Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 2919became cashier of The National Bank. He filled that office with credit andhas been responsible for much of the satisfactory improvement and increaseof tne bank's business in the past five years."Mr. Hendry has served as a member of the Tifton City Council. He. is ademocrat, a member of the Masonic Or'der,-the Independent Ord^r of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World, and belongsto the Methodist Episcopal Church. On July 31, 1912, at Hazelhurst, Georgia, he married Miss Ethel D. McCormick, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. GeorgeMcCormick. They are the parents of one daughter, Ethel Grace Hendry, bornat Tifton June 14, 1914.JUDGE JOEL BBANHAM, a son of Dr. Joel Branham and Emily CooperBranham, of Eatonton, Georgia, was born August 28, 1835. He was admittedto the bar September 26, 1857, in Eatonton by Judge Robert W. Hardeman,judge of the Ocmulgee Circuit; admitted to the United States Circuit Courtfor the Southern District of Georgia at Savannah in 1860; to the U. S. CircuitCourt for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta; and to the SupremeCourt of the United States in January, 1879.He moved to Macon in 1859 and was appointed solicitor general of theMacon Circuit by Governor Brown to fill the vacancy caused by the deathof Theo Mumford and re-appointed by Governor Brown for full term. Hewas appointed by Governor Colquitt, judge of the Rome Circuit to fill JudgeUnderwood's unexpired term, beginning July 1, 1882, and elected for thebalance of that unexpired term,- and also for full term by the Legislatureof 1882: While he was on the bench, the Rome Circuit embraced the counties now composing the Rome and Tallapoosa circuits. He was called on several occasions to preside in the Supreme Court of Georgia in the place ofChief Justice Jackson in cases in which he was disqualified. The followingare some of his opinions and Circuit Court charges: The Northwestern Railroad Tax case, 70 Ga., page 10. Other decisions in 72. Ga., 292-830, 73 Ga.,620, 74 Ga., 869.Judge Branham moved to Rome, Georgia, on January 1, 1867, and resumedthe practice of the law. On January 1, 1887, he was employed, as divisioncounsel for the Richmond & Danville Railroad in 1892, by Henry Jackson,then, as division counsel of the receivers of the Central Railroad and Banking Company by Lawton & Cunningham; next, as division counsel for theSavannah and Western by Denmark & Adams. He represented these railroads and the receivers until the 1st of November, 1895, when his connectionwith all railroad property ceased, that portion of the Central, which he hadbeen representing, the Chattanooga, Rome & Columbus, having been passedin the hands of a separate receivership and King & Spalding of Atlantabecame the attorneys of the bond holders and the receivers. On repurchaseof that road in March, 1901, by the Central, he was again appointed divisioncounsel for the Chattanooga Division of the Central of Georgia RailwayCompany, by Messrs. Lawton and Cunningham, and now holds that position.The Branhams in Georgia are all descendants of Drs. Henry and Joel Branham,two eminent physicians of Eatonton, Georgia. Hon. Mark A. Cooperwas the brother of Emily Branham, the mother of Judge Branham. JudgeEugenius A. Nisbit, one of the first Supreme Court judges, and Dr. ThomasHamilton and Joseph Hamilton of Rome, Georgia, were first cousins of EmilyBranham.There are quite a number of Judge Branham's blood kin on the side ofthe Branhams, the Coopers, and his maternal grandmother, Judith Harvey,in Georgia. Among them are: the descendants of James Nisbit, United States,America, and Joseph Stovall, who married aunts of his mother; the descendants of Capt. John Nisbit of Washington, District of Columbia, whose wife,