Baldwin County GaArchives History .....History of Baldwin County - Lamar Biography 1925
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 7, 2004, 4:05 pm

p. 389-395

LAMAR

A Short and Interesting History of the Well Known Lamar Family

    In a department devoted to the presenting of interesting geneological
records in the Outlook, a popular society magazine published in Chattanooga, by
Miss Zella Armstrong, appeared this month a very interesting article concerning
the Lamar family, well known in Milledgeville, and in all Georgia, and other
sections of the South.

    The article above referred to goes back for more than two hundred and fifty
years, at which time the Lamars, of French Huguenot origin, first settled in
America. The following interesting article is composed of extracts taken from
the story as appeared in the Outlook:

    "The Lamar family of Georgia is of French Huguenot origin and according to
tradition, the family escutcheon was first planted in Maryland by three
brothers, John, Peter, and Thomas Lamar, who fled to this country from France on
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. But the Maryland records show
that the Lamars were living in the colony long before the date of this exodus,
and probably, if driven from France, they fled to escape the oppressions of
Cardinal Richelieu.

    "As early as 1649, Lord Baltimore, an English Catholic, whose colony in the
new World had been planted upon the principles of religious liberty, issued a
circular to the victims of persecution on both sides of the Rhine, inviting them
to join the colony of Maryland, and insuring them all the rights and privileges
that belonged to English subjects. Thomas and Peter Lamar first appear on the
records in 1663—but some ten years later John Lamar took out naturalization
papers in which the official paper stated that he came from Anjou, France. This
was probably the old ancestral home of the Lamar family.

    "Most of the Lamars who have figured in the public life of the country, are
descendants of Thomas, whose son, Thomas, also left a large estate, and three of
the sons of this Thomas Lamar, viz: Robert, Thomas, and John, settled on Beech
Island, in the Savannah river, from which parental abode have sprung the Georgia
Lamars.

    "Two generations later, there appeared another John Lamar, grandson of the
pioneer of the same name, who settled on Beech Island. He appears to have lived
first in Warren county and then Putnam, but locating upon this second move about
eight miles distant from the town of Eatonton, he established in 1810, what is
today known as the Lamar home on the banks of Little River. Marrying his cousin,
Rebecca Lamar, the union was blessed with an issue of nine children, two of whom
became notably distinguished, Lucius Cincinnatus Lamar, father of Justice Lamar,
and of Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, second president of the Texas republic. One of
the daughters, Lorretta Lamar, married Col. Absolom Chappell, of Columbus, one
of the most distinguished members of the Georgia bar, and author of the famous
"Miscellanies." John Lamar is buried in Putnam county at the old homestead.
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, or Judge Lamar, Sr., as he was called, was
born in Warren county, Georgia. He entered the law office of Joel Crawford at
Milledgeville, and began to prepare himself for the bar. Before he was
twenty-three, he was sent to the Georgia Legislature. In 1830, he was elevated
to the bench of the Ocmulgee circuit.

    Mirabeau B. Lamar was a brother of this Judge Lamar, and is associated with
Texas, while Judge Lamar's son, L. Q. C. Lamar, is associated with Mississippi.

    One of the Lamars was Zachariah, nephew of John Lamar, who was almost a
crank on ancient history. He even quoted from the classic authors as freely as
from the inspired oracles, when addressing the throne of grace, and he claimed
the privilege of naming the children. He gave four members the following names:
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, Mirabeau Bonaparte, Jefferson Jackson, and Thomas
Randolph. But getting interested in physics and chemistry, his first grandchild
was christened Lavosier Legrande. This Col. Zachariah Lamar lived in
Milledgeville and was the father of Mrs. General Howell Cobb, who was Mary Ann
Lamar. Col. Zachariah Lamar had the gift of money-making, and amassed a large
fortune. John Lamar, of Eatonton, married his own cousin, Rebecca, and she was
the sister of Zachariah Lamar, of Milledgeville. John Basil Lamar, who was
famous as the author of "Homespun Yarns," was the son of Zachariah Lamar, and
was an old bachelor. He settled in Macon and never married. He took an interest
in public affairs and was elected to Congress, but refused to serve.

    "A grandson of John Lamar, who came to Georgia in 1775, was Basil Lamar,
cousin to John Lamar, of Putnam. Two sons of his became prominent —Peter and
John. Prudence, one of the daughters of Basil Lamar, married a Winn, and became
the grandmother of a distinguished Georgian, Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, minister
to Spain and trustee of the Peabody-Slater fund. He was a member of the
Confederate Congress from Alabama and wrote two notable books—'The Southern
States of the American Union’ and 'The Civil History of the Confederate States."
These two books should be in every library.

    But space does not permit to tell of all the Lamars. There is a Gazaway B.
Lamar; our own Henry G. Lamar, of blessed memory; Albert Lamar, once the
brilliant editor of the Macon Telegraph; and Joseph Rucker Lamar, late associate
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, whose wife was Clarinda
Huntingdon Pendleton, of the noted Pendleton family.

    But the genealogical account speaks of the noted women of the family; it was
Rebecca Lamar, sister of Gazaway Lamar, who was known as 'The heroine of the
Pulaski."

    "Somewhere, between Savannah and New York, the ill-fated steamer was wrecked
at sea. Gazaway Lamar, his son, Charles, and his sister, Rebecca, were the only
members of the family on board who escaped the disaster. Three children of
Gazaway Lamar, and also his wife, were among the lost. It was one of the most
terrible fatalities of its kind ever known; but amid all the horrors of the wild
scene, the heroism of Rebecca was such as to make her deservedly famous among
the women of Georgia.

    "Mention has already been made of the fact that the wife of Gen. Howell Cobb
was Mary Ann Lamar, daughter of Col. Zachariah Lamar, of Milledgeville, and from
this union sprang several children who have arisen to prominence in the public
life of Georgia-Judge Howell Cobb, Major Lamar Cobb, Capt. John A. Cobb, and
Andrew J. Cobb. Loretta Lamar, daughter of John Lamar, of Eatonton, and sister
of L. Q. C. Lamar and Mirabeau B. Lamar, married Col. Absalom Chappell, of
Columbus, and from this union sprang the late J. Harris Chappell, former
president of the Georgia State Normal and Industrial College; L. H. Chappell,
Mayor of Columbus; and Thomas J. Chappell, ex-representative and state senator,
and a lawyer of pronounced ability. Lucian Lamar Knight is a son of Capt. George
Walton and Clara Daniel Knight, and is a grandson of Col. Peter Lamar. Lucian
Knight is well known to Georgians and is one of her distinguished literary sons."

The Lamar Family

    Thomas Bainbridge Lamar was born in 1818, died 1866; his wife, Rebecca Bull
Nichols, was born in 1823, died 1863; they were married in 1840.

    Their children were: Frances Joanna Lamar, died in infancy; Mary Willis
Lamar, married Jas. A. McCaw; Richard Nichols, married, first, Lucie Latimer,
second, Frances Cubbege; Lucius James,married first, Helen Robinson, second,
Leila Home Nail; Agnes Eldridge Lamar, married J. F. Middleton; Thos.
Bainbridge, Jr., never married; George Deming, died in infancy; Leila Hall, died
in infancy; Henry Graybill, died in infancy; Alice Goodwyn, married J. F. Rogers.

    Of these ten children, only Richard Nichols, Lucius James, and Thomas
Bainbridge, Jr., remained in Baldwin County after their maturity. Thomas
Bainbridge, Jr., never married, but lived in Milledgeville until his sudden
death, October, 1893.

    Richard Nichols, first married Lucie Savage Latimer, in 1868, and they had
four children: Bessie, Thomas, Marie, and Richard Emile. After his wife's death,
he married Frances Cubbedge. There were no children by this marriage, and he
died in 1909.

    Lucius James, first married Helen Robinson, in 1868, and had the following
children: William Robinson Lamar, married Alice Younglof; James Nichols Lamar,
married Mattie Ryan; L. Q. C. Lamar, married Maria Theresa Chaumont; Thomas
Windsor Lamar, married Edith Walker; Legare J. Lamar, married Lucie Callaway;
Hugh McCaw Lamar, married Lillian Johnson; Richard V. Lamar, married Dolores
Faglia; Leon Lamar, died in infancy. Of these eight children, only one—Hugh
McCaw—lived in Milledgeville after his marriage, on January 10, 1898. From this
union there were three children: Helen, Hugh, and Hazel. After the birth of
their last child, they moved to Macon and later to Atlanta where they now reside.

    After the death of his first wife, Lucius James married, May 10,1887, Leila
Home Nail, and by this marriage had two children; Mark O'Daniel Lamar, and Leila
Rebecca Lamar.

    Mark O. Lamar, married first, Jessie, Margaret McGarr, of Albany, New York.
There were no children by this marriage. In 1924, after the death of his first
wife, he married Leah Sessions, of Worcester, Mass.

Lucius James Lamar

    (Editorial from the Augusta Chronicle of June 13, 1924).

    Georgia lost a distinguished citizen last Wednesday in the death of Lucius
J. Lamar, who died in Milledgeville after two years of illness. His life was
probably the most beautiful example of service that has ever been noticed in the
history of the state.

    Member of a famous Southern family, with many of its sons recorded as public
servants, yet it is doubtful if even any of them surpassed this gentle man in
his ministrations to humanity. For forty years he was Steward of the State
Sanitarium and he lived strictly up to the term, and his stewardship was one of
magnificent proportions.

    For over a score of years, the institution over which he had charge,
contained three to four thousand inmates and for the first half of that period,
the number ranged half that many. Mr. Lamar served as-sidiously in his work, and
he made It a point to go daily to the city stores and purchase scores of
articles desired by patients who provided money for things that could not be
obtained from the institution's warehouse.

    The whims and fancies of the mentally impaired received his careful
consideration and on every occasion possible he sought to appease their sorrow,
alleviate their sufferings and do all that he could for the unfortunates. His
expression of service was manifested in giving all that he had for his
unfortunate charges, and finally he laid down his life in pursuit of his high
exemplification of service.

    Illustrious L. Q. C. Lamar, of the Supreme Court, Joseph R. Lamar, of the
Supreme Court, both of the United States tribunal, were of the same Lamar
family, and Dr. Richard V. Lamar, eminent Augusta physician, connected with the
Medical College, is his son. Truly, Georgia mourns the loss of a great servant
of the people, and the State has lost one of its most valuable and serviceable
citizens in the death of this great, though unassuming Georgian, who sought to
render service rather than achieve greatness as we know it in the records of
public life.



Additional Comments:
From: 

Part V

HISTORY of BALDWIN COUNTY GEORGIA

BY MRS. ANNA MARIA GREEN COOK

ILLUSTRATED

ANDERSON. S. C.
Keys-Hearn Printing Co.
-1925—


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