Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3208 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSa youth at the outbreak of the Civil war, in which he enlisted as a private ina North Carolina infantry regiment in the service of the Confederacy. Heproved a good and faithful soldier, and learned well the lessons of disciplineand faithfulness, and when he returned to the ranks of peace was well tittedto fight the battles of civilian life. Not long after the war Mr. Rcdfearn cameto Georgia and settled in Thomas County, where he soon established a homeby his marriage with Miss Mary McDonald, who was born in this state. Formany years he carried on agricultural pursuits in that county and throughindustry and capable management succeeded in the accumulation of a valuableproperty, his improvement of which placed him among the real builders of hissection. There he died in 1896, aged seventy-one years. As a citizen Mr.Redfearn played his part in assisting his locality to better conditions, andwhile he was not a seeker for personal preferment was always active in hissupport of good measures. Mrs. Redfearn, who like her husband was honored and respected by all her acquaintances, survived him until 1913, beingsixty-nine years, six months of age at the time of her demise. They were theparents of three children, namely: Dr. J. A., who is engaged in the practiceof medicine and surgery at Albany; Mrs. R. I. Stite, of Wichita Falls,Louisiana ; and D. F.The early education of D. H. Redfearu was secured in the country schoolsof the vicinity of his father's plantation, on which he worked during vacations during his youth. Given the choice of a vocation, he turned his attentionto professional lines and decided upon the law as the calling in which to makehis life success. In making this choice Mr. Redfearn only followed his naturalinclinations. He cherished no false notions as to the preparation necessaryfor such a career, but felt that the law was his natural element and that in ithe could achieve more than in any other line of endeavor. Accordingly, heentered the state normal school, at Athens, from which he was duly graduated, and subsequently enrolled as a student in the University of Georgia,where he completed his law course in 1909. Feeling the need of still furtherpreparation, he continued at the state university for another year, thus completing an academic course, and in 1910 graduated and was shortly afterwardadmitted to the bar.AVhen he entered upon his professional labors, Mr. Redfearn chose Albany,the county seat of Dougherty County, and a live and prosperous community,'as the center of his activities. Here be established his home and opened anoffice, and was not long in impressing the people with his fitness and capacityto handle their legal business. After successfully appearing in a number ofcases his reputation as an astute and learned legist was established, and fromthat time to the present his professional business has steadily grown in scopeand importance. Among his fellow-members in the Georgia State Law Association, Colonel Redfearn is accounted a formidable, but absolutely fair andstrictly courteous opponent, who recognizes the highest ethics of the professionand upholds its best traditions. As a fraternalist, he belongs to the Masons,in which he is master of his lodge, and the Woodmen of the World. He andMrs. Redfearn are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church andwell known and popular in religious and social circles.Colonel Redfearn was married November 20, 1913, to Miss Susan EllisFort, of Mount Airy, Georgia, daughter of Col. John R. Fort, a retiredattorney of that place and the head of one of the distinguished families ofMount Airy.JAMES TIFT MANN. For ten years city attorney of Albany, and at varioustimes the incumbent of other important public positions, Hon. James TiftMann is one of the most forceful members of the Dougherty County bar, andfor years has been credited with standing in the front rank of jury lawyers.His keen faculties of perception and analysis, his mastery of the principles of