Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

, GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3185South Carolina just across the line from Georgia. The father, who was bornat Carnesville and died at Martin, was in early life well known as a schoolteacher, later was a merchant near Lyons and finally a Franklin Countyfarmer. During the Civil war he spent six months in the Confederate army,and during the latter part of the'war was a mail carrier. His death occurredin 1892 at the age of eighty-one, while his wife passed away in 1893 at the ageof seventy-seven."W. A. Mitchell, who was the fifth in a large family of ten children, as aboy managed to secure some half dozen terms of schooling at Carnesville, andthroughout his teens was'almost constantly employed in some form of productive and useful work. He finally qualified as a teacher and from his earnings in that occupation paid his way through a commercial college at Lexington,Kentucky. After'leaving Lexington in 1881 he located in Martin, in StephensCounty, and for one year was clerk with the firm of T. R. Alien & Company.Prom that time until recently, a period of fully thirty years, Mr. Mitchell wasthe leading general merchant at Martin, and finally sold his business interestsin that town in 1914. He had removed his family to Gainesville in 1909, andin December, 1913, he organized the Farmers and Merchants Bank of that cityand has since directed its affairs as president. In 1907 he organized the Bankof Martinsville, and is still president of that institution. While a resident atMartin he was railwayvagent and express agent, and was a valuable and useful factor in all the business and civic life of that community. For fullythirty years he held the office of justice of the peace at Martin.Mr. Mitchell has filled the various chairs in his Masonic lodge, has takenthe various degrees of that order, is a member of the Mystic Shrine, of theRoyal Arcajaum, the Woodmen of the World, and has passed all the chairs inthe Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His church is the Baptist.On Christmas Day of 1884 Mr. Mitchell married Miss Mary L. Randell ofMartin, Georgia. Her father was I. D. Randell, and her mother was a MissCleveland, a relative of the late Grover Cleveland. One of the Randell ancestors emigrated from England and settled in Stephens, now FranklinCounty, Georgia, and for several generations the family were prosperousplanters. Mrs* Mitchell's father was a soldier of the Confederate army duringthe war, was seriously wounded in one action, and after the war became amerchant and also'held the office of postmaster. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell havehad ten children born into their home, tnree of them now deceased. Mrs.Lownie Lucile Day is a widow, and has one child, Theodore Earl Day. Mrs.Bolina Knight resides at Tampa, Florida. Miss Mary is a music teacher andis organist in the Baptist Church at Gainesville. William N. is in the insurance and real estate business at Tampa, Florida, with the Henry Knight Company. Ira" Adkinson has recently graduated from the Gainesville publicschools. Dorothy is a student in the Gainesville High School, and WilliamAlexander, Jr., is still a schoolboy.WALTER BARNARD HILL, A. M., LL. D., who was chancellor of the University of Georgia during the last six years of his life, was born in Talbotton,that state, September 9, 1851, and died at Athens, Georgia, December 28,1905. By many he is considered the broadest and greatest educator whichGeorgia has produced. He was graduated from the State University in 1870,and, within the following year, completed a course in law and one whichearned him the degree of A. M. Almost immediately he entered into partnership with his father in the practice of law at Macon. When the elder Hillwas promoted to the, bencli, in 1873, Walter B. associated himself with hisfriend and classmate, N. E. Harris, with whom he continued until his election to the chancellorship in July, 1899. While engaged in the practiceof the law he became the author of various standard codes and served aspresident of the State Bar Association. He was also, for many years the