Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3029a grant from the King of England located on Tide Creek, in South Carolina,and there carried on planting operations for many years. His son, DanielRambo, the great-grandfather of the Judge, was born there, passed his life inagricultural pursuits, and married Jane Ford, also a native of the old Southstate. Among their children was Drewery Rambo, who became an earlyplanter of Decatur County, Georgia, where he passed the greater part of hislife and died. He married Regina DeGraffenreid, a direct descendant ofBaron DeGraffenreid. Baron DeGraff, of France, married a Miss Reid, ofSwitzerland, and as neither wished to change their family names, they decidedto combine the two, this resulting in the family of DeGraffenreid. BaronDeGraffenreid, because of religious persecution, fled from Europe andmigrated to America, where the king gave him a grant of land in NorthCarolina, the baron there founding the Town of Newburn. He was the onlymale member of the family to come to this country, and has a number ofdescendants in the South, including five or six brothers living at Shreveport,Louisiana, who bear the family name.John D. Rambo, son of Drewery and Regina (DeGraffenreid) Rambo, andfather of Judge Lawrence M. Rambo, was born in 1846, in Decatur County,Georgia, and was seventeen years of age when he became a soldier of theConfederacy, with a lieutenancy in a Georgia infantry regiment. He serveduntil the close of the war between the states, principally in the Virginia campaigns, was slightly wounded in action, and when peace was declared wasacting captain of his company. Returning to civil life, he resumed his studies,and graduated at the state university in the class of 1869, and was lateradmitted to the bar. He eventually became a prominent attorney, practicingat Columbus and Fort Gaines, and held numerous public offices of trust andresponsibility, being a member of the Georgia Legislature, a presidentialelector voting for Judge Parker, and judge of the City Court of Fort Gainesfor a number of years. A man of fine talents and marked intellectuality, hewas a representative of the best type of Southern lawyer and gentleman andwas universally esteemed and respected. "He died January 15, 1912, at theage of sixty-six years. Mrs. Rambo, who was born in Macon County, Georgia,a member of a family of Scotch origin which came to this state from SouthCarolina, died in March, 1907, aged fifty-five years. There were three children in the family: Lawrence M.; Mrs. John S. Murphy, of Marshallville,Georgia; and Mrs. William E. Watkins, of Jackson, Georgia.As a lad Lawrence M. Rambo attended the public schools of Bluffton,Georgia, and when but sixteen years of age entered the sophomore class,University.of Georgia, becoming a member of the class of 1898. Thereafterhe read law in the office of his father, and in March, 1903, was admitted tothe bar, immediately entering practice at Arlington, Calhoun County. Afternine years in that community he changed his field of activity to Blakely,where he has since risen to a leading position among Early County legists.Judge Rambo is a thorough, learned and brilliant lawyer, whose interests arelarge and whose reputation in legal circles is of the highest. In 1911 he waselected judge of the City Court of Blakely and served in that office withdignity and distinction for two years. He belongs to the Georgia Bar Association and the Early County Bar Association, and is fraternally affiliatedwith the Masons and the Woodmen of the World, while his religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has extensive farminginterests in Early County and many valuable realty holdings at Blakely,including his handsome modern home.Judge Rambo was married in Clay County, Georgia, August 6, 19t)3, toMiss Lila Hattaway, daughter of W. B. and S. M. Hattaway, now deceased,who were prominent farming people of Clay County and members of old andhonored families. To this union there have come three children: Ellen, bornin 1907, at Arlington, and now a student in the fourth grade of the public