MARION COUNTY, GA - BIOS W.W. Drane

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by: Typed byCarla Miles


Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/marion.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm


Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. II, Atlanta, Ga., page 485-486 
Published by The Southern Historical Association in 1895


MARION COUNTY

W.W. Drane, farmer, Friendship, Marion Co., Ga., son of Dr.
William and Martha H. (Winfrey) Drane, was born in Columbia
county, Ga., in 1830.  His paternal grandparents, William and
Cassandra (McGruder) Drane, were of English descent, and born in
Maryland.  He was recruited in the patriot army during the
revolutionary war, and was within sixteen miles of Yorktown at
the time of Cornwallis’ surrender.  He migrated to Georgia and
settled in Columbia county in 1790, where he farmed and reared
his family, and died in 1845.  Mr. Drane’s father was born in
Columbia county in 1800.  After receiving preparatory education,
Dr. Drane attended medical lectures at Bellevue hospital, New
York city, and in 1832 located in Talbot county, where he
practiced his profession until 1846.  Smallpox was very
prevalent in his section during a part of the time he was in
practice, and he gained a wide-spread reputation for his
successful treatment of it.  He was in the army a short time
during the Indian war of 1836.  During the late war he did
nearly all the smallpox practice in his own and adjoining
counties.  He was an ardent and influential politician, and
represented Talbot county in the general assembly eight years
after which he retired to the shades of private life.  He owned
large tracts of land, and a great number of slaves; and was an
elder in the local Presbyterian church.  Mr. Drane’s maternal
grandparents, Jesse and Fannie (Spencer) Winfrey, were native
Virginians.  He was of French extraction and migrated from
Virginia to Georgia soon after the revolutionary war, in which
he had been a soldier in the patriot army, settled in Columbia
county, and died about 1810.  He was considered to be one of the
wealthiest men in Georgia as may be inferred from the fact that
on one occasion he went to Savannah and bought twenty-five
slaves from a vessel just arrived from Africa.  Mr. Drane, when
twenty years of age, engaged in a general merchandise business,
continuing it until war between the states was inaugurated.  In
1861 he enlisted in Company H, of which he was made captain,
Fifty-ninth Georgia regiment.  Among other important battles he
participated in were those of Gettysburg, the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania Courthouse, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, etc.  In the
battle at Gettysburg he was wounded three times, but did not
leave the field.  Having been elected justice of the inferior
court, he returned home in February, 1865.  He came out of the
war without anything.  In 1868 he purchased a small tract of
land, to which he has gradually added until now he has over 600
acres of good farming land, partly well improved and productive,
on which he has a comfortable home.  He is a very successful
farmer, and an influential citizen.  Mr. Drane was happily
married in 1859 to Miss Eugenia N. Brown, born in Crawford
county, Ga., in 1839, daughter of William M. and Amanda (Gray)
Brown.  Mr. Brown was born in Greene county, Ga., and during
boyhood and youth was deprived of educational advantages.  When
grown he moved to Crawford county, which he afterward
represented in the general assembly a number of times.
Subsequently he removed to Marion county, which he also
represented in the general assembly a number of times.  He was
in the Creek Indian war, in which he served as a major.  He was
an “old-line” whig, and about 1848 came within one or two votes
of being nominated for Congress, and was subsequently appointed
United States marshal under President Taylor.  He was elected as
an anti-secessionist to the convention in 1860-61, and one of
the few who signed a protest against it.  He possessed large
planting interests, kept “open house”, and entertained lavishly;
the humblest of his guests received the same considerate
attention as the rich and distinguished - all were welcome and
all alike shared his hospitality.  After the war he gave
thousands of bushels of corn to the soldiers, and soldiers
families.  He was brave and courageous, and, like such, generous
and magnanimous - a born leader.  The union of Mr. and Mrs.
Drane has been blessed with six children: Albert, in the war
department, Washington city; William; Minnie; Eugene; Walter,
and Bertie.  Mr. Drane is a master Mason, and himself and wife
are prominent members of the Presbyterian church.