Warren Akin Sr.

Warren Akin senior (born October 9, 1811 in Elbert County , Georgia , † December 17, 1877 in Cartersville , Georgia) was an American lawyer and politician .

Career

Warren Akin Sr. was born in Elbert County about eight months before the outbreak of the British-American War . He grew up there on a farm. When he was ten years old, he attended a court hearing in Elberton . As a result, he decided to become a lawyer. After the death of his father, he went to Dahlonega ( Lumpkin County ) because of a modest education to make his fortune there. Shortly before, gold was found nearby. Akin was 18 years old at the time. He spent the next seven years in the gold fields. He also pursued his childhood dream and dealt extensively with law . In 1836 he was admitted to the Cherokee Superior Court . He then opened a law practice in Cassville ( Bartow County ), which was situated on a plain farm outside the city. Akin joined the Georgia Militia , was promoted to colonel , and helped relocate the Cherokee to Indian Territory . He later confessed his sympathy with her plight. In 1835 he married his first wife, Eliza Hooper. The following years were overshadowed by the economic crisis of 1837 and the Mexican-American War . In 1846 he tried his first five cases before the recently created Georgia Supreme Court. His first wife died in 1848. After her death, he married Mary Frances DeVerdery (1830-1907). The couple had ten children. Against his will, the Opposition Party nominated him for the governor of Georgia. In the gubernatorial elections of 1859 he suffered a defeat against incumbent Joseph E. Brown (1821-1894). Without an opposing candidate, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1861 , where he was elected speaker in the first ballot . He initially opposed Georgia secession, but changed his mind after Georgia left the union . In 1863 he was elected to the Second Confederate Congress for the Tenth Constituency of Georgia , where he served from 1864 until the end of the Civil War in 1865. During this time, his house was burned to the ground by the Union troops under General William T. Sherman (1820-1891) when they were on their “March to the Sea”. Around 1870 Akin and his family moved from Cassville to the new administrative center of Cartersville, Georgia. A deeply religious man, Akin was an ordained Methodist minister who spoke frequently in local churches and to the troops during the war. Akin was a trustee at Emory College. He died in Cartensville in 1877 and was buried in the Cassville City Cemetery.

Trivia

In 1959, historian Bell Irvin Wiley edited and published Letters of Warren Akin, Confederate Congressman.

Warren Akin, Sr.'s legal practice is still run by his descendants and is one of the oldest law firms in Georgia.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mary Frances Verdery Akin in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 25, 2015.

Web links

• Warren Akin senior in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Warren Akin Sr. on The Political Graveyard website
• Warren Akin Sr. on the evhsonline.org website