Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3050 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSin the General Assembly Judge Wilkinson was never absent from his seatduring the session of 116 days, and during his term was the author of muchof the most important legislation enacted. For nearly sixty years he was adevout member of the Baptist Church, and for forty years clerk of the Western Baptist Association of Georgia. Besides his son Hell, the late John R.Wilkinson, who. for many years served as Fulton County ordinary, and wasa very prominent citizen, his death occurring in 1915, was another son.Mell R. Wilkinson was born at Newnan, Coweta County, Georgia, December 31, 1864, and received his early education in a private school there, thisbeing supplemented by courses at Mercer and Richmond (Virginia) College.His father was a Savannah cotton factor, and had homes both at Newnan andSavannah. He did not graduate at Richmond College, but returned to Atlantaand completed a course in Moore's Business University.In 1884, at the age of eighteen, he opened a wholesale stationary andprinters' supply house, where the American National Bank now stands inAtlanta. His partner was his brother the late John R. Wilkinson.About this time, in 1888, Mr. Wilkinson married Miss Annie B. VanWinkle, a daughter of Edward and Amelia (King) Van Winkle. He thuscame into contact with Mr. E. Van Winkle, a talented inventor who was alsoextensively engaged as a manufacturer of his own patents. Mr. Van Winklealong in the '90s realized the need of assistance, for while he could managethe manufacturing end of his ventures, the selling and financing were beyondhim. Thus he took into the business Mr. Wilkinson and another young man,Mr. E. P. McBurney, and they thus organized the Van Winkle Gin and Machinery Company, one of the largest and most important concerns of its kindin the country. Mr. Wilkinson was secretary and treasurer of this companyuntil 1912, when he disposed of his interest to the Murray Company of Dallas,Texas. The company exported cotton and cottonseed machinery to every partof the globe where cotton is raised.Through his interests and connections with this company Mr. Wilkinsonwas brought into contact with the oil business, and gradually acquired thenumerous business connections which he has since enjoyed. It was his intention to retire from business at the age of fifty, but as his young son Van wascoming to manhood and he desired to share his business experience with ayounger man, he formed on July 1, 1912, a partnership with Mr. Lee Ashcraft,and they organized and incorporated the Ashcraft-Wilkinson Company,with Mr. Wilkinson's son an associate. The Ashcraft-Wilkinson Companyhandles fertilizers and all its allied products, buys and sells the output of fertilizer factories, and owns several concerns of that kind. Up to the outbreakof the war in Europe the Ashcraft-Wilkinson Company were the world'sgreatest importers of German potash and other fertilizer material. Membersof the firm quickly showed their resourcefulness on being deprived of the principal source of their raw material. They realized that sulphuric acid, whichall their fertilizer plants manufactured, was worth more as an ingredient ofhigh explosives than in fertilizer, and for a year or more the company has beenselling this product by the thousands of tons to munitions makers. Mr. Ashcraft, who is vice president of the company, was formerly general sales manager for the International Agricultural Corporation of New York City.Though Atlanta is the home of some of the greatest business men of theSouth, few enjoy a wider range of business interests than Mr. Wilkinson.Not long ago it was claimed that he was a director of eighteen different companies. He is president of the Ashcraft-Wilkinson Company, of the OldDominion Guano Company,, of the Gulf Port Fertilizer Company, is vice president of the Southern States Life Insurance Company, a director in theAtlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic Railway Company and of the Georgia Railway & Power Company, a director in the Lowry National Bank, the EmpireCotton Oil Company, and of many other business organizations.