Profile written and provided courtesy Nowell Briscoe ( [email protected] )

GEORGE MOULTRIE NAPIER

SPEAKER, LAWYER, NEWSPAPER MAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL

MARCH 28, 1863 – MAY 4, 1932

        The name of George M. Napier carries significant weight in the annals of Monroe’s history.  Aside from being a speaker, lawyer and early newspaper owner and editor, it was his elevation professionally to one of the state’s highest offices, Attorney General of Georgia that brought him the most acclaim.

        Born in Walker County March 28,1863 to former Confederate captain and editor of the Walker County Messenger, Nathan Campbell Napier and Julia Sharpe Napier, it was evident early on this young boy was going to make a name for himself.  His family lineage included his grandfather, Leroy Napier, who served in the U.S. Senate in 1849 and 1850 and his great grandfather, Thomas Napier, was a revolutionary soldier. His mother’s father, Thomas A. Sharpe of Walker County, was a delegate to the Secession Convention.

        George graduated from North Georgia Agricultural College in 1882 where he was a charter member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity.  He was admitted to the bar and in 1898 received his MA degree from the Univ. of Georgia.  He arrived in Monroe in 1885 from La Fayette, acting as a court reporter for the western judicial circuit and became publisher of one of Monroe’s earliest newspapers, The Walton News.  He became president of the Tribune Publishing Company which founded the Walton Tribune, continuing to write articles and stories for both the News and the Tribune.  In 1903 he became chairman of the Walton County Board of Education.  Around this time frame he began practicing law in Atlanta as a member of the firm Napier, Wright and Cox which later became Napier, Wright & Wood.  In 1905 he moved to Decatur while maintaining his residence in Monroe. 

        Governor John M. Slaton appointed him to fill a vacancy in the office of the Solicitor General of the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit in 1913 and a year later he was elected to that post.  In 1920 George M. Napier was elected attorney general of the state.

        Martha Moss Harris, daughter of Rev. William Franklin Harris, was Mr. Napier’s first wife, who died shortly moving to Monroe.  He met and married Frances Nunnally, daughter of William Hartwell and Mary Eulalia Gober, on December 14, 1905.  Children from this marriage were Julia North, Eulalia Sutton and Frances Jones, both of Dalton.  After Mr. Napier’s death, his wife moved back to Monroe and lived out her life here among friends and family until her death on November 16, 1976.

        Mr. Napier was noted for his fairness and the thoroughness he conducted his affairs.  His comprehensive knowledge and talent as a writer led him to author a number of historical articles which brought praise and acclaim.  At his death, Journalist William Cole Jones said, “None ever bore more worthily the grand name of gentleman than Colonel George Moultrie Napier.  Whatever he did or said whether in his public career or in familiar paths or fireside companionships, told not only of his birth and breeding but of a still more inward merit that was his very soul. In the largest of life’s duties he was ever his gallant and faithful self.”