A family tree would
show four Grices in a direct line, all residents of
Johnston County, North Carolina: Francis, who died
in 1750, a copy of whose will appears in the published
Colonial Records of North Carolina; his son, William,
a Revolutionary soldier; and next, Stephen, a Judge
of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, and his
son, Garry, who in his youth was a civil engineer
and laid out the town of Goldsboro, North Carolina.
In 1822, Judge Stephen Grice,
with his wife, who was formerly Miss Sally Simms,
with their family, moved to Newton County, Georgia, and
later to Henry County, about midway between McDonough and
Griffin, where they settled on a large plantation on which
the son continued to live for many years after his
father's death. The son served for a long time as Justice
of the Inferior Court, first of Henry, then of the new
county of Spalding; and he also represented his
people in the General Assembly. When sixty-three years of
age he enlisted as a private in the Spalding Grays,
Second Georgia Battalion, the first troops outside
Virginia to land on the soil of that State. Judge Garry
Grice was the father of Judge Washington L. Grice.
On the maternal side, Judge W. L. Grice was one of
the Lamar clan that has given to Georgia and to the
rest of the country so many men of note. His mother was
Ann Lamar, daughter of Philip Lamar, a planter,
of Beech Island, South Carolina. She was the great aunt of
the late Mr. Justice Joseph R. Lamar of the Supreme
Court of the United States. He was born February 22, 1832.
He died March 9, 1925. He taught school a couple of years;
admitted to the bar in 1855; practiced at Butler until
1861, when he marched off to war with the first company
that left Taylor County, in the Sixth Georgia. On the
formation of the Forty-fifth Georgia Regiment, he was
elected major. In the very first battle, both the colonel
and the lieutenant-colonel were severely wounded, and the
latter, though promoted to the colonelcy, was unable for a
long time to return to his command, and Major Grice,
promoted to lieutenant-colonel, was the only field officer
with the regiment in the battles around Richmond, and
commanded it in many other important fights, including
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg.
While on the firing line in Virginia, his friends at home
sent him to the State Senate, where he acted as chairman
of the Judiciary Committee. There were several extra
sessions, and after the first two, all members of the
General Assembly who held commissions in the army were
required to resign one or the other place. He had not
sought either honor and was considering what he ought to
do when his friends persuaded him he was needed most in
that wartime Senate, and he resigned from the army. It was
characteristic of him that at the end of the session he
enlisted as a private in Pruden's Battery of Artillery and
served with it for the remainder of the war.
In 1866 he located in Hawkinsville and remained here for
two years. While living here he was tendered the judgeship
of the Southern circuit, but he declined to accept office
under the Bullock administration. In 1868, General Eli
Warren of Perry offered him a partnership, and he
moved there. In 1877, he was appointed judge of the Macon
circuit by Governor Colquitt. In 1922, he returned
to Hawkinsville, and this continued to be his home for the
rest of his life.
On October 6, 1870, he married Miss Martha Virginia
Warren, the daughter of his law partner. She was born
July 18, 1840, died January 1, 1926. There were two
children, both sons-Warren and Herbert Landrum
Grice-who practiced law with their father. The latter
and younger of the two was born March 9, 1878, and died
February 17, 1912, a bachelor. His brilliant career at the
bar is still well remembered. The elder son, born December
6, 1875, married Clara Elberta Rumph, June 18,
1901, and now resides in Macon, after having served in the
Legislature from Pulaski in 1900-1904, and as Attorney
General of Georgia in 1914-15. In 1927 he was chosen
president of the Georgia Bar Association. His children,
besides a son, Warren, Jr., who died in early
childhood, are: Ruth, Samuel R., Benning M., and
Elia.
Altogether Judge Grice was a member of the
Hawkinsville bar for nearly forty-five years.While his
record as a lawmaker, judge, and practicing lawyer was
such as one would naturally expect from one of his
talents, it was as a soldier that he really shone. He
happened to be in Macon when General Howell Cobb
was preparing to defend that city against the Federal
General Wilson. There being but few experienced
officers available, General Cobb placed Colonel
Grice in command of one wing of his little army which
consisted mainly of old men and boys.
Many of his old war comrades have said what a kind hearted
officer he was. Oftener than otherwise, on the long
marches, he would let some private soldier ride his horse
while he walked with the men. Passing through Orange Court
House one hot day, Major General Pender put him
under arrest and sent him to the rear because he ordered
his regiment to march on the sidewalk under the shade
instead of the middle of the street in the sun. His men
very much resented his arrest and originated something
like a round robin, and at their insistence Brigadier
General Thomas interviewed General Pender, who
relented and restored him to his command just as the
Battle of Gettysburg was about to begin.
It is the unadorned
truth to add that in the army he acquired a reputation for
his bravery and coolness under fire. In that monumental
publication, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,
one may read reports of battles in which his superior
officers make special mention of his gallant conduct.
General Walter A. Harris, in an address at the annual
convention of Spanish-American War Veterans in Macon in
May, 1935, made the statement that for a number of years
he had made it a habit, as opportunity offered, to inquire
of Confederate veterans who was the bravest soldier they
ever saw, and that the answer the most frequently received
was, "Colonel W. L. Grice." His regiment was formed
from counties adjacent to Macon.
"The bravest are the tenderest,
The loving are the daring." |