Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 2949of the profession in Milledgeville. In 1873 he was elected judge of the Courtof Ordinary, in Baldwin County, and by successive re-elections held the officefor eighteen years. In addition to this he served Baldwin County as a countycommissioner for ten years. Since 1900 he has been president of the Milledgeville Bank.HON. WILLIAM FREDERICK EVE. When- the busy and honorable life ofWilliam F. Eve was brought to a close and a career memorable for its usefulness was ended on January 2^1, 1916, the community in which he had spent allhis life suffered a great loss and possibly every individual was affected insome way. Life, in its accomplishments, should have a meaning and message' and when it encompasses, as did that of Judge Eve, education, justice, religion, charity and practical business its record should be preserved as a memorial in family community, and state.Judge Eve needed not the background that his ancestors provided, for hewon honorable distinction for himself. He belonged to a prominent familyof the South, and of a generation that was built on sturdy stock in a Northernstate, but, which under the genial influences of the South, attained a rare excellence of intelligence and culture. Joseph Eve, the grandfather of Judge Eve,was the inventor of the Eve cotton gin which was designed for the ginning oflong staple cotton, and which preceded the Whitney cotton gin for shortstaple cotton some years. Joseph Eve's first cotton gin factory was establishedat Charleston, South Carolina, in 1804. Six years later the factory wasmoved to a site seven miles from Augusta, and there Joseph Eve and hisbrother Oswcll Eve, were associated in manufacturing for many years. Themanufacture of the Eve cotton gins continued even after the Whitney machinecame upon the market, and Joseph Eve was able to lay a sound foundationupon which he later, through the additional manufacture of gunpowder, builtup his family fortune. He was the father of four children: Mary Roma, whomarried James Campbell and became the mother of Drs. Henry F. and RobertCampbell, noted physicians at Augusta; Edward Armstrong, the first of thefamily to enter the medical profession; Francis Henry, who died at the ageof twenty-two; and Joseph A., to whom the Augusta Medical College partlyowes its existence.Dr. Joseph A. Eve, the father of AVilliam F. Eve was born at Charleston,South Carolina, in 1805. He was twenty years old when he crossed theAtlantic ocean to take advantage of advanced educational methods in themedical schools of London. At twenty-five he was a graduate of the MedicalCollege of Charleston, and at thirty was associated with Dr. Milton Anthonyin the founding and administration of the Augusta Medical College. Hecontinued an instructor in this college until his death in 1886, at the age ofeighty-one. His name is a distinguished one in the history of medicine inGeorgia. He married Sarah Garland Combs, who was born in Jackson County,Georgia, in June, 1811, and died in 1876. She was the mother of eleven children, three of whom died in infancy. The others were Mildred, Elizabeth,Sterling Combs, Robert Campbell, Sarah Woolsey, Joseph Edward, WilliamFrederick, and Mary Celeste. Of these, Mildred was married first to Dr.Claiborne Walton. After his death she married F. A. Timberlake, a captainin the Confederate army, now deceased, and at present resides in the City ofNew York. Elizabeth Eve became Mrs. J. V. H. Alien, now deceased. SterlingCombs Eve was graduated from the medical school which his father had helpedto found and was practicing medicine in Augusta at the time of his death.He married Laura Baker, of Florida, a present resident of Augusta. RobertCampbell Eve became a physician, and married Willie Harmon of Staunton,Virginia. Both are now deceased. Sarah Woolsey married P. F. Campbell,now deceased.. She is at present residing in Augusta, Joseph Edward Evebecame a physician and died some years ago. The youngest of the family