Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3126 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSto the Georgia Legislature to represent Coffee County. Mrs. Lott was bornin Clinch County, Georgia, a member of a family which originally came fromSouth Carolina, and died in 1906, at the age of eighty-three years. She wasa devout member of the Baptist Church, while Mr. Lott was a Methodist.There were nine children in the family, as follows: Bettie, deceased, whowas the wife of Wiley Vickers, of Coffee County; Mary, who is the wife ofJames P. Lott, engaged as a planter in that county; Daniel P., who died in hissixty-fifth year, in Coffee County, where for many years he had been interested in planting; Lucy, who is the wife of Eli Vickers, a brother of Wiley,and a prominent farmer of Coffee County; Sarah Ann, who is the wife ofJacob L. Irviri, a planter of Coffee County; John M., a retired agriculturistof that county; Mattie, who is. the wife of Richard V. Douglass, of NewSmyrna, Florida; Elisha, deceased, who was a farmer of Coffee County; andJoel Jones.Joel Jones Lott received his early education in the old field schools of CoffeeCounty, and this was supplemented by a course at Moore's Business College,Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of nineteen years he accepted a clerkship in ageneral store at Pearson, Georgia, where he gained two years of experiencein business customs and methods, then going to Hazlehurst, Georgia, wherehe also was employed as a clerk. During this time he had been carefully saving what he could from his earnings, and in 1884 took his small capital andin a modest way started in the retail grocery business at Willacooehee, Georgia. This business prospered from the start, and the young merchant, withambitions beyond the limits of his little town, found himself the possessor ofa valuable enterprise. Finally, after three years, he sold out to advantageand in the spring of 1887 came to Brunswick, ready to try his fortune in competition with the established merchants here. During that year he merchandised in a retail way, and in 1888 formed a partnership with J. E. B. Love,under the firm style of Lott & Love, W. H. Love being subsequently admittedto the firm. In 1890 Mr. Lott, desirous of conducting the business alone, purchased the interests of his partners, and since that time has been the directinghead and practically the sole owner of this, one of the best known and mostextensive wholesale grocery establishments in Southern Georgia, In additionto doing a large and profitable business in the immediate vicinity of Brunswick, the house sends traveling salesmen all through Southern Georgia, andthe business shows an eminently satisfying yearly growth. Mr. Lett's thoroughly American spirit and his great energy have enabled him to mount froma lowly position to one of affluence.. One of his leading characteristics inbusiness affairs is his fine sense of order and complete system and the habitof giving careful attention to details, without which success in any undertakingis not an assured fact.In 1907 Mr. Lott became one of the organizers of the Glynn County Bankof Brunswick, of which he is still president, with John Linton Alien as cashier.This strong institution has a capital of $75,000, and undivided profits of$10,000, and its record and standing are of an unsurpassed character. Hehas directed its policies with foresight and judgment, carefully conserving theinterests of his depositors, who have the utmost confidence in his strength andsolidity. Mr. Lott has been connected as a promoter or supporter with everymovement for the public welfare. He is a member of the Good Roads Association, believing that good roads are necessary to advancement and progress,and is one of the active and working members of the Brunswick Board ofTrade. In politics a democrat, for fourteen years he has held the office ofcounty commissioner of Glynn County, and in that capacity is ably lookingafter the interests of the people of his district. Fraternally Mr. Lott is alsowell known, being a Knight Templar and Shriner Mason and a member ofthe Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. In disposition genialand in manner democratic, his friends are only numbered by his acquaintances.