Lamar-Pike-Upson County GaArchives Obituaries.....Willis, J.M. February 27 1907
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Lynn Cunningham http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002535 June 10, 2004, 5:44 am

The Barnesville News-Gazette, Barnesville, Ga., Thursday, March 7, 1907
Dr. J.M. Willis Dead
Well Known in Middle Georgia, Having Once Lived in Barnesville.

The death Sunday morning, February 24th, of Dr. J.M. Willis has caused 
universal regret in this city and elsewhere, where he had been so well and 
favorably known for many years past, not only among those whose hair, like his, 
has been silvered by the frosts of more than four score winters, but also among 
the younger generation, who, in knowing him, gave him their affection and 
respect.

Dr. Willis was born in Jones county, Ga., on December 11th, 1822. Three years 
later, his parents moved to Upson county in that state, where, on a plantation, 
he grew to manhood, receiving the while, a common school education. After 
reading medicine in Oak Bowery, Alabama, he took the full medical and surgical 
course in the University of New York, graduating with high honors in 1846. 
Returning thence to Georgia, he located in Barnesville, where he married Miss 
Dorethea Cordelia Blalock; uninterruptedly practicing medicine until 1857, when 
he moved to Texas, locating in Cass county. In 1866, he moved with his family 
to Waco, continuing his profession of medicine there and at Calvert and at 
Wooten Wells (from 1880 to 1888) retiring from general practice in Waco in the 
late eighties, confining himself to special work, until the infirmities of old 
age compelled him to give up active work in his life’s chosen field, when he 
moved to Temple to spend the remainder of his days with his children located at 
that place. Some years after the death of his first wife, he married Mrs. 
Leaverton, in Calvert. Her death occurred in 1885.

Throughout the Civil War he was a brigade surgeon in the Confederate Army, 
seeing service in Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi.

While residing in Cass county, he represented with dignity and honor, his 
District in the Thirteenth Texas Legislature under Governor Murrah. During his 
residence in Georgia, he represented that state in the celebrated convention 
held in Cincinnati by the “Know Nothing” party. Dr. Willis, during his 
lifetime, followed the political trend in his section and country always with 
keen interest; not for personal gain, but from purely patriotic motives. For 
seventy consecutive years, up to his death, Dr. Willis was a devout member of 
the Methodist church. For sixty tears he [was] a Mason with the rank of Knight 
Templar; and for fifty-five years he was an Odd Fellow; holding two medals of 
the last named order, each for twenty five years of uninterrupted membership in 
good standing. But for the fact that at the time of his locating in Texas there 
was no Odd Fellows Lodge established in this state, he would have been awarded 
a medal for fifty years membership, a very high honor indeed.

By nature and breeding, Dr. Willis was a gentleman of fine instincts and noble 
character. Broad in his views; charitable to his fellow man; pure in his 
professional and private life, he was in every sense a gentleman of the Old 
School. He lived his life nobly, doing full duty each day, being not fretful of 
the future. And as he lived, so did he die. “Twas not an icy hand that touched 
and stilled his lips in death; nor was it the grim reaper - rather an angel who 
came with sweet music and bore him away. And now in beautiful Oakwood cemetery, 
Waco, overlooking the Brazos river, mid scenes he knew and loved in prime of 
life and usefulness; by the side of his loved ones who had gone before - he is 
at rest. - Temple Texas Tribune

(Transcribed 6/06/04 Lynn Cunningham)

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