Chatham County GaArchives Biographies.....Semmes, Raphael Thomas 1857 - living in 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 13, 2004, 10:59 pm Author: William Harden p. 624-627 RAPHAEL THOMAS SEMMES, president of Semmes Hardware Company, one of the representative wholesale concerns of Savannah, was born at Canton, Madison county, Mississippi, on the 27th of July, 1857. His father, Dr. Alphonso Thomas Semmes, was born at Washington, Wilkes county, Georgia, on the 28th of April, 1830; and his mother, Mary Sabina (Semmes) Semmes, was born at Georgetown, now a part of the city of Washington, District of Columbia, on the 6th of December, 1832. Dr. Semmes was a son of Thomas Semmes, Jr., and his first wife, Harriet Shepherd (Bealle) Semmes, the latter being a native of Columbia county, Georgia, and a descendent of early settlers from Charles county, Maryland, whence her grandparents removed to Georgia. Thomas Semmes, Jr., was born in Wilkes county, Georgia, on the 19th of January, 1802, and was married on the 27th of January, 1829. He removed to Mississippi in 1852, and died at Canton, in May of 1862. He was the only child of Eoger and Jane (Sanders) Semmes, who removed from Charles county, Maryland, to Wilkes county, Georgia. The former was born in Charles county, Maryland, in December, 1779, and removed to Wilkes county, Georgia, in 1800 or 1801, where he died in September, 1804. He was a. son of Thomas Semmes, Sr., born 1753, who married a widow, Mrs. Mary Ann (Ratcliffe) Brawner, their marriage occurring in February, 1779, in Charles county, Maryland. In 1800, he removed to Wilkes county, Georgia, where he died on the 24th of June, 1824. He was a lieutenant in the Maryland line of troops in the war of the Revolution. (See Maryland archives.) He was a son of James Semmes II and Mary Simpson, his last wife, who was a daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth (Green) Simpson. Elizabeth Green Simpson was the daughter of Robert Green, and a granddaughter of Thomas Green, the first proprietary governor of the province of Maryland. James Semmes II was a son of James I and Mary (Goodrick) Semmes of Charles county, Maryland. James Semmes I was a son of Marmaduke Semmes of St. Mary's county, Maryland, and his mother, Fortune Semmes, was the widow of Bulmer Mitford (afterwards spelled Medford), who immigrated to Maryland in 1664. Her first husband died in 1666, and in July, 1668, she married Marmaduke Semmes, who in 1662 had been sworn in as doorkeeper of the upper house of the province of Maryland. (See Maryland archives.) Mary Sabina Semmes, nee Semmes, mother of the subject of this sketch, was the seventh child of Raphael and Mary Matilda (Jenkins) Semmes of Georgetown, District of Columbia. The former was an uncle of Admiral Raphael Semmes of the Confederate navy, whom he adopted in childhood. Raphael Semmes, Sr.> was born in Charles county, Maryland, on the 21st of August, 1786, and died on the 12th of October, 1846, at Georgetown, District of Columbia. He 'was a son of Joseph and Henrietta (Thompson) Semmes of Charles county, the former of whom served in the war of the Revolution (see Maryland archives), and the latter was a daughter of Richard Thompson of Charles county, the great-great-grandson of William Thompson, who settled in Maryland, in 1646. Joseph Semmes was born in 1754, in Charles county, and was a brother of Thomas Semmes, Sr., who became a resident of Georgia. They were sons of James Semmes II, and hence Joseph also was descended from Marmaduke Semmes I, and from Gov. Thomas Green, previously mentioned. Two other sons of James Semmes II, served in the Revolution, and both were killed in the battles of Long Island. One of these was Andrew Green Semmes, I, uncle of Andrew Green Semmes II, of Wilkes county, Georgia, who was the father of General Paul J. Semmes, a distinguished Confederate officer in the war between the states. Mary Matilda (Jenkins) Semmes, the maternal grandmother of the subject of this review, was born on the 28th of December, 1800, in Charles county, Maryland, a daughter of Capt. Thomas Jenkins, of Revolutionary fame, and his wife, Mary (Neale) Corry, widow of Benjamin Leslie Corry, and daughter of Richard Neale, who was a great grandson of the famous Capt. James Neale, who was an early settler in Maryland and later was sent on an important mission to Spain in the interest of King Charles I of England, and who was still later one of those who stood on the scaffold with this unfortunate king when he was beheaded. He was a descendant of Hugh O'Neil, king of Ulster. A notable member of the Semmes family, who once lived in Savannah, was Dr. Alexander Ignatius Semmes, a brother of Mary Sabina Semmes (mother of Raphael Thomas Semmes). Dr. Semmes was born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, was educated for the medical profession, both in America and in Europe, and practiced while living in Savannah. He married Miss Sallie Berrien, a daughter of the Hon. John McPherson Berrien of Savannah. She died without children, and after her death Dr. Semmes gave up the practice of medicine and became a Catholic priest and educator. He was professor of English literature in Pio Nono College, an institution for the education of priests, at Macon, Georgia. On account of ill health he later went to New Orleans to reside with his brother, Hon. Thomas J. Semmes, and died in that city. His reputation as a brilliant scholar is well known. Andrew Green Simpson Semmes, a brother of Roger Semmes, the great-grandfather of Raphael Thomas Semmes, while never a resident of Savannah, had large business interests in the city. He was born in Charles County, Maryland, and came in 1800 to Wilkes county, Georgia, where he became in time, a wealthy man. He had large cotton and banking interests in Savannah, consequently was often in the city on short trips. Dr. Alphonso T. Semmes, father of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, was an able physician, and during the war he served in the Confederacy for a time as a surgeon in the army, but for the greater portion of the time was in the hospital service. Thomas Semmes, Jr., of Georgia and later of Mississippi, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, crippled from paralysis and unable to fight for his country, equipped at his own expense a company, the Semmes Rifles. This company, raised in Canton, Mississippi, rendered valiant service in the ranks of the Confederacy. Raphael Thomas Semmes secured his earlier educational training in the private schools in Canton, Mississippi, and supplemented this by the careful discipline and training of the Christian Brothers' College, in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Semmes had been in the Christian Brothers' College, barely a school year, not having reached the age of fifteen, when he left that institution in order to go to work; taking this step out of consideration for his father, who had suffered severe financial reverses through ill-advised investments in a cotton mill at Canton. In January, 1873, therefore, he became a clerk in a hardware store at Canton, and on the 9th of December, 1879, he located in Atlanta, Georgia, where he became a clerk in the hardware store of Tommey, Gregg & Beck. Two or three years later, when the firm was merged into a stock company, under the title of the Beck & Gregg Hardware Company, Mr. Semmes became a minority stockholder, and in 1891, when the concern increased its capital stock, he considerably increased his holdings. In January, 1896, he resigned his association with this company, having formed a business connection in Savannah, where he took up his residence in March of that year. In 1898, he individually established himself in the wholesale hardware business in Savannah, being the sole owner of the enterprise, but adopting the firm name of R. T. Semmes & Company. In 1901, he organized the Semmes Hardware Company, for the purpose of broadening and facilitating his business, and he has been president of the company since that time. This concern now takes rank among the leading enterprises of the kind in the southern states, and substantial growth and expansion of the same being due to the able and honorable methods and the energy and discrimination shown by Mr. Semmes in its management. He is also a director of the Citizens and Southern Bank. In politics, he is a staunch Democrat, and he and his wife are communicants of the Roman Catholic church, with which his ancestors have been always identified. He is a member of the Maryland Historical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, the Catholic Record Society of London, England, and of the Savannah Yacht Club. He is one of the founders of the "Society of The Ark and The Dove," whose membership is composed of descendants of those who with Lord Baltimore's original colony, sailed from England in 1633 in the Ark and the Dove and landed in Maryland, March 25, 1634. He was married on the 30th of April, 1891, to Miss Kate Flannery, daughter of Capt. John and Mary Ellen (Norton) Flannery, of Savannah, Georgia. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME I ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/bios/gbs173semmes.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 9.6 Kb