Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3141efforts, his career having been started without advantages of any kind, savethose coming from good birth and good breeding.Mr. Mills was born September 2, 1885, at Hinesville, Liberty County,Georgia, and is a son of George M. and Flora Ellen (Praser) Mills. His grandfather was John Mills, who fought through the Mexican war as an officer anddied shortly after the close of that struggle. George M. Mills was born inChatham County, Georgia, in 1836, was given a good education, and in youngmanhood became a school teacher. When the Civil war was started he becamefirst lieutenant of the Bryan Rifles, an organization recruited in BryanCounty, Georgia, and served throughout the period of the war, save duringthe time he was recuperating from the effect of a wound in the right hip,received at the battle o'f Atlanta. After the*war Mr. Mills resumed his educational labors and continued to be engaged therein during the greater part ofhis life, his death occurring in 1902. He was a well known and popularinstructor and a man of influence in his community, and for twelve yearsserved as clerk of'the Superior Court of Liberty County. Mrs. Mills, whostill survives, is the daughter of Simon A. and Mary (Bacon) Fraser, and hasbeen the mother of two children: a daughter, Ellen Virginia, who is deceased;and Wallace Fraser, of this review.Wallace Fraser Mills started to school at the age of six years, and continuedas a student at Hinesville until he was seventeen, at which time he receivedhis introduction to business affairs in the capacity of clerk in a mercantileestablishment. During the eight years that he was thus employed, he carefullysaved his earnings, and was finally enabled to enter Mercer University, wherehe pursued a law course for two years and was duly graduated in 1912. Sincethat time he has been carrying on a successful practice at Hinesville, and hasbeen the representative of important interests in some prominent cases inwhich he has acquitted himself admirably. He is also the owner of eightyacres of good land in Liberty County, where his superintendent carries ongeneral farming and the breeding of good stock, but Mr. Mills is devotedwhole-heartedly to the duties of his rapidly growing practice. In professionalcircles he bears a high reputation. Mr. Mills is the owner of seven shares ofstock in the Southwestern Railroad. He has inherited the family's militarypredilections and is a member of Liberty Troop of cavalry, the second oldestmilitary organization in the state. Mr. Mills is unmarried.AUGUSTUS OCTAVIUS BACON, United States senator from Georgia for threeterms, 1894 to 1913, was a native of Bryan County, that state, born October20, 1839. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1859, with "thedegree of A. B., and that institution conferred LL. B. upon him in 1860 andLL. D. in 1909. During the Civil war he served as a captain, and from 1866to his death in February, 1914, was a lawyer and public man of Macon. In1868 he was a presidential elector; member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1870-82, 1892-93 (speaker in 1873-82, except 1875 and 1876) ;delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1884, and elected to theUnited States Senate in 1894, 1900 and 1907. His last term expired in 1913and his death occurred in the following February.CHARLES FREDERICK CRISP, a member of Congress from Georgia, for sixteen years and speaker of the House during a portion of that period, wasan Englishman by birth and a native of Sheffield. The year of his birth was1845 and when a child he was brought to the United States. He served in theConfederate'army in 1861-64, when he was taken prisoner. In 1866 Mr, Crispwas admitted to the bar; was solicitor general of Georgia in 1872-77, judgeof the Superior Court in 1877-82, and from the latter year until his death in1896 was a leading member of the National House of Representatives. Hisnotable service as speaker extended from 1891 to 1895. His son, Charles R.Crisp, has represented the Third Georgia District in Congress since 1913.