Vendie Hudson Hooks (1896-1971)

From the Atlanta Constitution, February 7, 1941.

  Vendie Hudson Hooks of Emanuel County, Georgia is another example of a curiously named clergyman gaining prominence through political service, in his case being a three-term Georgia state representative and one-term state senator. A Baptist minister for nearly fifty years, Hooks was a veteran of World War I and served as president of the Emanuel County chapter of the United Georgia Farmers. Born on November 27, 1896 in Swainsboro, Georgia, Vendie Hudson "V.H." Hooks was the son of John and Calcie America (Strange) Hooks.

  A student in the common schools of Emanuel County, Hooks would go on to attend the Georgia Normal College and Business Institute (graduating in 1915) and later pursued a teaching career, teaching at the Oak Park School. He would be affiliated with the Youmans/Yeomans Brothers Supply and Naval Store in Lexsy, Georgia, and would serve during WWI, his dates of service and area of deployment being unknown at this time. Hooks married in August 1919 to Fleetie Frances Yeomans (1900-1990) and later had six children, who are listed as follows in order of birth: Vendie Hudson Jr. (1921-2007), Frances Celeste (1923-2018), Gerald Delano (1926-2017), Sarah Marcile (born 1929), Donald Jordan (1935-2013) and Betty June (birthdate unknown).

  In the early 1920s Hooks turned his attention to religious studies, and after being licensed to preach in the Primitive Baptist Church, he took pastorates throughout Georgia, including a 39-year tenure at the Mt. Zion church, an 18-year stint at the Rosemary Church, and the Avera and New Hope churches in the town of Lexsy. In addition to active ministerial work, Hooks gained further prominence in the civic life of Emanuel County, being a member of the county board of health, the American Legion, a trustee of the Wesley, Georgia school board, a past president of the Swainsboro Production Credit Association, and was a member of the Ogeechee Production Credit Association.

  A longtime farmer in his region, Hooks' made substantial headway in Georgia agricultural circles, "farming several hundred acres of farmland and timber" in the Emanuel County area, and operated a cotton gin, sawmill, and fertilizer plant in that town. He would serve as the first president of the United Georgia Farmers and was also president of the Emanuel Chapter of the United Georgia Farmers. 

From the Atlanta Constitution.

   In 1940 Vendie H. Hooks announced his candidacy for the Georgia House of Representatives and that November won the general election. Taking his seat at the start of the 1941-43 session, he noted his primary aim was to see "better schools and a more efficient educational system in the state", as well as the "general welfare of agriculture." This term saw him named to the committees on Auditing, Counties and County Matters, Education No. 1, Enrollment (chairman), General Agriculture No. 2, Legislative and Congressional Re-Apportionment, Motor Vehicles, Privileges of the Floor, Public Highways No. 2, and Ways and Means. 

  Hooks was re-elected to the legislature in 1942 and 1944, and during the 1945-47 session was named to seven new committees, those being Amendments to the Constitution No. 1; Excuse of Members Absent Without Leave; the Georgia School for the Deaf; Hygiene and Sanitation; Invalid Pensions and the Soldiers Home; Public Welfare; and the University System of Georgia.

Hooks during his time as president of the Emanuel chapter of the United Georgia Farmers.

  In the 1946 election year, Hooks set his sights on a seat in the Georgia state senate, and that November was successful in his candidacy. The 1947-49 senate session saw Hooks serving on the committees on Agriculture, Appropriations, Conservation, Education and Public Schools, Highways and Public Roads, Insurance, Penal Institutions, and Public Welfare, and after leaving office in 1949 returned to ministerial work.  He continued in the ministry until his death at an Atlanta hospital on February 17, 1971, aged 74. He was survived by his wife and children and later was interred at the New Hope Church Cemetery in Nunez, Georgia. Curiously, Hooks' obituary denotes him as having served four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives, which is incorrect, as the Georgia State Register records him as serving three terms (1941-47) and one term in the state senate (1947-49).

From the Atlanta Constitution, February 19, 1971.

Gaines Webster Marquis Tatum (1852-1930)

From the Atlanta Constitution, November 1, 1898.

   Featured on the Strangest Names In American Political History's Facebook page back on August 4th, Dade County, Georgia resident Gaines Webster Marquis Tatum represented his home county in the Georgia House of Representatives for four terms and served two terms in the state senate. Despite his long service in his state's legislature, little information could be located on him, excepting a few brief biographical lines in a July 19, 1891 edition of the Atlanta Constitution. Born in Dade County on November 25, 1852, Gaines W.M. Tatum was the son of Col. Robert Haley and Louise (Sulton) Tatum.

   A student in the common schools of Dade, Tatum had earned a modest fortune by the time he reached twenty years of age, having done contracting work with the Rising Town Iron Manufacturing Company. In the mid-1870s he married to Louise Gray (1857-1936), and the couple's lengthy union saw the births of several children, including Willie (1876-1892), Russell Fleming (1878-1958), Thomas Dabney (born 1879), Webster (1884-1958), Allen (died in infancy in 1895), Edward Turner (1895-1955) and Marion Shook (1897-1900). 

   Following his marriage, Tatum farmed, raised livestock, and is recorded as having had substantial mining interests in the Walker County area. In 1885 he made his first run for the Georgia legislature but was defeated by incumbent representative Shadrach Hale. Two years later Tatum made another run for the legislature and was this time successful, and during the 1889-90 session introduced a bill to "amend an act to prohibit the working of convicts of this state at night, and for other purposes." He would win a second term in 1889 and during the 1890-91 session chaired the committee on Manufactories and served on the committees on Banks, Wild Lands, the Penitentiary, and Special Judiciary. 

  Gaines W. M. Tatum would serve two more terms in the Georgia state house from 1892-94 and 1898-1900. From 1894-1896 and 1900-1902 he represented Georgia's 44th senatorial district in the state senate, where during the former session he chaired the Mines and Mining Committee and was a member of the committee on the Academy of the Deaf and Dumb, Immigration and Labor, Privileges and Elections, Public Schools, and Railroads.

  Tatum's life following his final Senate term remains largely a mystery, excepting a 1918 notice detailing his discovering large seams of coal on Lookout Mountain in Georgia. Gaines W.M Tatum died in Trenton, Georgia on June 15, 1930, aged 77. He was survived by his wife Louise, and both were interred at Trenton's Baptist Cemetery.

  

From the July 19, 1891 Atlanta Constitution.

Allatia Coley Westbrook (1842-1910)

From Georgia's General Assembly of 1880-81.

  Lifelong Georgia resident Allatia Coley Westbrook rose to become one of Dougherty County's distinguished political figures, being at various times Mayor of Albany, Georgia, a two-term state representative, and one term state senator. One of ten children born to Richard N. and Josephine (Coley) Westbrook, Allatia Coley Westbrook's birth occurred in Houston County, Georgia on March 19, 1842. His early education was attained in the common schools of Houston County and during his youth left Georgia to reside with a cousin, Henry Battle, then head of a high school in Chunnenuggee, Alabama. 

  Westbrook would continue his schooling in Chunnenuggee and worked as a mechanic until the outbreak of the Civil War. While he remained opposed to the destruction of the Union, Westbrook cast his lot with the Confederacy, returning to Georgia to enlist as a private in Co. C., First Georgia Volunteer Infantry. His duration with that unit extended a year and saw action at the battles of Laurel Mountain and Cheat Mountain. Westbrook would be wounded in action at the battle of Greenbriar, and, after the expiration of his first tour of duty, he reenlisted, forming a cavalry company with his brother that was later part of the Eighth Georgia Cavalry. He continued service with that regiment until early 1865 when he was promoted to Captain and dispatched to Albany, Georgia, where he remained until the close of the war.

   As the son of a slave owner, Allatia Westbrook is recorded by period sources as "having imbibed an early prejudice against the institution of slavery", and after receiving a number of slaves from his father in the early 1860s resolved to see them freed. Applying for a furlough from military duty to achieve this purpose, Westbrook's request was given the ok by General Robert E. Lee, and after returning home, Westbrook gave each of his slaves "the liberty of selecting his own home." Following the conclusion of the war, Westbrook saw his former slaves "comfortably well settled and doing well", many of whom "constantly manifested gratitude to him" for his actions.

   Embarking upon a mercantile career in Albany after the war, Westbrook's business met with success and in 1868 was elected to his first political office, that of Dougherty County treasurer. Westbrook would decline this post, however, and in 1870 was elected as a member of the Albany city council. This post was followed by his election as Albany's mayor in 1872, serving a one year term. In November 1874 he was elected as Dougherty County's representative to the Georgia State Assembly and during the 1875-77 session sat on the committees on Finance and Internal Improvements. In 1877 he won a second term in the state house (serving in the 1878-80 session) and during this term was a member of a special committee that investigated financial irregularities on the part of state comptroller Washington L. Goldsmith, who was later removed from office.

   Allatia C. Westbrook reached his highest degree of political prominence when he won election to the state senate in 1879. His service during the 1880-82 session saw him introduce a bill "to provide for the correct assessment of the property of this state for the purpose of taxation", an action that was reported on favorably by newspapers of the time. At the conclusion of his term Westbrook returned home to Albany, and in the 1880s and 90s held large farmland holdings in both Dougherty and Baldwin counties. He would subsequently hold the post of a claims adjuster for the Central Railroad and Banking Co. of Georgia and, after several months of ill health, died in Albany on November 28, 1910, aged 68. A lifelong bachelor, he was later interred at the Oakview Cemetery in Albany.

From the Milledgeville Union Recorder, November 29, 1910.

Tugalo Harvie Risner (1884-1954)

Portrait from the Georgia Official and Statistical Register.

   One of the truly unusual names to be found on a roster of past Georgia state senators, Tugalo Harvie Risner had served three terms in the Georgia House of Representatives from Hartwell prior to his Senate election in 1953. Risner's term in the Senate proved to be short, as he died a year into his term in June 1954. The son of Robert and Martha (Suit) Risner, Tugalo Harvie Risner was born on November 28, 1884, in Hart County, Georgia. The origins behind Risner's unusual name remain unknown but may have a connection to the Tugaloo River, a waterway that flows near a once existing Cherokee Indian town, also called Tugaloo. Several sources give the spelling of Risner's first name as "Tugaloo" (including a bridge named in his honor), and he himself spells his name as "Tugalo Harvie Risner" on his 1917 draft card. It is that name spelling that is given here.

  A student in the Reed Creek schools at Hartwell, Risner married on November 15, 1908, to Clara Mackey (1891-1963), to whom he was wed for nearly fifty years. The couple would have seven children, Lowell Garrett (1910-1982), Herndon Eldridge (1911-1991), Leon Tugalo (1914-1991), Marene Martha (1916-1997), Catherine (died in infancy in 1921), Yona (1924-1986) and Burt Cleveland (1930-2007). 

   Following the completion of his schooling, Risner was employed as a barber for a time (listing that as his occupation on his 1917 draft card) and during the 1920s and 30s was engaged as a wildlife ranger in the Georgia Game and Fish Department, serving under commissioners Peter Twitty and Zach Cravey. Prior to his government service, Risner also worked as a traveling salesman, a vocation that is briefly mentioned in his Georgia Official Register biography.

From the 1952-53 Georgia State Register.

  Elected as Hart County's representative to the Georgia Assembly in 1946, Risner proved to be busy as a first-term legislator, and during the 1946-48 session was named to the following committees: Auditing; Conservation; Corporations; Enrollment; Excuse of Members Absent Without Leave; Game and Fish; General Agriculture, No. 1; Georgia School for the Deaf; the Georgia State Sanitarium; Insurance; Invalid Pensions and the Soldiers Home; Mines and Mining; and Public Property.

  Risner won two further terms in the house in 1948 and 1950, and in 1952 was elected to the state senate. Taking his seat at the start of the 1953-54 session, Risner sat on the committees on Highways and Public Roads, Insurance, Motor Vehicles, Penal Institutions, State of the Republic, Temperance. Sadly, Risner's term in the Senate was brief, as he died at his Hartwell home of a "heart ailment" on June 20, 1954, a year into his term. He was survived by his wife Clara, who, following her death in 1963 was interred alongside her husband at the Reed Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Reed Creek Georgia. Three years following his death, the "Tugaloo H. Risner" Memorial Bridge was dedicated in his honor, which still exists today.

Broadus Brown Zellars (1898-1961)

Portrait from the 1917 Cauldron Yearbook.

  The Strangest Names In American Political History begins a monthlong stay in Georgia with a peek at the life of Broadus Brown Zellars, a native of Hart County who served terms in his state's house of representatives and senate. Elected to the former office at the age of just 25, Zellars continued prominence in state government in the late 1930s when he was appointed as assistant attorney general for the state. The son of Albert L. and Texie (Brown) Zellars, Broadus Brown Zellars was born in Bowman, Georgia on January 27, 1898.

  A student in the public schools of Hartwell, Georgia, Zellars graduated from that city's high school and would go on to attend Mercer University, where he edited the law portion of the Cauldron yearbook and took part in university debates. He received his bachelor of laws degree in 1917 at age 19, being remarked as the youngest member of that class.

  In June 1917 Zellars established his law practice in Hartwell, and although still in his teens, success at the bar came quickly to the young man, with Howell's History of Georgia noting that:

"He is well qualified to handle important litigation and has been accorded a liberal clientele. He possesses keen analytical powers and wins a large percentage of his cases, convincing by his concise statement of the law and the facts, rather than by word painting."

  Broadus B. Zellars married in March 1920 to Ora Lake Gaines (1898-1991), and the couple's four-decade marriage saw the births of three children, Mary Kate (1922-2011) and John Broadus (1924-2002), and Martha (1928-2007). Four years following his marriage Zellars entered into the race for the Georgia State Assembly, and in November 1924 won the election. As Hart County's representative in the legislature, Zellars held seats on the committees on Agriculture, Appropriations, Education, the Judiciary, and Public Highways. 
  In 1926 Zellars began his second term in the house and in 1928 was elected to the state Senate from Georgia's  30th senatorial district. During the 1929-31 session he chaired the committee on Education and Public Schools and was also named to the committees on Amendments to the Constitution; Banks and Banking; Commerce and Labor; Finance; Game and Fish; General Judiciary No. 1; Highways; Hygiene and Sanitation; Public Library; Public Printing; and Rules. 
  After several years away from government service, Broadus Zellars returned to public life in 1938 when he was appointed as assistant attorney general for Georgia, an office he served in until taking on the post of attorney for the War Labor Board and War Assets Administration in the mid-1940s. In 1947 Zellars became assistant solicitor for the Fulton County Criminal Court and remained in office until his death from a heart attack on January 19, 1961, shortly before his 63rd birthday. He was later interred at the Westview Cemetery in Atlanta.

Tennis Seaborn Mason (1885-1972)

Tennis S. Mason, from the 1913 Mercer University "Cauldron" Yearbook.

   Sporting a name that's also a well-known sport, Hartwell, Georgia-based attorney Tennis Seaborn Mason served multiple terms in both houses of the Georgia state legislature. A resident of Georgia for nearly all his life, Tennis S. Mason was born in Bowersville on January 6, 1885,  one of twelve children born to Elijah (1837-1917) and Sarah Walters Mason (1850-1918).  He attended schools local to the Bowersville area and later studied at the Locust Grove Institute. Mason continued his studies at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, where he studied law. He would serve as the President of the school's 1913 law class and graduated with his Bachelor of Laws degree in that same year.

   Tennis S. Mason married in Bowersville in November 1917 to Bernice Gaines (1894-1942), and the couple is believed to have remained childless. In 1918 Mason was elected as one of Hart County's representatives in the Georgia State Assembly. Serving during the 1919-21 session, Mason was returned to that body for a second term in 1920 and two years was elected to the Georgia Senate. His time in that body coincided with his service on the Georgia Library Commission, and he resigned during this term, moving "his place of residence from Hartwell, Georgia to North Carolina."

   By the early 1930s Tennis S. Mason is recorded as having moved back to Hart County, Georgia, and in 1937 served as part of a delegation to Washington, D.C. to advocate for the construction of an "electric line" in Hart County. This delegation later led to the establishment of the Hart County Electric Membership Corporation, of which Mason would serve as an attorney and general manager in the mid-1950s.

   Mason would return to politics in 1940 when he was re-elected to the Georgia Senate. He would win a third term in 1946 and is listed as a "lawyer and farmer" in the 1945-50 Georgia State Register. Widowed in 1942, Tennis S. Mason died at age 87 in August 1972. Both he and his wife were buried at the Northview Cemetery in Hartwell, Georgia.

Leonorian Neidlinger (1865-1932)

                                                               Portrait courtesy of "Effingham County".

   Sporting a rather space-age sounding name like "Leonorian Neidlinger" may seem to indicate a science fiction movie character, but you'll be surprised to know that this name actually belongs to a member of the Georgia State Senate who was born nearly 150 years ago! A lifelong native of Effingham County Georgia, Leonorian Neidlinger was the son of Edward Samuel Shadrack and Francis Melissa Neidlinger, being born in Effingham on April 4, 1865. Leonorian married in Effingham County on April 10, 1892, to Ansanetta "Annie" Shearouse (1875-1957) and later became the father to six children: Langdon M. (1893-1965), Laurie M. (1895-1949), Preston Flanders (1896-1953), Marion H., Leonorian Jr. (1906-1986) and Ellis L. 
   Very little exists online in terms of information of Neidlinger's early life or education, and despite being shrouded in obscurity it is known that Neidlinger was for many years a prominent man in Effingham County, serving as county treasurer for a time and was later elected as clerk to the Board of Commissioners of Effingham County. In November 1918 Neidlinger was elected to represent his home county in the Georgia State Senate, serving one term which extended from 1919-1921. 
  Leonorian Neidlinger died eleven years after his Senate term on May 24, 1932, at age 67, and was described as "having been in failing health for some time." He was survived by his wife Annie and was interred at the Springfield City Cemetery in Effingham County. 

                                                                From the May 24, 1932 Thomasville Times.

Euzema Clarence Bower (1849-1923)

From the History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1912.

  Prominent in law circles in both Georgia and California, Euzema Clarence Bower began his career in public life in the Peach State, where he served as a delegate to the 1876 Democratic National Convention and later, a term in the state senate. Following his term in the senate Bower would resettle in California, where he gained further prominence as an attorney, even being a candidate for District Attorney of Los Angeles County in 1894.

   Born in the town of Cuthbert, Georgia on October 18, 1849, Euzema Clarence "E.C." Bower was the son of Isaac Eben Bower (1811-1873, a distinguished attorney) and his wife Adeline DeMonthalt Breedlove Bower (1823-1895). Euzema C. Bower began his education in "the public schools of Georgia" and first entered public service at age seventeen, being named as a deputy collector of Internal Revenue. During this time he began the study of law and in 1868 was admitted to the Georgia State Bar. Bower would operate a practice in the city of Bainbridge for two years with his older brother Byron Beaufort (1839-1923) and later removed from this area to establish another law office in Blakely, Georgia. In 1871 Bower was selected as a delegate to Georgia's Democratic State Convention and in the following year served as an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention being held in Baltimore.

   Bower's residency in Blakely saw him seek out political office, and in 1876 was elected as one of Georgia's delegates to the Republican National Convention that nominated Samuel J. Tilden for the Presidency. In November of that year, Bower won election to the Georgia State Senate from Early County and married in October 1879 to Harriett S. Daffin (1853-1939). The couple later had five children, listed as follows in order of birth: Italja (1881-1962), Leland Sanborn (1882-1963), Euzema Clarence Jr. (1884-1917), Forrest Hill (1891-1953) and Helen Mayeska (1892-1983).

   In November 1878 Bower won re-election to the senate and held his seat until leaving office in 1881. Further political honors were accorded to him in 1884 when he was elected as Mayor of Blakely, serving one term in office. Shortly after the conclusion of his term Bower and his family removed from Blakely and resettled in Los Angeles, where they would reside for the remainder of their lives.

Portrait from Shuck's "History of the Bench and Bar of California", 1901.

  Following his relocation, Bower returned to practicing law, and in the succeeding years made his name known in legal circles throughout the city. His skill as an attorney received mention in Oscar Tully Shuck's 1901 "History of the Bench and Bar of California", which notes that:

"There is, perhaps, no lawyer in the state who is better posted in the practice of courts, or who is more familiar with the provisions of the codes, and the decisions of the Supreme Court."

 During his California residency, E.C. Bower refrained from pursuing public office, excepting his unsuccessful 1894 candidacy for District Attorney of Los Angeles County. In that contest Bower faced off against Republican candidate John C. Donnell, with the Los Angeles Herald reporting that:

"The people want as district attorney a man whom the facts of record prove to be a competent, practicing attorney, not a bloviating cross-roads politician. They will elect Mr. Bower."

 In the November 1894 election, it was Donnell who triumphed, besting Bower in the vote count, going on to serve as district attorney until 1899. After his defeat, Bower continued with his law practice and also maintained memberships in the Los Angeles Bar Association and both the Masonic and Moose Lodges. He died at age 74 in March 1923 and was later interred at Los Angeles' famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the resting place of such luminaries as Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille, Mel Blanc, Peter Lorre, Adolphe Menjou, and Mickey Rooney.

Brick Stonewall Miller (1868-1957)

Portrait from Georgia's Public Men of 1902-04.

  A lifelong resident of the Peach State, Brick Stonewall Miller served terms in both houses of the Georgia State Assembly. He was born in the town of Buena Vista on February 14, 1868, one of six children born to Eralbert Wiley and Sallie Jones Miller. At the time of his son's birth in 1868, Eralbert W. Miller was already an established figure in Georgia public life, having been the editor and owner of the Buena Vista Advertiser. He would go on to further distinction as a member of the state assembly from Marion County and later served as a judge. 

   Brick S. Miller attended schools local to his native town of Buena Vista and went on to enroll at the University of Georgia at Athens, graduating from that institution's law school in 1888. Soon after his graduation, Miller began a year-long travel around the United States, returning to Georgia in 1890. In that year he formed a law practice with his brother Thomas Talmadge Miller in the city of Columbus, and this firm was remarked by the Memoirs of Georgia, Volume II as doing "an extensive practice and its members are regularly retained attorneys of some of the most important corporations and wholesale houses in Columbus."

  In addition to his lucrative law practice in Columbus, Miller was also a successful cotton planter and is noted by the 1904 work Georgia's Public Men as being the owner of a "2500 acre plantation near Columbus, Georgia, whereon he runs as many as thirty plows, making three hundred bales of cotton per year." Brick S. Miller married on November 6, 1896, to fellow Buena Vista native Mary Elizabeth Wooten (1875-1954), who gave birth to one son, William Wooten Miller, on June 5, 1903. William survived for only three days, and following his death, the couple remained childless throughout their nearly sixty-year marriage.

   Miller began involvement in Georgia political affairs in 1894 when he served as president of the Young Men's Democratic League of Muscogee County. Also in that year, Miller was named as a delegate to the Georgia Congressional Convention in the town of Warm Springs. In November 1899 he was elected to the Georgia State House of Representatives, and during his first term (1900-1902) served as the chairman of the House Pensions Committee and the House Re-Apportionment Committee. While quite busy as a first-term legislator, Miller was named to a number of other House committees, including the General Judiciary, Appropriations, Ways and Means, and the Committee on the Western and Atlantic Railroad.

From the Georgia Official and Statistical Register.

   Miller was re-elected to the House in the election of 1901 and during his second term served alongside another oddly named Muscogee County legislator, Germanicus Young Tigner (profiled here in December 2011.) From 1905-07 Miller served in the Georgia State Senate from the 24th senatorial district and was reelected to this office in 1912 for another two-year term.

  Brick S. Miller's later years continued to be one of marked success, albeit outside the political field. He served for twenty years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia (including several years as Board President) and would later be named to similar positions on the boards of the Old State Normal School and the Georgia Agricultural College. Miller was honored by the University of Georgia in 1917 by having Miller Hall named in his honor. Active in many fraternal organizations, Miller maintained memberships in the Georgia State Bar Association, the Improved Order of Red Men, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Freemasons.

   In November 1954 Miller's wife Mary died after fifty-nine years of marriage, and he survived her by nearly three years, dying at age 89 on July 17, 1957. Both were interred at the Buena Vista City Cemetery following their deaths. 

From the Macon News, July 18, 1957.