Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3249In 1874 he was elected to the Legislature and returned to that body for threesuccessive terms, after which commenced his long and honorable service inCongress. At the time of his death he had accepted the gubernatorial appointment of a justiceship on the State Supreme bench.GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE, or "Mad Anthony," as the patriots of the Revolution delighted to call the intrepid warrior, was a native of Pennsylvania,but is identified with some of the most thrilling episodes of the Revolutionarywar in Georgia and passed several of the later years of his life within theborders of the state. He was in his thirtieth year when hostilities commenced in the northern field and was early appointed a brigadier-generalunder Washington. Afte'r the capture of Co'rnwallis he was sent with 700troops to conduct the war in Georgia in co-operation with General Greene.First he routed a superior English force before Savannah at the point of thebayonet, and also defeated a large force of Choctaws and Creeks who wereallies of the British. Later, he occupied Charleston, South Carolina. Brokenin health, after peace was declared he returned to Pennsylvania, was electedfo its Legislature and served in the convention which ratified the Constitutionof the United States.In 1786 General Wayne moved to Georgia and settled upon a large tractof land which had been granted to him by the state in recognition of his services in her behalf. He was a delegate to the convention of 1787 which promulgated the state constitution, and in 1791 was sent to Congress. He thusserved from October, 1791, until March, 1792, when his seat was contestedby Gen. James Jackson and declared by Congress to be vacant. He wasobliged to sell his Georgia property on account of financial embarrassment.In the year named, however, he was appointed general-in-chief of the army,commanded a successful expedition against the Indians of the Northwest,founded Fort Wayne, and in 1795 signed the treaty by which the UnitedStates acquired such a large domain. He died in 1796 at Presque Isle (nowErie), Pennsylvania.PRESTON BROOKS JOHNSON. To master the profession of law requiresdetermined ambition, a strong mentality and great persistency of purpose.One of the foremost representatives of this honorable calling in McDuffieCounty, Georgia, is Preston Brooks Johnson, of Thomson, whose reputationstands high on the Augusta Circuit. Mr. Johnson was born in Columbia(now McDuffie) County, Georgia, January 26, 1856, the son of William H.and Percilla (Finch) Johnson. His paternal grandfather was Ho well Johnson, a native of North Carolina, and a prosperous planter and slave owner,who settled in Columbia County, this state, early in the nineteenth century.William H. Johnson, the father of the subject of this memoir, was bornin Columbia County in 1818, and, like his father, was a successful planter,operating his estate with slave labor, as was both customary and necessary inante-bellum days. He was, however, a man of high character who neverabused his colored dependents, and they were on the whole both happy andcontented with their lot. When the war broke out, being forty-three yearsold, he was prevented by the age limit from joining the regular Confederatearmy, but during the latter part of the great struggle he enlisted in the HomeGuards and did service around and in the neighborhood of Augusta. Thoughhe suffered considerable loss and inconvenience during the war, he survivedhis misfortune, exercised Christian patience and fortitude during the stormydays of Reconstruction, and lived to see the dawn of a brighter and better era,ushering in the New South, with greater promise and wider possibilities thanexisted under the old regime. He passed away in 1886, a true type of thehospitable and chivalrous southern gentleman, his loss being deeply regrettedwherever he was known. He was three times married, the mother of the