Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

2964 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSorder for the State of Georgia, and in all those twenty-seven years has nevermissed one of the state meetings, which are held annually in different citiesof the state. He also belongs to the Travelers Protective Association, andwas president of the Atlanta Post of that organization five* years and statepresident one year.February 4, 1886, he married Miss Eleanor Morgan, daughter of DavidMorgan, who was an early settler and for many years a harness merchantin Atlanta. They have three children Mabel, Lillian and Edgar all athome. Mabel and Lillian are married, Mabel being Mrs. Eugene Bverett,and Lillian Mrs. Claud Shirley. Judge Johnson and wife have also twograndsons, Avery Everett and Hayden Shirley, and one granddaughter,Eleanor June Everett.ROBERT GOTTEN ALSTON. To bear worthily a distinguished name andto add to its prestige has been the goal of many a man's ambition, and hencea type of citizen is found in America cherishing high ideals and transmitting to future generations not only the old-time sturdy family traits, butnewly awakened virtues belonging to the later civilization. The City ofAtlanta offers such examples and a notable one is found in Robert GottenAlston, whose life, aims and achievements make him one of the leadingmen of the city in many avenues of usefulness and also reflect credit upona long line of distinguished ancestors.To trace the Alston family to its source the genealogist must searchfar back in English history, even to the Anglo-Saxon period. Like otherancient names some changes in orthography appear, as, Alston, Allston andAlstone all, however, undoubtedly having a common origin. In GreatBritain the tracing has been from Alstan, who was the Saxon lord of Stanford, in Norfolk, before the Normon Conquest. Under its present orthography, the family to which Robert Gotten Alston belongs and of which heis justifiably proud, claims "William Alston, of Stitstead, in Essex, living inthe time of Edward I, as the progenitor, and his branch of the family wasraised to the baronetcy in 1642. The location of the family at different timesappears to have been in Suffolk and Bedfordshire as well as Essex, andmention" is made of the knighting of both Joseph and Edward Alston, thelatter of whom was a distinguished medical man and was president of theCollege of Physicians in London. It is with the family in America, however,that most interest at the present day centers. The first reference diseov-.ered in historical records of the name of Alston on this side of the AtlanticOcean, was of John Alston. He took part in the uprising of the Duke ofMonmouth, suffered arrest and imprisonment and with eighty-nine of hiscompatriots, was finally sent to the Barbadoes. In 1694 the name of JohnAlston again appears in history, as a settler in North Carolina, and presumably it was the former political prisoner. He established what is yet oneof the leading families of Albemarle County. A cousin, also named JohnAlston, about the same time settled in South Carolina, his descendants alsobecoming distinguished and so continuing. In 1776 a William Alston wasa member of the Provincial Congress which authorized the appointment ofsix brigadier-generals and the raising of six regiments for the Continentalarmy, William Alston becoming a brigadier-general in the Third Regiment.Contemporary with him was Willis Alston, of Halifax, who appears as amember of the First Provincial Congress, later as a colonel commanding theforces of Halifax County and in November, 1776, was one of the representatives of Halifax to the convention which framed the first constitution of Virginia. For eighteen years he served in the Federal Congress,and during the War of 1812 was chairman of the Committee on Ways andMeans. Another distinguished member of the family was Lemuel JamesAlston, born in North Carolina in 1760. He moved to Greenville, South