Dodge-Pulaski County GaArchives Biographies.....Bishop, James 1829 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 19, 2004, 11:36 am

Author: William Harden
p. 786-789

   JUDGE JAMES BISHOP, SR. The life of Judge James Bishop, Sr., has been
intimately connected with the growth and development of Eastman, Georgia, and
the surrounding country. Having lived all of his life in this section, he has
taken an active interest in its prosperity and has had a hand in some of the
most beneficial enterprises in the county. He is one of the men who is helping
the South to win back the prosperity which was hers before the war swept away
everything. People say, "It is Northern capital that is bringing wealth to the
South." It is often true, and the South is grateful, but she is returning them
fourfold the money which they are spending in her mines and cotton fields and
mills; and it is to such men as James Bishop that the South turns her loving
eyes, knowing that when he invests money he does it, thinking of the good it
will bring to the country, and not purely of the money it will put in his
pocket. He belongs to that class of men who favors inviting and welcoming
capital and intelligence to his city, and to the county expert tillers of the
ground, on whom the multiplied millions of earth are dependent for their bread
and meat. He is in full sympathy and accord with every movement that tends to
encourage and foster agricultural advancement, which he considers the most
important avocation under the sun, and the only safe and sure vocation that
keeps the nation alive and prosperous. Mr. Bishop believes firmly in the
principles of brotherhood as set forth in the creed of the Masonic Order. He is
a charter member of the Eastman lodge, and is a Royal Arch Mason, having been
initiated, passed and raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason in Mount
Hope lodge, No. 9, F. & A. M., Hawkinsville, Georgia, in the twenty-second year
of his age, and a few years afterward he became a member of Constantine Chapter
No. 3, Macon, Georgia. He is perhaps among the oldest living members of that
fraternity in the state, his Masonic years numbering sixty-two. His political
creed in his early days was that of an Old Line Whig of the Clay and Webster
type, both of whom he regarded as supreme models of American statesmanship and
patriotism. After the war he identified himself with southern Democracy and has
never since been known to vote any other than a straight Democratic ticket.
During the war he belonged to the State Troops and was stationed for quite a
while at Camp Rescue, Macon, Ga., on provost duty, and faithfully performing
every other military duty required of him without a murmur. Before the war Judge
Bishop was postmaster at Bishop's Store and after the war at Inglewood; and
during the war he was appointed postmaster at Johnston Postoffice established by
the Confederate government and named by President Davis in honor of his bosom
friend, the lamented General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed at the
Battle of Shiloh. All of these offices were located at the same place, on the
very spot of his birthplace. He married Mary E. Guyton, daughter of Major Moses
Guyton, an extensive planter of Laurens county, Georgia, but a native of South
Carolina, Her mother before marriage was Mary Love, a native Georgian, a sister
of Judge Peter E. Love, who was a member of congress from the second
congressional district of Georgia when the state seceded from the Union. Mrs.
Bishop was a lady of pronounced culture and refinement, with a finished
education, which was primarily received from scholarly private teachers in her
father's family, and afterwards at Charlestown Female Seminary, Massachusetts,
and at LaGrange, Georgia. She was the instrument of organizing the first
missionary society in Eastman, The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the
Methodist Episcopal church, South Georgia Conference, and was instrumental in
organizing many others in different counties, being vice president for the
district. She also organized a society known as "The Dorcas Society," which
afterwards merged into "The" Woman's Home Mission Society." She died December
18, 1888, at their Inglewood home, where she was temporarily residing, but was
buried in Woodlawn cemetery at Eastman. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop had born to them
eight children, three sons and five daughters. The boys are all dead, the girls
are all living. Saxon, the oldest, died at the age of twenty; Guyton, the
youngest, at the age of one; James, Jr., the second child and son, at the age of
fifty. He was happily married to Miss Minnie Douglas, of Talbotton, Ga., who is
still living. He was a lawyer of marked ability. After graduating with a
speaker's place at old Franklin College, now known as the University of Georgia,
he read law under Colonel Clifford Anderson, former attorney-general, and was
admitted to the bar in his young manhood, and was soon recognized and classed as
one among the best lawyers in his judicial circuit. His first legal battle was
by appointment of the court in the defense of the Eastman rioters. This
unpleasant duty he reluctantly, though faithfully and fearlessly performed,
under the most trying circumstances to his personal feelings. This trial
resulted in the hanging of five negroes from the same scaffold, four men and one
woman, a life sentence for nine, and a large number of acquittals. In addition
to his general practice in the courts he was the leading attorney in this
territory for the Southern Railway Company, and legal adviser and trusted
representative of The William E. Dodge Land & Lumber Company, the largest
concern of its kind in the state. Both of these positions he held without an
effort from the time of his appointment to the day of his death, under the firm
name of DeLacy and Bishop. He was mayor of Eastman for two years, giving the
city the most satisfactory and brilliant administration it ever had. He was also
judge of the city court of Eastman under Governor Chandler's administration. He
died February 20, 1908, deeply mourned by a large circle of friends and
acquaintances. Every order and organization of the city paid loving tribute to
his memory, covering his casket with rare and costly flowers. In his death the
city, county and state lost a useful citizen. He was held in high esteem by
every one who knew him for his unblemished character and many virtues. He was
emphatically a good man in its most extensive signification. Of Judge Bishop's
five daughters, three are widows and two are unmarried. Mary, who now lives in
Jacksonville, Florida, was married to G. F. Harrison, a native Georgian and
farmer. He died May 9, 1907. Carolyn resides in Waynesville, N. C. Her husband
was R. L. Bush, a North Carolinian and turpentine operator. He died April 11,
1898. Estelle, whose home is Orlando, Florida, was the wife of E. W. Bullock, a
native of North Carolina and a naval stores dealer. He died December 1, 1910.
Helen and Emma, the unmarried daughters, live with their father in Eastman. Each
of Judge Bishop's widowed daughters have one or more grown sons, all brilliant
young men, filling honorable and remunerative positions. He has twelve living
grandchildren and four great grandchildren. The father of Judge James Bishop,
Sr., was Simeon Bishop, a native of New Jersey. He came South when a young man
to superintend a large lumber business near Darien, Georgia, but later made his
home in the southern part of Pulaski county, where he conducted a large and
lucrative mercantile business. He was a man of exceptional business capacity,
much loved by his numeous customers, many of whom almost idolized him for his
upright dealings and unbounded generosity. He died October 15, 1836, in the
fortieth year of his age. Judge Bishop's mother before marriage was Nancy J.
Daniel, whose parents moved from South Carolina to Georgia when she was quite
young. She was a strong-minded woman of great force of character and
determination. She died March 16, 1874, at the age of seventy-three. Judge James
Bishop, Sr., the subject of this sketch, was born in Pulaski county, December 1,
1829. He was left fatherless when only seven years old. His mother gave him a
liberal education in some of the best village schools of the state, but for the
best part of his moral and mental training he feels deeply indebted to the Rev.
Adam T. Holmes, a noted school teacher and distinguished Baptist minister and
graduate of Yale College, under whose immediate supervision and tutorship he
remained for four successive years. He read law under Judge A. H. Hansel, and
though prepared for admission to the bar, decided to abandon the law and settle
down on the old plantation where he was born, preferring the ease and
independence of farm life to that of a profession. Here he remained until the
close of the Civil war, when in common with all Southern slave holders his
entire inheritance was almost completely wiped out, leaving him only a large
body of land, a few horses and mules, with nothing to feed them on, and no one
to look after them but himself. Soon after the surrender that part of Pulaski
where his home is situated was cut off to help form the new county of Dodge,
with Eastman as the county site. Judge Bishop, foreseeing the future
possibilities of the new town, moved there while yet in its infancy and has
lived to see it grow, as if by magic, from a mere hamlet to its present
dimensions, with every element of industry, enterprise and intelligence that
constitute a perfect and model city with undiminished lustre still in waiting. 
  Judge Bishop was the second mayor of the town, succeeding General Ira R.
Foster, the first incumbent, under whose administration as clerk of council, he
formulated the original ordinances of the city, most of which are still in
force. Within the last half century Judge Bishop has filled many places of honor
and trust, among which may be mentioned that of merchant, Sunday school
superintendent, jury commissioner, county school commissioner for twelve
consecutive years, editor, express and railroad agent, newspaper correspondent,
bank president and other positions of less responsibility, but equally
important. He was also appointed by the governor of the state judge of the
county court with limited criminal and civil jurisdiction. In every instance he
gave perfect and entire satisfaction to all concerned, voluntarily resigning
them one by one as best suited his convenience and pleasure. Judge Bishop has
now retired from all business activities and will spend his remaining days in
Eastman, the city of his cherished pride, where he has a choice home,
plentifully stocked with fruits and flowers, with his dutiful and devoted
daughter, Helen, at the head of the household, giving her life in adding
comforts to her father's declining years.


Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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