Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3240 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSJUDGE R. M. BRYSON. With twenty years of experience as a lawyer,Judge Bryson has spent the last ten in Ocilla, and during that time has alsoserved as judge of the County Court. He comes of a-substantial family offarming people, but his own youth was of somewhat limited advantages, andhe depended upon himself to lift his career above an ordinary plane and byhis own earnings he paid all his expenses while in college. He taught schoolfor a time before attending college and for two terms afterwards. Thus theaccomplishments of his career are a testimonial to his individual enterpriseand ambition.He was born near Auraria in Lumpkin County, Georgia, May 29, 1871, ason of John H. and Caroline (Nix) Bryson. His paternal grandfather,William Thomas Bryson, was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and came tothis country at the age of sixteen, locating near Dahlonega, Georgia, where hesubsequently became a well-to-do merchant. The maternal grandfather wasof Irish extraction, and the maternal grandmother, whose maiden name wasNancy Weaver, lived to a good old age. Judge Bryson's father was born inLumpkin and his mother in Dawson County, Georgia, and the former followed a career as a farmer and is now living at the age of 'seventy-four inForsyth County. During the war he and three brothers served as soldiersin the Confederate army, and though in many engagements he was neverwounded, but toward the close of the war was captured f"^ - kept inCamp Douglas in Chicago for some months. He served \... ^onfpany I of theFifty-fifth Georgia Regiment, The mother died in 1888 "fei the age of forty.Of their six children two are now deceased, and Judge Bryson was the secondin order of birth. His brother, Charles L. Bryson, also a lawyer, lives atJefferson, in Jackson County; another brother, Dr. L. R. Bryson, is in practiceat Oakwood, in Hall County, and a third brother, W. F. Bryson, lives atGainesville, in Hall County.R. M. Bryson spent most of his boyhood on a farm in Dawson County,where he attended the public schools, and afterwards secured means sufficientto pay his way through the North Georgia Agricultural College at Dahlonega.After studying law he began practice at Dawsonville, in Dawson County, butafter a few months removed to Dahlonega, where he enjoyed a successfulpractice until 1905. In that year he established his home at Ocilla, and whilelooking after his private practice has also served as recorder of the town andwas judge of the County Court of Irwin County for one term.Judge Bryson is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, a member of theBaptist Church and in politics is a democrat. On December 23, 1896, atDahlonega, he married Miss Lillie F. Gurley, whose parents were residents ofUnion County. Judge and Mrs. Bryson have one adopted daughter, MissNellie May, who was born in January, 1908. In addition to his law practiceJudge Bryson takes much interest in farming and particularly in the intensivecultivation of the soil.AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE REV. FRANK HENRY GAINES, D. D., LL. D.Though little more than a quarter of a century old, Agnes Scott College atDecatur stands admittedly at the forefront of American schools for thehigher education of women, and its prestige in this respect is recognized bythe nation's most distinguished educators. Its progress for the past twentyyears has been steadily guided under the presidency of Frank Henry Gaines,and probably no one individual deserves greater credit for the usefulnessand influence of this institution than he. In fact, Doctor Gaines has skillfully and wisely directed its affairs since the organization of the college.His was not only the far-sighted wisdom which, in the beginning, graspedthe possibilities of such a school, but his were the splendid powers of organization which have brought the college into its present high vantage ground ofsuccess, shaped its policies, fixed its standards, molded its ideals and made it