Oktibbeha County MsArchives Biographies.....Carroll, Thomas Battle 1860 - 1923
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 29, 2012, 11:58 am

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   Thomas Battle Carroll was the eldest child of John Gillespie Carroll, M. D.,
and Narcissa Elizabeth Carroll (nee Williams). Dr. Carroll and his wife, natives
of Carrollton, Alabama, came to Mississippi in 1850 and settled about seven
miles southwest of Starkville, near the Louisville road. Here their eldest
children were born; Thomas Battle was born March 18, 1860, and Febbie (Mrs. J.
D. Hollinshead), two or three years later. About 1865, the family moved about
ten miles east to Choctaw Agency; and in this old community the other children
were born: Emma Beverley (Mrs. W. P. Ellett, of Miami, Florida), John S. (of
Jackson, Mississippi), Eva (died in childhood), and Maude (of Starkville).

   In the heart of the old plantation community, Thomas passed the first
fourteen years of his life. He worked on the farm, attended the Agency school,
and more important, became acquainted with people and with books. At the age of
fifteen he was a boarding pupil in Gathright’s school at Summerville in Noxubee
County; then for two years he studied in Southwestern College (then Baptist) at
Jackson, Tennessee. In December 1878, he entered the law department of the
University of Mississippi, and five months later he received his law diploma,
ranking second in the class. In September 1879, he became a member of the
Starkville bar, though he made his residence for the next three years on the
plantation. In 1882 he established himself in Starkville; and during the
forty-one years of life remaining to him, he was a resident of the county seat,
active in social, business, and political life.

   From 1886 to 1888, he represented Oktibbeha County in the Legislature. Upon
the organization of the Security State Bank in 1896, Carroll became a director
and the vice- president; and lie retained these offices until his resignation in
1916. During the Great War, he was one of the leaders in financial, Red Cross,
and other "drives."

   From 1882 to 1890, Carroll was the law-partner of M. R. Butler (who served a
term as district attorney); and from 1896 to 1910, of W. W. Magruder (junior
partner). On May 1, 1910, Carroll became, by appointment from Gov. E. F. Noel,
circuit judge of the sixteenth district. Except for nine months in 1914, Carroll
remained on the bench until his death in 1923. He was conducting court when the
stroke of apoplexy that caused his death overcame him. As a jurist, he was
eminently successful. The Supreme court seldom reversed a decision rendered in
Carroll’s court.

   On October 14, 1885, Carroll married Gertrude Perkins (daughter of Dr. Joseph
B. Perkins and Mary Washington, of Agency). Of this union four children were
born: Stanley (business man of Starkville), Eva May (died 1929), Gertrude (Mrs.
W. H. Buckley, of Lewis, Louisiana), and Miriam (Mrs. George B. Cole, of
Nashville, Tennessee).

   Judge Carroll was much interested in the history of Oktibbeha County. During
the ten years preceding his death, he gathered data from records and from old
citizens of the county. His purpose was to collect all items of general
interest, and to write a comprehensive story extending from the first settlement
of Oktibbeha by the white men through the achievements of their descendants in
the first quarter of the twentieth century.

   Judge Carroll died on November 13, 1923. Members of the Bar throughout the
district and many other persons of every rank attended the funeral. His grave is
in the Odd Fellows cemetery in Starkville.

AN APPRECIATION
of the Life and Work of Judge Carroll by his former law partner and friend W. W.
Magruder of the Oktibbeha County Bar.

   Thomas Battle Carroll died on the thirteenth day of November, 1923. His death
was a great loss to his friends, his family, and his State.

   In an intimate acquaintance with him, extending over a long term of years, I
never heard him use a profane or vulgar word, nor tell a story of questionable
propriety.

   He lived a clean, pure life, a life of conspicuous devotion to his wife, his
children, his grandchildren, and other loved ones. His home was a haven of rest
and refuge from professional and judicial obligations, the best place in the
world to him.

   A man, himself candid, frank, and sincere, he had no toleration for sham,
pretense, or affectation. He was a gentleman, a lawyer, and a jurist; a
gentleman, because of birth, training, and tradition; a lawyer, because of his
legal mind, his wonderful memory, his profound learning, and his superior
ability; a jurist, because of his absolute passion for justice.

   His Court was to him a tribunal for the administration of justice, not a
place for display of skill in fence between lawyers. Though tenacious for the
technical requirements of the law, he was insistent that the merits of every
case be ascertained and vindicated.

   In him on the Bench, the young lawyer found a firm friend, willing to extend
a helping suggestion in any time of need or to give a word of encouragement. On
and off the Bench he was a man of sense, business judgment, wisdom. As Judge of
the Sixteenth Judicial District, he made a record that will constitute for all
time his best monument. It is, in fact, my deliberate belief that he was the
greatest jurist of his day in this State.

   And so, I pay not the last tribute, but this tribute of affection to the
memory of my friend, who was my partner and constant associate in the practice
of law for many years.

W. W. MAGRUDER
May 1, 1928.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF OKTIBBEHA COUNTY
(Mississippi)

By
THOMAS BATTLE CARROLL, LL. B.
MEMBER OF THE OKTIBBEHA COUNTY BAR, 1879-1923 
JUDGE OF THE SIXTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI, 191O-1923

EDITED AND AMENDED BY
ALFRED BENJAMIN BUTTS, PH. D., LL. B.
VICE-PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT 
MISSISSIPPI A. AND M. COLLEGE, AND MEMBER OF THE OKTIBBEHA COUNTY BAR

ALFRED WILLIAM GARNER, PH. M.
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND ECONOMICS IN THE MISSISSIPPI A. AND M. COLLEGE

AND

FREDERIC DAVIS MELLEN, M. A.
PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE IN THE MISSISSIPPI A. AND M. COLLEGE

The DIXIE Press Gulfport, Miss.
1931


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