Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 2859included in the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, which occurred nearGreensboro, North Carolina, in April, 1865.In December, 1865, after he had made quite a reputation as a writer onhistorical subjects, Colonel Jones moved with his family to New York City,where« he resumed the practice of law and spent twelve years. He had agratifying measure of success in his legal work while in the Northern city, butthe greatest advantage of that residence was the facilities he there enjoyed forhis literary work, which embraced numerous publications relating to Georgiahistory and antiquities. He threw much light on subjects relating to theConfederacy. Returning to Georgia in 1877, Colonel Jones established hishome at Montrose in the Village of Summerville, near Augusta, where heresided up to his death, which occurred July 19, 1893.COD. RICHARD M. JOHNSTON, school-master, lawyer, and author, was bornin Hancock County, Georgia, on March 18, 1822, and died in Baltimore,Maryland, September 23, 1898. In 1841 he was graduated from Mercer University. Though he was admitted to the bar in 1843 and began the practiceof law, Colonel Johnston's predilection was for the schoolroom. So, whenthe famous academy at Mount Zion, founded by the Beman brothers, wasoffered to him, he returned and was in charge of it until 1846. The schoolwas prosperous; but being offered a law partnership by James Thomas, afterwards judge, he returned to Sparta and again took up the practice of law.In 1849 Judge Thomas retired, and he again formed partnership with JudgeLinton Stephens, who had married a daughter of Judge Thomas. He wastendered the judgeship of the Northern Circuit in 1857, and the presidencyof Mercer University in the same year. Both of these he declined; but accepted the professorship of Belles Lettres in the University of Georgia, whichchair he filled from 1858 to 1862T During the war he served as an aide onthe staff of Governor Brown with the rank of colonel, and was active in the /" Qorganization of the Georgia State Militia. In this period he established a ( //select classical school at Rockby, near Sparta, of which he was principal until ''1868. In that year he moved to Baltimore, where he established a selectclassical school, but in 1882 he abandoned the field of education permanently.He was induced to take that course by his increasing literary reputation,which had been established as far back as 1864 by his "Georgia Sketches" .and strengthened by his "Dukesboro Tales," of 1871. Although his serioushistorical works marked him as a man of learning and ability, his novels andcharacter sketches, such as "Two Gray Tourists," "The Widow Guthrie,""The Chronicles of Mister Bill Williams" and "Little Ike Templin," fixedhis fame as a humorist. In l?S&~£!olonel Johnston was appointed to a posi- / ^ c? —tion in the department of education, Washington, and the remaining three '•&years of his life were divided between his official duties at the national capital,and his literary labors performed at his Baltimore home.ENOCH JACKSON GILES. It is both as a lawyer and banker that Enoch J.Giles has been identified with Lyons since its establishment as the county seatof the new County of Toombs ten years ago. Mr. Giles established there theToombs County Bank, of which he has since been president, and his skill asan advocate and in handling important litigation has brought him probablythe largest and most profitable practice in Toombs County.Though his name is now so familiarly associated with various importantactivities in Toombs County, Mr. Giles started life without a dollar frominheritance or any other source, and has made his own way in the worldsince boyhood. He was born November 9, 1863, a son of Jes'se Jackson andEmily M. (Wiggins) Giles. His parents were natives of South Carolina, andhis father was a son of William Giles, who moved from South Carolina to aFlorida plantation. Jesse J. Giles was born in 1820, and died in 1896 at the