Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3283Bullock County, where for fifteen, years he was identified with businesshouses in clerical capacities, being an expert bookkeeper. Returning to EfSnghamCounty, be continued to follow the same vocation for several years, andin the meantime became interested in a mercantile business, with which he isstill connected. His activities in the financial field have made him a directorand stockholder in institutions at Springfield and Guyton, and have gainedhim also a directorship in the Peoples Rank at Sardis. In both banking andbusiness circles his reputation is that of a capable, strong and reliable operator, who is progressive in his methods and prompt in the discharge of hisobligations.In civic affairs Judge Eieffer has always taken an active and helpful partand his citizenship has bceu of the sort that has assisted his community togrow. A stanch democrat in politics, he has on numerous occasions beenelected to public ofh'cc, having for four, years acted in the capacity of chairman of the board of county commissioners of Effingham County. Be becamethe candidate of his party for the office of ordinary, or probate judge, towhich he was duly elected, and in which he has displayed strict impartialityin handling and disposing of the eases that have come before him. A manof true judicial temperament and capacity, it is the opinion of many that hecan retain the probate judgcship as long as he cares to hold that office. JudgeKieffer is a Master Mason and is chancellor commander of the local lodge ofthe Knights of Pylluns. In fraternal life, as iu other avenues of activity,he has many friends and admirers.Judge Kicffcr was married to Miss Grovenstein, daughter of George W,and Cornelia N. (Metzger) Grovcnstcin, of Effingham County, and to thisunion there have been horn these children: Georgia Cornelia, aged twentysixyears; Alien Napoleon, twenty-four years old; Claude Florence, agedtwenty-two years; and Ruth Elizabeth, who is ten years old.JAMES M. RccoLriT. Depending upon his own resources in the acquiringof his higher academic and his professional education, James Mouroc Rudolphshowed himself possessed of the self-reliance and pertinacity of purpose thatever augur for success, and that success has not been denied to him is indicated by Ids high standing as one of the representative members of the barof the Cherokce Judicial Circuit and by his prominence and influence as oneof the liberal and public-spirited citizens of Dalton, the thriving judicial centerand metropolis of "Whith'eld County.Mr. Rudolph was bom at Forsyth, Moni'oe County, Georgia, on the 4th ofSeptember, 1870, and is a son of Wiley Monroe Rudolph and Savannah(Davis) Rudolph. Wiley M. Rudolph was boru at Clarksville, MontgomeryCounty, Tennessee, and as a youth he learned the trade of machinist andgunsmith, and during the Civil war he gave effective service to the Confederacy both in tbc manufacturing and repairing of firearms used by the soldiersand also by enlisting finally in the ranks of the brave "Boys in gray" andserving as a soldier during the closing period of the great conflict. After theclose of the war he settled at. Forsyth. Georgia, where he met and eventuallywedded Miss Savannah Davis. a daughter of John V. and Mary (Walker)Davis. who were natives of Monroe County, where also their daughter wasborn. At Forsyth Mr. Rudolph was engaged in the mercantile and photographic business until 1874, when he removed with his family to Dalton, wherehe successfully continued in the retail mercantile business until his death, in1876, at the age of forty-two years, his wife surviving him and being stilla resident of Dalton. lie was a member of the Cumberland PresbyterianChurch, was affiliated, with the Masonic fraternity, was a man of ability andworth, and ever commanded unequivocal popular esteem. His widow eventually contracted a-second marriage, by becoming the wife of Capt. Thomas L.Wheeler of Dalton, who- represented his native State of Georgia as a valiantsoldier of the Confederacy, and whose death occurred in 1888. Of the four