Alachua County FlArchives Biographies.....Fennell, J. Morgan August 22, 1880 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 February 28, 2015, 4:47 am Source: Vol. II pg.31 The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923 Author: History of Florida, Past and Present FENNELL, J. MORGAN. One of the men of Florida of notable financial importance is J. MORGAN FENNELL, vice president of the Florida Bank and Trust Company of Gainesville, and identified also with a number of other large and important business enterprises. He was born on his father’s farm in Alachua County, Florida, August 22, 1880, and is the only surviving son of JOHN and CELIA (GRANGER) FENNELL. The Granger family came to Alachua County, Florida, at a very early day from South Carolina. JOHN FENNELL was born in Georgia, January 3, 1842, and died on his farm in Alachua County, on which he had lived for seventy-four years, in 1921. His father, JAMES FENNELL, spent his life in Georgia, where he was an extensive planter and large slaveholder. JOHN FENNELL took part in the Indian war in 1857- 58, a private in Captain Hill’s company in the First Florida Mounted Volunteers. He participated also in the war between the states, being active in the Confederate cause, but after the war was over he was active in reconstruction work and became a sterling citizen. He followed agricultural pursuits all his life, and very successfully, and gave generous support to schools and churches. J. MORGAN FENNELL obtained his education in the common schools in Campville District, and gave his father assistance on the home farm. Limitations of farm life, however, did not satisfy his ambitions, and when the opportunity was presented he came to Gainesville and accepted a clerical position in the First National Bank of this city, and since then to the present has been continuously identified with the banking business. In May, 1910, Mr. Fennell became one of the organizers of the Florida National Bank of Gainesville, of which he became cashier, and in 1916 also vice president, and since 1920 has been active vice president. On August 22, 1922, the Florida National Bank became the Florida Bank & Trust Company, bringing into the financial field the greatest aggregation of capital of any financial institution between Jacksonville and Tampa. Mr. Fennell directs its policy, which is the most progressive in this section of the state, but his long experience has given him financial wisdom and his business sagacity is unquestioned. He was one of the organizers and is vice president of the Citizen Bank of Dunellen, is a director in the United States Trust Company of Jacksonville, and is treasurer and a director in the Tampa-Jacksonville Railroad Company. Since 1922 he has been a member of the Executive Counsel of the Florida State Bankers Association. At Gainesville, Florida, in September, 1911, Mr. Fennell married Mrs. NELLIE (REDDING) JACKSON, who was born at Greenville, Florida, and they have one daughter, IDA STRIPLING FENNELL. The father of Mrs. Fennell, the late T. J. REDDING, who died in 1921, was one of the foremost citizens of Greenville and Madison County, an extensive land owner, a leading merchant and organizer and president of the Greenville Bank. Mrs. Fennell is prominent in social life, active in the Twentieth Century Club, in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In political life Mr. Fennell is a democrat, but not unduly active in the political field, for neither public nor social life or is interesting to him as business affairs. He belongs to the Rotary Club and the Gainesville Gulf and Country Club, and takes his recreation in the quiet, sane way in which he conducts his business. He is very much in earnest in favoring the substantial development of his county and state, and many worthy enterprises have received encouragement from him. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/alachua/photos/bios/fennell100bs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/alachua/bios/fennell100bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/flfiles/ File size: 4.4 Kb