Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3319eracy in the Civil war. He enlisted when but sixteen years of age and duringthe long and sanguinary conflict between the states of the North and Southhe made a record of faithful and valiant service in a Georgia regiment andhonored the state of his nativity, his continued interest in his old comradesbeing indicated by his affiliation with the United Confederate Veterans.After the war he completed his educational work in Mercer University andduring the long intervening years he has been closely and successfully identified with the great basic industry of agriculture. He is now the owner of alarge and admirably improved landed estate and is one of the most extensiveand successful planters of Jasper County. He is progressive and far-sightedas a planter and business man and though he raises an average of 400 balesof cotton annually and operates fifty plows in this connection, he is untrammeledby traditions of cotton enterprise in the South and is a strong andeffective advocate and practical exemplar of the value and consistency ofdiversified agriculture, which he considers a means through which the basicindustry will be brought to its maximum importance and success in Georgia.He is a loyal and unfaltering advocate and supporter of the cause of thedemocratic party, is influential in public affairs of a local order and has commanding place in popular confidence and esteem. He is affiliated with theMasonic fraternity and he and all of his family hold membership in the BaptistChurch. Of the six children one died in infancy; Robert Aris resides in theCity of Atlanta and is one of the prominent and successful representatives ofthe cotton industry in Georgia, as the owner of an excellent plantation inJasper County; Carrie is the wife of Oliver H. Arnold, of Athens, this state;Octavia is the wife of George A. Tucker, of Batonton, Putnam County; EugeneM., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; and Miss Carolyn remainsat the parental home, at Shadydale.Eugene M. Baynes continued his studies in the public schools until he hadcompleted the curriculum of the Monticello High School, in which he wasgraduated in 1899. Thereafter he attended for two years the Georgia MilitaryCollege, at Milledgeville, and he then entered the University of Georgia, inwhich he was graduated as a member of the class of 1905 and from which hereceived the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He had full appreciation of theinsistent demand for such thorough academic training as essentially a prerequisite for that of professional or technical order, and after his graduationhe was admirably fortified for the zealous work which he forthwith institutedas a student in the law department of the university. He completed the prescribed curriculum and was graduated in 1909, when his alma mater conferredupon him the supplemental and well earned degree of Bachelor of Laws.The professional novitiate of Mr. Baynes was served at the judicial centerof his native county, and he has not depended upon family prestige or personal popularity as levers in promoting his success. His^ability, energy andclose application soon brought to him supporting patronage, and his powersas a resourceful advocate and well fortified counselor have been so directedas to gain to him a secure vantage-place as one of the strong and successfullawyers of the younger generation at the bar of the Oemulgee Circuit. Mr.Baynes now has an excellent clientage and in addition to giving his closeattention to his substantial private law business he is serving as solicitor ofthe City Courts of Monticello, an office to which he was elected in the autumnof 1914. He is an ardent advocate of the principles of .the democratic party,is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knightsof Pythias, and both he and his wife are active members of the Baptist Church.Mrs. Baynes is a popular figure in club and social circles in her home cityand is affiliated with the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.On the 19th of June, 1914, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Baynesto Miss Vera Kelly, who likewise was born and reared in Jasper County and