William B Short, Marion County GA

Marion County

Biographies

Marion County GAGenWeb

Trish Elliott-Kashima, County Coordinator

Source: A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians, 1917, By Lucien Lamar Knight

William B. Short. Marion County claims as one of the representative members of its bar and as one of its progressive and public-spirited citizens William Bascom Short, who is engaged in the successful practice of his profession at Buena Vista, the county seat, and whose ability and personal popularity have found testimonial in his being called upon to serve in the office of solicitor of the county court and also that of mayor of the fine little Georgia city in which he maintains his home. He holds secure prestige as one of the leading members of the bar of the Chattahoochee Circuit and has been concerned with much important litigation in its various courts.

It is gratifying to note that in his native county Mr. Short has found ample opportunity for achieving success and precedence in his chosen profession, and he is a scion of a family whose name has been long and worthily identified with Georgia history. Mr. Short was born on the homestead plantation of his father's in Marion County, and the date of his nativity was October 29, 1861, so that he was ushered into the world shortly after the beginning of the great conflict that brought much of devastation to the fair Southland. He is a son of Rev. William Joseph Short and Nancy (Wallis) Short. Rev. William J. Short was born in Taylor County, Georgia, in 1834, and as a youth of about nineteen years he accompanied his parents on their removal to Marion County, in 1853. When the Civil war was precipitated on the nation he manifested his unqualified loyalty to the causes of the Confederacy, and served as a gallant soldier in a Georgia regiment during the entire period of the great internecine conflict. After the close of the war he engaged in the general merchandise business at Brantley, and Buena Vista, Marion County, besides which he became one of the successful and prominent representatives of agricultural industry in this county and a man of benignant and potent influence in community affairs, especially through is effective service as a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, his ministerial labors having continued during the long course of sixty-eight years, and though he celebrated his eighty-second birthday anniversary in 1916 he still officiates as a clergyman on special occasions, the while he is revered in the county that has represented his home for many years. As a man of alert mind and well fortified convictions, he has been well qualified for leadership in popular sentiment and action, and at the time when the populist party was at the zenith of its activities he became one of its leading representatives in Marion County, his hold upon popular esteem having been significantly shown when he was elected to the State Legislature on the populist ticket, and that in a district that was strongly democratic in its normal political status. He was an active and influential member of the legislative sessions in 1894-5 and he has otherwise manifested his civic loyalty and public spirit, having an inviolable place in the confidence and high regard of all who know him. Mrs. Nancy (Wallis) Short was but thirty-eight years of age at the time of her death, was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was loved by all who came within the compass of her gentle and gracious influence. Of the seven children the subject of this review is the eldest, and one daughter died in infancy; Joseph B. is a representative cotton and fertilizer merchant at Buena Vista; Dr. Bland P., who was graduated in the Baltimore Medical College, in the metropolis of Maryland, is engaged in the practice of his profession at Newton, the judicial center of Baker County, Georgia; Herbert S who resides at the old family home in Brantley, is one of the substantial exponents of agricultural enterprise in his native county; Washington S is a leading merchant at Shellman, Randolph County, and has represented that county in the State Legislature; Lovie Francis is a prosperous merchant at Shellman, and is also a substantial farmer of Randolph County.

After the death of his wife of his young manhood, Rev William J Short contracted a second marriage when Mrs. Eliza (Green) Melton became his wife, their devoted companionship having continued during the long intervening years, but no children having been born of their union.

After duly availing himself of the advantages of schools of Marion County William B Short pursued a course of higher academic study at Butler's Male and Female College and Institute at Butler, Taylor County, Georgia and in 1885 he was graduated at Emory College at Oxford from which this celebrated Georgia Institution he received a Bachelor of Arts. During the ensuing 5 years he was a successful and popular representative of the pedagogic profession, as a teacher of public schools in his native county, and in the meanwhile began the study of law under the effective preceptorship of Hon. Morgan McMichael of Buena Vista. In 1890 he was admitted to the bar of Georgia , upon examination before Judge James M Smith, who was then presiding over the Superior Court of the Chattahoochee Circuit and who had the distinction of having been the first Democratic governor of Georgia after the close of the Civil War.

Prior to his admission to the bar, Mr Short had become actively concerned with affairs in his home county and the first office he was elected to was that of county surveyor which he continued the incumbent for two terms. Thereafter he served one term as county treasurer, and one term he was clerk of Superior Court. In 1892-3 he represented his county in the Lower House of the State Legislature, and in 1894 he initiated the active practice of his profession at Buena Vista, the same year having recorded his election of mayor of Buena Vista, his administration during 1894-5 having been signally progressive and effective. In 1896 and 1897 Mr Short served as solicitor of the county court and in every position of public trust to which he has been called he has fully justified the confidence reposed in him, besides demonstrating his special eligibility for such special preferments.

Mr Short has made an admirable record in his profession and has won many forensic victories in both the criminal and civil departments of practice, with secure vantage place as one of the resourceful and versatile members of the bar of the Chattahoochee Circuit and with inviolable confidence in the confidence and good will of his professional confreres. In an incidental way Mr Short is a progressive exponent of the modern and scientific system of agricultural industry, as an owner of a well improved landed estate in Marion County. He was a member of the Farmers' Alliance, always has been a stalwart advocate and influential supporter of the principals of the democratic party, and he holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, his wife being a member of the Missionary Baptist church in which she is a prominent figure in the Womens's Missionary Society, besides being also active in the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

On the 16 of November 1890, was solemnized the marriage of Mr Short to Mrs Molly (Brown) Harvey, who was born and reared in Marion County and who is a daughter of Wesley and Hattie (Burkhalter) Brown, both now deceased. Mr and Mrs Short have three children whose names and respective dates of birth are here indicated: Will Brown, May 12, 1897; Ruth and Esther (twins), October 30, 1899.