned from South Carolina to man the Savannah River defenses along with the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th Georgia Regiment.

A communique of December 23, 1863 from George Mercer informed the Savannah River Batteries that “the enemy were about to raise the siege of Charleston and concentrate everything on Savannah.” Col. Anderson ordered Major McMullen, commanding the garrison at Smith’s Island, to “burn off the marsh in front of Battery Lawton, which he neglected to do.” Fortunately, the feared Christmas attack did not materialize.

The new year emerged raw and blustery with bitter cold in Savannah. Days of heavy rains swelled the Savannah River until about January 8, 1864 Smith’s Island was overflowed and Battery Lawton flooded. During the first half of the year, Confederate engineers continued work on Battery Lawton; Like all of the Advance River Batteries around Savannah, it was being built by the labor of enslaved people. The ground was so soft that pilings had to be driven into the mudbanks to support gun platforms. In the late spring sand was hauled to Fort Jackson by train, dumped onto flatboats and ferried to Smith’s Island for the construction of earthworks for Battery Lawton. It was as if the Confederate States Army was attempting to build a sand castle on a mudbank to stand against the tide.

On Monday, April 4, 1864, Edward C. Anderson reported the tides were the highest he had seen in the Savannah River in 30 years, “overflowing Smith’s Island, drowning its magazine and shell house.” On April 6, 1864, Col. Anderson wrote,

“The high tides of last night again flooded Lawton Battery, depositing within its enclosure a mass of rubbish & trash which the hot sun will soon germinate into miasma. The officers and men have applied to be removed up to the city…Thursday, April 7, The flood tide of last night again overflowed Smith’s Island. On visiting it today I found everything afloat & the evidence of the tides having risen fourteen inches into the mens quarters. Ordered them to move up to the City and telegraphed Suley to prepare for their reception.“

CSS Ida ferried the Berrien Minute Men from Smith's Island to Savannah. — CSS Ida ferried the Berrien Minute Men from Smith’s Island to Savannah.

The two companies from Lawton Battery loaded onto the steamer Ida and were ferried to Savannah. “At nine pm visited the quarters of the men on the Bay – Carroll has the [Republican] Blues drill room for his company & Morris for the present is in Husseys [Georgia Hussars] old quarters, next to McArthurs men.“

Col. Anderson wrote that “the Spring tides continue to drown Smith’s Island.” Heavy rains in the early spring of 1864 kept the Savannah river full, and kept the Berrien Minute Men, Company G in the barracks in the city.

The Berrien Minute Men were thus quartered in Savannah when the “bread riot” occurred in the city on April 17, 1864. Reported in the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel , April 22,1864

A small “bread riot” occurred in Savannah [Georgia] on Tuesday last [April 17, 1864]. The News says that a combination of women numbering from fifty to one hundred, appeared at a grocery store on Whitaker street, when their demand for provisions being made, the proprietor was in the act of distributing bacon among them, when others of the party made a rush into the store and helped themselves to whatever they wanted. The same crowd also went to two other places on the same mission, where they obtained bacon, etc. Three of the women were arrested and taken to the guard house, and would be brought before the Mayor Thursday morning.

In relation to this affair, the News says:

That the present high prices of provisions have provided distress no one can doubt, and it is probable that some who participated in the riotous proceedings of yesterday were goaded to their course by pressure of want, but if we are rightly informed many if not the majority of them, had not even that excuse for the commission of acts of lawlessness. Be this as it may, there can be no necessity or justification for such acts of outrage and robbery. It is not generally the truly worthy deserving poor who resort to such measures, and those who thus set the laws and public propriety at defiance forfeit the sympathy of the community. If there is indeed want and suffering let the sufferers make their condition known in the right quarter, and a community that has never turned a deaf ear to the appeals of the helpless and needy will give them relief.

We trust that our city authorities will investigate this matter, ascertain who they are that truly need assistance, and take the proper steps for their relief. Such action is not only due to the wives and children of soldiers in the service, to the helpless poor, and to the peaceful and good name of our community, but also to the best interests of our city. While the mob spirit should be met with firmness, we should, in these times, act in accordance with the maxim of “help one another.” Let the turbulent be rebuked, but let not the worthy and law abiding poor suffer.

It appears that Captain E. C. Carroll’s company of Berrien men never did return to Lawton Battery on Smith’s Island. On the 20th of April, 1864 Col. Anderson visited “the quarters of Capt. Carroll on the Bay.” On the 25th, he noted that Headquarters had ordered the reassignment of the companies in “the Lawton Battery Command.”

At last, the Berrien Minute Men, Company G would end their long detached duty in Savannah and rejoin the 29th Georgia Regiment at Dalton, GA. The 29th Regiment and Edwin B. Carroll were to be part of the Battle of Atlanta, as Confederate forces were arrayed northwest of Atlanta in the futile attempt to block Sherman’s advance on the city.

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Reverend Carl Winn Minor

July 22, 2020 at 12:58 am (Baptists, Faith and Begorrah)
Tags: Andrew Jefferson Beck, Carl Winn Minor, club axe, Cox College, Cox Female College, Dublin Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Valdosta, Francis Minor, Frank Minor, Friendship Church, Georgia Baptist Orphans' Home, Jim Minor, Martha Elizabeth Fair, Mary Jane Watson, Mercer University, Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College, Ray City Baptist Church, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Thomas Joseph Holmes, Valdosta Baptist Church, W. J. Durham, William D. Dewell

Reverend Carl Winn Minor (1868-1940)

Carl Winn Minor was pastor of the Ray City Baptist Church in 1936 and 1937. Born during Reconstruction, C. W. Minor was a son of Francis Minor and Mary Jane Watson and a grandson of Jim Minor, of Virginia.

Carl Winn Minor served as pastor of Ray City Baptist Church in 1936 and 1937. Rev. Minor had formerly served as pastor of Valdosta Baptist Church.

According to Baptist Biography, Vol II, 1917:

In the early part of the last century, Mr. Jim Minor moved from Virginia to Georgia and settled on a farm in the southern part of Hancock County. Among his children was Francis [Frank] Minor, who was made an orphan by the death of his father when he was only six years old. In the early years of Francis the responsibilities of the family fell upon his shoulders. This and the consequent hardships developed the manhood that was in him and he became a successful farmer. At the age of thirty he married Miss Mary Jane Watson, a native of Greene County, Georgia. They lived and labored on a farm in Hancock County, where they reared a large family, Carl Winn Minor, the subject of this sketch being the eleventh of fifteen children.

Mr. Minor was born July 29, 1868, and spent his youth on his father’s plantation, where he was schooled in the art of tilling the soil. By the use of a club axe, the plow and the hoe, he developed a strong body which has served him well in his educational pursuits and in his ministerial career. In the community school, with its short terms, he laid the foundation for his education. Being a diligent student and apt to learn he developed an insatiable desire for knowledge. In early manhood he entered the [Middle Georgia Military & Agricultural College] M. G. M. & A. College, at Milledgeville, Georgia, in which he prepared himself for the Freshman class of Mercer University, Macon, Georgia.

Carl Winn Minor attended Middle Georgia Military & Agricultural College at Milledgeville, GA. The college was housed in the former state capitol building, constructed in 1803. The college is now known as Georgia Military College.

On June 25, 1885, a month and three days before his seventeenth birthday. Mr. Minor was happily converted and united with the Milledgeville Baptist church and was baptized by Rev. A. J. Beck [Reverend Andrew Jefferson Beck]. From the beginning of his Christian life Mr. Minor took an active interest in the work of his church. It was soon recognized that he was a convert of promise and that he was endowed with the gifts of public speech and of leadership. Accordingly, he was licensed to exercise his gifts in preaching the gospel, and on December 18, 1888, while a student at Mercer University, he was ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry by Friendship church, Washington county, Georgia. The presbytery was composed of Revs. T. J. Holmes [Thomas Joseph Holmes], W. J. Durham and D. W. Dewell [William D. Dewell].

Carl Winn Minor attended Mercer University

Carl W. Winn was pastor at Union Baptist Church, Warthen, Washington County, GA from 1889 to 1893, while attending Mercer University.

Mr. Minor was pastor of one or more churches during his entire course at Mercer University. The churches served while at Mercer were Liberty, Wilkinson County, 1888-1893, and Union, Washington county, 1889-1893. The A. B. course and the duties of preparing sermons and of pastoral work in his churches were a heavy tax on his mind and body, but being accustomed to hard work from his youth up, and possessing an unusual degree of determination, he succeeded in the work of his churches and made a good record in his college classes, graduating with the A. B. degree in 1893. The income from the churches he served was not adequate to meet his college expenses, and it was necessary for him to devote one year to teaching. That year was spent in the grammar school of South Macon.

Old Baptist Church Building, Dublin, GA. Carl Winn Minor taught at this church while attending Mercer University in the 1890s.

During Mr. Minor’s last year at Mercer he was pastor of the Dublin Baptist church. This church offered exceptional opportunities for a young college graduate, but he was not satisfied with his educational attainments. Accordingly, he resigned the pastorate of the Dublin church in the Fall of 1893 and entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, at Louisville, Kentucky, from which he graduated with the Th. G. degree in 1895. While at the Seminary he was pastor of Tate’s Creek and Elko churches, in Kentucky.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY

After graduation from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mr. Minor became pastor of the Valdosta Baptist church, Georgia,

Carl Winn Minor preached from 1895 to 1900 in this Valdosta, GA church building, originally constructed in 1867 by the missionary baptist congregation of Valdosta. The Missionary Baptists sold the building to the Valdosta Primitive Baptist congregation in 1900. It was acquired by the Pentacostal Church 1994. It is Valdosta’s oldest existing religious structure.

[Reverend Minor served Valdosta Baptist Church] from 1895 to 1902. During this period the city of Valdosta had a very rapid but substantial growth. The church of which Mr. Minor was pastor kept pace with the material development of the community. Through his leadership it erected a magnificent new house of worship, which cost $30,000.

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In 1896, a lot on Toombs Street between West Central Avenue and Valley Street was purchased and construction on a new church building began. After four years, on November 18, 1900, the church was dedicated debt free, to the glory of God.

Valdosta Baptist Church

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During [Reverend Minor’s] pastorate at Valdosta he spent a year in travel and study abroad.

1899 Passport application of Carl Winn Minor.

Three months of the time were spent in the Holy Land. It was his privilege to read the thrilling instances recorded in the Scriptures on the ground where they took place. These opportunities gave him a clearer insight into the realities of the divine revelation. It has had a telling effect on his preaching through all the years. While abroad he spent much time in Germany, France, England and Scotland.

Mr. Minor has held only five pastorates since his graduation from the Seminary in 1895. The unanimous call of the church at Fitzgerald and the exceptional opportunities the field offered, led Mr. Minor to resign his church at Valdosta, in 1902, and to accept the pastorate of the church at Fitzgerald, where he remained through 1905. The church at Moultrie extended him a call in the latter part of 1905. It was an inviting field and the call was accepted and he gave the church three years of faithful and efficient service, resigning its pastorate to accept a call to the church at Bainbridge, where he did a great work during the years 1909 to 1914. Up until 1914 all the pastoral work of Mr. Minor had been in the territory south of Macon. The church at Madison, Georgia, coveted his gifts and secured his services in 1914 and thereafter until 1917. During his pastorate at Madison a commodious Sunday school room was erected at a cost of $25,000.

It may be said that few pastors anywhere have been more successful and more universally popular than Mr. Minor. Good congregations attended the regular services of all the churches he has served, and the churches under his leadership have enjoyed steady and substantial growth in numbers and in Christian liberality. His work as a pastor has been constructive, and every field in which he has labored has been made more desirable for his successor by reason of the character of work he did while in it.

The interest of Mr. Minor has not been limited to the churches he has served nor to the communities in which they were located. The district association of which his churches were members had his active support, and he ever maintained an active interest in the State and Southern Baptist Conventions. Educational institutions have found in him a staunch friend, and he has rendered much valuable service in their interests. Mr. Minor is distinctively a denominational man, and his denomination has recognized his ability as a leader in the interest of its enterprises. Among other positions held, he is trustee of the Georgia Baptist Orphans’ Home, Mercer University, and is president of the Mission Board of the Georgia Baptist Convention, a position which he has held during the past three years. In recognition of his ability as a minister of the gospel and as a theologian, the trustees of Mercer University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1910.

Dr. Minor is a man of pleasing personal appearance. Friends are easily made, and seemingly quite as easily held. As a preacher he is clear in his thinking, sound in his theology and forceful in his delivery. In his public addresses, he warms up to his subject quickly and creates interest and enthusiasm in his hearers. As a citizen he is every whit a Christian gentleman. Honesty and integrity with him are priceless virtues. In all the communities where he has lived and labored, he has maintained a high standing as a Christian citizen and as a man of good business judgment.

It was a surprise to many of his friends that Dr. Minor could have been induced to leave the pastorate to become associate president of Cox College, where he began his labors in the Fall of 1917.

Cox Female College, Atlanta, GA. Carl Winn Minor was president of the college from 1917 to 1926.

In the college, as in the pastorate, he is a tireless and tactful worker. Wherever he has gone he has made friends for the institution over which he presides. Though the college has no organic connection with the Baptist denomination, it is recognized as a Baptist institution. Dr. Minor’s friendship and support of the institutions of the Georgia Baptist Convention have been as hearty since his connection with Cox College as they were before.

Dr. Minor greatly increased his personal happiness and usefulness in his marriage to Mrs. Bessie Fair Sims, on September 17, 1912. In his work as pastor and as president of Cox College, she is a worthy helpmeet. With his home established and with his breadth of learning and with his varied experiences as pastor, educator and denominational worker, he is now at his best. The hard work on the farm in his youth, his struggles in securing an education, the stress and strain of growing pastorates and the exactions of a college president have in no way impaired his physical strength. At no time in his busy life has he been more capable of doing well a diversity of things than now. The brotherhood of his denomination and the people of the communities in which he has lived and labored trust him implicitly and delight to honor him. The days of his greatest usefulness have just begun, and the rewards which he has received and those which await him are well worth all the struggles of his youth and the sacrifices and labors of his manhood.

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Subsequent to his tenure at Cox College, Carl Winn Minor served as pastor of a number of Georgia baptist churches. In 1930, he was living and preaching in Augusta, GA. By 1936, he came to Ray City, GA where he served as pastor of the Ray City Baptist Church for two years. At the conclusion of his pastorate in Ray City, Carl Winn Minor was 66 years of age. On June 10,1940 he died of a heart attack in Atlanta, GA. He was buried at Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville GA. Bessie Minor died in 1961 and was buried at her husband’s side.

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Owen Clinton Pope, Reconstruction Teaching and Preaching

May 16, 2020 at 12:11 am (Reconstruction, Uncategorized)
Tags: 1st Florida Cavalry Regiment, Abilene TX, Banks Mill, Benjamin Thomas Allen, Charlie Davis, Confederate Conscription Act, Edwin B. Carroll, GA, Hardin-Simmons University, Henry Banks Sr, James Berrien Stephens, Lacy E. Lastinger, Lawson G. Davis, Lee County GA, Linville, Mary Mollie Sinquefield, Mercer University, Milltown GA, Milltown School, Mount Vernon Institute, Nancy Miller Hunt, Nashville GA, Ocean Pond GA, Owen Clinton Pope Jr, Owen Clinton Pope Sr, Philip Coleman Pendleton, saltpeter, Sarah Sinquefield, Simmons College, Smithville GA, South Georgia Times, Sumterville GA, Valdosta GA, Virginia Rhodes Pope, Washington County GA, William Lastinger, William SInquefield

Owen Clinton Pope (1842-1901) came to Berrien County, GA during Reconstruction. He was a Confederate veteran who before the War was a rising pastor in the Baptist ministry. He may have come to Berrien County because of his acquaintance with Philip Coleman Pendleton or with Mercer University classmate Edwin B. Carroll. A graduate of Mercer, Pope was highly qualified to teach in country schools of Wiregrass Georgia and took jobs at the schools at Milltown, GA and Ocean Pond, GA.

Owen Clinton Pope, Jr.

Owen Clinton Pope was born February 15, 1842, in Washington County, Georgia.

His father, Owen Clinton Pope, Sr., was a farmer and newspaper man for 30 years associated with the Milledgeville Southern Recorder. O.C. Pope Sr. became a business associate of Philip Coleman Pendleton and together they purchased and operated the Central Georgian newspaper at Sandersville, GA. Census records show Pope, Sr had a three-horse farm, with 300 acres of improved land in addition to large tracts of undeveloped land. In 1860 O. C. Pope, Sr owned 20 enslaved African-Americans ranging from infants to 25 years in age. The age and gender distribution of the people enslaved by O. C. Pope, Sr. from 1850 to 1860 suggests that he may have been raising slaves for the slave market.

His mother, Sarah Sinquefield Pope, died in 1843 when Owen Jr was but one year old. His father remarried on Owen’s second birthday, February 15, 1844, to Nancy Miller Hunt in Washington County, GA.

At the age of 16, O. C. Pope, Jr. entered Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, graduating in 1860 with a bachelor of divinity degree.

Shortly after graduation from Mercer, at barely 18 years of age, he married Mollie Sinquefield of Jefferson County, Georgia, and was also called to pastor the Baptist church of Linville, Georgia. He was ordained to the ministry in 1861.

He was married December 18, 1860 to Miss Mollie W. Sinquefield, daughter of Hon. William Sinquefield, of Jefferson County, GA, a young lady who was educated at Monroe Female College, and who, as a wife, like ‘the holy women in the old time’ has always been ‘a crown to her husband'”

Marriage Certificate of Owen Clinton Pope, December 18, 1860

Marriage Certificate of Owen Clinton Pope and Mary “Mollie” Sinquefield. The ceremony was performed by Asa Duggan, Minister of God, December 18, 1860 in Washington County, GA

In January 1861, the newlyweds O. C. and Mollie Pope took charge of the Railroad Academy at Sandersville, GA.

When O.C.’s father died of paralysis on September 10, 1861, leaving an estate of nearly 1,500 acres, O. C. Pope, Jr. was still regarded by law as a minor. A bill was introduced in the Georgia Legislature, “to authorize Owen C. Pope, a minor, of the county of Washington, to probate and qualify as Executor of the last will and testament of Owen C. Pope, senior,” passing in the house of representatives but failing in the senate. His stepmother, Nancy Miller Pope was appointed Adminstratrix.

In December 1861, O.C. Pope became principal of the newly incorporated Mount Vernon Institute at Riddleville, GA, a co-educational high school of the Mount Vernon Association of Churches. While teaching, he continued to preach in local churches.

These positions as pastor and teacher he resigned at the call of his country, enlisted as a private in the Confederate army.

He enlisted on May 16, 1862, at Washington County, GA for twelve months service as a private in Company E, 1st Regiment of Florida Cavalry. He provided his own horse and uniform. Pope wrote that he was “attached to first regiment of Florida Cavalry; not because he was ashamed of his native state, for the valor of her sons and the hospitality of her inhabitants are proverbial throughout the confederacy,”

He rendered military service on the staff of Gen. W.G.M. Davis in the Tennessee and Kentucky campaigns.

In June of 1862, Pope left his bride and work behind and made his way “by personal conveyance” to the camp of the 1st Florida Cavalry regiment on the banks of the Tennessee River, some 265 miles northeast of his home at Sandersville, GA.

¦¦¦¦¦¦¦

ARMY CORRESPONDENCE
Of the Central Georgian.

Camp Kerby Smith, 22 Miles West of
Chattanooga, June 28, 1862

Dear Georgian – As war is the all absorbing topic which occupies every mans thoughts, I have concluded that it would not be amiss to give a few items of its progress in East Tennessee, through your columns to old friends in Washington. I am at present attached to first regiment of Florida Cavalry; not because I was ashamed of my native state, for the valor of her sons and the hospitality of her inhabitants are proverbial throughout the Confederacy, but having some intimate friends in it, and on account of its destination to a healthy climate and active field I was induced to cast my humble lot as a soldier with it.
Having traveled by private conveyance through Georgia to Chattanooga, I had ample opportunity to inform myself with reference to the wheat crops. I regret to say that I have seen but few fields which promised anything like an average crop, and in this portion of Tennessee, wheat is almost an entire failure. Corn however, looks very fine and if seasons continue, we have reason to hope that we will make bread enough to feed our army until a peace is conquered or another crop comes on. Considerable damage has been wrought upon the farming interest on the opposite side of the river, by the predatory habits of our would be conquerors. The Tennessee river, upon the banks of which we are now stationed, appears to be the dividing line between us, but we occasionally cross over in scouting parties and bring over a few prisoners.
The position which we have is one of natural strength, consisting as the country does of mountains with only here and there a narrow pass. There is quite a contrast between the level piny woods of Washington, and the mountainous rocky regions around here. Near our encampment is Knickajack cave [Nickajack Cave], is almost two hundred feet in width, with an altitude of about one hundred feet, the walls being composed of massive rock in regular strata, varying from six to ten feet in thickness. From it emerges a beautiful stream navigable with canoes for many miles underground. This place is rendered important by the manufacture of Saltpetre, carried on by the government. The work was suspended about six weeks ago by the appearance of a band of Yankees who frightened away the laborers and destroyed the utensils; it has, however, been renewed since the appearance of our force in this vicinity.
The mountains around contain coal, considerable quantities of which are excavated and sold to the government for foundry purposes. I was favorably impressed with the novelty of a coal mine, and should renew my visits often were it not for the high position of the miners, which requires considerable effort for one not accustomed to their ways to attain.
It is important therefore to the Confederacy that the enemy should not obtain possession of this side of the river while the blockade is closed against saltpeter and coal. But it is much more important in a military view, as their occupation of this part of ——— would place Chattanooga in a more critical position, and subject Georgia to invasion, as we are now only four or five miles from the line. Some Georgians may be surprised to hear, that I, with a detachment of twenty-six others, withstood the enemies shell from two pieces for six hours within 1 1/2 miles of Georgia soil. Georgians must rally to the rescue, strengthen our forces, and beat back the enemy, or the time may soon come when her farms shall be desolated and her citizens carried away prisoners by the ruthless invader who is attempting to crush us beneath the iron heel of tyranny. I have seen those who were compelled to forsake their homes, even gray haired fathers, and as they recounted the bitter wrongs they had suffered, I’ve heard them swear deep and eternal vengeance against the foe. May high heaven grant that such may not be the lot of any who call themselves Georgians.
The skirmish I alluded to above, took place at a little place called Shellmound, a railroad depot. Myself, Charlie and Lawson G. Davis, were detailed with a few others of our regiment, to accompany a detachment of Artillery of two pieces from Macon, to take position on the river that we might prevent an armed steamboat from passing up the river to set troops across near Chattanooga. Our pieces were arranged on the bank of the river during the night, but on the morning our position being discovered, we were opened upon by a regiment of infantry, and two pieces of artillery from the opposite bank of the river. As we were unsupported by infantry, we were compelled to fall back behind the railroad embankment, a few yards off, which answered as a breastwork of protection. We could not use our pieces but few times before the successive volleys of minnie balls rendered it prudent for us to use only a few Enfields and Manards, which we happened to have along, with which we returned the fire in regular guerrilla style. If they had been aware of our force, (only 27) they might easily have crossed the river and captured our pieces. We remained with them however, until night, carrying them off, having killed three and wounded five, without having a single man hurt on our side.
We have made several excursions across the river capturing several prisoners. Last Saturday our regiment killed a Captain and Lieutenant, and wounding several, bringing off four prisoners without any injury to our party.
It is rumored in camp that the Confederacy is recognized by France. Many a stout heart would rejoice if the invader could be checked and driven back. I know not how long we remain here. I would be well please if you will send the Georgian, direct to Chattanooga, care of Capt. Cone. 1st Florida Cavalry. As I may be irksome I will close promising that if anything of interest transpires to write again and commending of country and her cause to the God of Sabbath.
Respectfully
O. C. Pope

†

Harpers Weekly illustration of Nickajack Cave, Feb 6. 1864. Owen C. Pope’s regiment was encamped near the cave in 1861. “The cave is situated at the base of Raccoon Mountain, which rises abruptly to the height of twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the low grounds. In the face of a perpendicular cliff appeared the yawning mouth of Nick-a-Jack Cave. It is not arched as these caves usually are, but spanned by horizontal strata resting on square abutments at the sides, like the massive entablature of an Egyptian or Etruscan temple. From the opening issues a considerable stream, of bright green color, and of sufficient volume to turn a sawmill near at hand. The height of the cliff is about 70 feet, that of the opening 40 feet, and about 100 in width immediately at the entrance, and of this the stream occupies about one-third. The roof of the cave is square and smooth, like the ceiling of a room, but below, the passage is rough and irregular, with heaps of earth and huge angular masses of rock, making exploration both difficult and dangerous.”

During Pope’s service in the Confederate Army, he preached nightly to the troops. He was discharged November 15, 1862 “by reason of the Conscript Act approved April 21st, 1862.” Pope suffered ill health throughout the balance of his life due to his time of service in the Civil War.

At the expiration of his term of service, he returned home… he found few churches could support a full-time minister,

He moved to Lee County, GA, taught at Smithville and Sumterville, and preached to country churches till the close of the war… When peace was restored, disorganized churches and the desolate country made extreme poverty the inevitable lot of those who, previous to the war, had depended upon ministerial charges for support…Pope found his property swept away and his health impaired.

Virginia Rhodes Pope, sister of Owen Clinton Pope, assisted him with teaching at Milltown School (Lakeland, GA) in 1867. She later returned to Washington County, GA and married James Berrien Stephens.

Virginia Rhodes Pope, half-sister of Owen Clinton Pope, assisted him with teaching at Milltown School (Lakeland, GA) in 1867. She later returned to Washington County, GA and married James Berrien Stephens.

About 1866, Pope relocated to south Georgia, perhaps because his father’s old business partner, Philip Coleman Pendleton, had opened the South Georgia Times newspaper at Valdosta, GA. Or perhaps Pope was influenced by former Mercer classmate Edwin Benajah Carroll who was preaching and teaching at Milltown. Like Pope, Carroll was a Confederate veteran, having served as Captain of the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th Georgia Regiment.

In any case, Pope found work in Berrien and Lowndes County, “giving the week to the school-room at Ocean Pond [Lake Park, GA] and Milltown [Lakeland, GA], and the Sabbath to the pulpits of Milltown, Stockton and Cat Creek churches.“

O. C. Pope with the assistance of his 13-year-old sister, Virginia R. Pope, took charge of the Milltown School. “He was a most competent instructor and created quite an admirable reputation for the Milltown school.” The prestige of the school grew during these years. At the close of the school year in 1867, students from all the surrounding country schools were invited to the commencement ceremony to view the accomplishments that had been made that year.

By 1870, O.C. Pope had moved to Jefferson County, GA to preach and to teach at academies there. He moved to churches in Tennessee and took up publication of several Baptist periodicals. He moved to Texas and added missionary and fundraising to his interests. He moved to New York to work for the Church Edifice Fund for the American Baptist Home Mission Society. In 1898, at age 55, Pope accepted the position as president of Simmons College, Abilene, TX.

Owen Clinton Pope, Jr. taught at the Milltown, GA (now Lakeland) school in 1867. Owen Clinton Pope later went on to become president of Simmons College (now Hardin-Simmons University), a Baptist college in Abilene, Texas.

O. C. Pope biographical material compiled in part from The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography., Hardin-Simmons University Website, History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, and The Portal to Texas History

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Judge Carleton Bicknell Cole

August 3, 2018 at 12:45 am (Law and Order, Uncategorized)
Tags: Amherst MA, Ann Eliza Cole, Arthur A Morgan, Carleton B. Cole, Emmeline Carlton Cole, Frederick Nash, George Abbott Cole, George Walton, Georgia State Constitutional Convention of 1865, Hillsboro NC, James Jackson Scarborough, James Polhill, John G. Polhill, John Taylor Cole, Lowndes County GA, Macon Bar, Macon Circuit, Mercer University, Middlebury College, Midway GA, Milledgeville GA, Ocmulgee Circuit Court, Oglethorpe College, Southern Circuit, Supreme Court of Georgia, Susan N. Taylor, The Commercial Bank at Macon, Troupville GA

Carleton Bicknell Cole

Judge Carleton Bicknell Cole (1803-1876)
Carleton B. Cole represented Manuel and Jonathan Studstill in the case of the murder of William Slaughter in old Lowndes County. Solicitor general Augustin H. Hansell handled the prosecution. A previous post, An Antebellum Trial at Troupville, GA, related the dramatic story of the legal proceedings.

This post presents a sketch of the attorney for the defense.

The Sunny South
March 22, 1884

Bench and Bar of Georgia

Sketches and Anecdotes of Distinguished Judges and Lawyers.

Number 23.

By R. W. D.

Carleton B. Cole.
Carleton Bicknell Cole was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, August 7, 1803. His father died quite suddenly when the child was but a few months old, leaving him to the care of a young mother. His school advantages were good; he loved his books, became a close student and at the age of 19 graduated at Middlebury College, Vermont. His health having become impaired in consequence of his sedentary habits and close and unremitting application, he was sent to North Carolina that he might breathe the balmy Southern air and recuperate his wasted vitality. Being detained here from time to time, he finally decided to make the South his permanent home, and casting about for a permanent location, determined to adopt the profession of law. He commenced the study in the office of Judge Frederick Nash, of Hillsboro, and after a thorough course under that distinguished lawyer, was duly admitted to the bar. In 1826 Mr. Cole came to Georgia, locating in the then small town of Macon, where, in partnership with Hon. John G. Polhill (afterwards Judge of the Ocmulgee Circuit) he commenced the practice. While in Hillsboro, N.C. he had contracted marriage with Miss Susan N. Taylor, and therefore so soon as he had established himself in Georgia he returned to claim her as his wife. This good lady shared with him for many years his fortunes and reverses.
Of the public life of Judge Cole I shall give nearly the whole space of this memoir to a communication from one who knew and loved him well.

General T. P. Smith, in Valdosta Times:
“* * * * * He came to Georgia in 1826 or ’27 located in Macon to practice law and pursued the profession diligently for some years, when Gov. Schley appointed him to fill a vacancy on the bench of the Southern Circuit, caused by the death of Judge James Polhill. His commission bore date 13th April,1836, and not in 1833, as the Macon Telegraph erroneously stated. He took his seat on the bench at Pulaski Superior Court, third Monday in April, 1836, and continued to hold courts under his temporary appointment until the Legislature met in November ensuing.

When that body convened, the first important measure to engage its attention was the election of a Judge for the Southern Circuit. There were two candidates for the office, viz: Carleton B. Cole and Arthur A. Morgan. The writer of these lines went into the gallery of the House of Representatives to witness the election and remembers the balloting of the members and the sore disappointment of the friends of Judge Cole, who had entertained strong hopes of his election. The counting of the votes disclosed the fact that his opponent had more than doubled him. As the election of Judge Morgan was only for one year his opponents resolved to contest his election at the next session. The Legislature of 1837 convened and when the election for Judge of the Southern Circuit came up the names of Judge Morgan and Carleton B. Cole were again announced as candidates, as they had been the session before. The writer again went into the gallery of the House to witness the election and remembers the balloting of members, the counting of votes and the general rejoicing of the friends of Judge Cole when the Speaker announced his election as judge of the Southern Circuit, over his competitor. The exact vote is not remembered, but it was probably only two or three majority.
Of the friends who worked most earnestly and uncompromisingly, and without whose assistance the election of Judge Cole must have failed at the second trial, were certain attorneys practicing in the courts over which Judge Morgan presided. It was they who arraigned Judge M. before the members of the Legislature of 1837 to undo the work of the previous session.
Judge Cole entered at once upon the duties of his office, and presided for the term of four years and, in 1841, was re-elected over Col. Patterson, of Early – who had been a prominent man in the politics of the State. Thus it appears that he served eight years on the bench besides the temporary appointment in 1836, of Gov. Schley. At the close of his judicial career in 1845, the names of the political parties in Georgia had been changed from Union and States Rights to Whig and Democrat, and Judge Scarborough was elected by a Whig legislature to succeed him.
Judge Cole resumed the practice of his profession and was a regular attendant on the courts of Lowndes and other counties of the Southern Circuit many years after his retirement from the Bench. Eventually the war came, slavery fell and a new constitution was ordered or required to meet the changed political condition of the State. Upon its adoption and the reorganization of the different departments, Judge Cole was tendered the judgeship of the Macon Circuit. He appeared upon the Bench and held the office for several terms. Certain members of the Bar were anxious for his reappointment and petitioned the Governor in his behalf. To this his Excellency declined to accede, but bestowed the office upon another who at present occupies the Bench of that Circuit.
The most of Judge Cole’s judicial service was prior to the organization of the Supreme Court of Georgia, and when the legal opinions of the judge, given from the Bench, was the received and recognized law of the case. This autocratic power, it was sometimes stigmatized by counsel in their zeal for clients, caused them now and then to impeach, openly or covertly, the integrity of the presiding judge. The writer remembers our judge in Georgia who was impeached and tried before the Legislature for no other purpose, it was believed by many, than to get rid of his judicial opinions. It was this violence at the Bar engendered by a paltry judicial system, that led to the noted duel between Flournoy and Walton in 1811. The nephew espoused the cause of his uncle, Judge Walton, and lost his life. Judge Cole could not wholly escape this sort of vituperation, but met it apparently with a stoic indifference. Fortunately for the country the Supreme Court was organized in 1845, to determine questions of litigation in the last resort. The measure was not only beneficial in producing a better feeling between the judges and lawyers, but has been the ground work of vast progress and improvement in the laws of the State.
A word concerning Judge Cole as a lawyer at the Bar, and these remarks will be brought to a close. In his day he was a popular attorney and had the management of many important causes. In his arguments before the court and jury it cannot be said that he was either eloquent or sought to stir the passions of the human heart. His strong forte was in a calm appeal to the good sense of the party addressed; in doing this he was always logical and interesting and seldom failed to command the closest attention. In his intercourse, during court, with the members of the bar, the county officers, the jurors and witnesses in attendance for the trial of causes, he was uniformly courteous and instructive; and when not engaged in the transaction of the business, he showed the sociability of his nature by mingling freely with the people, and by this means he gained their confidence and esteem.
Judge Cole lived in Georgia nearly fifty years, and was at no time a candidate for office, except for Judge of the Superior Court. At no time was he called or known as a statesman of politician. His convictions and principles attached him warmly to the union of the States under the Federal Constitution, and in all the contests of Georgia looking to a separation of the Union, he was found true to his long cherished political sentiments.

T.P.S.
Valdosta, Ga., February 8, 1876

Thus in the forgoing communication do we have a brief but comprehensive view of Judge Cole as a lawyer and judge, together with a mention of his political views. It remains but to be said that he left behind him a high reputation for his judicial worth and went to his grave with an untarnished name.

It was stated in the communication quoted above, that Judge Cole was never a candidate for any position except the bench, but to this must be added, that he was sent by the people of Bibb to the Convention of 1865, an important body, which assembled immediately after the war, for the purpose of adjusting matters of State to the new order of things and providing for the people in their new and anomalous condition. Judge Cole made a useful member of this Convention, and did much toward shaping the future of Georgia. As being in a judicial line, he accepted the chairmanship of the law school of Mercer University at Macon a few years before his death. “Here,” says the memorial passed by the faculty of that institution, “his previous experience as a lecturer, his extensive practice at the bar and his long occupancy of judicial office, gave him rare and valuable qualifications for the impartation of legal instruction. So wide were the resources of his experience, and so great was the mastery of his memory over them, that he was prepared to explain and enforce every principle of the science of law with copious illustrations. Retaining, in an advance age, the freshness and verdure of the hear, he felt a deep and abiding interest in young men; and he gave to the organization of the school over which he presided, and especially to his own department – Equity Jurisprudence and Practice – warm devotion and faithful labor.”

As explanatory of the reference in the extract given, “his previous experience as a law lecturer,” it should have been stated that in 1840, after his first retirement from the bench, he opened a law class at Midway near Milledgeville, the then site of Oglethorpe College, which he continued to teach for seven years, having a steady attendance of 25 or 30 students.

By reference to the Court Roll in this volume it will be seen that Judge Cole presided over the Southern Circuit three different times, and over the Macon Circuit also under three successive appointments, giving him in all nearly fifteen years on the bench.

He was tall, dignified and courteous, combining in his person the suaviter in modo and fortiter in res.

He led a consistent Christian life, and died an active and loved member of the Episcopal Church.

I select as a fitting close to this memoir an extract from the memorial resolution of the Macon Bar:

“In all the relations of society and home, Judge Cole was not less distinguished than as a professional and public man. Dignified and urbane in manner, he had a tender heart and affectionate disposition. As a Christian he was meek and humble as a child, relying for salvation not upon his own merits, but upon the atoning blood of his Savior and his God.

Into the sanctity of his household we dare not intrude, but who can doubt that he was all that is lovely in a father, a husband and a master. He has left us, after filling his allotted space of more than three score years and ten, brimful of usefulness and honor, and well may we proclaim him.

“The friend of man, the friend of truth,

The prop of age, the guide of youth;”

and with just pride declare,

“Few hearts like his with vigor warmed,

Few heads with knowledge so informed.”

And knowing that of this world he made the best, and employed his talents to the advancement of his race and the glory of his Maker, we feel well assured that in another and brighter world

‘he lives in bliss.'”

Carleton Bicknell Cole
entered life eternal
Jan. 23, 1876.

About Carlton Bicknell Cole: son of George Abbott Cole and Emmeline (Carleton) Cole. Born in Amherst, MA, August 3, 1803. Graduated Middlebury College, VT, in 1822. Taught and studied law in North Carolina. Admitted to the bar, 1826, and in 1827 removed to Macon, GA. Married Susan Taylor, September 6, 1827. (Children: Ann Eliza; Emmeline Carleton; John Taylor; George Abbott; Carleton Bicknell.) Incorporator and stockholder of The Commercial Bank at Macon, 1831. Judge of the Southern Circuit Court of Georgia, 1833-1847. Chairman of the Convention of Judges of the Superior Courts of Georgia, 1840. Operated a private law school at Midway, GA, 1844-1845. Opened a law practice in Milledgeville, GA, 1846. Admitted to practice before the Georgia Supreme Court, 1846. Chair of the Democratic Republican party of Twiggs County, 1847; A pro-Union Democrat in politics. Professor of Law, Oglethorpe University, 1847-1854. Resumed his law practice in Macon, 1854. Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, 1865. Judge of the Macon Circuit Court, 1865-1873. Professor of Law, Mercer University, 1875-1876. Died in Macon, GA, January 23, 1876.

Judge Richard Augustus Peeples

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Judge Hansell: Distinguished Man of Georgia

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Reverend Bob Brown, Master of Theology

March 8, 2018 at 2:17 am (Baptists, Faith and Begorrah)
Tags: Baptist, Bethel Church, Bob M. Brown, Botsford Church, Burke County Ministerial Association, Korean War, Lucille D. Brown, Luther Rice Baptist Theological Seminary, Mercer University, New Orleans Baptist Seminary, Perry High School, Ray City Baptist Church, Ray City GA, Sardis Church, Sherra Mashburn, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Viet Nam

Reverend Bob Merrill Brown (1936-1984)

Reverend Bob M. Brown and his wife Sherra Mashburn Brown lived in Ray City, GA in the 1960s. Rev. Brown’s sister, Francine Brown McCall, was also a resident of the town.

Reverend Bob M. Brown became pastor of Ray City Baptist Church in 1964.

Bob Brown attended Mercer University, Macon, GA, graduating with the Class of 1958. He later attended New Orleans Baptist Seminary (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) in New Orleans where he met his wife, Sherra Mashurn. Sherra Mashburn Brown was born on August 30, 1937, in New Orleans, LA. She was the daughter of Rev. James and Sherra Mashurn.

Bob Brown was an Army Chaplain, commissioned captain, and served in Korean and Viet Nam.

Captain Bob Merrill Brown, Army Chaplain. Image source: Betty Anne Greene Spear

Houston Home Journal
September 14, 1967

FT. HAMILTON, N. Y.-Army Reserve Captain Bob M. Brown, whose mother, Mrs. Lucille D. Brown, lives at 719 Charles Dr., Perry, completed a military chaplain orientation course Sept. 1 at the Army Chaplain School, Ft. Hamilton, N. Y. He received nine weeks of training in psychology and coun seling, methods of instruction and principles of character guidance. Instruction was also given in standard military areas such as administration, customs of serv ice, drill and techniques of study. Capt. Brown received his B.A. degree in 1958 from Mercer University, and his B. D. degree in 1962 from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. His wife, Sherra, lives in Ray City, Ga.

†††

Houston Home Journal
May 26, 1966

Rev. Bob Brown Receives Degree at Jacksonville

The Rev. Bob M. Brown, son of Mrs. Lucille D. Brown of Perry, received the Master of Theology degree from the Luther Rice Baptist Theological Seminary in Jacksonville on May 15.
The Reverend Mr. Brown, a graduate and former teacher of Perry High School, was ordained to the ministry by the First Baptist Church of Perry.
He also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Mercer University and a Bachelor of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Since 1964 he has served as pastor of the Ray City Baptist Church, Ray City, Ga.

†††

OBITUARY

Houston Home Journal
March 1, 1984

Deaths

Brown

Bob M. Brown, 47, died Friday, February 24, 1984. Services were held at 11 a m. Tuesday in the First Baptist Church in Perry. Burial was in Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery in Pinehurst. The Rev. Dr. Gene Bowman officiated. Mr. Brown, native of Vienna, had lived in Perry for several years before moving to Brooksville. He graduated from Mercer University in Macon and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist School in New Orleans and a Master of Theology degree from Luther Wright Seminary in Jacksonville, Fla. He taught at Southwest College in New Mexico and at Perry High School. He was formerly the pastor of Ray City Baptist Church and of Alexander Baptist Church. He served in Korea and Vietnam as a chaplain. Survivors include a daughter, Maranatha Brown of Brooksville, Fla.; four sons, Nathan Brown, Ethan Brown, Merrill Brown and David Brown, all of Brooksville; his mother, Lucille Brown of Perry; two sisters, Franceen McCall of Nashville, Ga., and Wylodme Blaylock of Sherman, Texas; three brothers, Carry Brown of Carnesville, Allan Brown of Texas and Kenneth Brown of Key Biscayne. Fla. Pallbearers were Nathan Brown, Ethan Brown, Merrill Brown, David Brown, Larry Brown, Alan Brown, Kenneth Brown. Watson-Hunt Funeral Home of Ferry had charge of arrangements.

Grave of Chaplain Bob Merrill Brown, Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery, Pinehurst, GA

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Ray City Home of Reid Hearn Cox and Hazel Hall Cox

February 6, 2016 at 12:57 am (Hall Family, Purvis Family)
Tags: Ann Brockman, Arlie Guthrie, C. Roy Arnold, Cassie Lee Hall, Charles Patterson Cox, Dorothy Brockman, Dr. E. C. Moore, Dr. S. L. Marris, Druid Hills Presbyterian Church, Eatonton GA, Essie Bell Brockman, Eula Bell Swindle, Eunice A. Hall, Guy Marvin Purvis, Hazel Jeanette Hall, Jane Cox, Jasper Sojourner, John Lewis Hall, Lawrence Cauley Hall, Le Roy Bledsoe, Mabel Boyter, Mary E. Swindle, Mattie Reid Hearn, Mercer University, Ray City GA, Redding D. Swindle, Reid Hearn Cox, T. Pitts Davidson, William Howell Hearn, William M. Elliot Jr

Home of Reid Hearn Cox and Hazel Hall Cox. The Coxes were residents of Ray City in the 1940s

Home of Reid Hearn Cox and Hazel Hall Cox, Jones Street, Ray City, GA. The Coxes had this home built in 1939. Hazel's father, Lawrence Cauley Hall, resided with the Coxes in the 1940s.

Cox Residence, built 1939
Home of Reid Hearn Cox and Hazel Hall Cox, Jones Street, Ray City, GA. The Coxes had this home built prior to 1940. Hazel’s father, Lawrence Cauley Hall, resided with the Coxes in the 1940s.

Hazel Jeanette Hall (1918-1974) was a daughter of Lawrence Cauley Hall and Eula Belle Swindle, of Ray City, GA. She was a granddaughter of Mary Etta and Redding D. Swindle, and Cassie Lee and John Lewis Hall. Hazel’s sister, Eunice Hall, was the wife of Polk Cheshire Brockman, of Atlanta, who was a pioneer in the recording of country music.

Reid Hearn Cox (1912-1966) was a salesman of music supplies. He originated from Eatonton, GA, a son of Charles Patterson Cox and Mattie Reid Hearn, and studied at Mercer University in 1932.

Hazel Jeanette Hall and Reid Hearn Cox were married in 1937 in Atlanta, GA.

Eatonton Messenger
Thursday, February 18, 1937

Miss Hazel Hall Weds Mr. Reid Cox

      The Druid Hills Presbyterian church formed the setting yesterday for the marriage of Miss Hazel Jeannette Hall and Reid Hearn Cox which was a beautiful event taking place at 5 o’clock. Rev. William M. Elliot, Jr., the pastor, performed the ceremony in the presence of a large gathering of relatives and friends of the young people.
      The interior of the church was beautifully decorated for the nuptials. Palms and ferns banked the altar, and tall standards of callas with seven-branched candelabra hold-holding white tapers completed the decorations. Preciding and during the ceremony Mrs. Haskell Boyter, pianist, presented a program of music and Le Roy Bledsoe sang.
      Acting as bridesmaids were Miss Jane Cox, sister of the bridegroom, and Miss Dorothy Brockman, wearing dresses of gold blister satin with short coasts fashioned with repeplums and gold satin sandals. Their flowers were arm bouquets of Pernet roses, snapdragons and delphiniums in pastel shades tied with ice-green ribbon.
      Mrs. Polk Cheshire Brockman was her sister’s matron of honor. She ware the gold satin dress in which she was married. It was worn with a coat, trimmed with sable fur. Her hat was an off-the-face model of brown maline, and she carried an arm bouquet of talisman roses.
      Miss Ann Brockman, niece of the bride, was the ring -bearer. Her dress was a floor-length empire model of ice-green satin and she wore a yellow ribbon in her hair. She carried the ring in a calla, showered with valley lilies.
       Jasper Sojourner. Dr. S. L. Morris, Jr., Dr. E. C. Moore and C. Roy Arnold were ushers.
       Entering with her brother, Polk C. Brockman, by whom she was given in marriage, the bride was met at the altar by the groom and T. Pitts Davidson, who acted as best man. Her blond beauty was further enhanced by her wedding gown of white satin, fashioned along princess lines with a high cowl neck and leg-o-mutton sleeves which ended in a point over the hands and trimmed with self-covered buttons. The same buttons trimmed the waist at the back and the full skirt flared into a short train. Her long veil of illusion fell from a coronet cap, beaded in seed pearls and crystals and she carried a sheaf of calla lilies.
    After the ceremony Mr. and Mrs. Brockman entertained at a reception at their home on Springdale road for the bridal party and out-of-town guests. Mrs. Swindle Hall, mother of the bride, and Mrs. C.P. Cox, the bridegroom’s mother, received with Mr. and Mrs. Brockman and Mr. and Mrs. Cox.
    In the dining room the table was covered with a point Venice lace cloth, and the center decoration was a bride’s cake placed on a mound of pastel flowers. Yellow candles in pastry candlesticks embossed with orange blossoms, callas and lilies of the valley, were used. Miss Jane Cox kept the bride’s book and Misses Dorothy Brockman, Essie Bell Brockman and Mesdames J. B. Sojourner, H. E. Montgomery and H. A. Brockman assisted in entertaining. Roses, snapdragons and delphiniums were arranged throughout the house.
    The bride and groom left for a wedding trip. The former wore a two-piece traveling suit of apricot wool with brown accessories. Her flowers were a shoulder corsage of orchids.
    Mrs. Cox is the daughter of Mrs. Swindle Hall, of Ray City, Ga. For the past several years she has made her home with her brother and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Polk Cheshire Brockman, on Springdale road. Mrs. R. D. Swindle, of Ray City, grandmother of the bride, was a guest at the wedding. W. H. Hearn, of Eatonton, grandfather of the bridegroom, was also present. – Atlanta Constitution, February 6th.

The newlywed Coxes first boarded with Arlie Guthrie and Marvin Purvis in their home on Main Street, Ray City, GA. Marvin Purvis was a merchant of Ray City, and the Purvis’ grocery store was on the south side of Main Street near Lyman F. Gidens’ Barber Shop and just east of the tracks of the Georgia & Florida Rail Road. The Purvises were among Ray City’s better-off families; the Purvis household had been one of the first in town to acquire a radio.

In 1939, the Coxes built a house of their own on the northeast corner of North Street and Jones Street, Ray City, GA.

Hazel Hall Cox and Reid Hearn Cox became Ray City homeowners in 1939.

Eatonton Messenger
October 19, 1939

Mr. and Mrs. Reid Cox are now building a new home at their home in Ray City. Reid, you know, is the son of Mrs. Charles P. Cox and the grandson of W. H. Hearn.

Liberty Magazine, June 8, 1940. Liberty was a weekly magazine, originally priced at five cents and subtitled, "A Weekly for Everybody." It was said to be "the second greatest magazine in America," ranking behind only The Saturday Evening Post in circulation. It featured contributions from some of the biggest politicians, celebrities, authors, and artists of the 20th Century. It ceased publication in 1950.

Liberty Magazine, June 8, 1940.
Liberty was a weekly magazine, said to be “the second greatest magazine in America,” ranking behind only The Saturday Evening Post in circulation. It featured contributions from some of the biggest politicians, celebrities, authors, and artists of the 20th Century. It ceased publication in 1950.

After the Coxes moved into their new home, the Purvises moved just a block down the street to a home on the corner of North Street and Bryan Street.

Hazel Hall Cox was a woman of fashion, “a real glamour girl, always made up – high heels, fancy hairdo.” Hazel Cox took all the women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Colliers, Liberty, Life, etc., and after reading she shared them with Arlie Guthrie Purvis.

The Coxes later moved to the Atlanta area where Reid developed and manufactured high capacity dryers used in laundromats all over the country.

Reid Hearn Cox died April 22, 1966, and Hazel Hall Cox passed on November 18, 1974. They are buried at Decatur Cemetery, Dekalb County, GA

Graves of Hazel Hall Cox and Reid Hearn Cox, Decatur Cemetery, Decatur, GA.

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Grand Jury Presentments of 1845, Old Lowndes County, GA

June 12, 2015 at 12:02 am (Troupville of Old Lowndes County, Wiregrass Justice)
Tags: Augustin H. Hansell, Carlton B. Cole, Convention of Judges of the Superior Courts of Georgia, Democratic Republican Party, Democratic Republican Party of Twiggs County GA, Dublin GA, Duncan Smith, Emmeline Carlton, Franklin College, George Abbott Cole, Georgia State Constitutional Convention of 1865, Jonathan Studstill, Lowndes County Inferior Court, Lowndes Grand Jury of 1845, Macon GA, Mercer University, Middlebury College, Oglethorpe University, Old Cemetery in Thomasville GA, Peter Early Love, Philadelphia College of Medicine, Pro-Union Democrats, Southern Circuit Court of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia, Susan Taylor, The Commercial Bank at Macon, Thomas B. Griffin, Thomasville GA, Troupville GA, Union Democrats, William Slaughter

In June of 1845, The Grand Jury of Lowndes County, Georgia convened for its 20th year.

Judge Carlton B. Cole presided, with Peter E. Love as Solicitor General, and Duncan Smith served as clerk of the Court.

1845 Grand Jury Presentments, Lowndes County, GA

Milledgeville Federal Union
June 24, 1845

Presentments

Of the Grand Jury of Lowndes county, June Term, 1845.
We the Grand Jurors, sworn, chosen and selected for the county of Lowndes, make the following presentments:

We have examined the conditions of our Court-house, and find it to be rather in bad condition, and would recommend some action to have it kept in a more cleanly situation.

We have also examined the condition of our Jail, and find it to be in a very unsafe condition, and would recommend good and sufficient repairs.

We have examined the Clerk’s books of our Superior and Inferior Courts, and find them kept in good order.

We have had under our consideration, the situation of the Public roads of our county, and would especially recommend the Inferior Court, to have them placed in a good condition as early as possible.

We have had under consideration, and have thoroughly examined the books and papers of the Treasurer of the Poor School Fund of said county, and find that the Notes are not taken in accordance with the rules and regulations, and furthermore, would recommend a speedy renewal or collection of said Notes; and we specially recommend further, a collection of sufficient amount to settle all the accounts that are yet unpaid.

We further recommend our Inferior Court, to levy a tax for county purposes.

In taking leave of his Honor Judge Cole, the Grand Jury render to him their thanks, for the prompt discharge of the duties of his office, and the courtesy he has extended to this body, during the present term of the Court – also to the Solicitor General, for his courtesy and prompt attention to business, during this term.

And before closing our duties, we would earnestly recommend to our citizens generally, and more especially to the persons who may represent this county in the general assembly of the State, to use their endeavors at the approaching election, for a Judge of this Circuit, to continue in office, the individual who now fills and has for some time filled the office. During the whole period of his services, his administration has been distinguished by the most eminent legal abilities, and a stern and impartial desire to execute the laws without fear of favor. We therefore deem it not only expedient, but necessary that one who has proved himself a good, faithful and able servant, should be continued in an office to which he adds so much dignity.

We the Grand Jury, request that our presentments be published in the Southern Recorder and Federal Union.

Robert Micklejohn, Foreman.

Judge Carleton Bicknell Cole (1803-1876)
Carlton B. Cole twice served as judge of the Southern Circuit and later presided over the courts of the Macon Circuit. In 1848, he was defense attorney for Manuel and Jonathan Studstill, in the September 7, 1843 murder of William Slaughter, facing Augustin H. Hansell, solicitor general, for the prosecution. About Carlton Bicknell Cole: son of George Abbott Cole and Emmeline (Carleton) Cole. Born in Amherst, MA, August 3, 1803. Graduated Middlebury College, VT, in 1822. Taught and studied law in North Carolina. Admitted to the bar, 1826, and in 1827 removed to Macon, GA. Married Susan Taylor, September 6, 1827. (Children: Ann Eliza; Emmeline Carleton; John Taylor; George Abbott; Carleton Bicknell.) Incorporator and stockholder of The Commercial Bank at Macon, 1831. Judge of the Southern Circuit Court of Georgia, 1833-1847. Chairman of the Convention of Judges of the Superior Courts of Georgia, 1840. Operated a private law school at Midway, GA, 1844-1845. Opened a law practice in Milledgeville, GA, 1846. Admitted to practice before the Georgia Supreme Court, 1846. Chair of the Democratic Republican party of Twiggs County, 1847; A pro-Union Democrat in politics. Professor of Law, Oglethorpe University, 1847-1854. Resumed his law practice in Macon, 1854. Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, 1865. Judge of the Macon Circuit Court, 1865-1873. Professor of Law, Mercer University, 1875-1876. Died in Macon, GA, January 23, 1876.

Peter E. Love (1818 – 1866)
Peter Early Love, Solicitor General of the Southern Circuit of Georgia, served at the Lowndes Superior Court of 1845. He was born near Dublin, Laurens County, Ga., July 7, 1818; graduated from Franklin College (now a part of the University of Georgia), Athens, Ga., in 1829 and from the Philadelphia College of Medicine in 1838; practiced medicine while studying law; admitted to the bar in 1839 and commenced practice in Thomasville, Thomas County, GA; solicitor general of the southern district of Georgia in 1843; member of the State senate in 1849; elected judge of the State Superior Court for the Southern Circuit in 1853; editor and proprietor of the Wiregrass Reporter, 1857-“In politics, the paper was Democratic and violently opposed to its No-Nothing neighbor, the Southern Enterprise.“; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-sixth U.S. Congress and served from March 4, 1859, until his retirement on January 23, 1861; resumed the practice of law in Thomasville, Ga.; member of the State house of representatives in 1861; died in Thomasville, Ga., November 8, 1866; interment in the Old Cemetery. His daughter, Martha “Mattie” Love, married Robert Harris Hamilton, who was Captain of the Thomasville Guards; this company served in the 29th Georgia Regiment, along with the Berrien Minute Men.

Duncan Smith (1816-1852)

Duncan Smith was born 1816 in Scotland. He moved to Lowndes County, GA some time before 1838, and by 1844 he had acquired 245 acres in the 10th Land District. Some time prior to 1846 Duncan Smith acquired Lot No. 72 in the town of Troupville. He was a member of the Democratic Republican party of Georgia. Justice of the Lowndes Inferior Court, 1840-44. From January 16, 1844 to his death in 1852 Duncan Smith served as Clerk of Lowndes County Superior Court.

Grand Jurors
The jurors were Samuel E. Swilley, John W. Spain, John Carter, Sr., Enoch Hall, Matthew M. Deas, James Wade, Jesse Hunter, Mathew Young, James McMullen, John McMullen, James Sowell, A. S. Smith, William H. Devane, Sampson G. Williams, William Folsom, Thomas B. Griffin, David Matthis, Ezekiel W. Parrish, Dennis Wetherington, Joshua Limeberger, and Henry Strickland, with Robert Micklejohn serving as foreman of the Jury.

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Clements Brothers at Georgia Teachers College

May 1, 2015 at 12:23 am (Berrien County Sports, Clements Family)
Tags: Collegeboro GA, Erskine College, F. M. Sonny Clements, Georgia Teachers College, J.I. Clements Jr, Joe Middlebrooks, Keith Clements, Mason Clements, Mercer University, North Georgia College, Presbyterian College, Ray City School, Roger Parsons, Statesboro GA, Teacher Nine, W. G. Red Bullock

Mason and Keith Clements of Ray City, GA, were sons of James Irwin Clements and Annie Mae Carter Clements.

Mason and Keith Clements attended Georgia Teachers College, now Georgia Southern University, in 1948.

Keith graduated from Ray City High School with the RCHS Class of 1942 and Mason graduated with the RCHS Class of 1943. Their older brother, J.I.Clements graduated with the RCHS class of 1938. All three entered the service during WWII, and after the war all three made their way to Georgia Teachers College (now Georgia Southern University), Statesboro, GA. In 1948, Mason and Keith were undergraduates while J.I. Clements had already started his long career coaching and teaching physical education for the college.

The Nashville Herald
March 30, 1950, front page,

Ray City Men to Play with G.T.C. Baseball Team

COLLEGEBORO, Ga. – The new baseball season will receive a four-day initiation at Georgia Teachers College this week.

The Teacher nine will entertain Erskine College Wednesday and Thursday and North Georgia College Friday and Saturday. They will oppose Mercer University April 4 and Presbyterian College April 6 before making their first trip.

With eight lettermen and five promising pitching recruits, the Professors are in for a good season, Coach J.I. Clement, Jr., says.

Old hands who will retain positions are Mason Clements and Keith Clements of Ray City, the coach’s brothers, in the outfield; W.G. (Red) Bullock, Jr., of Valdosta, at first base; Roger Parsons of Harlan, Ky., at second base or in the outfield; Joe Middlebrooks of Warwick, catcher; and F.M. (Sonny) Clements of Rhine, unbeaten as a freshman pitcher last season.

Keith married Joan Griffin, Georgia Teachers College Class of 1953, and went on to a career with a pharmaceutical company. Mason married Fay Joyner, Class of 1951, and went into the wholesale grocery business with his father-in-law in Augusta, GA.

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Lawrence Cauley Hall

January 31, 2014 at 12:17 am (Hall Family, Lee Family)
Tags: Aaron Anderson Knight, Berrien County GA, Cassandra Lee, Cassie Lee Hall, Cauley Hall, Cyleta Lee Austin, Eula Bell Swindle, Eunice A. Hall, Helen Jeanette Hall, Henderson Land & Lumber Company, Henry A. Swindle, John Lewis Hall, Lawrence Cauley Hall, Mary Etta Swindle, Mercer University, Nannie B. Young, Northport AL, Pasco Olandro Hall, Ray City GA, Redding D. Swindle, Reid Hearn Cox, Robert J. Young, skidderman, slab tripper

Lawrence Cauley Hall, born 20 Feb 1884, Ray City, Berrien County, Georgia. Cauley was a son of Cassie Lee and John Lewis Hall, and a brother of Pasco Olandro Hall. He grew up in his parents’ household at Rays Mill (now Ray City), GA.

Lawrence Cauley Hall, of Ray City, GA. Image courtesy of www.berriencountyga.com

Lawrence Cauley Hall, of Ray City, GA. Image courtesy of http://www.berriencountyga.com

Cauley Hall completed the common schools of the area, and went on for more advanced studies. Family historian Mrs. Cyleta Austin said “he was a genius, attended Mercer but let the drinking get to him.” He gave up his college studies after the first year.

On December 1, 1908 Cauley Hall married Eula Bell Swindle. The ceremony was performed by Elder Aaron Anderson Knight. Eula was a daughter of Mary Etta and Redding D. Swindle, and sister of Henry Alexander Swindle, of Ray City, GA. Her father was appointed to serve as the first mayor of Ray City upon its official incorporation in 1909. Her mother is credited with naming the new town, formerly known as Ray’s Mill.

1908 Marriage license of Lawrence Cauley Hall and Eula Bell Swindle

Eula gave birth to a baby girl on June 9, 1909, Eunice A. Hall, in Ray City, GA. It appears that Eula and the baby returned to live with her parents. She was enumerated in their Ray City household in 1910 under her maiden name. Her marital status was “single,” and Eunice Hall was enumerated as a grandchild of Redding Swindle. Cauley’s whereabouts in the census of 1910 are not known.

However, by 1918 Cauley and Eula were making their home at a company lumber camp at 4 Northport, Tuscaloosa County, AL. Lawrence was working for the Henderson Land & Lumber Company as a skidder foreman. There, he registered for the draft for World War I on September 12, 1918. His physical description was given as medium height, medium build, with blue eyes and grey hair.

The 1920 census shows the couple now with two daughters, Eunice and Helen Jeanette, living on 13th Avenue, Tuscaloosa, AL. Cauley was working as a laborer at a logging camp, while Eula was at home raising the girls.

It appears that by the time of the 1930 census Cauley Hall was estranged from his wife, Eula B. Swindle. The census record show that year he remained in Tuscaloosa, AL, living in Young’s boarding home on 6th Street, operated by Nannie and Robert J. Young. He was working as a carpenter, and gave his marital status as “divorced.” Eula Bell had returned to Ray City,GA with her younger daughter Hazel Jeanette Hall, now 12. Eula rented a house (probably on Jones Street) near the homes of James Blanton, Pleamon Sirmans and Hod Clements, and took work as a seamstress. The 1930 census indicated her marital status was “widowed.

By 1940 Cauley Hall had also returned to Ray City, GA where he was living with his now married daughter, Hazel, and her husband, Reid Hearn Cox. Cox, a salesman of music supplies, originated from Eatonton, GA. The Coxes were in a new home they had built on the northeast corner of North Street and Jones Street in Ray City.

Home of Reid Hearn Cox and Hazel Hall Cox, Jones Street, Ray City, GA. The Coxes had this home built prior to 1940. Hazel’s father, Lawrence Cauley Hall, resided with the Coxes in the 1940s.

Eula Bell Hall was living with her widowed grandmother, Mary Etta Swindle, in her home on North Street in Ray City.

Lawrence Cauley Hall died on Christmas Day, December 25, 1954, in Ray City, Georgia. He was buried at Beaver Dam Cemetery.

Eula Bell Hall died January 28, 1965. Historian Cyleta Austin said she was in an automobile accident with Eula; Eula “died at home about two weeks later but not as a cause of the wreck.” Eula was buried next to her husband at Beaver Dam Cemetery, Ray City, GA.

Graves of Eula Bell Swindle and Lawrence Cauley Hall

-30-

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