History of Bryan County Georgia United States of America

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Augustus Octavius Bacon, senator, was born in Bryan county, Ga., Oct. 22, 1839. He received a high school education in his native state, and after his graduation from the University of Georgia, in 1859, he studied law in that institution for a year. At the breaking out of the civil war he joined the Confederate army as adjutant, being afterwards commissioned captain, and assigned to general staff duty. In 1866 he was admitted to the bar, and began to practise law at Macon, Ga. He was several times a member of state Democratic conventions, being president of the convention in 1880, and in 1884 was delegate at large to the national convention. In 1868 he was a presidential elector, and in 1871 was elected to the Georgia house of representatives, serving there, by successive re-elections, fourteen years, acting two years as speaker pro tempore, and eight years as speaker. In 1894 he was elected to the United States senate, and was prominent in the 54th congress as an advocate of Cuban independence. He was re-elected in 1900 for the term ending March 4, 1907.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

George Troup Maxwell, surgeon and soldier, was born in Bryan county, Ga., Aug. 6, 1827; son of Col. John Jackson and Mary Ann (Baker) Maxwell; grandson of William and Constant (Butler) Maxwell and of Col. Jetta and ??? (Jackson) Lapeen Baker, and a descendant of James Maxwell, one of the first settlers of Georgia. Baker county, Ga., was named in honor of his maternal grandfather, an officer in the Revolution. Col. John Jackson Maxwell was a planter and a member of the Georgia senate for several years. George was educated at Chatham academy, Savannah, Ga., and was graduated from the University of the City of New York, M.D., in 1848. He was married in December, 1849, to Kitty Augusta, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Hart) Jones, of Liberty county, Ga.; and secondly, April 15, 1859, to Martha Ella, daughter of John Stevens and Emma (Law) Maxwell. He practised medicine in Tallahassee, Fla., 1848-57; was surgeon to the U.S. marine hospital at Key West, Fla., 1857-60; and professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in Oglethorpe Medical college, Savannah, Ga., 1860-61. He entered the Confederate army as a private in the 1st Florida cavalry regiment in April, 1861; was promoted major in August, 1861, and colonel in 1862. He commanded his regiment at Chickamauga, Sept. 19-20, 1863, and continued in the Chattanooga campaign until the battle of Missionary Ridge, Nov. 25, 1863, where he was captured, and he was imprisoned on Johnson's Island until March, 1865. He was recommended for promotion to the rank of brigadier-general at the time of his capture and was appointed colonel of a newly organized Florida regiment, while in prison. He returned to Florida in 1865; represented Leon county in the state convention that remodelled the constitution and reorganized the government of Florida in 1865, and was a representative in the state legislature in 1866. He removed to Delaware in 1871 and engaged in the practice of medicine, first in Middletown, then in New Castle, and finally in Wilmington, and in 1889 returned to Florida and took up his residence in Leon county. He removed to Atlanta, Ga., in 1881; to Ocala, Fla., in 1882, and to Jacksonville in 1888. He was vice-president of the Delaware Medical society in 1874, and its secretary, 1875-76. He claimed to have invented the laryngoscope in 1859 and to have operated with it in November of that year, which was several months before Prof. Johann N. Czermack published his invention. He was the first American physician to see the vocal cords of a living person, which he accomplished by the means of his instrument. He was a member of the leading medical bodies of America and Europe. Besides important contributions to medical journals, he published several pamphlets. He died in Jacksonville, Fla., Sept. 2, 1897.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Bryan County Georgia

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