Dodge County GaArchives Biographies.....Bishop, James December 1 1829 - June 15 1920
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 28, 2004, 10:06 pm

Author: MRS. WILTON PHILIP COBB
The Bishop Family.

  THE NAME of "Bishop" is from the ecclesiastical surname. This name is of Saxon
origin. Their motto is "Pro Deo et ecclesia," which means "For God and the
Church." They have their Coats of Arms.

  This branch of the family came from England to this country, settling in the
northern states.

  Simeon Bishop, being the son of these earliest settlers, was a native of New
Jersey and was born in 1799 and died in 1836. He was married to Nancy Johnston
Daniel, December 12, 1827, who was the daughter of John Daniel, a Revolutionary
soldier, and whose wife was a Miss Rebecca Stevens. They originally came from
South Carolina, buying thousands of acres of land up and down both sides of the
Ocmulgee River. Nancy Daniel Bishop died in the year 1873. Both she and her
husband, Simeon Bishop, and their son, John, are buried in the old and original
family burial ground at the home which was later called Englewood. This plot of
ground shows that it is to be "forever" set aside and kept sacred for this
purpose. The father and mother of Nancy J. Daniel Bishop are also buried at this
old graveyard. John Daniel, the Revolutionary soldier, has a marker placed by
the Daughters of the American Revolution, with names, etc. Almost all of these
old graves have markers or stones over them. These grounds are in the western
part of the county, several miles from the Ocmulgee River.

  Simeon Bishop graduated with distinction from Yale College. He was a man of
the highest culture, speaking fluently seven different languages. Being a man of
fine business qualifications, he came South and amassed wealth. He at first
settled at Hawkinsville, Georgia, at one time named Old Hartford, engaging in
large lumber and mercantile interests, owning his own boats and shipping vast
quantities of cotton for coastwise and world ports. He was also interested in
the DoBoy lumber mills around Darien. There were born to them two sons. One,
whose name was John, died in early youth. The second son, James, was born
December 1, 1829, dying June 15,1920. He married Mary E. Guyton December 1,
1853. She was the daughter of Major Moses Guyton, one of Laurens County's old
and most prominent citizens. She was the niece 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. General Eli Warren also was an uncle of hers. She
also belonged to distinguished Revolutionary ancestry. Mrs. Bishop was a woman
of rare culture and lovely nature, receiving private instruction from French
tutors and governesses, also attending the Charlestown Female Seminary and Art
School as well as La Grange Female College, Georgia. She was a fine linguist,
mastering and speaking five different languages. That which will live always was
her Christian character. She was a member of the first Methodist Church ever
built in Eastman, organized the first Foreign Missionary Society of the same,
also the first Home Missionary Society, meeting with a few women of great piety,
sewing, visiting, caring for and praying in the needy homes. This society was
called the Dorcas Society. This church, as well as all others, used the Dodge
County court house for worship. Her heart's desire was to see a Methodist church
building erected. For years she gave music lessons to the more pretentious folk
around, dedicating every dollar she received from this source for the erection
of this church.

  After this church, the first at Eastman, became a reality, it was dedicated by
the Bishop, George F. Pierce, whose father, the noted Dr. Lovick Pierce, years
before had faithfully promised Mrs. Bishop to send down his son, the Bishop, to
dedicate such a structure should it ever be built. This time was one of the
greatest religious demonstrations Eastman has ever known. For years the church
was also open to all Christian denominations. Even the Hebrew friends
contributed to this building, which has a significant meaning for the feeling of
Christianity prevailing among the first Dodge County settlers.

  Mrs. Bishop was born July 7, 1833, and died December 18, 1888, and is buried
in the Bishop lot in Woodlawn Cemetery, Eastman, Georgia.

  The life of James Bishop was connected with the best developments of Dodge
County and his native State, Georgia. His birthplace was at the ancestral home,
once Pulaski but now Dodge County. He descended from true Revolutionary stock.
During the War Between the States he belonged to the State Troops, doing active
and military duty in many places until the close. His political creed in his
early life was an Old Line Whig of the Clay and Webster type. After the war he
became a Southern Democrat, never voting any other ticket as long as he lived.

  He belonged to the Masonic Order, believing in the brotherhood of man, being a
charter member of the Eastman Lodge, and was a Royal Arch Mason, having been
made a Master Mason in Mount Hope Lodge No. 9, F. and A. M., Hawkinsville,
Georgia, in the twenty-second year of his age, and a few years after he became a
member of Constantine Chapter, No. 3, Macon, Georgia.

  He was identified with practically every worth-while improvement along
educational, literary, civic, and religious development. He was Judge of the
County Court, County School Commissioner continuously for twelve years, drew and
wrote up the first charter and incorporate papers for the town of Eastman, and
was the second mayor. He was the first president of the first real social and
literary society, which for a long time drew the attention and literati from
distant places because of the highest class of literature and social caste
enjoyed through its contact. He having inherited a competency, his mother was
alert in giving him in early life the most learned instructors. Later he
matriculated in some of the best schools. He chose the profession of law,
reading under one of the great jurists of South Carolina.

  For years before Georgia had a school system, and when Eastman was only a
village, he saw that she enjoyed teachers of the highest learning and mental
development, giving each never less than $100 of his own means in order to keep
a school in the community up to the highest standard, and at the close of the
term supplying the deficit for children whose parents were not able otherwise to
send them.

  He was steward in the Methodist Church for years, always seeing that the
church must keep her debt sheet clear. With the one exception, he was the
largest contributor to the building of the first church. He never sought
publicity in any way. These facts are only written to let the present generation
better understand why Dodge County and their State have so rapidly progressed in
the last century.

  To James Bishop and his wife were born eight children, three sons and five
daughters. The eldest son, Saxon, died in his twentieth year; the youngest son,
Guy ton, when only one year old. The second child and son, James Bishop, Jr.,
was born March 31, 1857, and died February 20, 1908. He was married to Miss
Minnie Douglas, of Talbotton, Georgia, who is deceased. The first daughter and
third child, Mary, is still living. She married G. F. Harrison, a native
Georgian. For years they lived in Dodge County. He is buried in their family
plot in Jacksonville, Florida, which later was their permanent home. The second
daughter, Helen, and fourth child, lives in Eastman at the family home, which is
historical, having been built for, and occupied by, the founder of Eastman, Hon.
William Pitt Eastman. The third daughter, and fifth child, Emma Guyton, is
deceased. The fourth daughter, Carolyn, married R. L. Bush, a native of North
Carolina.

  The youngest daughter, Estelle, married Ellis Way Bullock, a native of North
Carolina.

  James Bishop also has now living eleven grandchildren and eight
great-grandchildren.

  James Bishop, Jr., the only one of his sons to reach maturity, matriculated at
the State University of Georgia. Upon his graduation he won honors and a
speaker's place. He was the first young man from Dodge County to graduate, Dodge
being a rather new county. He read law under Attorney-General Clifford Anderson,
and became a lawyer of marked ability. He won distinction in one of his first
and most difficult cases, being appointed by the court to defend the
never-forgotten negro rioters case. The result: the hanging of five from the
same scaffold, one being a woman, a life sentence for nine, and a large number
of acquittals. In all of his practice afterwards this was the hardest and most
trying case.

  He was also appointed first City Court Judge, without his knowledge or
solicitation. A strong co-incidence during his term was the fact that he was
never reversed in his decisions by a higher court.

  He was also appointed by the State Bar Association delegate to the National
Bar Association convened at Washington, D. C.

  He was leading and general counsel for the Southern Railroad as long as he
lived, as well as being advisory counsel for the immense landed estate of the
Dodges' interests in many south Georgia counties. All of these were given to him
without solicitation on his part. His great reserve and timidity were
outstanding in his nature. When local option and the wets were holding on in the
county and he was mayor of Eastman, his courage and convictions would mount
above every obstacle, even going so far as to arrest the violaters himself when
the odds were against him and the temerity of others weakened, as the
antagonistic element became too strong.

  He was for a long time a member and steward in his church, the Methodist, but
several years before his death became wholly consecrated and dedicated to the
church work; especially notable was his deep interest in, and development of,
the laymen's movement, which afterward became a part of the church work.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY
OF
DODGE COUNTY

COPYRIGHT    1932
By MRS. WILTON PHILIP COBB

Printed by
FOOTE & DAVIES CO., ATLANTA.





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