Georgia

Biography of Lieut. Oscar Willis Pate Jr., U. S. N.

Five sons were born to Mack and Mattie Willis Pate, all of whom united with the Baptist Church of Hawkinsville. The oldest, Oscar Willis Pate, was born in Hawkinsville. November 29, 1879, and attended both public and private schools in Hawkinsville, later going to Mercer University, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Upon leaving school he was associated with his father in business. On December 18, 1900, he married Rosa May Roberson, of Tennille, Ga. Two years later they moved to Quitman, Ga., then to Jacksonville, Fla. They later moved back to Tifton, Ga., and … Read more

Biography of M. H. Boyer

Born in Sandersville, Georgia, September 4, 1878, the son of Miribeau and Vivian Skrine Boyer, of Sandersville, Georgia. Education obtained in the Hawkinsville High School. He read law in the office of Col. Thos. C. Taylor, and was admitted to the bar under Judge C. C. Smith on June 23, 1898. Appointed solicitor of the County Court of Pulaski County by Governor Candler, and was twice appointed to this office by Governor Terrell, retiring voluntarily on December 31, 1907. He continued-to practice law in Hawkinsville until he was elected to the office of Solicitor General of the Oconee Circuit on … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William Van Bell

William Van Bell, whose parents were Sarah Elizabeth Powell and Vandemore Bell, was born March 30, 1880, at “Bellview,” Hawkinsville, Ga., the home of his grandparents, Mattie Allen and Joshua Bell. After attending the Hawkinsville public school, he began business as a drug clerk, and later assisted in organizing and conducting the Brown-Bell Pharmacy. Then he engaged in a general insurance business and became a member of the F. H. Bozeman and Company Agency, finally succeeding this company and continuing its business for twenty-two years. He is a member of the Methodist Church and has served as a trustee. He … Read more

Biography of Captain R. W. Anderson

No history of Pulaski County would be complete without a sketch of that prominent and beloved citizen, Captain Ruel W. Anderson, son of Robert S. and Sallie Wooten Anderson, who was born near Hawkinsville, October 6, 1837, and died May 27, 1903. He was one of thirteen children, nine of whom reached the age of maturity five girls and four boys. He was reared and educated in Pulaski County. He was married while on furlough, February 4, 1864, to Mrs. R. W. Anderson. Agnes Merritt, only daughter of Simon and Maria Merritt, of Stonington, Conn. She died September 2, 1900. … Read more

Biography of Joe J. Anderson

Joe J. Anderson, son of Robert Sanders and Sallie Wooten Anderson, was born near Hawkinsville, March 10, 1846, and died September 3, 1926. He married Laura Sheppard of Hawkinsville, Georgia, June 25, 1867. He was a Mason, was reared to agricultural pursuits, and became a large landowner and planter. At sixteen years of age he answered the call to arms, and served four years in Company B, Fourteenth Georgia Artillery, as flag-bearer. In battle at Griswoldville his flagstaff was shot into splinters. He stood on his horse and held the flag high above his head, using his body as a … Read more

Biography of Andrew Cabero

Perhaps nothing has meant more to the present business and civic life of Hawkinsville than the “Invasion of the Greeks,” more appropriately termed, the arrival of the Cabero brothers. Before that time Greeks had occasionally entered the field of business in Hawkinsville only to remain a short while and pass on, soon to be numbered among the forgotten. When the Cabero brothers, Nicholas, Leonidas, and Andrew, arrived, although small boys when they left their native country, they seemed destined to cast their lot in Hawkinsville, soon to become staunch, reliable and substantial citizens. They are now numbered among the leading … Read more

Biography of John Laurens Anderson

John Laurens Anderson, son of Robert Saunders Anderson and Sarah Wooten Anderson, was born in Pulaski County, February 25, 1848. It was a happy day in his boyhood when his father gave him a sizeable bill to purchase his choice of books at an auction sale of a private library of classics. Naturally studious, from these books he gained more than ordinary knowledge of standard literature and command of the English language. He joined the Confederate Army in his fourteenth year, Company H, Seventh Georgia Reserve Regiment, was severely wounded at Griswoldville, carrying the bullet in his leg thereafter. Standing … Read more

Biography of Charlton Berrien Adams

Charlton Berrien Adams, eldest son of Peter and Mary B. Adams, was born July 16, 1860, in Vienna, Georgia, where his father was a highly respected lawyer and large planter. After the death of his father, at the age of fifteen, Charlton, with the other members of his family, moved to Hawkinsville. When he had completed the public schools and was unable to attend college on account of the difficult times resulting from the War Between the States, he began clerking in a bakery. A short time after this he worked with Mr. R. J. Taylor in his drug business. … Read more

Biography of Captain Robert Sanders Anderson

Captain Robert Sanders Anderson, youngest son of John I. and Maridley Mayo Anderson, was born in Pulaski County, July 7, 1842. When just a boy he enlisted in Company K, 49th Georgia Infantry, Lee’s Army, of the War Between the States. In a short time, for his bravery, he was commissioned First Lieutenant, then Captain, and at the close of the war was acting as Colonel, his colonel having been killed in battle. At the Seven Days’ Battle, near Richmond, the latter part of June, 1862, he was wounded in the arm, but was soon back with his company. At … Read more

Biography of Miles Bembry

Miles Bembry, son of William and Marina Bembry, was born in North Carolina, January 24, 1826, and died in Pulaski County, April 1, 1888. His grandfather, John Bembry, an English shipmaster, placed his sons at Edenton, North Carolina, at the death of their mother, Annie Bryan, from Ireland, where, after retirement from sea service, he joined them and settled, later moving to Florida and then to Georgia. Miles showed his pluck and determination when, at age fifteen, he assumed control of the remains of his father’s estate, most of which had been lost by mismanagement, and, with his mother’s help, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William Bembry

Among the pioneer settlers of Pulaski County were William Bembry, born in North Carolina, August 23, 1795, and his wife, Marina Mayo Bembry, born in the same state, November 14, 1799, both descendants of English families. They came to Pulaski County in 1829 in covered wagons and purchased lands in and near Old Hartford, a prosperous town of this section at that time. They later built a home about a mile out, on what is now the Cochran highway, then little more than an Indian trail between the Ocmulgee and Oconee Rivers. They both lie buried near the old homestead, … Read more

Biography of Johnathan Joseph Jelks

Johnathan Joseph Jelks, third son of James Oliver and Mary Polhill Jelks, was born January 15, 1841, in Hawkinsville, Ga., spending his life there and in Florida and Macon, Ga., where he died May 11, 1911. In 1861, in the War Between the States, he enlisted in Company G of the Eighth Georgia Infantry. The gallant men of this famous regiment distinguished themselves at the first Battle of Manassas, and were saluted for their bravery by General Beauregard. He served with General Tige Anderson’s Brigade, Longstreet’s Corps, fighting at Dam No. 1, on the Yorktown line, in the Seven Days’ … Read more

Biography of Warren Gainer Buchan

Prominent among the progressive citizens of Pulaski County was Mr. Warren Gainer Buchan. He was born February 21, 1877, at the old Buchan home in the Hartford District in Pulaski County, the son of John Beverly Allen Buchan and Mrs. Ann Maria Gainer Buchan. He was the second of thirteen children, and at a very early age assumed the responsibility of his own resources. Farming was his chosen vocation, and his success illustrated what could be made of the agricultural industry in Pulaski County. He became one of the largest landowners and taxpayers in the county, and held a place … Read more

Biography of R. F. Delamar

In the pioneer days of Pulaski County there came a family from North Carolina seeking new and undeveloped fields of endeavor. Settling east of the Ocmulgee River, they tilled available lands, also clearing and occupying lands heretofore unused, visualizing a vast agricultural territory that would attract other settlers who desired a simple and productive life. From such hardy forbears came R. F. DeLamar, born February 24, 1859. At the death of his father, Frank, as he was known, became the head of the family and remained on the farm, the sole support of his mother, brothers, and sister. In early … Read more

Biography of J. J. Harvard

Jerry Jordan Harvard, the son of H. M. and Jane Harvard, was born at Snow Spring in Dooly County, Georgia, in 1859. In 1.883 he was married to Sallie Bell Eubanks, to which union were born three sons and one daughter, who died in infancy. His sons were John B. Harvard, who married Daisy Fountain, both of whom died in 1917, leaving two sons, John B. and Fountain, who were reared by their grandparents; and H. L. Harvard, deceased, who married Mae Le Claire. His only surviving child is J. J. Harvard, Jr., who married Emmie Mason, and to this … Read more

Biography of Exum Nathaniel Jelks

Exum Nathaniel Jelks, oldest son of James 0. Jelks, Jr., and Elizabeth Charlotte Philips, was born near Hawkinsville, Georgia, April 6, 1864. Nat received his early education in the public schools of Hawkinsville and his business training at Eastman College, Poughkeepsie, New York. Like his father before him, he has always loved good literature, has read extensively, and has kept himself a well informed person, thoroughly abreast of the times. After returning from Poughkeepsie he was associated with his father in the mercantile business in Hawkinsville, and was also engaged in cotton buying and banking there until 1894. In that … Read more

Biography of S. W. Brown

Stephen William Brown was born September 1, 1831. He married Martha Pope of Hayneville, Houston County, Georgia. To this union was born three sons: James Pope, Robert Duncan, and Stephen William, who died very young. James Pope Brown was born in Pulaski County at the plantation home, “Pine Avenue,” the son of Stephen William Brown and his wife, Martha Pope Brown. He was educated in the country schools of Pulaski, at Governor Northern’s Preparatory School and at Mercer University, where he graduated in 1873 with an A.B. degree. He was a Baptist, a Democrat, a Mason of Mount Hope Lodge, … Read more

Biography of David Edmund Duggan

The Duggan family settled in Georgia in 1744 and has long been identified with the leading educational institutions of the State. David Edmund, the son of A. C. and Nancy Maddox Duggan, was born October 10, 1872. Losing his parents at an early age, he was reared in the home of his guardian, Dr. Ivy W. Duggan, his eldest brother. David Edmund was graduated from Washington Institute in 1890, and from Georgia School of Technology in 1894. Acting as superintendent for Bibb Manufacturing Company for five years, he then became builder and manager of the Cochran Cotton Mills for fifteen … Read more

Biography of Washington Leonidas Grice

A family tree would show four Grices in a direct line, all residents of Johnston County, North Carolina: Francis, who died in 1750, a copy of whose will appears in the published Colonial Records of North Carolina; his son, William, a Revolutionary soldier; and next, Stephen, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, and his son, Garry, who in his youth was a civil engineer and laid out the town of Goldsboro, North Carolina. In 1822, Judge Stephen Grice, with his wife, who was formerly Miss Sally Simms, with their family, moved to Newton County, Georgia, … Read more

Biography of James Oliver Jelks Jr.

James Oliver Jelks, Jr., was born July 4, 1839, the second son of James Oliver Jelks, whose ancestors came to this country from Wales, and of Mary Polhill, of Burke County, Georgia. Mr. Jelks, Jr., was a pioneer merchant of Hawkinsville. He erected the first building used exclusively for storekeeping, and established the general mercantile business of J. 0. Jelks and Brother in 1865, one of the first business firms to be organized there after the War Between the States, in which he enlisted in Company G, Eighth Georgia Regiment. This firm was located at the corner of Commerce and … Read more