Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

2884 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSwith supreme faith in the future of the community, decided to remain andaccordingly bought out the business from his former employers. Thisproved successful from the start^ It was commenced in a modest manner, butrapidly grew and developed, and today handles a business of $4,500,000 annually, and occupies a store 90x140 feet, four stories in height.As a man and a citizen none stand higher in the community than doesColumbia Downing. In every public enterprise he is a stanch worker and aliberal contributor, and in private charity no deserving appeal is addressedto him in vain. For many years he was president of the National Bank ofBrunswick of which institution he is still chairman of the board of directors.He is president of the Brunswick Board of Trade, but at the present time thegreater part of his attention is given to the management of his great navalstores business and allied interests. Mr. Downing may be said to be a man whothinks ahead of his fellows. It is his great foresight and acumen which hasgiven him his standing in the business world, combined with honest industryand an integrity which has allowed him only to enter those operations whichare irreproachable in character. His associates have had every reason to placethe utmost confidence in him.While still a resident of Ohio, October 14, 1875, Mr. Downing was unitedin marriage with Miss Mary Helen Remington, and they became the parentsof two daughters: Ethel, who married P. M. Nightingale of Brunswick, Georgia ; and Madeline, who married Raymond D. Knight, of Jacksonville, Florida.WILLIAM H. HENDRICKS, M. D. During his residence at Tifton for thepast fifteen years Doctor Hendricks has touched the life of that communityat many points, and not alone in his profession as a physician and surgeon.By his attainments he is recognized as one of the foremost men in the profession in South Georgia. This position has been worthily won. When he lefthome and started out on his own resources he had little save his ambition andsteadfast purpose to advance him in the world's esteem. At various times. since locating in Tift County he has held public offices of trust and has neverbeen defeated for any office for which he was a candidate.He was born in Bulloch County, Georgia, August 16, 1873, the second ina family of eleven children born to Robert and Nancy (Parish) Hendricks.His father and mother were also natives of Georgia, and his father spent hisactive lifetime as a farmer. He died at the, age of seventy-five in 1912, whilethe mother passed away in 1910, aged seventy-three,Doctor Hendricks attended the public schools of Bulloch County, the highschool at Millen, and in-1897 he graduated from the College of Physiciansand Surgeons at St. Louis, Missouri. His first practice was done at Lenox,Georgia, where he remained two years, and in 1901 he located at Tifton.Besides his large private practice he is physician and surgeon at Tiftonfor the Georgia Southern Railway and is also examining physician for all thelife insurance companies doing business there. He is especially well informedand skillful in surgery and has spared no expense npr effort in order to perfecthimself in his professional work. He has frequently interrupted his privatepractice in order to take post-graduate courses and attend clinics in some ofthe great medical centers in the country, was in the New Orleans Post Graduate College in 1900 and has attended the post graduate schools of bothNew York City and Chicago. He is a member of the Georgia State andTift County Medical societies and the American Medical Association.Doctor Hendricks was elected mayor of Tifton for the two year termbeginning January 1, 1914, had previously been a member of the city council,was also on the board of education, and in 1909-10 served as a member of theGeorgia State Legislature. On September 12, 1916, he was elected to theState Senate. Matters of education have made a special appeal to him andhe has devoted time and energy to the building up of a fine school system