Chatham County GaArchives Biographies.....Stillwell, William B. 1851 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 15, 2004, 12:05 am

Author: William Harden
p. 649-651

   WILLIAM B. STILLWELL. A native son of Georgia, and a member of a
distinguished Southern family, members of which have won eminence in the various
walks of life, William B. Stillwell, son of Savannah, is a worthy representative
of the best type of American citizenship, and during a long and honorable career
has been identified with business enterprises of wide scope and importance, and
has lent his influence to various movements in civic and social life. A brief
outline of Mr. Stillwell's ancestry seems appropriate in a history of this
nature. Nicholas Stillwell, the first of the name to land in America, brought to
the aid of the infant colonies an iron will and mighty arm, and his descendants,
settling North, South, East and West, have won enviable distinction in the
pursuits of peace as well as in the art of war, many today occupying prominent
positions in the army, in the national guard, and in the great enterprises and
industries of the nation.

   In direct line of descent from Nicholas Stillwell, his grandson, Maj. Thomas
Stillwell, and great-grandson, John Stillwell, who won distinction during the
Revolution, came Charles H. Stillwell, who, in addition to the spirit of his
forefathers, was fortunate enough to inherit from his mother, a Huguenot of the
South Carolina Colony, the spirit which animated the French martyrs. To him,
although always beset by difficulties and adversity and twice made a cripple,
the last time for life, the state of Georgia is indebted for nine sons and one
daughter, who have worthily illustrated in their various vocations the
indomitable energy, peerless courage and Christian faith which characterized
their sire.

   William Stillwell, one of the sons thus endowed, though starting without a
dollar, amid confusion which follows in the wake of civil strife, has won .both
means and position even in a business which requires as much capital and
individual effort for its successful prosecution as the lumber trade. He was
born in Rome, Georgia, March 11, 1851, and his name is not quite half way down
the official register of family births which must have overflowed the record
pages in the old family Bible, for there were sixteen children. At the close of
the war between the states, ten of these were living, nine boys and one girl,
four boys older than William having seen service under the Confederate flag.

   The family, which had during the war period "refugeed" pretty much all over
the state, moved back to Rome at the close of hostilities, and William received
his first experience in sawmill operations in an upright sawmill operated by his
father, whom he assisted as yard man and general utility man. In February, 1866,
he went into the employ of Millen & AVadley, at Savannah, Georgia, which firm
afterward became Millen, Wadley & Company, by the admission of D. C. Bacon as
junior partner. In 1876 Messrs. Bacon and Stillwell formed the firm of D. C.
Bacon & Company, Mr. H. P. Smart being afterward admitted to this firm. The firm
formed and operated a number of other companies, including the Vale Royal
Manufacturing Company, the Atlanta Lumber Company, the Central Georgia Lumber
Company, Screven County Lumber Company, and Amoskeag Lumber Company, Mr.
Stillwell being for several years president of the last named company, as well
as an officer in all of the others.

   Mr. Stillwell was one of the organizers of the Savannah Board of Trade in
1883, and for two years was its vice-president, and later for two years its
president; he was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce at its inception. He
was one of the organizers and a member of the first board of directors of the
Citizens' Bank, which, being merged with the Southern Bank in 1906, became the
Citizens and Southern Bank. Mr. Stillwell was one of the promoters in the
building of the South Bound Railroad and a director of the construction company
which built it.

   In 1887 the firm of D. C. Bacon & Company was dissolved and the firm of
Stillwell, Millen & Company was established, with headquarters at Savannah; and
L. R. Millen & Company of New York City, consisting of William B. Stillwell,
Loring R. Millen and L. Johnson; R. H. and W. R. Bewick being admitted several
years later. The firm owned and operated the Screven County Lumber Company, the
Central Georgia Lumber Company, and the Augusta Lumber Company, and also built
and operated the Waycross Air Line Railroad and the Millen & Southern Railroad.
In all of these companies Mr. Stillwell held official positions and was
president of the Waycross Lumber Company.

   In 1895 the lumber business of Stillwell, Millen & Company, L. R. Millen &
Company, McDonough & Company, the James K. Clarke Lumber Company, Henry P.
Talmadge and C. C. Southard, was consolidated into the Southern Pine Company of
Georgia, and Mr. Stillwell became secretary and treasurer of the company, which
position he has held continously since that time. Besides the prominent part
taken by Mr. Stillwell in the city and state civic and business organizations,
he suggested and was the main factor in the formation of the National Lumber
Manufacturers Association, of which he is vice-president. By means of his
position as a director in the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, and his
connection for years and finally serving as the highest official of the National
Hoo Hoo organization, Mr. Stillwell has a wide range of influential friends and
acquaintances who have served him and the city in good stead when he has been
called upon to represent Savannah and work for her interests. He took a
prominent part in the securing of the government appropriation which gave deep
water to Savannah— the city's greatest asset.

   Mr. Stillwell has also been prominently connected with the military,
fraternal and social organizations of the city; in fact in all the commendable
activities and enterprises of Savannah he has given freely of his time and much
unselfish personal service. He has always been actively at work for Savannah and
South Georgia; he is really one man who seems to think of himself last of all.
He is a member of the Baptist church and belongs to many social and fraternal
orders, among which are the Elks, Masons and the higher degrees of the latter
order, being a Knight Templar and a Shriner. He served for twenty years as a
member of the historic Chatham artillery, and is now an honorary member of the
corps, is also a life member of the Savannah Volunteer Guards and a pay member
of the Savannah Cadets.

   In 1875, Mr. Stillwell was united in marriage to Miss Mary Reily Royal, of
the well known Carolina family of that name. They have three daughters, as
follows: Edith, now Mrs. W. F. Train; Mamie R., now Mrs. James Tift Mann, and
Laleah P.; and three sons: William H., Herbert L. and Walter B. Stillwell.


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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