Sumter-Jones-Houston County GaArchives Biographies.....Council, Malcolm B. 1838 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 30, 2004, 7:03 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 995-997

   MALCOLM B. COUNCIL. Noteworthy among the energetic and enterprising men who
have contributed largely towards the development and advancement of the
agricultural and industrial prosperity of Sumter county is Malcolm B. Council,
of Americus, a well-known capitalist, and one of the more extensive landholders
of southwest Georgia. A son of Solomon B. Council, he was born June 26, 1838,
near Payetteville, Cumberland county, North Carolina.

   His paternal grandfather, Michael Council, a native of Nansemond county,
Virginia, migrated to North Carolina in early life, locating first in what is
now Anson county, from there going to Robeson county, and finally settling
permanently in Cumberland county, that state, where his death occurred at the
venerable age of ninety years. He married a Miss Barlow, and they reared five
sons, Solomon B., Thomas, Matthew, John and Jordan, and three daughters. Nothing
definite is known of the Barlow family, to which his wife belonged, but history
tells us that one of Sir Walter Raleigh's ships that sailed from England in
April, 1584, was commanded by Capt. Arthur Barlow, who landed in North Carolina
in that year.

   Reared on his father's farm, Solomon B. Council remained a resident of
Cumberland county, North Carolina, until 1842. Then, accompanied by his wife and
children, he made an overland journey to Georgia, bringing with him all of his
worldly possessions, camping and cooking by the wayside. Locating in Sumter
county, he bought a tract of heavily timbered land lying three miles northeast
of Americus, and immediately began the pioneer task of hewing a home from the
forest. This part of the state was then in its primeval wildness, deer and other
wild game native to this section being plentiful, and roaming at will. Americus
was a small place, with but three or four stores, and there were no railways in
the state. Hawkinsville and Macon, on the Ocmulgee river, and Columbus, on the
Chattahoochee, were the principal trading points, although salt was obtained at
the Gulf. For his first habitation in his new home, Solomon B. Council built a
rude log-house, with a stick and earth chimney. In due course of time that was
replaced by a more commodious structure, other substantial buildings were
erected, and on the farm which he improved he spent the remainder of his life,
passing away at the advanced age of eighty-four years.

   Solomon B. Council married Elizabeth Blue, who was born in Cumberland county,
North Carolina, and died on the home farm, in Sumter county, Georgia, when but
seven days less than eighty-eight years old. Her father, Malcolm Blue, married
Nancy Jacobs, a daughter of Henry and. Sarah (Brown) Jacobs, grand-daughter of
Neal and Barbara (McMillin) Brown, and great-granddaughter of Governor Brown, of
Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Solomon B. Council reared six children, as follows:
Mary, Margaret, Maria, Sarah, George, and Malcolm B.

   A child of four years when he was brought by his parents to Sumter county,
Malcolm B. Council was brought up in true pioneer style, attending a
subscription school, which was kept in a small loghouse, furnished with
home-made seats and benches, while he, in common with the members of all the
families in the vicinity, wore garments made of homespun, and fashioned by the
women of the households, each woman and girl doing her regular daily stint of
carding, spinning and weaving. At the outbreak of the war between the states, he
enlisted as a private in Cutt's artillery, and was subsequently made adjutant,
with rank of lieutenant. He went to Virginia with his company, which was
attached to Longstreet's corps, and took part in many of the hard-fought battles
of the conflict, including the engagements at Centerville, Chancellorsville, the
seven days' fight around Richmond, the battles at Antietam, Sharpsburg, the
Wilderness, the second engagement at Manassas, the battle of Gettysburg, at
Spottsylvania Court House, and in the many skirmishes in the vicinity of
Richmond and Petersburg, later surrendering at Appomattox.

   Returning to Americus at the close of the war, Mr. Council taught school for
awhile, and was afterward employed as clerk in a cotton warehouse. Entering then
the employ of Capt. John A. Cobb, who owned five large plantations, and worked
more than one hundred and twenty-five negroes, he became overseer of the Cobb
property, making his home on the plantation which had the nearest white
neighbors, they being three miles distant, and retained the position eight
years. Going then to De Soto, Mr. Council carried on general farming there for
two years, and on returning to Americus at the expiration of that time, embarked
in the warehouse business, with which he was prominently and successfully
connected for thirty years. In the meantime he was also interested in
agricultural pursuits, and now owns and operates several valuable plantations.
Among his holdings are the old Council homestead, one of the finest plantations
in Georgia; a plantation on the river, fourteen miles southeast of Americus; an
estate lying sixteen miles northwest of the city; another situated fifteen miles
to the south; one in Lee county; and another plantation in Dooly county. Mr.
Council has always been a lover of the chase, keeping a well-trained pack of
hounds, and owns a game preserve of five hundred acres, sixteen miles from
Americus.

   Mr. Council married, February 5, 1867, Martha Maria Harris, who was born in
Houston county, Georgia, two miles east of Fort Valley, a daughter of Isaac C.
Harris. Samuel Harris, her paternal grandfather, a life-long resident of
Georgia, died in 1814, at a comparatively early age. He was a soldier in the
Revolutionary war, and for his services therein was given a grant of land in
Washington county, the grant bearing date of September 30, 1784. Isaac C. Harris
was born in Warren county, Georgia, July 30. 1813, and was brought up on a farm.
After attaining manhood he lived for a short time in Jones county, but from 1842
until 1863 was engaged in farming in Houston county, where he owned land. Coming
to Sumter county in 1863, he bought a farm lying ten miles south of Americus,
and occupied it for a time. Selling out, he purchased land in Lee county, and
was there a tiller of the soil until 1877, when he .returned to Warren county,
where he remained a resident until his death, in 1879. He was a local preacher
in the Methodist Episcopal church, and reared his family in that faith.

   Isaac C. Harris was twice married. He married first Provvie Alsobrook, who
was born November 19, 1811, in Jones county, Georgia, a daughter of Amos and
Sarah (Jones) Alsobrook, the former of whom spent his entire life in Jones
county, while his wife, who survived him, spent her last years at the home of a
daughter, in Florida. Mrs. Provvie Alsobrook Harris died September 22. 1862. Mr.
Harris subsequently married for his second wife Mary Pullen, who is now living
on the old Harris homestead, in Warren county. By his first marriage Mr. Harris
reared twelve children, as follows: Mary; Noffleet; Augustus; Samuel; John;
Sarah; Martha Maria, wife of Mr. Council; Eugenia; Joseph; Robert; Alonzo; and
James.   Of his second union, three children were horn, Anna, William, and George.

   Mr. and Mrs. Council are the parents of six children, namely: Lena Harris;
Emma Eugenia; John Malcolm; Elizabeth; Nell Lenoir and Harris Solomon. Lena
Harris married John T. Argo, and has six children, Martha Helen, Herschel
Council, Christine Elizabeth, Catherine, Malcolm Blue, and John Thomas. Emma
P]ugenia, wife of Elton C. Parker, has four children, Leonard Council, Mary
Elizabeth, Martha Eugenia, and Elton Council. John M. Council married Luetta
Cochran. Elizabeth is the wife of Dr. Stephen H. McKee. Nell L. married S. E.
Statham. Fraternally, Mr. Council is a member of M. B. Council Lodge, No. 95,
Free and Accepted Masons; of Wells Chapter, No. 42, Royal Arch Masons; and of De
Molay Commandery, No. 5, Knights Templar.


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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