Chatham County GaArchives Biographies.....Myers, James Fairlie Cooper 1867 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 14, 2004, 12:25 am

Author: William Harden
p. 638-639

   JAMES FAIRLIE COOPER MYERS. It is distinctively within the province of this
historical compilation to enter record concerning the captains of those staunch
and important commercial and industrial concerns through which is being
conserved the progress and prestige of Savannah. James Fairlie Cooper Myers, is
vice-president of the Germania Bank, also the American Naval Stores Company, of
this city, a concern of national magnitude. He has been identified with the
company in one capacity or another since 1881, when as a boy he secured a minor
position with its principal predecessor, and no small degree of its rapid,
steady growth and its present splendid scope and completeness may be partially
traced to his executive ability, tireless energy, engineering skill and genius
in the broad combination and concentration of applicable forces.

   Mr. Myers was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 7th day of April, 1867. His
parents were Francis Nimis Myers and Mary Fairlie (Cooper) Myers.

   On his maternal side, Mr. Myers' ancestry presents an interesting and
fascinating record. His mother, Mary Fairlie (Cooper) Myers, is the daughter of
the late James Fairlie Cooper, who was a civil engineer of distinction and a
resident of Alabama for a number of years. One of his most prominent
achievements as an engineer was the building of the Western & Atlanta Railroad,
which was financed by the state of Georgia, and of which he became manager after
its completion. It was this which caused him to become a resident of Georgia.
   Thomas Apthorpe Cooper, the eminent English actor, the stage tutor of the
elder Booth and of Edwin Forrest, after his removal from London to New York, in
1830, married Miss Mary Fairlie, a young woman widely famed for her wit and
beauty and for her artistic and intellectual qualities. She was the daughter of
Maj. James Fairlie, who was aid-de-camp on the staff of General Washington in
the Revolutionary war and who subsequently served as clerk of the supreme court
of New York. Mary Fairlie was the granddaughter of Gov. Robert Yates of New York
(one of the colonial governors), and through this distinguished forbear the
subject secured membership in the Society of Colonial Wars. The Fairlies were
intimate friends of Washington Irving and Mary Pairlie was the original of the
character Sophie Sparkle in “Salamagundi." One of the daughters of Thomas and
Mary (Fairlie) Cooper, Priscilla Cooper, was likewise noted for her great charm
of personality. She became an actress of note and her, playing of the part of
Virginia in her father's production of "Virginius," in which the latter played
the title role, at the old Bowery theatre of New York, was a notable theatrical
event of the early days. Priscilla Cooper gave up the stage upon her marriage to
Robert Tyler, son of President Tyler. On account of the ill health of the wife
of President Tyler, Priscilla Cooper Tyler became virtually the "Mistress of the
White House" and her reign as such forms a delightful chapter in the social
history of Washington.

   Mr. Myers is one of Savannah's most distinguished members of the Sons of the
American Revolution and his membership in the same comes from descent on his
paternal side from Philip Minis, of whom he is the great-great-grandson. Philip
Minis was born in Georgia in 1736 and it seems to be a pretty clearly
established fact that he was the first white child born in the colony of
Georgia, which was founded in 1733. On account of his activities in behalf of
the Continental army during the Revolutionary war, he was named in the Georgia
Royal Disqualifying Act of 1780. He passed to the great beyond in 1789.

   Thus it will be seen that few have as inspiring a connection with the early
years of American history and the spirit of the men who achieved American
independence has come as a legacy to Mr. Myers, whose patriotism is manifest as
a particularly fine type of citizenship. He is a genial gentleman, always
courteous and considerate, of broad human sympathies and tolerance, and
possessed of that sincere love of his fellow men without which there can never
be the highest success. All measures likely to result in general benefit are
sure of his support.

   Mr. Myers was reared in Marietta, Georgia, where he attended school. In 1881,
before he was fourteen years of age, he came to Savannah and soon after secured
a position in the naval stores firm of S. P. Shotter & Company, with which
business he has been connected ever since. It has since become the American
Naval Stores Company, the organization of which was promoted by Mr. Shotter, and
Mr. Myers holds the office of vice-president. The American Naval Stores Company
is a very large and wealthy corporation, founded on Mr. Shotter's original
company and embracing a number of other companies which have since been
absorbed. Mr. Myers has made a splendid rise in the world of commerce. Besides
the position above mentioned, he is president of the South Atlantic Steamship
Company and of the National Transportation and Terminal Company. He is
vice-president of the National Tank & Export Company and an officer of or
financially interested in other commercial enterprises of importance. He has
lived in Savannah continuously since 1881, with the exception of eight years,
from 1886 to 1894, when he was a resident of New York City in charge of the
offices of his company there. He is a director of the Germania Bank.

   Mr. Myers was married in Savannah to Miss Lina Anderson, daughter of John W.
Anderson. Their happy marriage has been blessed with a son and a daughter—John
Anderson and Carolyn Cooper. To see Mr. Myers at his best socially it is
necessary to meet him in his delightful home. There his easy dignity, generous
hospitality and cordial ways mark him at once as a true gentleman.



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

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