Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3230 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS1786 became governor of Georgia. Governor Telfair was a leader in the stateconvention of 1789 which ratified the Constitution of the United States, andin that year was again made chief executive of the state. When he retiredfrom the governorship in 1793 he returned to Savannah and spent the remainerof his life, which ended September 19, 1807, in the management ofhis extensive private business, in works of charity and in the counsels of publicbodies on important occasions.CHAELES SPALDING THOMAS, of Denver, Colorado, who has been serving asUnited States senator from that state since January, 1913, is a native ofDarien, Georgia, born in 1849. In his boyhood he went to Michigan and in1871 graduated from the law school of its state university. He has practicedlav? both at Leadville and Denver, and has been prominent as a democrat since1884. He served as governor of Colorado in 1899-1901.JOHN OLIVER NEWELL. It has frequently been said of Mr. Newell that heis a born lawyer. His early inclinations and manifestations of talent pointedto that profession and with a liberal training he has developed his powers soas to justify all the expectations of success with which he was favored at theoutset of his career. He is one of the leading attorneys at Carrollton and theCoweta Circuit, is an alert and public spirited leader, and has found hostsof friends in all the walks of life and commands respect from all his associates.John* Oliver Newell was born in Carroll County, Georgia, May 8, 1879,a son of William L. and Fannie E. (Teal) Newell. His mother died in 1913.She was the daughter of WTilliam and Emma (Bowdon) Teal. The Tealfamily came from South Carolina in 1840 and settled in Pike County, Georgia,whence a few years later William Teal went to the Mexican war, and was formany years a prominent farmer. He died at the age of sixty-five. His wife,Emma Bowdon, was of a prominent family in whose honor the Village ofBowdon is named. Mr. New ell's mother was born in Pike County, Georgia.Alfred Newell, grandfather of the Carrollton lawyer, was a native of Virginia, but in early manhood settled in South Carolina and in 1847 came toGeorgia, his first home being in Carroll County and subsequently removing toDouglas County. He died at the extreme age of one hundred and five years inDouglas County, where he had for many years been a farmer. Mr. Newellcomes of long-lived stock and his maternal grandparents both lived to be ninetyyears old. Alfred Newell had four children. Robert Newell, the oldest, wasa soldier in the Confederate army and is a Baptist preacher and farmer.Benjamin Newell, who became a Confederate soldier at the age of fifteen, wastaken prisoner soon after he enlisted, was confined for some time in a Michiganprison, and has since been a farmer. George Newell is also a farmer.William L. Newell, the youngest of these four children, was born in August,1850, and was reared and educated in Carroll and Douglas counties. Hisactive years were devoted to farming, at which he gained considerable success,and he is now living retired. One of the strongest principles of his life andaction and practice was a fundamental belief in education, and he did all hecould to train his children for worthy citizenship. He and his wife were theparents of eight sons, two of whom died in infancy. Herschell, the oldest,died at the age of twelve years; the second was John 0.; Lovett L. is now inthe automobile business at Albany, Georgia; Carl V. is in the same business atCordele; Robert E. D. is general manager and superintendent of a large ranchin Arkansas; Eula 0. is a student at Dahlonega College.John Oliver Newell grew up on a farm, attended the public schools, graduated from the Villa Rita High School, and in 1903 took his degree in law atthe University of Georgia. For the past twelve years he has given himselfwithout reserve to the practice of his profession in Carrollton. While well