History of Walthourville, (Liberty County) Georgia United States of America

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Patrick Hues Mell, educator, was born at Walthourville, Liberty county, Ga., July 19, 1814; son of Maj. Benjamin and Cynthia (Sumner) Mall; grandson of William and Sarah (Hues) Mell and of Thomas and Anna (Baker) Sumner, and a descendant of John Mell, who settled near Charleston, S.C., 1667; also of William Sumner, who settled in Dorchester, Mass., 1636. He was left an orphan in 1828, and to support his younger brothers and sisters taught in academies in Georgia, where he was prepared for college. He matriculated at Amherst in the class of 1837, but soon left and taught in an academy at Springfield, Mass., and in the high school at East Hartford, Conn., 1834-37, and in southern Georgia, 1837-39. He was principal of a classical and English school at Oxford, Georgia, 1839-41, where he also preached, 1840-42. He was ordained to the Baptist ministry at Penfield, Ga., Nov. 19, 1842, and was pastor at Greensborough, Ga., 1842-52, also supplying Antioch and Bairdstown. He was professor of ancient languages in Mercer university, Penfield, Ga., 1841-55, and in 1855, owing to a disagreement with the president, he was dismissed by the trustees. He declined the presidency of various southern colleges, and was at the University of Georgia as professor of ancient languages, 1856-60; professor of metaphysics and ethics, 1860-87, and chancellor of the university and ex-officio president of the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 1878-88. He was married, June 29, 1840, to Lurene Howard, daughter of George and Nancy (Connor) Cooper. She died in 1861, leaving eight children, and he was married, secondly, Dec. 24, 1861, to Eliza E. Cooper, of Scriven county, by whom he had six children. In 1861 he raised a company known as "Mell's Riflemen" for six months' service and served as captain until domestic affliction forced him to resign. In 1863 the university closed and he was made colonel of a regiment composed of professors and students of the university, and the regiment served at Rome, Savannah and other parts of the state until the close of the war. He was moderator of the Georgia Baptist association for thirty years, president of the Southern Baptist convention for seventeen years, and of the Georgia Baptist convention for twenty-six years. He received the degree of D.D. from Furman university. S.C., and from the University of Georgia in 1858, and that of LL.D. from Howard college. Ala., in 1869. He is the author of: Predestination; Calvinism; God's Providential Government; Baptism (1852); Corrective Church Discipline (1860); a treatise on Parliamentary Practice (1868); The Philosophy of Prayer (1875); Church Polity (1878). He died in Athens, Ga., Jan. 26, 1888.

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

History of Walthourville, (Liberty County) Georgia

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