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County Coordinator - VACANT

BIOGRAPHIES
ISAAC HUGH AIKEN.  

Isaac Hugh Aiken is president of the I. H. Aiken Tug Boat Company of Pensacola, Florida, and a man of business integrity whose success has been founded upon the sterling principles of industry, enterprise and honorable dealing. He was born in Walthourville, Georgia, January 10, 1864, at which time the family were there as refugees during the Civil war. His parents were Isaac Means and Fannie Maule (Bryan) Aiken, who were married in Darien, Georgia, January 21, 1858. The ancestry in the paternal line is traced back to County Antrim, Ireland. The family lived near Belfast, where they took refuge when driven from the south of Scotland in the seventeenth century by the persecution of the Protestants by the Romanists. The American branch of the family was founded in 1787. David Aiken, the grandfather of Isaac H. Aiken, was associated in the cotton business with his older brother, William Aiken, who was the first president of the South Carolina Railroad Company, then owning the longest railroad in the United States. The town of Aiken, South Carolina, has been so named in honor of this family. After the death of his brother David Aiken removed to Winnsboro, South Carolina, and became one of the wealthiest planters in the state. He died just prior to the Civil war. He had upon his plantation many hundreds of slaves, but through the emancipation proclamations and the ravages incident to war the family inherited very little of the property. In the maternal line the ancestry of Isaac H. Aiken is traced back in America to 1660, both sides of the mother’s family setting in Virginia and afterward removing to North Carolina. They were not only prominent and distinguished but held titles long after coming to the United States. The ancestors of Mr. Aiken have made a record both in war and in peace, and were represented in the Revolutionary war, the War of 1812, in the Florida war and the Civil war, while in times of peace representatives of the name have served in congress and as state officials. In the family of Isaac M. and Fannie M. Aiken there were seven children, four sons and three daughters, those besides our subject being Lewis, who died in 1888 in his thirtieth year; D. Wyatt, now in business in New York city; Frank D., who is president of a bank in Brunswick, Georgia ; and three daughters who are residing in Pensacola. The father, who served as a captain during the Civil war, died in Pensacola on the 27th of April, 1907. He was a graduate of the University of South Carolina, of the class of 1851.

The period of Isaac H. Aiken’s boyhood covered those days which followed the Civil war with all of its ravages and disadvantages. Like hundreds of other families the Aikens lost almost everything and the educational advantages afforded Isaac H. Aiken were only such as were offered in the mediocre schools of McIntosh county, Georgia, where the family then resided. When sixteen years of age he began earning his own livelihood and whatever success has come to him in the intervening years to the present time has been the direct result of his earnest labor, conscientious purpose and unfaltering perseverance. He clerked in Darien, Georgia, for a time and afterward became master of barges in connection with steamboat towing. When he had attained his majority he was made captain of a tug and eventually purchased an interest in and commanded one of the larger tugs on the Altamaha river. In 1890 he removed to Pensacola, Florida, becoming a part owner and captain of the steam tug Florida, his partners being H. Baars and Bryan Dunwody, the firm being known as the Dunwody, Aiken Tow Boat Company. They increased the number of their tugs to nine, but the storm of 1906 left them only two intact, sweeping away forty-six barges, wharf, warehouse, offices and machine shop. Then came a terrible struggle, but with unfaltering courage Captain Aiken set himself to the task and through all has maintained his business integrity while with unfaltering purpose and unabating energy he has managed his business affairs until he is now sole owner and manager of the I. H. Aiken Tow Boat Company, having about two years ago bought out all other interests. He has rapidly reached the financial position which he formerly occupied and certainly deserves the success which has come to him.

In Pensacola, on the 23d of April, 1895, Captain Aiken was united in marriage to Miss Alexina Galt Chipley, a daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth (Galt) Chipley, both of Louisville, Kentucky. The father served first as a captain and afterward as lieutenant colonel and aide to General Buckner during the Civil war. His wife was descended from the old and prominent family of Galt of Louisville. Captain and Mrs. Aiken have but one daughter, Elizabeth Galt, now nine years of age. The parents are members of the Episcopal church in which he is serving as junior warden. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party and for the past six years he has been a member of the city executive committee in Pensacola. He belongs to the Osceola and Country Clubs of Pensacola, and has a wide and favorable acquaintance. Receiving the heritage of a goodly name he has ever tried to maintain it and the honor and respect accorded him shows that he has won success in that way as well as in the material things of life.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace
and Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 517-518
F. F. BINGHAM.

Through successive stages of progress and advancement in the business world F. F. Bingham has worked his way upward from the position of clerk and stenographer with the Southern States Lumber Company to be secretary and assistant manager of this great concern. As such he is a power and a vital influence in business circles of Pensacola and the qualities by which he rose are effective today in the organization, control and management of the important affairs under his charge.

Mr. Bingham was born in Yankee Spring, Michigan, March 25, 1872, and acquired his early education in the public schools of Chicago and St. Louis, later attending a business college. In 1890 he came to Pensacola and secured a position as stenographer and clerk with the Southern States Land & Timber Company, now the Southern States Lumber Company. Advancement came rapidly, for Mr. Bingham proved himself a man of ability, foresight and conscientiousness and, moreover, possessed of organizing and executive ability and the power of initiative, without which there can be no real accomplishment. Through department after department he rose, winning the confidence of his superiors and the friendship and esteem of his associates, an indication of Mr. Bingham's standing in business circles.

Mr. Bingham married, in 1896, Miss Fannie Augusta Oerting, a native of Pensacola, and they are the parents of seven children, four sons and three daughters. Politically Mr. Bingham affiliates with the republican party and fraternally is connected with the Masonic order, the Sons of the American Revolution and the Sons of Federal Veterans. He is well known in social circles of the city and is an active worker in the Presbyterian church and identified also with the Young Men’s Christian Association. As a member of the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce he keeps in touch with the general trend of business advancement and gives an active support to many progressive public projects. He is especially interested in securing for the city public docks connected by a belt line railroad in order to improve trade facilities and to meet more effectually industrial competition. His work in this city has been efficient, constructive and far-sighted, a force in public growth and an element in municipal development, while in social relations his many fine qualities have gained for him the esteem and confidence of all with whom he has come in contact.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace
and Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.93-94.
HON. W. A. BLOUNT.

A Distinguished Citizen and Lawyer of Florida.

While modesty was not essential to the so-called greatness achieved by Napoleon and Alexander, yet it is the modest man who most appeals to the finer human instincts ; one might say, the sacred human emotions. It is this quality, as much as any other, that appeals to the admirers of Robert E. Lee. Heroic deeds by egotists may fire the imagination, but the life work of him who does great things and endures much, unostentatiously, compels the deepest admiration and respect.

William A. Blount was born in Clarke county, Alabama, on October 25, 1851. His parents, Alexander Clement Blount and Julia Elizabeth Washington, were both born in Newbern, North Carolina. The father, then a young man, and a practicing lawyer, thought he saw a chance for the accumulation of property, and moved to Alabama to engage in the operation of a plantation. On this plantation the family lived for several years, but finally removed to Pensacola, Florida, in 1858, where the father reengaged in the practice of law — Pensacola,even at that time, giving promise of becoming a great city. On the breaking out of the Civil war, the family again removed to Alabama,
where they lived for several years, during the early boyhood of Mr. Blount. It is probably due to this opportunity which country life affords, that he acquired habits of introspection and self-reliance which have regulated and sustained him throughout his life.

In support of heredity, it should be told that both the father and mother were endowed with much more than ordinary mentality, and both had exalted ideas of the duties of life. It also should be told, in view of the fact that Mr. Blount has succeeded so well in his profession, that both the Washingtons and Blounts were professional people for generations. Three brothers on the father’s side, and two brothers on the mother’s side, were lawyers. One of them, William H. Washington, served as a member of Congress at the early age of twenty-six.

The life stories of men of Mr. Blount’s age, who have performed deeds worthy of consideration by their fellow citizens of the south, are for the most part similar. From competency, or better, the young boys of the south were plunged, by the Civil war, into poverty, and their youth and early manhood passed in heroic struggles for subsistence and education. As a result of this condition, Mr. Blount’s early enter the University of Georgia. From this institution he graduated in 1872, first in his class, with an A. B. degree, and immediately entered the law class of the same university, and received his diploma as LL. B. On coming back to Pensacola, he began the practice
of law in the office of United States Senator C. W. Jones, a man of great intellect and kindly heart, whose keen insight must have recognized and appreciated the talents of his young friend. In his chosen profession, Mr. Blount, by his intelligence, industry and high character, rose rapidly to a high position.

In 1885 he had already become recognized as one of the leading minds of the state, and was selected as a member of the constitutional convention, which met in Tallahassee during that year and adopted the state constitution, which is still in force. His associates in this convention from Escambia county, were Judge A. E. Maxwell, former Confederate States senator from Florida, and afterwards successively judge of the circuit court and the supreme court of the state, and Hon. J. E. Yonge, subsequently attorney general for the state of Florida, a very brilliant man.

The bent of Mr. Blount’s mind is shown by the provisions of this constitution which he introduced, or fought for, and which, while avoiding radicalism, protected and furthered the interests of the whole people. It has been a great pleasure to the writer of this article to meet from time to time men from all parts of the state who served with Mr. Blount, in this convention. Without exception, they have spoken in the highest terms of his devotion to principle and the interests of the people, and of his high character, wide information and great capacity for work; and better than all, for his great kindliness and modesty.

In 1890, Mr. Blount was tendered by H. L. Mitchell, the governor of the state of Florida, a position on the state supreme bench, but because of the fact that his practice was so great as not to permit him to accept, he declined. In 1889 he was appointed by the governor of the state, one of a commission of three lawyers to revise the statutes of Florida, and he was chairman of the commission. His part of the work embraced the second, third and fourth divisions, covering the administration of the civil law. His work, with very few changes, is still the law of the state, being embodied in the same divisions of the general statutes of Florida, adopted in 1906.

He was a member of the senate of the state of Florida for four years, including the sessions of 1903 and 1905. He was president of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Pensacola for four years. He was a member of the capitol commission of the state of Florida, appointed by the governor, to reconstruct the Capitol building. He was, in 1911, a member of the committee appointed by the circuit court of appeals of the fifth judicial circuit of the United States, to suggest to the supreme court of the United States changes in the rules prescribed by that court for cases in equity. For many years Mr. Blount was city attorney for the city of Pensacola, and during his term of office he prepared the first city code. This code, in the manner of stating the law, and the arrangement of subjects, was so concise, clear and practical that it has been taken as a model for subsequent ones.

In 1887 Mr. Blount formed a copartnership with his brother, A. C. Blount, and in 1906 Judge F. B. Carter, former circuit judge and supreme court justice, became a member of the firm. The firm is now composed of these three gentlemen, and J. E. Davis Yonge. Mr. Blount devotes himself almost exclusively to office practice, and as the business of the firm consists largely in representing public utility companies, and other corporations, his time is more than taken up.

He is a member of the bar of the supreme court of the United States, and has had many cases before it, in which the court has established principles of far-reaching application and widespread moment. Mr. Blount is a member of the American Bar Association, and has been appointed by that body a member of the committee on “Uniformity of Legislation,” and is also a member of the Florida State Bar Association, and was president of that organization during the year 1912. He has been given the degree of LL. D. by the University of Florida. He has made an address upon invitation of his alma mater, the University of Georgia, and in 1911 he spoke before the Georgia State Bar Association, upon the subject of: “Passing of Individual Rights of Property.” In 1902 he addressed the Stetson University law class, on “Ethical Duties of Lawyers.” In 1911, upon invitation, he delivered an address before the Alabama State Bar Association, upon the subject of : “The Past, Present and Future Status of Employers and Employees.” In 1912, upon invitation, he delivered an address before the State Bar Association of Illinois, at Chicago, upon the subject of: “Procedural Reform,” and in April of the present year he was invited by the State Bar Association of Louisiana to address that body, and spoke to them upon the subject of: “The People and the Courts.” He is to deliver before the American Bar Association at its meeting in Montreal, in September of this year, an address on “The Struggle for Simplification of Procedure, — The Goal and Its Attainment.” He has been for years, and is, a member from Florida of the conference of commissioners on Uniform State Laws, a body earnestly and ably suggesting uniform laws upon important subjects for administration by the several states.

Mr. Blount married Miss Cora Moreno, of Pensacola, in 1878, and has a family consisting of three sons and two daughters. The oldest son, W. A. Blount, Jr., is also a lawyer, and is at present state’s attorney for the first judicial circuit of Florida.

In his home and social life, Mr. Blount is an ideal man, — affectionate, considerate, attentive, unselfish and devoted. He is charitable to a fault, never failing to heed an appeal for aid, though in many instances he must know that his assistance is unappreciated and misplaced. As a citizen, he has always been among the foremost in contributing to the enterprises and public institutions of his adopted city. Mr. Blount is of middle height, strongly and compactly built, and has a most attractive and engaging personality.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development,
(c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 10-12 
LEMUEL L. BOYSEN.

Lemuel L. Boysen, a successful and well known florist of Pensacola, is a native son of the city, born November 12, 1882. His parents were Carl F. and Susan (Sparrow) Boysen, the former a native of Denmark and for many years in his earlier life a sea captain. For some time he owned a large coffee plantation in the West Indies and after coming to Florida served for thirty years as Norwegian and Swedish consul. He also built a church in this state, being a man active and prominent in religious circles. He was identified with business interests of Pensacola as a successful ship chandler and in this occupation was engaged at the time of his death, in 1897. His wife has also passed away. To their union were born three children: Frederick, deceased; Maud C., who married H. Clay White, a conductor on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad; and Lemuel L., of this review.

The last named acquired his education in the public schools of Pensacola and at the age of seventeen entered the lumber business, in which he engaged successfully for five years. Previous to this time his mother had started a florist establishment in the city and when Mr. Boysen severed his connection with lumber interests he joined her in its conduct, their association continuing until the mother’s death. Since that time Mr. Boysen has conducted the enterprise alone and has developed a large and lucrative business, important not only as an element in his individual prosperity but also as a factor in general growth. His plant has a frontage of two hundred and thirty feet and consists of four greenhouses, the dimensions of which are respectively one hundred by thirty, fifty by twenty-six, eighteen by thirty and ninety-three by seventeen feet. Here Mr. Boysen grows flowers and plants in profusion, meeting with gratifying
success because he understands scientific horticulture and is a practical and progressive business man.

Mr. Boysen married Mrs. Nellie M. Wilkinson, who was in her maidenhood Miss Groskopf. She has one daughter by her former marriage, Sibyl, who lives at home. The family are members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Boysen is still a young man but has already attained a position of prominence in business circles of Pensacola, where his many friends do not hesitate to predict for him continued progress in his chosen line.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace
and Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 559-560
HERBERT AUBREY FELKEL.

Herbert Aubrey Felkel, whose identification with journalism began in his university days and has continued to the present time, is one of the most powerful and aggressive young newspaper men in Pensacola, where he is editor of the News. His experience has proven valuable to him and has brought him to a position of prominence in his chosen field of work. He is today the youngest editor of a daily paper in Florida and probably in the entire south, as well as the youngest member of the Associated Press. He was born in De Funiak Springs, Florida, June 23, 1888, and is a son of Henry Noel and Sofronia (Hoag) Felkel, the former a native of Leon county, Florida, and the latter of Bainbridge, Georgia. The father was reared in his native section and there became prominent in educational circles, serving as the first principal of the Leon high school and as the first president of the State Normal School at De Funiak Springs. He afterward became principal of the State School for the Deaf and Blind at St. Augustine and held this position at the time of his death, which occurred in 1905. He was a devout Methodist, and his political support was given to the democratic party. His wife has also passed away, her death having occurred at Tallahassee in 1906. They had two children besides the subject of this review: H. Russell, who is twenty-seven years of age and a clerk in the Leon Hotel at Tallahassee; and Lillian Effie, who married James Gordon Pearce, of Jacksonville.

Herbert A. Felkel was educated in the public schools of Leon county and after graduating from the high school entered the Florida State College at Tallahassee. From there he went to the University of Chattanooga and later attended the University of Florida, at Gainesville, where he became prominent in many phases of community life. It was here he first became connected with the newspaper business, in which he has since attained success, for he founded and named the Florida Pennant, the first student publication ever issued in the university. This paper is still in existence as a monthly magazine. Mr. Felkel became its first editor and, aided by the power of his paper and his unusual ability in its management, became a force in the university, influencing to a great degree its thought and opinion. He was at that time what he has been ever since, an independent journalist, and this in the end deprived him of his degree, for some of his writings met with the disfavor of the faculty and the editor was expelled by Andrew Sledd on the day his class was graduated. After leaving school Mr. Felkel continued his journalistic work and has now been in the newspaper business six years, during the last four of which he has been connected with the Pensacola News. For three years he has been its editor, with the distinction of being the youngest editor of a daily in Florida, and by his able, aggressive and well directed efforts has made the journal a power and a vital force in community affairs.

Fraternally Mr. Felkel is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and Alpha Tau Omega, a Greek letter college society. He belongs to the state militia and is active in the affairs of the Osceola Club. His religious views are in accord with the doctrines of the Methodist church, and politically he gives his support to the democratic party. Although but twenty-five years of age, he is already one of the influential men of Pensacola, a man of excellent special training, broad views and modern ideas, and the prosperity he has already won is a pleasant augury of his future accomplishments.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development,
(c) 1914, Volume 2, p.78-79.
LELAND JOHN HENDERSON.

Leland John Henderson, secretary of the Pensacola Commercial Association and by virtue of his position and the force of his ability and personality a powerful factor in business circles of the city, is a native of Oregon, born in Harrisburg, July 1, 1874. He is a son of John Leland and Harriet E. (Humphrey) Henderson and a great-grandson of John Henderson, who was at one time United States senator from Mississippi and a prominent, able and successful man. This great-grandfather was born in Scotland. He moved to the United States and studied law while flat-boating down the Mississippi river, being admitted to the bar in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he then lived. About the year 1830 he moved his family south. They comprised himself, John Henderson, the grandfather of our subject, and his brother Henry. John Henderson, Sr., settled in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The great-grandmother, whose maiden name was Louisa Diamant, was of French extraction and died at the age of eighteen or nineteen in Cherbourg, France. Subsequently the great-grandfather married a widow by the name of Louisa Post, who by her first marriage had a daughter, Julia, whom John Henderson adopted. Of Mr. Henderson’s second union one child was born, Elliot Henderson, who died in Pass Christian, Mississippi, on February 12, 1913. In 1837 the great-grandfather was living at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and before that or a short time after at Pass Christian, that state. He was an eminent lawyer in his time, was elected to the United States senate from Mississippi as a whig and served ten years. He was affiliated with the Episcopal church. He was a prime mover in the filibustering expedition in 1850, to free Cuba, and sunk nearly all of his fortune in the attempt. This campaign was known as the Lopez Expedition. His brother-in-law, Henry Forniquet, was shot with Lopez and others in Cuba. The great-grandfather was impeached for filibustering by congress but was acquitted. In the national hall of representatives he was a contemporary with Clay, Calhoun and Daniel Webster and the latter said of him that he was the greatest land lawyer in the United States. He died at Pass Christian, Mississippi, between 1855 and 1860. The following is quoted
from his last will: “I have certain Cuban bonds to the amount of about one hundred and seventy thousand dollars, the custody of which I commit to the care of my son Elliot till Cuba, relieved from her vile oppression, shall become free and independent, and as on every sacred principle of international law she is now entitled to be. If in that day she shall not forget her early friends and the expenditures honestly made to rescue her from her tyrant masters, these bonds shall be recognized.”

The great-grandfather on the grandmother’s side was Sherman Leland and the genealogy of the Leland family was published in 1850 by Weir & White, of Boston. About the same time the genealogy of the Henderson family was published.

John Henderson, Jr., the paternal grandfather, was born about 1814 or 1815 in Indiana. He was reared in that state, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was a lawyer by profession and an abolitionist before the war, becoming subsequently a republican. He died in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 6, 1866, on account of a shot wound which he had received in the riot of July 30th of that year. In relation to him we quote the following from an old newspaper clipping: “John Henderson, Jr., died yesterday of the results of the injuries received in the riot of the 30th of July. He was born in Indiana and must have been about fifty years of age when he died. He was the son of Hon. John Henderson, who was in the senate of the United States when Webster, Clay, Calhoun and Benton were its members and was, I believe, the last of the whigs to represent Mississippi in that body. It will be remembered that he was deeply interested in and aided all he could the various expeditions of Lopez to gain independence for Cuba, being enthusiastically devoted to the spreading of American principles everywhere. This feeling was shared by his son, who, becoming a democrat, was even more radically a people’s man until this and other causes of excitement so affected his brain that in the year before the war he was placed by his family in the State Asylum for the Insane at Jackson, Mississippi. Here he remained until after the retreat of Johnston from there after the fall of Vicksburg, when the federal army entering, released all the inmates of the institution and, if I mistake not, broke it up. Henderson found his way here, became a Union man and was elected a member of the convention in 1864, in which he was a leading man. In the election for governor last year, Wells being the democratic candidate and having gone over seemingly to the side of the returning Confederates, Henderson with others brought out the name of Henry W. Allen, the late rebel governor, in opposition to him, and Henderson stumped the state in behalf of Allen, whom though recusant and in Mexico, he declared a more reliable Union man than Wells. Henderson was prominent in the recall of the convention. He openly declared its purposes to be, first, to disfranchise all ‘rebels’ or such as had countenanced the rebellion, first obtaining special pardons from congress for Howell, King, Cutler and the others of their number who had been equally guilty; next, to give suffrage to the negroes; and next, to lay hold of all the offices of the state which, if not yielded, would be forced by a loyal militia of colored men, aided by the United States military authorities. His frankness in everywhere proclaiming these designs singled him out, doubtlessly, for special violence on that unhappy day. He was so kindly regarded by his secessionist acquaintances that only those, who knew him not, would have felt bitterness towards him.” John Henderson, Jr., was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Leland, who was born October 1, 1818, at Roxbury (Boston), Massachusetts, and they had two sons: John Leland, father of our subject; and Louis Forniquet, living at Hood River, Oregon, and widely known as
educator, linguist and botanist.

John Leland Henderson, the father, was born September 11, 1852, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was reared in Mississippi, to which state the family removed during his infancy. They first located in Summit, where the father attended school, subsequently becoming a student at Cornell University of Ithaca, New York. He then removed to the Willamette valley in Oregon, teaching school, and from there went to Olympia, Washington. For a time he was principal of the Olympia Collegiate Institute and later engaged in the real-estate business. His next removal was to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Upon admittance to the bar he again went to Oregon, making his home successively in Hood River, Portland and Tillamook, in which latter place he is now extensively engaged in the real-estate business and follows the legal profession. Politically he is a democrat and his religious convictions are the professions of a Protestant. He married Miss Harriet Elizabeth Humphrey, of Harrisburg, Oregon, where she was born on September 1, 1856, and reared. She makes her home in Olympia, Washington. Her father, Alfred Humphrey, was born on December 17, 1815, near Boston, Massachusetts, and was reared in that state and in Fairfield, Ohio. During his active life he followed farming. He was a republican in politics and a member of the Christian church. His death occurred in Harrisburg, Oregon, June 18, 1884. He was twice married, his first wife being Olive Snow, the Mormon poetess. His second wife, who was before her marriage Polly Warren Loomis, was born March 31, 1821, in Erie county, New York, between Fredonia and Dunkirk. She was reared in New York state and Fairfield, Iowa. Her marriage occurred in the latter place in 1849 and she became the mother of two daughters: Florence Hannah, the younger, who was born August 8, 1859; and Harriet Elizabeth, the mother of our subject. The two sisters are living in Olympia, Washington. John Leland Henderson and Harriet E. Humphrey were married on January 28, 1873, at Harrisburg, Oregon, and to them were born six children, of whom our subject, Leland John, is the eldest. The others were: Julia, born November 11, 1877, who passed away December 18, 1897; Louis Forniquet, born
May 30, 1881, a civil and mechanical engineer of Hood River, Oregon; Edwin A., born June 28, 1883, who is engaged in the real-estate business in Olympia, Washington; Sidney Elliot, born December 29, 1886, a university student at Eugene, Oregon; and Faith, born June 27, 1888, of Portland, Oregon.

The name Henderson is an old one in Scotland and the family has been living in Fife for four hundred years and over. The chief seat is at Fordell. The following is taken from an old clipping from the Times-Democrat of New Orleans: “One progenitor was Robert, a man of prominence in the reign of James III. Tames, of Fordell, was a great figure in the time of James IV, lord justice and king’s advocate, and he received a charter under the great seal. Accompanying James in the unfortunate expedition into England, both he and his eldest son lost their lives with their royal leader at the field of Flodden.

“George Henderson, of the next generation, was granted lands in the shires of Fife and Edinburgh by Queen Mary of Scotland, and his wife was one of her maids of honor. He, too, gave his life for his country. His son James married Jean, daughter of William Murray, Baron of Tullibardine.

“James Henderson was a man of parts and in great favor with James VI, who conferred a singular favor upon him, on terms of great honor both to himself and his family:

“James Henderson, of Fordell, is hereby excused from attending the wars all the days of his life, in consideration of the good, true and thankful services not only done by himself but also by his predecessors, of worthy memory, in all times past without defection at any time from the royal obedience, that become good and faithful subjects. Dated at our palace of Hollywoodhouse, February 27th, and the twenty-first year of our reign.

“‘(Signed by the King.)’

“Gallant officers in Danish and French wars were of Henderson stock and Sir Francis, a colonel under the Prince of Orange, like so many of his race was slain in battle.

“One of the great names in the history of Scotland is Alexander Henderson and, next to Knox, the most famous of Scottish ecclesiastics. The Presbyterian body in Scotland largely owes to him its dogmas and organization and he is considered the second founder of the Reformed church. Of the assembly in 1641, sitting at Edinburgh, he was moderator. Here he proposed that a confession of faith, a catechism and a form of government should be drawn up. Afterward he was one of those sent to London to represent Scotland in the assembly at Westminster. He was chaplain to King Charles when he visited Scotland and more in sympathy with his religious views, perhaps, than his friends liked to believe. While nominally professing respect for the royal office, the covenant prepared by Henderson was entered into for the defense of the true religion as reformed from Popery. The spirit in which it was signed was that of great fervor. Many subscribed with tears on their cheeks and it was commonly reported that some signed with their blood. Those were the days when men died for their religion and when women did not possess their souls in patience. At a church service where a certain ritual was introduced, unpopular with the people, its use provoked an uproar, of which the stool flung at the dean by Jennie Geddes was the symbol.

“A scholar of great linguistic attainment was Ebenezer Henderson, Scottish missionary, living at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

“The romance of the family is furnished by a certain Sir John, who, fighting the natives in darkest Africa, ‘was rescued by a lady,’ so the records say. Ladies do happen along, now and then, at the most opportune times! But that isn’t all. She was a royal or a noble personage, which adds just so much interest and thrill to the narrative, and she was probably wearing her crown at the very moment of rescue, for descendants of the hero of this story still preserve under glass ‘a picture of this lady with a coronet on her head, and a landskip’ — a representation probably of the very scene of the rescue. If only more ancestors had delightful stories like this packed away in family
archives the pages of ancestral lore would be vastly more cheerful reading. Sir John was knighted by Charles I.

“About the time of the revolutions Hendersons found their way from Scotland to Virginia and North Carolina, and were prominent in the Continental army. Leonard Henderson, son of Richard, was chief justice and a man of national reputation. His brother, Archibald, of Salisbury, North Carolina, was also a great lawyer. A monument was erected to his memory by the bar of the state.

“A partner of Daniel Boone in the purchase of Kentucky from the Indians was Richard Henderson, son of Samuel, who was born in Virginia in 1700 and married Elizabeth Williams, of Wales. Richard’s brother Samuel married Elizabeth Calloway, who had a romantic career, just like the heroine of a novel. She was captured by Indians and rescued by her lover, Samuel Henderson. Their daughter Fanny was the first white child born in the present state of Kentucky.

“James Henderson, of the southern branch of the family, was one whom his state and his country delighted to honor. He was secretary of state of Texas in 1837, having removed early in life from North Carolina, where he was born, to Texas. He was minister to England to procure the recognition of Texan independence and a few years later was special minister to the United States to secure the annexation of Texas. He was a member of the state constitutional convention and afterward chosen governor. He was also United States senator.

“The Hendersons ever proved themselves patriots. Lieutenant Colonel William Henderson was in the Revolution throughout the war and in every battle fought in South Carolina. He was popular with his soldiers, requiring nothing of them not shared by himself.

“The roster also includes Sergeant Major Pleasant Henderson, Captain Thomas and Samuel.

“The family were among the principal founders of the state government at the close of the war. As a race they have ever been distinguished for intellectual endowments. We find a great number of college graduates and the women, even in the early days, were educated as well as the men. Other characteristics are hatred of effeminacy and scorn of cowardliness and physical pain. Marriage connections include the families of Governor Alexander Martin, of North Carolina, the Wallaces, the Daltons, of Mississippi, and the Broduax family, of North Carolina, the latter armigers from the time of Henry VI of England.

“The Scottish branch intermarried with the families of Bruce, Stuart, Balfour of Burleigh, and Sir John Hamilton, lord chief justice.

“The arms of the Hendersons of Fordell and taken from the baronage of Scotland is: gules, three piles issuing out of the sinister side argent, and on a chief of the last a crescent azure between two spots of ermine, with the baronets’ badge in the center. Supporters, two mestrixes ermine. Crest, a hand holding a star, surmounted by a crescent. Motto, Sola Virtus Nobilitat.”

As mentioned before, the maternal grandmother’s name was Polly Warren Loomis and this family is also an old and distinguished one. At Shalford parish church in England is where Joseph Loomis (1590-1658) married Mary White (1590-1652) on June 31, 1614. They came to Boston on July 17, 1638. Exhaustive examinations have been made of the records of the family at Leyden, Holland, and in Ireland, Scotland and Wales and it was found that the strain is of Saxon origin and that it dates undoubtedly from the historic old Lancanshire, England. Here the surname was first assumed and for eight hundred years, from Saxon time till the present, the “Lomas” family appears to have resided in every parish in which it first became a family with a surname. The name is found on the record of assessment and collection of taxes of Lancanshire, which was granted to Edward III by parliament in the sixth year of his reign, 1333.

From Joseph Loomis, the American progenitor, an actual tabulation has been made which shows that five million, two hundred and seventy thousand, five hundred and forty Americans have sprung from this single marriage with Mary White. Probably the oldest ancestral estate in America in perpetual possession of its founders is the Joseph Loomis home at Windsor, Connecticut, built in the years 1639 and 1640. This homestead has been endowed by the family as the nucleus of a great institution of learning. The Loomises have been connected with almost every activity in the development of the United States. The grandmother’s immediate family comprised thirteen brothers and two sisters.

Leland J. Henderson attended public and preparatory schools at Olympia, Washington, where he was a student in the Olympia Collegiate Institute. He studied civil engineering and in that capacity worked in Bay St. Louis and Gulfport, Mississippi, also conducting a land and abstract office. He later established himself in New Orleans, Louisiana, Pass Christian, Mississippi, and later in Apalachicola, Florida. He became prominent in business life and for some time served as secretary of the local Board of Trade, holding also the office of secretary of the Mississippi-to-Atlantic Inland Waterway Association, of which he was the organizer. He was secretary of the Florida Land & Abstract Company, of the Florida Coast Realty Company and of the Florida Corporation, these connections indicating something of the scope and importance of his various interests. Since coming to Pensacola in January, 1912,
Mr. Henderson has been secretary of the Commercial Association and has proven himself well fitted for the responsible position he occupies. He has made his experience in work of this character and in the development of his own business enterprises the basis of far-reaching, progressive and constructive work in the interests of the city and, being modern in his views and aggressive in action, makes his influence felt as a force in business expansion.

On January 1, 1897, at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Mr. Henderson married Miss Mary A. Ansley, a daughter of Michael L. and Molly M. (Blackwell) Ansley. Mrs. Henderson was born March 29, 1880, at Midway, Alabama. They became the parents of three children, of whom Ruth survives. She was born at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, on December 4, 1899. Flora and Helen, both of whom were born at the same place, have passed away.

Mr. Henderson is a devout member of the Methodist church and has acted as local preacher, his religious beliefs being the guiding principle of his life. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and in 1912 he was chosen one of the presidential electors for Florida. Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias. He is loyal to the interests of Pensacola, a progressive and public-spirited citizen and a far-sighted and capable business man. All who know him esteem and respect him and his circle of friends is an extensive one.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace
and Industrial Development,
(c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 617-620
GEORGE H. HERVEY.

George H. Hervey was born on the 8th of June, 1880, in Montgomery, Alabama, a son of Frank A. and Anna B. Hervey. He is now a prominent resident of Pensacola, being the manager of the San Carlos Hotel, which has aptly been termed “Pensacola’s great publicity medium.” His desk is the pivot on which this great institution turns and, to change the figure somewhat, his hand is at the lever guiding the enterprise.

Pensacola has every reason to be proud of this establishment, which was opened to the public in February, 1910. It was built by public subscription and from the beginning Mr. Hervey has been managing director. The hotel is thoroughly modern in every respect and in its control indicates that there is an experienced, capable man at the helm. Every department has been carefully developed and the work thoroughly systematized, and the patrons speak of the hotel in words of the highest commendation.

Little thought is given by the general public, however, to the multiplicity of details which must claim the attention of the manager and the number of difficult problems for which he must find ready and correct solution. It has been said that a successful hotel is a little world in itself, containing industrial and commercial enterprises of many kinds. The former are found in the laundry, the kitchen and the management of the linen rooms and supervision of the bedrooms; the commercial side is manifest in the cafe, the cigar and news stands, etc. There is also something of the professional element in that the manager must know how to bring his establishment before the public, which he does through publicity, keeping him in touch with the more important hotel periodicals which advertise the hotel world and which are eagerly scanned by the traveling public. To make each guest a satisfied one is the object of the present manager, who is recognized not only as a good hotel man but also as a good student and judge of human nature, knowing not only how to direct the services of those in his employ but also how to meet the demands of patrons, so that each guest will become, though unconsciousof it, an advertisement for the hotel, for which he must perforce speak a good word because of the comfort he has had in abiding there. In none of the requirements of the successful hotel proprietor is Mr. Hervey lacking.

On the anniversary of his birth, June 8, 1903, in San Antonio, Texas, Mr. Hervey was united in marriage to Miss Etelka D. Pfenfifer, a daughter of George H. and Susan E. Pfenffer.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development,
(c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 635-636
JOHN T. KNIGHT.

(see also Miami-Dade County)

John T. Knight, closely connected with mercantile interests of Miami as the proprietor of a large ladies’ and men’s furnishing store, is one of the progressive and enterprising business men of the city and has been a resident of Florida since 1889. He was born in London, England, June 8, 1870, and is a son of George and Sarah (Hyatt) Knight, also natives of that country. The father was a potter by trade and when he left London went to Australia, locating in Hobart, Tasmania, where he resided for a number of years. He died in Sydney and is survived by his wife, who makes her home in Melbourne.

John T. Knight was fourteen years of age when he went with his parents to Hobart, Australia, but he remained there only a short time for when he was not yet fifteen he went to seek his fortune, traveling all over Australia for a year and a half, engaging in sheep-shearing and in other occupations. He afterward went to sea and spent four years aboard ship, traveling over practically all of the waters of the globe. Landing at Pensacola, Florida, in 1889, he has since made his home in that state. He was for a number of years engaged in the lumber business at Freeport and while there served one term as county commissioner of Walton county. In 1907 he came to Dade county as superintendent of the Drake Lumber Company’s sawmill at Princeton and he spent four years in this position, resigning in order to come to Miami, where he opened a ladies’ and men’s furnishing store which he has since conducted, having been accorded a liberal patronage in recognition of his straightforward and honorable business methods and his reasonable prices.

On the 8th of June, 1890, Mr. Knight was united in marriage to Miss Idell Baker, of Freeport, Florida, who died December 31, 1910. Mr. Knight is a member of the Miami Board of Trade and is active in advancing the general business interests of the city. He is prominent in the Masonic order, having attained the thirty-second degree according to the Scottish Rite and holding membership in the lodge, of which he is a past master, the chapter, the commandery and the shrine. He is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and is a man of exemplary and upright character, well entitled to a foremost place among the representative and respected citizens of Miami.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 436-437
FRANK L. MAYES.

Frank L. Mayes, editor and principal owner of the Pensacola Journal, has been a factor in the upbuilding and development of the city through his advocacy in the columns of his paper of progressive public measures and through his cooperation in many movements for the general good. He was born near Rockford, Illinois, December 16, 1873, and is a son of James O. and Jennie (Johnston) Mayes, the former a farmer, who moved from Illinois to Iowa and thence to South Dakota.

The eldest of a family of five children, Frank L. Mayes was obliged at the age of thirteen to help his mother with the operation of the homestead in South Dakota. He attended the district schools during the winter months and in this way acquired his preliminary education, supplementing this afterward by a three years’ course in Dakota University at Mitchell. He earned his own education, being unaided by any outside help in paying his expenses through the university. For two years after leaving school he taught school, but in 1896 became a reporter on the Pensacola Times, thus beginning his identification with the newspaper business, in which he has since won so powerful and influential a place. After eighteen months in Pensacola he returned to South Dakota and there became part owner of the Mitchell Gazette, with which he was connected until 1899, when he again came to Florida, settling in Pensacola, where he has since remained. A short time afterward he bought a controlling interest in the Pensacola Journal and is now president of the Journal Publishing Company. He has made the paper one of the best in Florida and, considering the size of the city and the trade territory, one of the finest in the United States. With this power as a leverage he has to a great extent been responsible for the turn in public sentiment which has made Pensacola a great city and which will in the future make it greater still. He has conducted a fearless and aggressive newspaper, has not been afraid to take a firm stand for what he believes to be right upon questions involving municipal rights or privileges or upon political issues, never allowing material considerations to influence his point of view. He has other representative journalistic interests throughout the south, being' principal owner of the Meridian Dispatch, and lie is connected with business interests of Pensacola as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was president from 1906 to 1907.

Mr. Mayes married, December 25, 1899, Miss Lois Kingsbery, of Hartford, South Dakota, and they are the parents of four children, Howard Lee, Charles Albert, Margarita and William Ivingsbery. Socially Mr. Mayes is a member of the Osceola and the Elks Clubs and fraternally is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the Maccabees. He was also for two years a member of the South Dakota National Guard. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and interested in the Young Men’s Christian Association. In 1912 he was elected president of the Florida Press Association. In political circles, too, he is well known and prominent, giving stanch allegiance to the democratic party and working as a private citizen and as a newspaper editor for the spread of progressive democratic doctrines. In 1908 he was sent as a Bryan delegate from the third congressional district of Florida to the democratic convention held at Denver, Colorado, and in 1912 he was a Wilson delegate to the Baltimore convention and was the only member of the Florida delegation who voted for Mr. Bryan for temporary chairman. For several years he has been chairman of the democratic executive committee for the third congressional district. During the administration of Governor Gilchrist he served on the governor’s staff with the rank of colonel. He is numbered among the real promoters and upbuilders of Pensacola and stands today among its most influential and able citizens. His record in business circles is most commendable, for he has shown himself a man of resourceful ability, whose unabating energy and keen discrimination have gained him success and made his career in all respects prosperous and successful.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.34-35

HAAKON PAULSEN.

One of the public-spirited and progressive citizens of Pensacola now engaged in important work in connection with the juvenile court is Haakon Paulsen, who was born in Christiania, Norway, January 19, 1876. He is a son of John Paulsen, also a native of Norway, who was born in October, 1850, and died in 1895.

Haakon Paulsen acquired his education in the public schools of Hamburg and Philadelphia and in 1895 removed to Florida, where he has since resided. He served through the Spanish-American, war in the United States navy, acting as quartermaster under Admiral Schley on the United States ship Brooklyn, and with a creditable military record returned to Pensacola and resumed his construction contracting work, in which he had previously been engaged. He continued his connection with this line of occupation until 1911, when he abandoned it in order to concentrate his attention upon important work in the juvenile courts. In this connection he has already accomplished far-reaching and beneficial results in bringing delinquents under proper restraint, finding homes for many children and placing others in reform institutions, where they are being trained in good citizenship. He is in thorough sympathy with the humanitarian spirit which constitutes the foundation of juvenile courts, believing that with proper environment and training the majority of the youthful offenders may be redeemed for lives of usefulness.

Mr. Paulsen married, January 15, 1899, Miss Gracie Reed, a native of Pensacola, born September 23, 1882. They have four children: Richard, eleven years of age; John, aged nine; Gracie Lenora, aged five; and Fredrik, aged three, all born in Pensacola.

Mr. Paulsen is a devout adherent of the Methodist church. He gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party and has served ably and creditably as probation officer. He is a progressive and public-spirited citizen, active in every movement calculated to advance the best interests of the community, and can boast of business and official records over which there falls no shadow of dishonor or unworthiness.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development,
(c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 411-412
HENRY PFEIFFER.

Although many years have passed since the death of Henry Pfeiffer, there are yet many who remember with pleasure his high-minded and worthy qualities of character, his charity to the poor and the enterprise and industry which made him one of the valued and representative business men of Pensacola, where he resided for almost thirty-three years. Germany numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred July 3, 1833. His parents were Nicholas and Margaret (Hepp) Pfeiffer, natives of that country.

Plenry Pfeiffer came to Pensacola in 1851 and immediately identified himself with business interests of the city, first as the proprietor of a bakery and then as the owner of a large livery stable. Although not in the army during the Civil war, he was at one time taken prisoner and held for six months, resuming his business affairs after his release. During the later years of his life he was a ship chandler and grocer and met with gratifying success along both lines, eventually becoming the head of a profitable business. He was known as a shrewd, reliable and enterprising business man, of high integrity and honor, and these qualities formed the basis of a success which placed him among the leading and substantial business men of Pensacola.

Mr. Pfeiffer was twice married. He wedded Miss Margaret White and to their union were born five children, three of whom are still living: John, who is cashier of the American National Bank; Rudolph, and Annie. On the 26th of October, 1872, Mr. Pfeiffer married Miss Barbara Miller, a daughter of Henry and Eva (Hepp) Miller, natives of Germany. Mrs. Pfeiffer came to America in 1870 and settled immediately in Pensacola, where she has since resided. To this union were born seven children, four of whom are living: Etta M., who lives at home; Bertha, the wife of Edward Peek; Cora, who married John Dillon, of Virginia; and Dora, the wife of Charles F. Williams of this city.

Mr. Pfeiffer was a devout member of the Lutheran church and guided his upright and honorable life by the doctrines in which he believed. Broad in his charities, known as a friend to the poor, straightforward in business and loyal in citizenship, he was widely and favorably known in Pensacola and his death was the occasion of widespread and sincere regret. He passed away in Little Rock, Arkansas, July 16, 1885, and his body was brought back to Pensacola for burial. In the course of his long residence in this section of the state, dating from 1851, he had won many warm and loyal friends and his sterling qualities gained for him the good-will and confidence of all with whom he was associated in business or social relations. He left to his family the priceless heritage of an untarnished name and the memory of an upright and honorable career well worthy of emulation.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 550-551 
RICHARD POPE REESE.

Richard Pope Reese, a lawyer of Pensacola, practicing at the bar, and in partnership with former State Senator and the present States Attorney John P. Stokes, was born in Garden Valley, Smith county, Texas, October 4, 1868, and lived with his parents in Texas until after his father’s death, which occurred in 1882, after which time he removed, with his mother, brothers and sisters, to Alabama. He received a common-school education in the public schools of Texas, and attended, but did not finish the course of the A. & M. College (now the Polytechnic Institute) at Auburn, Alabama.

His ancestry is decidedly southern, both on the paternal and the maternal side. His great-grandfather, David Reese, of Welsh parentage, was a citizen of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, and was one of the signers of the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, drafted in 1775, antedating the Declaration written by Jefferson. His grandfather, Edwin Reese, was one of seven brothers, and lived at Auburn, Alabama; his grandmother, Sarah Ann Reese, was Sarah Ann Lewis, of South Carolina. His father, John Lewis Reese, was a Confederate veteran, who enlisted at Tuskeegee, Alabama, on the 25th day of April, 1861, in Captain W. G. Swanson’s Company, Third Alabama Regiment, and served with that command until the 15th day of October, 1864, when he was transferred to the Fifty-seventh Alabama Regiment, which was a part of General Joseph E. Johnston's army, and with which he surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina. His mother was Emma Josephine Pope, a daughter of Columbus Washington Pope, son of Cullen Pope, one of the pioneers of Georgia, who settled near Macon, Georgia ; his grandmother, Mary E. Pope was a McCool, being a member of the McCool and Gorman families of Georgia and Maryland.

After attending the A. & M. College, at Auburn, Mr. Reese removed to Pensacola, in November, 1884, and secured employment as a clerk in the grocery business of J. E. Dubuisson & Brothers, where he remained for some seven or eight years, and afterwards took a position with W. F. Monroe as dry-goods salesman, which business was afterwards changed to McMillan & Hall, and worked there for some three years. Afterwards he was with M. P. Gould in the same business for about a year and a half ; and during the time that he worked as a clerk he studied law at night, and under the direction of the late John Eagan, who was a general practitioner at Pensacola, and United States district attorney for the northern district of Florida under William McKinley. Mr. Reese was admitted to practice before the circuit court of the first judicial circuit of Florida on February 22, 1896, and has continued to practice his profession at Pensacola since that date. He was admitted to practice in the United States circuit and district courts for the northern district of Florida on January 25, 1897; before the supreme court of the state of Florida on May 18, 1897; before the United States circuit court of appeals for the fifth circuit, at New Orleans, on July 23, 1909, and the supreme court of the United States, on February 28, 1910.

Mr. Reese has always taken an active part in politics, being a democrat of the progressive type — a great admirer and supporter of William Jennings Bryan and the principles which he advocates.

During his professional life at Pensacola he was in partnership for a while with Dennis Eagan, Jr., a nephew of John Eagan, and afterwards in partnership in the practice of law with Judge J. Emmet Wolfe, the present judge of the first judicial circuit of Florida. For seven years he was county attorney of Escambia county, Florida, and in 1906 was appointed by Judge William B. Sheppard (who at that time was United States district attorney for the northern district of Florida) as assistant United States district attorney, and during the period of his incumbency of that office assisted in the prosecution and conviction of the celebrated peonage cases against the Jackson Lumber Company people at Lockhart, Alabama. Afterwards he was appointed by Attorney General Bonaparte as special assistant to the attorney general of the United States for the prosecution of peonage cases in Florida, and held this commission, prosecuting many cases for peonage, and after United States Judge William B. Sheppard was elevated to the judgeship of the district court of the United States for the northern district of Florida, continued to handle the Jackson Lumber Company cases and represent the United States government in the higher courts to which those cases had been appealed. He represented the county of Escambia, in the Florida legislature of 1907 and 1908.

Mr. Reese was married March 27, 1899, at Bryan, Texas, to Miss Idelette Waddell West. To this union two children have been born: Virginia Idelette and John Lewis. The family reside at Pensacola, Florida. Mr. Reese has attained success in his profession, and enjoys a good practice in all of the courts, both state and federal. Both he and his wife are active members of the First Presbyterian church of Pensacola, and are workers in all causes looking for the betterment and upbuilding of Florida and her people.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 364-365 
RIX MORTIMER ROBINSON.

In the list of the prominent and influential men who have directed their efforts toward promoting the industrial and commercial interests of Pensacola certain names stand forth conspicuously by reason of what their owners have accomplished and their manner of securing results. Rix Mortimer Robinson, lumber exporter, belongs to this class of men and his standing in business circles of the city has been unquestioned for the past twenty-four years. He was born on a farm near Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 18, 1850, and is a son of William and Sarah (Daniels) Robinson, natives of New York and early settlers in Michigan.

Rix M. Robinson acquired his education in the public schools of Grand Rapids and laid aside his books after finishing a high-school course. He came to Florida in 1873 and located at Millview, where he engaged in the lumber business, continuing in it for sixteen years and mastering it in principle and detail. He rose to a position of prominence in business circles of that city and with a reputation firmly established, came to Pensacola in 1889. Here he opened offices as an exporter of pitch pine lumber and established also a large sawmill and finishing plant, and he has since conducted a large and important business, the expansion of which has directly influenced general community advancement. Mr. Robinson is also a director in the Citizens National Bank and identified with other important business enterprises. He has great faith in the future of Florida and is interested in the development of her natural resources, especially along agricultural lines, supplementing his interest by a broad and practical knowledge of existing conditions, which makes him a standard authority throughout the state on everything pertaining to this question.

In 1878 Mr. Robinson married Miss Margaret Young, a daughter of William and Barbara Young, of Ontario, Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are well known in social circles of Pensacola and have a number of warm friends in the city. Mr. Robinson is a republican in his political beliefs and active and progressive in his citizenship, cooperating heartily in all progressive public measures and taking a leading part in movements to promote the material, political or intellectual welfare of the community. In 1908 he was appointed postmaster of Pensacola and his term expired in 1913. His business methods have ever been of a constructive character and in the conduct of his business interests he has never sacrificed the rights and privileges of others. He has built along legitimate lines and the large enterprise which he has fostered and promoted constitutes a valuable element in the growth of the community.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 334 
JOHN PATRICK STOKES.

John Patrick Stokes, now serving as state’s attorney for the first circuit, is a native son of Pensacola, born November 30, 1886. He is of Irish extraction, his paternal grandfather, Thomas Stokes, having been born on the Emerald isle. He was, however, reared in Florida, where he became well and favorably known. He gave his political allegiance to the democratic party. Mr. Stokes’ maternal grandfather was Patrick Conlin, and he also was a loyal democrat during his life. The Stokes family has been in Florida for many years, the father of the subject of this review having been born in Apalachicola about 1851. He was reared in Pensacola, acquiring his education in the public schools, and is still a resident of this city. He married Miss Mary Conlin, who was born in Escambia county and who grew to womanhood in Pensacola.

John Patrick Stokes’ educational advantages were limited. He left the public schools when he was twelve years of age, but has since made up for this early deficiency by reading, experience, observation and private study and is today a cultured, well informed and well educated man. Since beginning his active career he has taken a very prominent part in public affairs. In 1908 he was made circuit court commissioner in Escambia county and in the following year served as United States commissioner for the northern district of Florida. His ability, public spirit and political talent carried him quickly forward into important relations with state affairs and after able service as a member and speaker pro tern of the Florida legislature he was elected to the state senate, of which he served as president pro tern in 1911. In the following year he was elected State’s Attorney of the first circuit, defeating C. Moreno Jones by a majority of nine hundred and forty-five votes, and he is the present incumbent of that position.

Mr. Stokes married, in Pensacola, on August 19, 1906, Miss Bertha Hendrix, who was born in Pollard, Alabama, October 29, 1884. Mr. and Mrs. Stokes are the parents of a son, John Patrick, Jr., who is five years of age. Mr. Stokes gives his political allegiance to the democratic party and fraternally is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is recognized as a prominent public factor in Pensacola, his influence being felt along many lines which affect the general welfare.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.340.
GEORGE P. WENTWORTH.

Of that class of citizens upon which Pensacola’s security is founded and upon which her future growth and prosperity rest to a great extent is George P. Wentworth, well and favorably known in business circles as secretary and general manager of the Escambia Realty Company. He is a native of the city, a son of George E. Wentworth, who moved from Massachusetts. to Florida, where he was admitted to the bar, dying soon after beginning his active career.

George P. Wentworth acquired his early education in the public schools of Pensacola and afterward studied law under William Fisher. He was admitted to the bar in April, 1898, and in the following year was given the right to practice before the supreme court of the state. He formed a partnership with Henry Bellenger under the name of Wentworth & Bellenger and their association continued until Mr. Wentworth was appointed secretary and general manager of the Escambia Realty Company, with which he is now connected. The company, capitalized at one hundred thousand dollars, handles all kinds of loans, insurance and real estate and controls an important and growing business along all lines, its patrons being drawn from all sections of the county. It handles loans at reasonable rates, buys and sells first mortgages and deals largely in city and county real estate, being prepared to buy, sell or exchange property of any kind on short notice. The insurance department is one of the important branches of the business and is well organized in every particular, so that its patrons are always given prompt and intelligent service. The Escambia Realty Company represents only those insurance concerns of unquestioned strength and reliability and is therefore in a position to guarantee prompt and satisfactory matters entrusted to the care of this company receive prompt and careful attention, the interests of patrons being the first consideration, and as a result the concern has expanded rapidly, being now a substantial element in the business growth of the city. Much of the credit
for this flourishing condition is due to the intelligent work and practical efforts of George P. Wentworth who, as secretary and general manager, to a large extent controls the destinies of the institution, establishes its policies and directs its growth along modern lines of business development.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development,
(c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 455-456
HON. EMMETT WILSON.

Hon. Emmett Wilson, who at an early age has won distinction as a representative of the legal fraternity, now practicing in Pensacola, is also well known in the city as United States congressman from the Third Florida district. He was born in Belize, Central America, September 17, 1882, and is a son of F. C. and Elizabeth Virginia (Maxwell) Wilson. The paternal branch of the family came originally from Virginia, where the grandfather, C. L. Wilson, was a large planter. He was a veteran of the Mexican war. Mr. Wilson’s maternal grandparents were Augustus Emmett and Sarah (Brockenborough) Maxwell, the former a native of Georgia, born in 1818, and the latter of Virginia. The grandfather was reared in Georgia and Alabama and followed the legal profession, being a lawyer of great ability and power. He supported the Confederacy during the Civil war and was at one time representative from Florida to the Confederate senate and before the war was a member from Florida of the United States congress in the thirty-third and thirty-fourth sessions. He was for many years well known in public life, serving as a member of the Florida legislature, as attorney general and judge of the circuit and supreme courts. He was a stanch democrat in his political beliefs and in his religious views a devout adherent of the Episcopal church. He and his wife were the parents of three children. F. C. Wilson, father of the subject of this review, was born in Alabama, May 30, 1844, and in 1882 moved to Florida, locating in Chipley, where he now resides. He studied medicine and has been in the active practice of his profession for many years in Chipley, where he is today regarded as one of the leading representatives of the medical fraternity. He is also a veteran of the Civil war, having served from the beginning to the end of that conflict as a private in the Confederate army. Politically he supports the democratic party, and his religious views are in accord with the doctrines of the Episcopal church. In 1865 he married Miss Elizabeth Virginia Maxwell, who was born in Florida and who died in Chipley, June 21, 1891. Ten children were born to their union, eight sons and two daughters, ranging in age from forty-five to twenty-seven years.

Emmett Wilson was reared in Florida, acquiring his preliminary education in the public schools of Chipley. He supplemented this by a course in the Florida State College at Tallahassee and was later a student in Stetson University at De Land, from which institution he received his degree in law. He was admitted to the bar and has since practiced in Pensacola, winning for himself an enviable reputation in his chosen profession. In recognition of his known ability, his fellow citizens have honored him with various important official positions, including those of assistant United States attorney, United States attorney and states attorney. He is now congressman from his district, his past activity in responsible positions being a pleasant indication of his future work in the public service.

Mr. Wilson follows the tradition of his family in adhering to the Episcopal church, and fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Like his father and grandfather, he gives a stanch support to the democratic party and is eminently progressive and public-spirited in matters of citizenship. He keeps well informed upon the questions and issues of the day and in matters relating to public affairs takes a progressive stand, manifest in his cooperation with many movements for the public good.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.14-15
PHILIP KEYES YONGE.  (see also Jackson County)

A man of constructive intelligence, modern views and aggressive action, Philip Keyes Yonge has made steady progress since the beginning of his active career and today as president and manager of the Southern States Lumber Company, stands as a prominent figure in the industrial and general business development of the city. An initiative spirit guided by sound and practical judgment has influenced his activities and forms the basis of a success which has been wisely used in promoting the best interests of the community where he has been an active business factor for the past thirty-seven years.

Mr. Yonge is a native of Jackson county, born May 27, 1850, and is of English ancestry, the family having been founded in America about the middle of the eighteenth century. His father, Chandler Cox Yonge, was also a resident of Jackson county, where he was prominent in the law and in politics, serving as secretary of the constitutional convention of 1838, which drew up the laws under which Florida was admitted to the Union. He was also a member of the first state legislature and was later United States district attorney under Presidents Polk, Pierce and Buchanan. During the Civil war he was prominent among the supporters of the southern Confederacy, serving as district attorney for Florida under the Confederate government and later organizing a company of volunteers, known as “Yonge’s Confederates.” In 1863 he was commissioned major in the quartermaster’s department of the Army of the Confederacy and stationed at Tallahassee. After the close of hostilities he made his home in Pensacola, where he became one of the most prominent and distinguished lawyers in the state. His wife was in her maidenhood Miss Julia Ann Cole, of Virginia.

Philip K. Yonge attended the University of Georgia, graduating in 1871 with the degree of B. A. and receiving in the following year his degrees of A. M. and B. L. In 1873 he began his career in Pensacola, serving as clerk to the British vice consul, a capacity in which he acted until 1875. He afterward spent a short time in the real-estate and insurance business and was for one year city clerk of Pensacola. Leaving this office in 1876, he accepted a position as bookkeeper with the Muscogee Lumber Company and has since that time been connected with lumber interests here, his energy and industry aiding him in the development of a successful business career. After one year he was made secretary of the concern and did capable work in this office until 1889, when the Muscogee Lumber Company was succeeded by the Southern States Land & Timber Company, Limited, of which Mr. Yonge was made assistant manager. He afterward served for one year as manager of the company’s New York office and in 1892 was appointed superintendent of the Muscogee Mills, a position which he held for three years, or until the company went into the hands of receivers. Mr. Yonge, as a man thoroughly conversant with the condition of the business and the details of its management, was made special agent and manager for the receivers and had full charge of the affairs of the concern until 1898, guiding the destinies of the company tactfully and wisely through a trying period in its history and finally putting its affairs into shape for reorganization. In 1898 the Southern States Lumber Company was organized, taking over all of the valuable holdings of its predecessor, and Mr. Yonge was elected vice president and manager. In 1903 he was made president and manager. The Southern States Lumber Company controls large and valuable tracts of timber land in Escambia, county, Florida, and Escambia and Baldwin counties, Alabama, and manufactures both rough and finished lumber, operating one of the largest lumber exporting concerns in this section.

On December 13, 1876, Mr. Yonge married Miss Lucie C. Davis, a daughter of John E. and Sarah C. Davis, formerly residents of Columbus, Georgia. Mr. and Mrs. Yonge became the parents of nine children, seven of whom are living: A. Louise, who married P. A. Buck; Julien Chandler; John E. Davis; Henry Mather; Malcolm Roland; Chandler Cox; and Marjorie Jean.

Mr. Yonge is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and socially belongs to the Osceola Club, while his political allegiance is given to the democratic party. From 1877 until 1890 he served as a member of the board of public instruction of Escambia county, with the exception of one year during which he declined to act. Since 1905 he has been a member of the board of control of the state of Florida and has been chairman of that board for the past four years. He was a member of the Pensacola city council for four years. Through his business and political associations Mr. Yonge has become widely known among the men of weight and influence in Pensacola, in whose ranks he stands, and for over a third of a century he has been a representative of the city’s most progressive and powerful business interests.

Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace and
Industrial Development
, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.87-88.