GILMER - HEARD COUNTY, GA - BIOS Rev John C. Atkinson

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REV. JOHN C. ATKINSON, of Ellijay, Gilmer Co., Georgia, was
born on July 22, 1866, in Heard county, this state.  He was
educated in the common schools of that county, and in 1885
he entered Bowdon College, where during two years he pursued
a classical course of study.  He next taught shcool in Heard
county for a period of five years.  Later he engaged in
church work and was licensed to preach Sept. 22, 1892, at
the Roopville quaterly conference of the Methodist Episcopal
church south, since which time he has actively engaged in
the duties of a Methodist preacher.  He was first assigned
to the Morganton church in Fannin county, where he remained
two years, and where his efforts were successful and
appreciated by the church committee.  During the second year
of his stay in Morganton he was chiefly interested in
building the Blue Ridge high school, an institution having
before it a promising future, and which is already largely
attended.  In December, 1893, Mr. Atkinson was assigned to
the church in Ellijay, where his efforts in the cause of
religion have met with apt encouragement and success in
marked degree, and where he is admired as a churchman and
esteemed as a citizen.  On Dec. 25, 1888, Mr. Atkinson was
marrried to Miss Ida L. Williams, of Heard county, Georgia. 
Two children, both girls, have been born of this marriage:
Ida Lois, born June 26, 1890, and John, born March 29, 1892.
The father of Mr. Atkinson is Joseph P. Atkinson, a native
of Sussex county, Va., where he was born Nov. 29, 1832.  He
moved to Georgia in 1858.  He served in the late war and was
orderly sergeant of Company K, Thirty-fourth Georgia.  For
twelve years he was postmaster at Rockdale, Heard county,
and is widely known and esteemed throughout that county.
The mother of Mr. Atkinson was born in Heard county in 1840.
She was the daughter of Madison Benifield of that county and
is still living.  Mr. Atkinson has five brothers and five
sisters living: Robert E., Emily E., Joseph B., Mary A.,
Martha A., Neadam E., Viola C., William T., Tabitha P., and
Henry P., all residing in this state, except Mary A., the
wife of Joseph E. Gay, of Texas, where she resides.   Mr.
Atkinson is a gentleman of affable manners and engaging
presence, for whom there is doubtless a brilliant future yet
in store.

Source: Memoirs of Georgia published 1895 by The Southern
Historical Association