Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 2977the undertaking business. In 1J391 he entered the employ of Hilburn.& Bowden,undertakers, at 49 East Hunter Street. With this firm he had a carefultraining and a five years apprenticeship, and subsequently for several yearswas an assistant employed by the firm of Hilburn & Poole.Since 1904 Mr. Bloomfield has been in business on his own account underthe name P. J. Bloomfield Company, of which he is sole owner and manager.During all these years his business quarters have been at No. 84 South PryorStreet. He is a member of the Georgia State Funeral Directors Associationand the National Funeral Directors Association.When an jnfant his mother took him to the Church of the ImmaculateConception for baptism, and he has ever since been a member of that church.He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Ancient Order of Hiber1-nians, is a democrat in politics, and is a member of the Oakland CemeteryCommission.September 5, 1900, he married Miss Elizabeth Lynch, who was born andreared in Atlanta, daughter of the late Peter Lynch. Peter Lynch conducteda wholesale and retail whiskey business at 95 Whitehall Street for fifty-sevenyears prior to his death in 1903. He was one of the oldest business men inAtlanta, and popular among all the ranks of citizenship. He also came fromIreland, having been born in County Meath, and was only a young man whenhe arrived in the United States and located in Atlanta. The old Peter Lynchhome in Atlanta still stands at the northeast corner of Central and Trinityavenues, and is one of the oldest houses still standing in the city and one ofthe interesting landmarks. It was built by Mr. Lynch in 1866 just after theclose of the Civil war. Of the nine children in the Lynch family, seven, including Mrs. Bloomfield, were born in that house. The old home is now used,though still owned by the Peter Lynch estate, by the City of Atlanta as adetention home for refractory children, while the city juvenile court occupiesthe second floor. The Lynch and Bloomfield homes were only three blocksapart and Mr. and Mrs. Bloomfield have known each other since early childhood. Of the three children born to them Peter Lynch Bloomfield and Elizabeth Bloomfield died in childhood, and the only living son is Raymond Bloomfield,who was born October 19, 1908.SAMUEL P. JONES. The noted evangelist. Sam Jones (as he was popularlyknown), was born in Chambers County, Alabama, on the 16th day of October,1847. When he was nine years old his family removed to Cartersville, Georgia,which place became, for the most of his life, his home, except for eight yearswhich he spent in the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Church. His directancestors for several generations and other relatives in indirect lines wereministers of that denomination. His father was Capt. John J. Jones, andhis mother, Queenie Porter, a gentle and gifted woman. Of both he alwaysspoke in the tenderest terms, his father's deathbed being the occasion of hisconsecration of himself to the work of the ministry.Within a short time after his father's death he was, converted and joinedthe church and was soon afterward admitted on trial into the traveling connection of the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church, South, andwas duly ordained a deacon, and afterwards an elder. As has been indicated,he was in the regular pastorate but eight years, during which period heattracted increasing attention on account of his great success as a revivalistand an evangelist. Soon afterward, in 1893, he formally entered the field asan evangelist, and made a world-wide reputation both by his pungent, forceful utterances and the number of his converts. His early education andtraining as a lawyer undoubtedly assisted him in making the profoundimpressions upon his audiences so noteworthy in his career as a revivalist.It is to be doubted if any preacher or lecturer ever made as much money