Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 2953the City Hospital, Augusta, Georgia, he located at Cordele in 1906 and hassince acquired a large private practice and is also county physician and ismember of the staff of the Cordele Sanitarium. He has filled all the important offices in the Crisp County -Medical Society and is a member of theState Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Fraternally,he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church and in politics is a democrat.On November 14, 1911, at Canton, Georgia, he married Miss Annie LaurieKibby, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Kibby. Doctor Smith and wife haveone child, M. R. Smith, born at Cordele, November 3, 1912.OZEY E. HORTON. Civilization rests upon law, without which there canbe no order. The more advanced the civilization, the more complex are itslaws, and the greater need, therefore, for skilled and careful interpreters.The Anglo-Saxon race and those races which for centuries have been mostclosely connected with it by political ties are pre-eminently law-abidingpeoples, accustomed to settle their disputes in duly authorized courts, ratherthan to take the law into their own hands, as is done not uiifrequently amongpeoples of a more passionate temperament and less capable of self government. Among us the exceptions to this just method o-f punishing evil-doers,or settling disputes between individuals, are few and infrequent, and, whenthey occur, are due to peculiar conditions not usually obtaining. The Stateof Georgia has long held a high place among its sister states for the highcharacter of its bench and bar, of whom there are some able representativesnow practicing in Atlanta. Prominent among the able lawyers of the cityis the subject of this memoir, Ozey E. Horton, senior member of the lawfirm of Horton Brothers, which is composed of himself and his brother MillardC. Horton.Mr. Horton was born near Belton, Anderson County, South Carolina,August 15, 1862, a son of John C. and Harriet W. (Vandiver) Horton. Hispaternal grandparents were Grief and Jemima (Broyles) Horton, the grandmother being a sister of Cain Broyles, who was the father of the late Col.Edwin Nash Broyles of Atlanta. John C. Horton, father of 0. E. Horton,was also born in Anderson County, South Carolina, the date of his nativitybeing December 24, 1821, and he resided in that county until his death inhis seventy-eighth year, on January 24, 1899. He was a farmer by occupationand for twenty years prior to the Civil war served as a magistrate and countycommissioner. His early education was acquired chiefly at Calhoun Academy,in Anderson County, where he was a schoolmate of the late Hon. Joseph E.Brown, former governor of Georgia. During the war he performed detailservice for the Confederacy operating a tannery. In 1848 he was married toHarriet W. Vandiver, who was born in Anderson County, South Carolina,March 20, 1826, the daughter of Manning and Harriet (Williams) Vandiver.All the four grandparents of the subject of this sketch resided in AndersonCounty, but later Manning Vandiver removed to Gordon County, Georgia,and still later to Fayette County, Alabama, where he died. Mr. and Mrs.John C. Horton had a family of seven children, five softs and two daughters. Four of the seven are now living, namely: Ozey E., Millard C., who asalready stated, are law partners in Atlanta; James E., a planter of Belton,South Carolina, and John Manning, also a farmer in Anderson County,South Carolina. The mother, Mrs. Harriet W. Horton, died a few years previous to her husband, on October 12, 1894, being then in her sixty-seventhyear. They were devoted members of the Baptist Church and respected byall who knew them as high minded, honorable people.Ozey E. Horton, who was the fifth born child of his parents, was rearedon their farm in Anderson County, South Carolina, and in his boyhood attended country schools. Later he pursued higher studies as a pupil in an