THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
From Humble
Beginnings to Chief Justice:
Honorable William Henry Duckworth
William Henry
Duckworth was the third of
ten children born to John Francis (called Jack) and Laura Jane Noblet
Duckworth. He was born on the Duckworth
farm just east of
When Henry was fifteen years of age,
his father, Jack, met an untimely death in a shooting match near his
home on
William Henry Duckworth got his early
education in the one-teacher schools in Choestoe. A
bright lad, he was invited by Dr. Joseph A.
Sharp, then president of Young Harris College, to take a job working
there to
help defray his tuition. A great uncle
of Henry’s, Francis Marion Duckworth, who, with his wife, Nancy Davis
Duckworth
had taken Henry’s mother into their home to rear when she was a small
child,
loaned the young student some money for college. In
1917, William Henry Duckworth graduated
from Young Harris with honors. Later in
his life he would ardently support the college through donations and
service. The library at the college is
named Duckworth Library, honoring William Henry and his brother, James
Lon,
also a lawyer.
During World War I, Henry Duckworth
joined the U. S. Navy where he served as an Ensign.
His desire to become a lawyer was not
thwarted due to lack of finances to attend law school.
He read law, a practice generally followed
then, in the law office of his friend, E. D. Rivers.
He took a correspondence course in law from
He was elected senator from the 7th
District of Georgia in 1931. This
launched his career in state government.
He successfully managed the gubernatorial candidacy for E. D.
Rivers
when he was elected Governor of Georgia.
They had been classmates at
He became assistant Attorney General
of Georgia and served in that capacity during 1937-1938.
He was hoping to be appointed to the next
vacancy on the Georgia Supreme Court, only to be told by the incumbent
governor
that he was “too young” for the position.
He ran for the position in a three-man race and won. From
Keeping his deep-seated integrity and
his fearlessness, he wrote some noteworthy decisions in the annals of
Known for his intensive questioning
and his search for truth, Supreme Court Justice Duckworth was adept at
finding
weak points in arguments and lack of evidence.
During the last sixteen years of his
life, he suffered with and was treated for chronic leukemia. In 1953 he had a heart attack that slowed his
work for several weeks while he recuperated.
It was a heart attack that brought his demise on
He had fulfilled his youthful
dreams of
becoming a lawyer and a Georgia Supreme Court Justice.
In 1955 he was elected as chairman of the
National Conference of Chief Justices, made up of the top jurists from
all the
states of the union.
His pastor at
Another man went out from the hills of
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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