Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 2893president of this corporation, which employs a capital.of several hundredthousand dollars and operates two large department stores.Mr. Neeley also owns a, cotton warehouse at "Waynesboro for the storingof cotton and is a direetoNand president of the Citizens' Bank of Waynesboro .He is chairman of the Executive Committee of the Federal Experiment Station at Griffin.At the age of twenty-one he was elected a member of the Board of Education of Burke County, Georgia, and served continuously for thirty years,most of the time as chairman, finally resigning after he had satisfied hisconscience on the score of assistance to the local schools. He served as mayortwo terms, and has also been a member of the City Council. In 1904-05 hesat in the State Legislature. Mr. Neeley is a democrat, a member of theCountry Club and Commercial Club of Augusta, and Bankers Club of NewYork City. His church is the Methodist Episcopal.In 1880 he married Miss Willie Addison of Waynesboro, daughter ofLawson Addison. Mrs. Neeley died in 1884. In 1886 he married LillianWilkins, daughter of Major Wilkins of Waynesboro. To their union wereborn three children. Alvin W., born in 1887 at Waynesboro, is a graduateA. B. of the University of Georgia and is now in business with his father.R. C. Neeley, Jr., born in 1890, was educated in the University of Georgiaand is now a member of the cotton firm of Neeley & Wilcox at Augusta.Messelle W., born in 1891, is a graduate of the Miss Baldwin's School atBrunswick, Georgia.WALTER BARNETT SHAW, junior member of the firm of Rosser & Shaw,one of the leading legal concerns of Walker County, and assistant solicitorgeneralof the Rome Circuit, has been located at La Fayette only since 1914,but has already distinguished himself in such litigation as he has been connected with. His professional success has not been accidental, but wellearned and well deserved. Of strong, vigorous intellect, he has brought tolegal practice the reinforcement of wide culture, and1 his love of the lawand devotion to his profession have led him to a thorough mastery of itslearning.Mr. Shaw was born at Trion, Chattooga County, Georgia, September 23,1882, and is a son of Samuel J. and Cordelia (Rosser) Shaw. The familywas founded in Northwest Georgia by the great-grandfather of Walter B.,George Shaw, who migrated from South Carolina, his birth state, and settledin Walker County, where the remaining years of his life were passed in thecultivation of a plantation. James E. Shaw, the son of the pioneer, wasborn in Elbert County, Georgia, but reared in Walker County, where he andhis father became widely known as agriculturists and as the originators ofthe world-famous Shaw corn. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlistedin the Confederate army and served four years in the Army of NorthernVirginia, participating in numerous important battles, including that atGettysburg. He died in 1914, at the age of seventy-nine years. James E.Shaw married Nancy Caruthers, a descendant of one of the original settlersof Walker County, and she preceded him in death several years. They wereindustrious, Christian people, who won the respect and confidence of thoseamong whom they lived and labored.Samuel J. Shaw was born in 1856, in Walker County, Georgia, and in hisyouth was granted the advantages of good educational opportunities. Whenhe embarked upon a career, he chose mercantile lines as his field of endeavor,and for a number of years was the proprietor of an establishment at Trion,Chattooga County, where he also conducted the cotton mill company's store.In 1895 he came to La Fayette and established himself in business, and at thepresent time is known as one of the leading merchants of the city, with amodern establishment and a large and representative trade. Mr. and Mrs.Vol. VI -8