Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

2942 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSthe Masonic Order, has been Eminent Commander of Gyrene CommanderyNo. 13, Knights Templar, two years, and has attained thirty-two degrees ofthe Scottish Rite. He is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Improved Order of Red Men, theMystic Circle and the Woodmen of the World. His church is the Methodist.He is a democrat and has been quite active in party affairs in his section ofthe state.On June 17, 1896, at Hawkinsville, Georgia, he married Miss Sarah Florence Hamilton, daughter of James M. and Mary S. Hamilton,, the former nowdeceased. Mr. and Mrs. Crum have six living children: Sarah, born in 1902;Mary, born in 1904; Florence, born in 1906; Mallette, born in 1908; Remer,born in 1912; and Lillian, born in 1915. The older children are attendingschool at Cordele, where all of them were born.JOHN HENRY WAED. As sheriff of Crisp County, John Henry Ward ismaking a record of efficiency very similar to that which his father made inthe same office in Douglas County. For a long period of years this one familyname has been associated with the" one office of sheriff in these two counties,and there is no name in that section of the state distinguished by betterqualities of firmness, integrity, and whole souled popularity than that of Ward.The present incumbent of the office of sheriff in Crisp County, was bornOctober 20, 1870, in Douglas County, Georgia, a son of Henry and Mary E.(Conner) Ward. His parents were both natives of Meriwether County, Georgia, and the father died in 1911 at the age of sixty-four. The Conners wereof Irish descent while the Wards were Scotch-Irish. About a hundred yearsago the Conners spelled their name 0'Conner. Henry Ward, Sr., when fifteenyears of age, entered the Confederate army as a member of the Twenty-Eighth Georgia Infantry under Captain Alfred H, Colquitt, who laterbecame governor of Georgia. He was promoted to sergeant and served in thearmy of Virginia during the entire war, participating in many of the greatest battles in that part of the South. When he went into the army he madea vow that he would never allow himself to be captured, never enter a hospital, and would refuse any parole.' He was one of the loyal Southerners whoremained unreconstructed to the last, and always bore himself in a way todeserve the high honor and esteem paid him. After the war he engaged infarming in Douglas County, and from that vocation was called to the officeof sheriff and for eighteen years served continuously in this office, never beingdefeated in any election in which he was a candidate. He was a stanch democrat and a member of the Baptist Church. His widow is still living at theold home in Douglas County in her sixty-fourth year and is an active memberof the Baptist Church. There were nine children: Dura, now deceased, wasthe wife of J. S. Abercrombie; Dr. J. A. Ward is a leading physician atCordele and reference to his career is made in a later paragraph; John Henryis the third; Dura, deceased; Sallie, wife of Dr. 0. H. Morris, of Atlanta; Dr.L. C. Ward, of Marion, Florida; Eula, wife of Thomas Peterson, of Jacksonville, Florida; Belle, wife of Dr. J. L. Weddington, of Dublin, Georgia; andRilla, wife of Charles Peterson, living near New Orleans, Louisiana.John Henry Ward received his early education in the schools of Douglasville,and when only fourteen years of age began helping his father in thesheriff's office. He first worked in keeping the records of the office, and at theage of sixteen was appointed deputy sheriff, a position he filled for twelveyears. Seldom has any sheriff in Georgia had a better and longer trainingfor official duties than Mr. Ward. After leaving this employment in DouglasCounty he spent four years as a private detective in the South, and in 1904accepted a position as bookkeeper for the Bowen Mercantile Company of Cordele. He remained connected with that concern for four years, and in the fallof 1908 was elected on the democratic ticket as sheriff of Crisp County. He