Taylor County GaArchives Biographies.....Mangham, James O. July 31 1838 - May 1 1911
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Harris Hill http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002514 January 28, 2005, 4:55 pm

Author: Mrs. Lillie Martin Grubbs

When we begin to think of the early educators of our county, our minds revert 
to one whom a good many of our best citizens remember not only as their 
instructor, but as their benefactor.

We refer to J. O. Mangham.  Although Mr. Mangham was not born in this county, 
I doubt if we have ever had a teacher among us who was more generally loved 
and honored than was he.

Among our own county people who still love and revere his memory, you will 
find Dr. W.C. Tipton, Mr. John Tipton, Col. R.S. Foy, Col. W.C. Forehand, Dr. 
Gordon Sumner, of Poulan, Miss Alice Tipton, Mrs. J.N. Sumner, and many others.

Mr. Mangham was not only one of the best teachers of his day, but he was of 
the highest order of Christian gentleman, and all of those who were ever under 
his supervision, feel that they are better men and women by having come under 
the influence of his Christian character.

Mr. Mangham, the only son of H.H. and Elizabeth Mangham, was born July 31, 
1838, in what is now Taylor County, but at that time Talbot County.  On the 
10th of November, 1859, he was married to Miss Winifred Edwards, daughter of 
W.P. and Ann Edwards, also of Talbot County.  He entered the teaching 
profession in the early years of his manhood, and in 1876 or '78 he was 
elected County School Commissioner, as it was then called, of Taylor County, 
which position he held until 1896.  During the time that he was County School 
Commissioner of Taylor County he also taught, and now, among some of the 
leading teachers of that county, will be found his old pupils.

In 1897 he came to Worth County and for several years was among the foremost 
teachers of Southwest Georgia.  During that time he conducted several 
Institutes of a week's duration in this and adjoining counties.

In 1906 Mr. W.B. Merritt, who was at that time State School Superintendent, 
made a trip to Sycamore where Mr. Mangham was then living, to ask if he would 
accept the position of County School Commissioner of Camden County as the 
Commissioner of that County had resigned, and the County School Board felt 
that they did not have a man in the county, who, they considered, was 
competent to fill the place.  Mr. Mangham said he would accept the place if 
the Board should see fit to appoint him, which it did, and we believe that he 
is the only man in the state who was ever appointed to such a position without 
ever having been in the county, much less ever having lived in it.

On May 1st, 1911, while enroute from St. Marys, Camden County, to Valdosta to 
attend a convention of the County School Commissioners of Georgia, he died at 
the home of his youngest son, J. O. Mangham, Jr., who then lived in 
Jacksonville, Fla.

Mr. Mangham left five children:  three sons, Dr. J.E. Mangham, of Reynolds, 
Ga., who died in 1927; C.A. Mangham of Jacksonville; J.O. Mangham of Tampa, 
and two daughters, Miss Claude Mangham, and Mrs. E. J. Williams, both of whom 
live in Sylvester.  Mrs. Williams has been a teacher of English and Arithmetic 
in McPhaul Institute for the past ten or eleven years.

Additional Comments:
From "The History of Worth County," written 1934.

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