Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/79

 LUMPKIN

LUMPKIN

John and Lucy (Hopson) Lumpkin, and of Henry Pope of Oglethorpe county, Ga. He was reared on his father's farm, and assisted John Lan- drum, clerk of court of Oglethorpe county for one year. He attended Franklin college, Uni- versity of Georgia, 1829-30, Yale college, 1830-32, when an epidemic of yellow fever broke up the class and he returned to Georgia. He served as secretary on the staff of his uncle. Gov. Wilson Lumpkin, 1832-33, and studied law with his uncle, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, 1833-34. He was admitted to the bar in March, 1834, and settled in practice at Rome, Floyd county, Ga. He was a representative in the state legislature in 1835, where he secured an appropriation of $10,000 to build academies in the Cherokee country. He was solicitor-general of the Cherokee circuit, 1839-42; Democratic representative in the 28th, 29th and 30th congresses, 1843-49, and in the 34th congress, 1855-57; and judge of the Cherokee circuit court, 1849-52. He was the Democratic candidate for governor in 1857, but was defeated by Joseph E. Brown. He was appointed a dele- gate to the Southern Commercial convention at Montgomery, Ala., in 1858, by Governor Brown, and was a delegate at large to the Democratic national convention held at Charleston, S. C, April 23, and at Richmond, June 21, 1860, and to the state Democratic convention in June, 1860. He was married in February, 1836, to Martha Antoinette, daughter of Robert M'Combs, of Mil- ledgeville, Ga. She died in September, 1838, leav- ing one son. He married secondly in May, 1840, Mary Jane, daughter of Thomas Crutchfield, of Athens, Ga. He died at Rome, Ga., June 6, 1860. LUMPKIN, Joseph Henry, jurist, was born in Oglethorpe county, Ga., Dec. 23, 1799; son of John and Lucy (Hopson) Lumpkin, natives of Virginia, who settled in Oglethorpe when the country was a wilderness; and a descendant of English settlers in Virginia. He entered the junior class at Nassau Hall, College of New Jer- sey, in 1817, and was graduated in 1819. He studied law at Athens, Ga., under Judge Cobb, was admitted to the bar in October, 1820, and practised at Lexington, Ga., for nearly twenty- four years. He represented Oglethorpe county in the Georgia legislature in 1824 and 1825. He visited Europe, 1844-45, and in 1845, during his absence, he was elected chief justice of the newly organized supreme court for the correction of errors, which office he held until his death. He organized the Phi Kappa society at the University of Georgia about 1819-20, declined the professor- ship of rhetoric and oratory there in 1846, and by his exertions and those of Gen. T. R. R. Cobb, and W. H. Hull, established the Lumpkin law school as the law department of the University of Georgia in 1859, the school being named in his VII.— 5

honor. He was the first to occupy the chair of law at the University of Georgia, 1859-61. The civil war closed the school, 1861-65, and he re- sumed the chair in 1865. He dw^lined a seat on the bench of the U.S. court of claima offered him by President Pierce in 1855, and the chan- cellorship of the Uni- versity of Georgia in 1860. He was an ad- vocate of temperance and worked zealously for the reform. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from

the University of T\.v^gs^^se?-3^Biaig ^^WB^^a Georgia in 1823, and that of LL.D. from the College of New Jersey in 1851, and ^^^^^/JU^ was a trustee of the ^ ^ — —

University of Geor- gia, 1854-67. He was one of the compilers of the penal code of Georgia in 1833. He mar- ried Calender Grieve, a Scotch lady, who survived him with the following children: Wil- loughby W., James, Frank, Joseph Henry, Lucy, who married Dr. Gerdine, Marion McHenry, who married Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb (q.v.); Calender, who married the Hon. Porter King, of Alabama, and became the mother of the Hon. Porter King, a prominent citizen of Atlanta, Ga. Judge Lumpkin died in Athens, Ga., June 4, 1867.

LUflPKIN, Samuel, jurist, was born near Lexington, Ogletliorpe county, Ga., Dec. 12, 1848; son of Joseph Henry (Junior) and Sarah (Johnson) Lumpkin; grandson of Samuel and Lucy (Deupree) Lumpkin, and great-grandson of John and Lucy (Hopson) Lumpkin. Samuel Lumpkin, the grandfather, was a brother of Wilson Lumpkin, governor of Georgia and U.S. senator, and of Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Senior, chief justice of Georgia. He was graduated at the University of Georgia, A.B., 1866, A.M., 1869: was admitted to the bar in 1868; was solicitor-general of the northern judicial circuit of Georgia, 1872-76; state senator, 1878-80; judge of the superior court, northern judicial circuit, 1885-90; and on Jan. 1, 1891, became associate justice of the supreme court of Georgia, having been elected to that office in October, 1890. On Jan. 4, 1897, was appointed presiding justice of the 2d division of that court. He was married on Oct. 17, 1878, to Kate, daughter of Col. Walker Richardson of Alabama, and grand- daughter of Col. Adolphus M. Sanford of that state. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Southwestern Baptist university, Jackson, Tenn., in June, 1891.