Muscogee-Coweta-Franklin County GaArchives Biographies.....Tigner, Germanicus Young unknown - living in 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 31, 2004, 10:55 pm Author: William Harden p. 1025-1027 HONORABLE GERMANICUS YOUNG TIGNER. A man of broad capabilities, resourceful, and quick to grasp a situation and utilize opportunities, Honorable Germanicus Young Tigner has for many years been an important factor in the public life of Muscogee county, serving his fellow-men in various capacities, at the present writing, in 1913, being judge of the Columbus city court of Columbus. A native of Georgia, he was born in Haralson, Coweta county, of excellent English ancestry, being a descendant in the fifth generation from the immigrant ancestor, George Tigner, his lineage being thus traced: George Tigner, Philip Tigner, Young Fletcher Tigner, William Archelaus Tigner, and Germanicus Young Tigner. About 1750 George Tigner, accompanied by his brother Thomas, came from England, their native country, to America. They were seafaring men, engaged in the merchant marine service, and both located in Baltimore, Maryland. A year later Thomas Tigner returned to his old home in England, but George Tigner remained in Baltimore, and kept his ships in active service until the Revolution, when they were seized by the British government. After his marriage he lived for a time in Anne Arundel county, Maryland, from there moving to Accomac county, Virginia, and settling near Drummondtown, where he spent his remaining days, being engaged in farming. He was twice married, by his first wife having three children, namely: William, who reared a family, and has descendants living in Virginia, and in various other parts of the Union; Hannah married a Mr. Houghton, and settled in New York State; and Philip, the next in line of descent. Philip Tigner was born in Accomac county, Virginia, December 25, 1760. Leaving home in the seventeenth year of his age, he went first to Norfolk, Virginia, from there, going to Salisbury, North Carolina, where he married. With his bride, he came to Georgia, and after spending a short time in Greene county removed to that part of Franklin county that was later a part of Jackson county, and is now included within the boundaries of Clarke county. Purchasing a tract of land through which a creek flowed, he improved the water power, built a saw mill and a grist mill, and was there prosperously employed in farming and milling until his death, at the age of fifty-nine years. A devout Methodist in religion, he erected one of the first Methodist Episcopal churches in North Georgia, it having been known as Tigner's Chapel. He married first, March 7, 1780, in Salisbury, North Carolina, Nancy Forbish, who died in Green county, Georgia, May 28, 1792. He married second Nancy Hall, a daughter of John Hall, a native of Ireland, who came to America in colonial times, locating first in North Carolina, later coming to Georgia as pioneers. By his first marriage he reared five children, Sarah E., James, William, Elizabeth, and Hope H. His second wife, to whom he was married in 1793, bore him eight children, namely: Nancy; Innocence; Pamelia; Freeborn G.; John Wesley; Young Fletcher, through whom the line of descent was continued; Urban Cooper; and Philip Gillen. Young Fletcher Tigner was born August 22, 1805, on a plantation located about three miles north of Salem, Clarke county, Georgia. Converted when young, he joined the Methodist Episcopal church, and became a preacher in that denomination, as a member of the Georgia conference, filling the pulpits of churches in various places. In Meriwether county he purchased a plantation near Durand, which was his home for many years. Late in life he removed to Columbus, and lived in that vicinity until his death. Rev. Young Fletcher Tigner married Sarah Frances Tinsley, who was born in Clarke county, Georgia, a daughter of James Tinsley, and granddaughter of Thomas Tinsley, a native of Hanover county, Virginia. She was a lineal descendant, it is thought, of one Edward Tinsley, who came from Yorkshire, England, to America in the early part of the seventeenth century, locating in Virginia. Seven of his brothers, according to tradition, served, and were killed, in the Revolutionary war. James Tinsley was born near Richmond, Virginia, in 1764. During the progress of the Revolutionary war, he went to South Carolina, and settled on the Cooper river, ten miles from Chesterton, from there coming, in 1790, to Georgia, where he afterwards spent his remaining years, his home having been in Columbia county. He married first Elizabeth Zachery, of South Carolina. He married for his second wife Mrs. Lucy Ann (Crawford) Richards, a sister of Hon. William Harris Crawford, who served as secretary of war under President Madison, as secretary of the treasury under both President Madison and President Monroe, and minister to France, and who, in 1824, as candidate for president of the United States, shared the electoral vote with John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay. Of the union of Rev. Y. F. and Sarah F. (Tinsley) Tigner, nine children were born, namely: James Andrew, Eliza Boring, William Archelaus, Wesley Fletcher, Lucy A. E., Samuel Hodges, and Sarah. Julia, and Young Fletcher. Dr. Wesley Fletcher Tigner, uncle of G. Y. Tigner, is a well known Confederate veteran, having fought in all the leading battles of Lee's army from Bull Run to Appomattox; engaged in thirty pitched battles, and now a retired dentist, in comfortable circumstances, and loved by ail who know him. William Archelaus Tigner was born in Meriwether county, Georgia, July 13, 1832, and received his rudimentary education in the rural schools, afterwards studying under Prof. Thaddeus Oliver, of Buena Vista. He was graduated from Emory College, in Oxford, Georgia, with the class of 1854, and soon after began teaching in Haralson, Coweta county. Succeeding well as an educator, he was made president of a Male and Female College, at Chunnenuggee Ridge, Alabama. He afterwards taught in a Lutheran settlement, both in Oglethorpe county. Georgia, and in Macon county. While thus occupied, he studied law in his leisure moments, and after his admission to the bar located as a lawyer in Vienna, Dooly county. After practicing awhile in both Dooly and Oglethorpe counties, he removed to Atlanta, where he formed a partnership with William H. Hulsey, under the firm name of Hulsey & Tigner. He was later associated with W. D. Ellis as senior member of the law firm of Tigner & Ellis. In 1884 he was elected as senator from the Thirty-fifth district, and took an active and intelligent part in the work of legislation. He was reared a Methodist, but when about thirty-five years old united with the Lutheran church, and became a preacher in that denomination, filling pulpits in Ebenezer and other places, and serving as president of the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida Synod. For several years prior to his death he lived in Jonesboro, his death occurring there February 19, 1894. William Archelaus Tigner was twice married. He married first Eugenia R. Dozier, who was born in Marion county, Georgia, in 1834, a daughter of Thomas H. and Martha Thomas (Davie) Dozier. She died March 19, 1872, leaving three children, namely: Germanicus Young, the special subject of this sketch; Martha, wife of A. 0. Os-borne, now of Wilmington, North Carolina; and William A. Tigner, Jr., an attorney now in Jonesboro, Georgia, He married for his second wife Miriam Byington, who is now living in Jonesboro, Georgia. Germanicus Young Tigner was carefully educated under his father's and mother's tutorship, attending private schools in Atlanta, and the Jonesboro Academy. A young man of excellent mental attainments, eminently capable and intelligent, he was appointed, in 1876, by Judge Martin J. Crawford, official stenographer of the superior court at Columbus, and met every requirement of that responsible position so efficiently and satisfactorily that he was continued in office for sixteen years. In 1888 Mr. Tigner was elected as a representative to the state legislature, and later was appointed stenographer of the supreme court. At the end of two years he resigned that position, and returned to Columbus. In 1902 he was again elected to represent his county in the state legislature, and served in the sessions of 1902, 1903, and 1904. In 1908 Mr. Tigner was appointed, by Gov. Hoke Smith, judge of the city court of Columbus, and served by appointment until 1912, when he was elected to the position by an overwhelming majority, receiving a flattering vote that proved his popularity with all classes of people. Mr. Tigner married, June 27, 1889, Johnny Lindsay. She was brought up and educated in Columbus, and at the Moravian Institute at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, being a daughter of John B. and Helen (Slade) Lindsay, and granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Slade, father of Hon. J. J. Slade, of whom a brief biographical sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. Two children have been born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Tigner, namely: Helen; and John Lindsay, who died at the early age of seventeen years. Religiously Mr. Tigner belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mrs. Tigner is a member of the Baptist church. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 9.9 Kb