Lowndes-Brooks County GaArchives Biographies.....Stanfill, Lucius M. 1864 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 18, 2004, 9:37 am

Author: William Harden
p. 764-765

   Lucius M. STANFILL. From a farm hand at wages of three dollars a month to one
of the most prosperous and enterprising merchants and bankers of Lowndes county,
is a brief statement of the business career of Lucius M. Stanfill, of Hahira. To
his own industry and integrity he has added an implicit trust in Providence and
devoted service of his Lord, and he believes that his prosperity has come as a
reward of his faith and works.

   A native of Brooks county, where he was born on the 4th of January, 1864, he
was the youngest child of Jesse John and Rebecca Miley (Tyson) Stanfill. It is
thought that his father was born in one of the Carolinas. He was a carpenter by
trade, following that occupation in Brooks county for some years. He was a
soldier of the South in the war between the states, and his death occurred not
long after he had returned from the front. The mother was a native of Thomas
county, belonging to a pioneer family of that section. Her children were Joseph
T., Mattie S. and Lucius M., and after the father's death she courageously
managed to keep her family together until they became independent. Her death
occurred at the age of fifty-two.

   Lucius M. was a child when his father died, and as soon as old enough began
earning his own living and contributing to the support of his mother. His first
work was as a boy on a farm, getting $3 at the end of each month of labor. After
several years spent in this way, he cropped land on the shares, and thus
gradually got ahead a little. When eighteen years old he was converted and has
ever since been a devout member of the Missionary Baptist church. Believing that
all blessings come from the Lord, after his marriage he resolved to give a tenth
of his profits to the Master's work. His wife did the same, taking a tenth of
the proceeds from her poultry, dairy and garden. This plan had hardly been put
into effect when prosperity came upon them and has been increasing ever since.

   For seven years he operated the Richard Scraggs farm in Brooks county, and
then came to Lowndes county, where he continued farming until 1895. In that year
he became a cotton buyer for A. P. Brantley & Company, and also agent for the
products of the Valdosta Guano Company. In 1901 he organized the Farmers, Supply
Company, of which he is half owner and superintendent, A. J. Strickland of
Valdosta being president of the company. This company has at Hahira a large
store for an extensive stock of general merchandise—furniture, stoves, etc., and
also a fire-proof warehouse for a stock of wagons, carriages and farm
implements. Besides this enterprise, Mr. Stanfill in 1911 erected in Hahira a
two-story building, forty by eighty feet, with pressed-brick front, which is one
of the finest business blocks in south Georgia, and there established a large
business under his own name and proprietorship. His stock comprises pianos,
sewing machines, etc., and in a warehouse he handles such farm implements as are
not carried by the Farmers Supply Company. Through these two concerns the
customers of town and a large surrounding territory are supplied with nearly
everything used at the home and farm.

   At the organization of the Bank of Hahira in 1905, Mr. Stanfill became one of
the directors, and since 1911 has held the office of president. He is owner of
large tracts of land about Hahira as well as town property, and his influence in
business and in citizenship extends to many directions. He is a director of the
Georgia, Alabama & Western Railway, and is president of the Hahira Bell
Telephone Company. During his boyhood he had little opportunity to gain an
education, and during his own prosperous career has done all he could to extend
the facilities of schools to the children of his generation. He has served as a
member of the town school board and council, and is one of the trustees of the
Oak Lawn Academy in Milltown. In national politics he is a Democrat, and is one
of 'the zealous workers for the cause of prohibition. He has served as elector
at large on the last two Prohibition presidential tickets.

   Mr. Stanfill was married in 1885 to Miss Marsha Belote, who was born in
Lowndes county, a daughter of William and Martha (Barfield) Belote. They are the
parents of three children, Minnie Lee. Mary Avey and Stephen. The daughter
Minnie is the wife of B. L. Wilkinson, and they have a daughter named Mary Grace.

   For more than a quarter of a century Mr. and Mrs. Stanfill have lived lives
of trust in divine beneficence. The quality of his belief is well illustrated in
the lesson he draws from the following incident. A number of years ago, while
working among his bees and after hiving two swarms, he gave an orphan boy the
choice of either swarm. Later in the same season, from the swarm which he kept,
he took first $6 worth and later $2.80 worth of honey. From his other hives he
got only a little honey from some and none at all from others. In this respect
men are like bees, says Mr. Stanfill, that some will gather much, others little,
and some nothing at all. In his own case he is assured that Providence has
bestowed upon him the many rewards of a prosperous career.


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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