Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3001port, Indiana, but did not feel satisfied with the progress he was making andsoon cast about for more prolific fields. About this time the first trans-continentalrailroad was completed in this country, and entrancing stories wereconstantly being repeated about the great wealth to be obtained in the farWest. Lured by these stories, Doctor Crockett, with other young and ambitious men, started on the, journey to the Pacific coast, with Oregon as his finaldestination. Arrived at Salt Lake City, he found that the western and eastern ends or the railroad had not been brought together, and he and his companions were compelled to walk for several miles before they could againcontinue their journey. Imagine the storm of protest that would be arousedby the compelling of passengers to do such a thing today! Eventually DoctorCrockett arrived at Albany, Oregon, for which locality he had set out, butsoon discovered that all the wild tales that had come from the Pacific coastshould have been taken with a grain of salt. Conditions were not to his liking, either as to opportunity or as to weather, and he soon decided to seek amore prdfitable location, and one in which a more gentle climate was to befound.. Accordingly, he turned his face to the East and later journeyed tothe South, finally arriving in what was then Dooly (now Worth) County,Georgia. The sparsely-settled community would not have looked like the landof promise to some, but Doctor Crockett had the foresight to tell him thatthis would be one day, and that no^ far distant, a prosperous and thrivinglocality, with wealthy cities and productive farms. During the first few yearsof his residence at what is now the site of Sylvester, he was forced to meetmany difficulties and to put up with numerous inconveniences, but he finallygained a foothold, and from that time to the present his career has been aneminently successful and satisfying one.Doctor Crockett is a great friend of education, and for a number of yearswas an active and helpful member of the educational body of Sylvester. Hehas also served as a member of the Sylvester City Council, and is now countyphysician of Worth County, and his entire public service has been one thatreflects credit upon his integrity and ability. He belongs to the AmericanMedical Association, the Georgia State Medical Society and to the WorthCounty Medical Society, and for the past forty years has been a Royal ArchMason. With his family, he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Heis the oldest physician now in active practice in the county, and few menare held in higher esteem in medical circles of the state.Doctor Crockett was married in November, 1875, three years after hisarrival in Worth County, to Miss Sarah Hill, a daughter of J. R. Hill, deceased, and a member of an old and honored family of this county. To thisunion the following children were born: Mattie Martin, who is now the wifeof Dr. I. C. Dearso, a physician of Atlanta, and has three children;. Benj.P., in motor boat business at Memphis, Tennessee, who is married and thefather of two children; Clara Larisa, who is the wife of R. F. Lockhart, ofNashville, Tennessee, and has two children; Katie Warren, who is the wifeof W. A. Moore, of Pensacola, Florida, and has four children; Claudia Colene,wife of Dr. W. D. Nobles, a physician of Pensacola, Florida; and Dr. EdwardRay, who is engaged in the practice of medicine at Colen, Florida. DoctorCrockett, .the father of these children, is the owner of considerable valuablefarming and other property in Worth County, and of one of the finest andlargest homes at Sylvester.BRIG.-GEN. MAKCELLUS A. STOVALL was one of that small number of Georgiasoldiers who had had a little prior experience in military affairs before theoutbreak of the war between the states'. He was a native Georgian, born atSparta on September 18, 1818. In his eighteenth year he fought in theSeminole war, left an incomplete course at West Point in 1836 on accountof sickness, and afterward became prominent in the volunteer military com-