Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3186 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANScentral figure in the temperance movement. When he became head of thestate university, his wide acquaintance, his deep scholarship and his legaltraining and experience, made him a power in the development of that institution. During his administration the university received from the Legislatureand from private sources over $300,000, nearly three times the amount whichhad come into its treasury before his election. He also had a genius in harmonizing conflicting personal elements, so that his administration was successful both financially and from the standpoint of broad educationalprogress.REV. HENRY HOLCOMBE, one of the most prominent pioneer Baptists ofhis day, was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, September 22, 1762..After having served as a member of the South Carolina cpnvention whichapproved the national constitution of 1787, he was for twelve years pastorof the Eutaw Church and in 1799 was invited to the* pulpit of the SavannahBaptist Church. He founded the Savannah Female Asylum, is consideredthe father of the Georgia penitentiary system and established the MountEnon Academy, a Baptist institution of higher learning, of which he was thehead until he left the state in 1811. This was the first institution of learningestablished by Baptists in the Southern states, and, although it did not survive its founder's departure, the idea was revived in the founding of MercerUniversity.JOHN HOUSTOITN. . That John Houstoun was one of the prominent Georgians of the Revolutionary period and a leader of subsequent years is plainlyevident from a mere statement of his record. He was born in the parish ofSt. George, in 1844, and was a thoroughly educated lawyer of Savannah. Atthe outset of the Revolution he became a leading patriot and was a member ofthe committee which forwarded supplies to the closed port of Boston. Hewas a member of all the Rebel conventions; was a member of the provincialand continental congresses and of the Council of Safety; served as governorof Georgia in 1778 and 1784; was chief justice of the commonwealth in 1786-87; mayor of Savannah in 1790 and afterward judge of the Superior Courtof the eastern circuit of the state. His death occurred at his old family homenear Savannah on July 20, 1796.J. L. FRASER, M. D. One of the leading physicians of Fitzgerald is Dr. J.L. Fraser, who has been in active practice there for the past ten years, andis associated with several other local physicians as proprietors of the NationalDrug Company of Fitzgerald. Doctor Fraser is vice president of the company, with Dr. W. D. Dorminy as president.Born at High Shoals, Oconee County, Georgia, April 23, 1867, DoctorFraser is a son of James and Fredonia J. (Johnson) Fraser. His parentswere born in Virginia, where they were reared and married, and in 1863came to Georgia and settled in Oconee County. His father spent a number ofyears in the lumber industry, and still later located on a farm in OconeeCounty, where he lived until his death in 1901 at the age of eighty-one. Themother died in Oconee County in 1914, also at the age of eighty-one.The sixth in a family of ten children, Doctor Fraser has benefited by theservices of a private tutor in his home and gained most of his early educationin that way. He then entered the medical department of the University ofLouisville, where he was graduated M. D. in 1901. His first practice was doneat Crawford in Oglethorpe County, where he remained six years, later waslocated at McRea, and since 1906 his home has been in Fitzgerald, where henow enjoys a place among the successful physicians.He is a member of the local, the Eleventh District and the state medicalsocieties, is a Mason and Shriner, and also a Knight of Pythias. In politicshe is a democrat, and belongs to the Baptist Church.