Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

2850 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS1873. His grandfather, Arden Mershon, was also an educator and one ofthe well known teachers in the early days in Hancock and Warren counties.Professor Mershon is a son of A. E. and Eugenia (Flint) Mershon, bothnatives of Georgia, his father a native of Warren County and his mother ofTaliaferro County. His father, who died in Warren County in 1904 at theage of fifty-two, had made his life work merchandising and farming. Themother died in Taliaferro County in 1881 at the age of twenty-nine.James A. Mershon, who was the second in a family of six children, inearly life attended school at Sharou in Taliaferro County, and in 1900 wasgraduated from Emory College with the degree A. B. He had already takenup the work of teaching, his first school being at Wrightsville, where heremained one year. For two years he was principal of the school at Rochelle,and was then sent to Cuba, and at Santa Clara and other places organizedmission schools under the direction of the Methodist Episcopal Conference.While there he was ordained as a regular minister of the Methodist Church,and for several years worked in the educational department of the CubanConference. On returning to the United States he became superintendentof the schools at Monticello, Georgia, for two years, spent two years assuperintendent at .Cornelia, and in 1909 accepted the responsibilities of citysuperintendent at Gainesville. He now has under his direct supervision themanagement of several buildings, with a large force.of teachers and instructors, and has done much to promote the standards of the city schools in harmony with modern ideas and requirements. Besides the high school he hasthree trade schools under his supervision, two of the ward schools being forwhite children and one for negro pupils. Altogether the scholastic enrollment in Gainesville is about 1,500. .Professor Mershon is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the lodge, chapter- and commandery of the York Rite Masons andis high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter. He is active in the work of theMethodist Church and in politics is a democrat.On January 4, 1911, at Gainesville Mr. Mershon married Miss LauraThompson, a daughter of Howard and Henrietta (Clark) Thompson. Herfather has served as United States marshal for the Northern District ofGeorgia, is a prominent lawyer, and has also been a member of tlie GeorgiaLegislature. To their marriage has been born one daughter on April 1, 1912,Henrietta Mershon.HENRY R. JACKSON, lawyer, scholar and soldier, was born in Athens,Georgia, on June 24, 1820. He was well educated at Athens, under the guidance of his father, who, was a member of the faculty of the University ofGeorgia; graduated from Yale University, when nineteen years of age, andwas admitted to the bar before he was twenty-one. Locating for practice atSavannah, in 1844 he was appointed United States district attorney. .In1846-47 he served as a colonel in the Mexican war. In 1849 he was madejudge of the Superior Court of Georgia and served until 1853, when he wasappointed United States- minister to Austria. He held this position until1859, when he resigned; and the next year declined the chancellorship of theState University, which had been offered him. In 1860 he was elected to theCharleston Democratic Convention. When the split came in the democraticparty, he adhered to the Southern wing very naturally, and was chosen anelector for the state at large on the Breckenridge and Lane ticket. Whenthe Confederacy was organized he was appointed judge of the ConfederateCourts in Georgia; but in view of his previous military experience, the government tendered him commission as brigadier-general, and he resigned hisjudgeship to accept that commission, which bore date of July 4, 1861. Inthe autumn he accepted command of a division of state troops and returnedto Georgia and during the Atlanta campaign he organized them in the de-