JAMES WILLIAM BARWICK AND TILDA LEAVEL

 

 

JAMES WILLIAM BARWICK AND TILDA LEAVEL

 

James William Barwick

May 27, 1872 - June 5,1951

Tilda Leavel Barwick

b/unkn - December 12,1910

 

An originator of the famer's market movement in Georgia, and an active member of the Georgia House of Representatives, James William Barwick was born in Ochlocknee, May 27, 1872, and died at Thomasville, June 5, 1951. He is numbered among the men of vision of modern Georgia. In the section of the state where he was raised at the time conditions were such that it was very difficult to obtain an education. However, he did manage to secure a few years training in the country grade schools and then by observation and long hours of home study, until, only nineteen years of age, he won a competitive examination for school teacher and devoted two years to the profession.

At that time he developed an idea for the enlargement and improvement of telephone exchanges and, going down into Florida, he built and operated a highly successful telephone system, in association with two men from Ohio. Later he sold his interest in the telephone company and entered the wholesale market business. Out of this interest he developed a farm to market system which was the first such merchandising method adopted in the state of Georgia, and in the United States. He subsequently sold out his interest in these markets and organized the BARWICK HOE AND CANE STRIPPER Company which he operated for several years before he once again sold out and organized a wholesale soft drink business in Atlanta. In connection with this business, he became active in the merchandising of syrup in Georgia.

It was at about this time that the Bell Telephone System requested him to go to Washington, District of Columbia, as their representative at his own salary-but he refused the offer. He was deeply interested in the Confederate History, as his home was located on one of the old battlefields of the Atlanta campaign and he went about the state as an avocation, placing markers on the graves of Confederate soldiers. During the final period of his long career, he was associated with the Department of Agriculture.

A Democrat politically, he served in the House of Representatives from Grady County and was active in the support of all good legislation. One noteworthy action of his at this time was the effort which resulted in raising from $30 to $50 the monthly pensions paid to widows of the veterans of the War Between the States. He was a member of the Baptist Church.

James William Barwick married, first, July 12, 1899, Tilda Leavel, daughter of John Leavel , a Baptist minister and a volunteer in the Confederate Army from Georgia. She died in 1910…James was the father of two children by his first marriage: 1. Jackson Leavel 2. Marguetitte. There are two grandchildren: 1. Jackson Leavel, JR 2. Tillie Ann. Jackson, JR is the father of two sons: Jackson Leavel, III and LarryBarwick.

Taken from "Atlanta and Environs..Family and Personal History" p 359

Another interesting note - James was business partners for a time with Isaac E Barwick of Wildwood, Sumpter Co, Fl. Though they shared the same name, there was no awareness of how they were related.( See Isaac E Barwick in our files) Isaac created the town of Wildwood, FL….purchased the land and designed the town. Isaac E was James third cousin once removed AND uncle to James's wife, Tilly. And so descendants of brothers William Blueford and Joseph Barwick generations later found one another and married.

 

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