Grady-Union-Gwinnett County GaArchives Biographies.....Ledford, Mercer Lafayette 1865 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 23, 2004, 11:13 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 935-937

   HON. MERCER LAFAYETTE LEDFORD. One of the ablest attorneys and most prominent
men in public affairs in Grady county, is the honorable Mercer Lafayette
Ledford, who has been a resident of Cairo since the organization of Grady
county, and who has for many years enjoyed success as a lawyer and numerous
distinctions in political life.

   Mercer Lafayette Ledford was born on a farm in Union county, Georgia,
September 24, 1865. His father was Silas Ledford, born near Asheville, in
Buncombe county, North Carolina, October 22, 1821. The grandfather was Benjamin
Ledford, born in the same county of North Carolina, and a son of John Ledford, a
native and life-long resident of North Carolina, and said to have been a soldier
in the Revolutionary war. Grandfather Benjamin Ledford owned and occupied a farm
upon which the town of Candler has since been built. In 1839 he immigrated to
Georgia, coming overland with teams and wagons, and bringing his household
goods, and his livestock. He located in Union county, buying land on Ivy Log
creek, six miles northwest of Blairsville. There he built a log house in the
woods, and at once began the heavy toil connected with creating a homestead of
the wilderness. He resided on that estate until his death at the age of
ninety-three years. He married a Miss Owensby, who was born in Buncome county,
North Carolina, and her father, Porter Owensby, married a Miss Morgan. The
grandmother died at the age of sixty-five, and Grandfather Ledford married again
when he was sixty-eight years of age, Mrs. Salina (Chapman) Miller, becoming his
second wife. She bore him three children, whose names were Solomon, Mary and
Willie. By the first marriage the five children were Silas, Martha, Porter, Amy
and Benjamin. The sons all gave service to the Confederacy during the war.

   Silas Ledford, the father, was educated in the rural schools of Buncombe
county, North Carolina, and on beginning his career his father gave him a tract
of timbered land near his own home. On that he built a log house, and that was
the home of his family for some years. Silas Ledford served the Confederate army
for a time during the last year of the war. He finally sold his first homestead
and bought a place a mile and a half east of Blairsville, which continued to be
his home until his death in 1891. Silas Ledford married Eliza Arminda Bowling.
She was born in Union county, Georgia, in February, 1837, and her father, Thomas
Bowling, was born near Greenville in South Carolina. Thomas Bowling in 1833
settled in Union county, Georgia, buying land a mile and a half east of
Blairsville, and clearing a farm which Mercer L. Ledford now owns. Thomas
Bowling took a very active part in the early affairs of Union county, and
assisted in clearing the land for the courthouse and in cutting and hewing .the
logs for the first building. He was also distinguished as one of the first
sheriffs of Union county. After the death of his first wife he married the
second time and moved to Fulton county, where he spent his last years. The
maiden name of the first wife was Mary McDonald, and her children were Lewis,
Gabriel, Elmira, Elliott, Jackson, Van Buren, Eliza, Arminda, Evlyn and Martha.
The two older sons served in the Mexican war, and both died in service at Vera
Cruz. Mrs. Silas Ledford died on January 2, 1897, and her eight children were
Andrew J., Jane, John S., Alice, Mercer Lafayette, Ida, Virgil C., and Sarah
Isabelle.

   Mercer L. Ledford first attended school in Blairsville and subsequently was a
student in the Ivy Log high school, whose principal was at that time Professor
M. L. Mauney. When seventeen years of age he was licensed as a teacher, and his
first school was at Ebenezer Church, the school house being situated on land
where his father had first located. He subsequently taught in Gwinett county and
there took up the study of law with Juhan & McDonald. Mr. Ledford was admitted
to the bar in 1892 and practised for some time in Lawrenceville, moving from
there to Blairsville. His first case in Union county was at Ebenezer Church,
where he had taught school a number of years ago, and where his father first
settled. He was engaged in practice at Blairsville until 1905, and then upon the
organization of Grady county he located at Cairo and has enjoyed a large
practice in this new county.

   In 1897 Mr. Ledford married Florence Iowa Christopher. She was born in Union
county, a daughter of John A. and Sarah (Martin) Christopher, her parents being
natives of North Carolina and South Carolina respectively. Mrs. Ledford received
her education at Blairsville and in the Baptist school in Hiawassee. She was a
well educated woman and taught school for some time before her marriage. The
four children of Mr. and Mrs. Ledford are Sarah, Ina, Curtis and Louisa.

   Mr. Ledford's public services have been numerous. He served as a member of
the board of education in Union county, and was also a county school
commissioner. In 1902 he was elected to the office of state senator from Union
county, and served during 1902-3-4. As senator he served on the committee on
special and general judiciary, and the committee on finance, chairman on the
committee of education, and also was a member of the committee on mines and
mining and on public printing. He was influential in the passage of the
franchise tax bill, a bill which imposed a tax upon the franchises of public
utility corporations in this state. He was also author of the bill regulating
the sale of domestic wines. For seven years Mr. Ledford served as county
attorney of Grady county, and for two and one-half years as president of the
county board of education, and was a prominent member of the Democratic party,
has been on the congressional district executive committee and also the state
executive committee. In 1904 he was a presidental elector from the ninth
congressional district. Fraternally Mr. Ledford is past master of Allegheny
lodge, A. F. & A. M., at Blairsville, and is now a member of Cairo lodge, No.
299, A. F. & A. M. He is also affiliated with the Cairo lodge of Odd Fellows,
the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias. He and his wife are both
members of the Missionary Baptist church and he has served as moderator of the
Baptist Association.


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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