Georgia   Biographies  Allen Daniel Candler

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Barbara Winge barbarawinge@yahoo.com

http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Georgia Table of Contents:

ALLEN DANIEL CANDLER

The "one-eyed plowboy of Prigeon Roost," Allen Daniel
Candler,  was a tobacco chewing, peppery languaged
mountaineer, the oldest of twelve children born in 1834
to Daniel Gill Candler and Nancy Caroline Matthews.
Lumpkin County, Georgia, was where Candler was born and
raised with the values of honesty and hard work.

Candler worked hard to obtain and education.  He attended
Mercer University and graduated in 1859.  He taught
school for a while in Jonesboro, Georgia, before he
joined the Confederate Army as a private.By December of
1864, he had earned the rank of Colonel.  While fighting
in the battle near Jonesboro, he received a head wound
which resulted in the loss of the sight of one eye.  He
like to joke that he was quite wealthy, "having one wife,
one baby, one eye, and one silver dollar."

Candler settled his family in Gainesville in 1870, and
was Mayor of the city in 1872, then completed four terms
in the Georgia State Legislature.  He was elected to be
Governor in 1898.  He served until 1902.

After his governorship Candler was appointed "Compiler of
Records," by Governor Joseph Terrell.  He worked very
hard to find Georgia documents and preserved.  He
supervisored the publication of the twenty-one volumes of
THE COLONIAL RECORDS OF GEORGIA, three volumes of THE
REVOLUTIONARY RECORDS OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, and five
volumes of THE CONFEDERATE RECORDS OF THE STATE OF
GEORGIA.  In 1906 he worked with Clement Evans to publish
a three volume encyclopedia of Georgia.

Candler died of Bright's Disease at the age of seventy-
five.  His body laid in state at the Capitol in Atlanta,
then was buried in the Alta Vista Cemetery in
Gainesville.

On November 03, 1914, a new county was formed from lands
taken from Bulloch, Emanuel, and Tattnall Counties.  It
received the name of Candler to honor the savior of
Georgia records.

METTER is the county seat.  



Note: Adiel Sherwood, A GAZETTEER OF THE STATE OF
GEORGIA, Washington City, Printed by P. Force, 1837,  pp.
255-256. APPENDIX:  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES "The author
conceived that a short biographical sketch of the
individuals after whom the several counties were named,
would furnish an instructive and pleasing appendage to
his topographical work... Acquainted with the intimate
friends of some of the 'venerable dead,' he has been
furnished with sufficient materials to enlarge on their
character... There are in the State ninety counties (book
printed in 1837, presently in 2001, there are 159
counties)..."


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