Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3265entering practice. He served as a member of tie Georgia Legislature in1884-85 and later held the office of prosecuting attorney of Madison County.He was also judge of the Superior Court previous to locating at Elberton in .1909. For some years he has occupied the bench of the Circuit Court.SYLVANUS MORRIS. Present dean of the law department of the Universityof Georgia, Sylvanus Morris is one of the best authorities on jurisprudence inGeorgia, and has had a long and active career as a practicing lawyer and asan educator. He was born in Goochland County, Virginia, October 8,1855, ason of Charles and Mary (Minor) Morris. One of his brothers, John Morris,is a noted philologist, also a lawyer by profession, and since 1897 has been amember of the faculty of the University of Georgia. Both parents were nativesof Virginia, and in 1870 came to Athens, Georgia, where Charles Morris wasprofessor in the department of English for twenty-three years. He died in1893 at the age of fifty-five. During the war he served from Virginia asa lieutenant in the Hanover Troops, and was in service until the close andcame out of the war with the rank of major. The mother died in December,1914, at the age of eighty-two.Sylvanus Morris was the oldest of seven children. He was educated inprivate schools in Virginia, and entered the University of Georgia, where hewas graduated Master of Arts in 1874, took his degree LL. B. in 1877, and in1913 was given the honorary degree LL. D. Admitted to the bar in 1877, hebegan practice at Jefferson, Georgia, remained there several years and hassince been an active member of the Athens bar. For nine years he held theposition of solicitor of the city courts. He has also been connected withthe legal department of the Richmond and Danville Railway. In 1893 heb.ecame a professor of law at the University of Georgia, and since 1900 hasbeen dean of the law department.THOMAS H. DOZIER. Few men carry forward their useful activities in theworld over so long a period as Thomas H. Dozier, who is now serving as countysuperintendent of schools of Clarke County. He comes of a notable Georgiafamily and was born in Oglethorpe County, October 10. 1834.Professor Dozier was the oldest of nine children. His early education wasacquired in Oglethorpe County schools, after which he was in Emory College,where he graduated in 1856. He did his first work as an educator before thewar, and when hostilities were declared between the North and the South heat once closed his schoolroom and enlisted in Company K of the Sixth GeorgiaRegiment under Colonel Colquitt, His service as a soldier was for four yearslacking one month. He participated in many of the engagements of the NorthVirginia campaign and was also in the operations about Charleston. Pie wasnever wounded; and going out as a lieutenant was discharged as a captain.\Vith the close of the war he took his station in life as a farmer in OglethorpeCounty, and continued farming until 1886. He*vvas a merchant from that timeuntil 1896, and assumed his present duties as county superintendent of schoolsin Clarke County in January, 1897. Under his jurisdiction are twenty-eightwhite and colored schools.DR. WILLIAM BERRIEN BURROUGHS, M. D., a resident of Brunswick since1881, is known not alone for his skill and assiduity as a physician, but also forthe urbanity of his manners, his literary taste and talent, and as a brilliantmember of the city's social circles. Not alone by native talent and fine attainments is Doctor Burroughs distinguished, but also by inheritance of qualitieswhich raised his ancestry above the level of the ignoble and common herd.The history of the family goes back to the Elizabethan days of England'sglorious marine exploits. An old record names Capt. Stephen Burroughsas master of one of the three vessels which attempted to reach China by way