Samuel Stevens Rountree

Back to the Railroad Organizers index

Samuel Stevens Rountree (March 25, 1855-October 29, 1952) spent eighty-seven years in Quitman and more than seven decades in its business life. He began in his father's general store, led a regional wholesale grocery company and the Suwannee Stores chain, served the Bank of Quitman as director, vice president, president, and chairman, and held long runs of municipal and county office. He also became a director, president, and chairman of the South Georgia Railway.[1]

A contemporary Florida Times-Union obituary reports that Rountree died at his Quitman home on the morning of October 29, 1952. That account and a same-day Atlanta brief agree, so the October 20 date printed in a separate statewide list was an error.[36][37]

It also gives his railroad career firmer boundaries. Rountree appears in Huxford's 1896 charter-petitioner list but not on the verified first board. He was a director by March 1899, president by 1939, and chairman in October 1945. Huxford's statement that he succeeded James W. Oglesby in 1930 is strong probable because the actual 1930 election notice or minutes have not been found.[1][8][32][33][35]

Edgefield family and move to Quitman

Rountree was born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, to Andrew Jackson Rountree and Sarilla Stevens Rountree. The 1860 census places five-year-old Samuel with his parents and siblings in Edgefield. The family is badly indexed as "Ranndtrer", but the names, ages, and later household continuity identify them.[2]

The family moved to Quitman in 1865, when Samuel was ten. A June 1866 collection notice proves that Samuel Stevens, A. J. Rountree, and W. D. Rountree had left South Carolina by then. Quitman's 1866 business record lists Stevens & Rountree as dry-goods dealers. Huxford says Andrew took over the concern the following year.[1][3]

The 1870 census places Samuel, fourteen, in Andrew and Sarilla's Quitman household with Fannie, Daniel, Mattie, Bartow, Walter, and Edward. In 1880, twenty-four-year-old S. S. Rountree was still in his parents' Screven Street household. These records establish the same family across the interstate move and separate Samuel from unrelated Rountree families in Georgia.[4][5]

Andrew's recorded will is the strongest family document. Signed November 29, 1893, it named Samuel as a son, residuary heir, and executor. The other surviving children were Fannie R. Hunter, Daniel M. Rountree, Mattie E. Dukes, J. B. Rountree, and Edward N. Rountree. Walter J. Rountree, present in the earlier censuses, had died in 1882. The will permitted the executors to continue Rountree & Co. for as long as five years if most of the children agreed.[6]

The will calls Daniel "Daniel M. Rountree"; census and newspaper records identify him as Daniel W. or Daniel Webster Rountree. That middle-initial conflict remains. A ten-year-old Lillie appeared in the 1880 household without a stated relationship. No second record inspected here proves that she was Samuel's sister.[5][6]

Schooling, marriage, and household

Huxford says Samuel attended the old Quitman Academy and other local schools before studying at Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York. A detailed 1948 profile independently says he chose an Eastman business course at eighteen, returned directly to Quitman, and went to work for his father. No college register or diploma was located, so the education is strongly supported rather than original-record verified.[1][7]

He married Minnie Lewis on February 12, 1890. Huxford identifies her as a daughter of John G. Lewis of Scottsville, Virginia. Minnie's 1939 obituary independently calls her the former Minnie Lewis of Scottsville and says she had married Samuel forty-nine years earlier. The exact February date rests on Huxford because the original marriage return was not found.[1][8]

The 1900 census places Samuel and Minnie in the home of his sister Fannie and her husband, Dr. Theophilus W. Hunter. Samuel's widowed mother Sarilla was there as well. The index calls Samuel a boarder and omits a spouse link, but the full household places Minnie beside him. In 1910, Samuel appears as a Quitman household head with Minnie L. Rountree.[9][10]

No inspected record names a child. None appears with them in the 1900 or indexed 1910 households. Minnie's obituary names her husband and siblings but no child, while Samuel's 1952 obituary says four nieces and four nephews survived him. A childless marriage, or at least no surviving children, is strong probable. It is not fully verified without Samuel's will, probate distribution, or an original census child-count field.[8-10][38]

Minnie died December 4, 1939. Her Find a Grave memorial supplies the fuller name Minnie Clayburn Lewis Rountree and an August 10, 1867 birth date. Those details are derivative. Contemporary Lewis-family records use several spellings of Clayburn or Clayborne, so Minnie's middle-name spelling should remain memorial-supported rather than treated as an original-record fact.[8][39]

Merchant and executor

The 1948 profile says Samuel worked for his father for five years. When another businessman offered to finance a concern Samuel would manage, Andrew gave his son an interest and renamed the firm A. J. Rountree & Son in 1878. Huxford gives the same general succession.[1][7]

A February 1896 newspaper report called Rountree & Co. Quitman's oldest mercantile firm, announced Andrew's retirement, and said S. S. Rountree would continue the business. This contemporary report corrects the 1948 profile's implication that the name changed only after Andrew's death. Andrew died January 21, 1898, not in 1899 as the profile states.[11][12]

Samuel and Daniel served as their father's executors. The 1948 article said Samuel was still administering real property held in Andrew's estate fifty years later, including the family home in Quitman and Atlanta residential property. The will verifies the original executorship, but the later estate holdings have not been reconstructed deed by deed.[6][7]

South Georgia Grocery Company and Suwannee Stores

The grocery company's exact starting year has a small conflict. An April 1903 report said the South Georgia Grocery Company had been organized recently and was already operating. A 1905 promotional account called it established in 1902. Huxford and the 1948 profile give 1903. The best description is that it was organized in late 1902 or early 1903.[7][13][14]

By June 1909, the company had $20,000 capital and occupied a concrete warehouse 300 feet long and 80 feet wide beside the South Georgia and West Coast Railroad. It dealt in groceries, tobacco, flour, hay, grain, feed, and provisions; employed traveling salesmen; maintained a 1,000-bale cotton warehouse; and traded across southwest Georgia and north Florida. The article names S. S. Rountree as president.[15]

The business kept expanding. It began a new brick-and-concrete office and warehouse near the Atlantic Coast Line depot in 1924. A May 1925 report valued the completed property at $50,000 and noted branch houses in Georgia and Florida. The company added wholesale dry goods in 1927.[16-18]

Huxford says manager S. J. Faircloth led the development of the Suwannee Stores chain after 1910. By 1947 it had 133 stores and 573 employees. The 1948 profile says South Georgia Grocery owned the chain and that Rountree held controlling interests in the parent company, Capital City Grocery Company of Tallahassee, and Rountree Grocery Company of Americus.[1][7]

The 1952 obituary instead locates Rountree Grocery Company in Thomasville. No charter or corporate directory was found to resolve Americus versus Thomasville. The evidence verifies Rountree's presidency, the regional wholesale concern, and ownership of Suwannee Stores, but the affiliate's city remains unsettled.[36]

Bank of Quitman

Rountree attended the November 1888 meeting that led to the incorporated Bank of Quitman. Huxford describes the bank as the successor to a private concern begun in 1878, while the state bank received its charter on December 26, 1888. The two dates describe different stages rather than rival founding claims.[1][19]

He was a director by February 1892. Huxford dates his vice presidency to 1891, and contemporary reports place him in that office in 1898, 1905, 1909, and early 1911.[1][20-23]

After Judge James O. Morton died, the directors unanimously elected Rountree president on November 5, 1911. The report called him the county's best credit man and said he had been vice president for fifteen years. That rounded figure conflicts with Huxford's 1891 start, but the election itself is direct contemporary evidence.[24]

Rountree remained president until February 12, 1945, when H. W. Stubbs succeeded him and Rountree became board chairman. Huxford supplies the exact transition date; the 1948 profile independently confirms that Rountree was still chairman and went to the bank daily despite failing eyesight. The 1952 obituary describes a thirty-year presidency, while the dated record gives a little more than thirty-three years.[1][7][36]

Manufacturing, telephone, farm, and hotel interests

Rountree was elected a Quitman Compress Company director on July 8, 1890, and vice president later that month. Huxford says he became president of the Quitman Manufacturing Company when Atlantic & Gulf Mills was reorganized in 1914 and retired when majority control was sold in February 1920. The 1948 profile independently confirms that he had served as the mill company's president.[1][7][25]

The telephone chronology contains a real conflict. Huxford names Rountree among the Quitman Telephone Company's December 7, 1896 incorporators and says the first system was built in 1896-1897. The 1948 profile calls him a founder but says the company introduced Quitman's first telephone service in 1906. The 1952 obituary says he organized and led the company for years. The charter-era date and Huxford's construction account make service by the late 1890s better supported; the 1906 statement should not be repeated as settled fact.[1][7][36]

His agricultural holdings were substantial. A Brooks County deed dated December 8, 1894, conveyed 510 acres in District 12, Lots 376 and 377, to A. J. and S. S. Rountree. The official land-lot map places the tract about ten miles north of Quitman, matching 1898 newspaper references to S. S. Rountree's farm. The 1948 profile says his later farm reached 1,500 acres, so he acquired or operated more land than the single identified deed covers.[26]

After the Hotel Marie burned in 1926, Rountree became an incorporator and director of the Community Hotel Corporation that built the General Quitman. Huxford identifies the corporation, the January 15, 1927 charter, the directors, and the new hotel's cost and dimensions. The underlying corporate petition was not independently inspected for this dossier.[1]

Quitman council and Brooks County commission

Rountree served repeatedly on Quitman's governing body. Huxford lists him as a councilman in 1878 and 1879 and as an alderman across the annual or paired terms from 1881 through 1903. Newspaper spot checks place him on the successful ticket in 1884 and again in 1900. Other contemporary election reports name him in 1886, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1896, 1898, and 1902.[1][27][28]

The record should not be flattened into one uninterrupted term because some reports describe nominations treated as equivalent to election. It does establish long and repeated service. Huxford's mayoral table does not name him, and no checked newspaper made him mayor.[1]

The county record is equally substantial. Huxford lists him as a Brooks County commissioner in 1892-1900 and 1902-1915, with chairmanships in 1894-1900 and 1903-1915. The one-year 1902/1903 difference between the member and chairman tables appears to be a transition or compilation discrepancy.[1]

A December 1894 report directly names Rountree chairman of the five-member board. The commissioners condemned recent murders and abuse of Black residents, called for prosecution, and disputed parts of an earlier newspaper's description of a race riot. Both parts of the resolution matter: the board denounced the violence while also contesting the press account's scale and characterization.[29]

A February 1911 county profile again identifies Rountree as commission chairman. The contemporary reports verify the office at both ends of the two periods; Huxford's compiled table supplies the full runs.[23][29]

Hospital work, church gifts, and library bequests

Rountree chaired a February 26, 1916 mass meeting that raised more than $5,000 toward a proposed city-county hospital. In 1940 he created a $50,000 charitable trust for Brooks County Hospital patients unable to pay. A February 1941 editorial confirms the fund and says the hospital could draw $1,000 of principal plus interest each year for fifty years. Huxford estimated that about 150 patients had benefited by 1948.[1][30][31]

After Minnie's death, Rountree gave $16,000 to the Quitman Presbyterian Church as her memorial. His 1952 obituary also reports that he gave the old library building to the Baptist church as a memorial to his mother and made bequests to the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches and the Brooks County Library.[1][36]

These gifts do not settle his own denomination. His parents were Baptists and Minnie was Presbyterian, but no reviewed source explicitly states Samuel's church membership.[1][8]

South Georgia Railroad and Railway

Huxford lists S. S. Rountree among the 26 applicants for the South Georgia Railroad charter in 1896. The original charter petition and subscription book have not been found. His petitioner role is therefore strong probable rather than original-record verified.[1]

He was not one of the nine directors elected at the March 23, 1896 permanent organization. The contemporary report names James W. Oglesby as president, John W. Hopson as vice president, John Tillman as treasurer, and Zenas W. Oglesby as superintendent. It is important not to turn a petitioner into a founding director.[32]

Rountree joined the board later. The March 1899 annual-meeting report names him among nine reelected directors. This is the earliest direct board evidence found, although it does not give his first election date. A 1925 report independently places him on the board years later.[33][34]

Huxford says Rountree was a stockholder and director when James W. Oglesby died in 1930 and then succeeded him as president. A December 1939 report directly calls Rountree president of the South Georgia Railway, Bank of Quitman, and South Georgia Grocery Company. The presidency is verified by 1939; the 1930 succession remains strong probable without the election notice or minutes.[1][8]

In October 1945 the railway elected R. C. Brooks president and J. J. Parrish vice president and general manager, with S. S. Rountree as board chairman. That report directly verifies his final railway office.[35]

Rountree also joined other transportation proposals. In April 1904 he served on a five-man Quitman committee investigating a rail connection involving the Nashville & Sparks and Pinebloom roads. In 1907 he was one of the published applicants for the Quitman, Valdosta and Thomasville Electric Railway and Power Company, a proposed fifty-mile street railway and power concern. The repeated legal notice proves the application. It does not prove a granted charter, paid subscription, construction, or operation.[40][41]

Death and burial

Rountree died at home in Quitman on the morning of Wednesday, October 29, 1952. The Florida Times-Union published a detailed Quitman obituary the next day. A separate Atlanta Journal brief printed on October 29 says he died Wednesday at age ninety-seven. Its statewide list gives October 20, but that entry conflicts with both the same-page brief and the fuller next-day report. October 29 controls.[36][37]

The obituary reviews his bank, grocery, telephone, railroad, and charitable work and says four nieces and four nephews survived him. No funeral-service report, burial notice, or probate announcement was located in the saved newspaper corpus.[36][38]

Find a Grave memorial 36072263 places him in West End Cemetery and links him to Andrew, Sarilla, and Minnie. Its family-plot photograph confirms a Rountree enclosure but does not show a readable Samuel inscription in the images inspected. West End burial is strong probable, not verified by a burial register or readable marker.[38]

Evidence assessment

Research limits

The documented search covered local project files; memory and evidence logs; Huxford's county history; 1860-1910 census records; Andrew Rountree's recorded will; FamilySearch; Ancestry; Find a Grave; Georgia Historic Newspapers; authenticated saved Newspapers.com corpora; business, bank, municipal, county, railroad, church, hospital, death, and burial terms; and five broader web searches. Name forms included Samuel Stevens Rountree, Samuel S. Rountree, S. S. Rountree, Roundtree, and family, place, office, and business combinations.

Not found in the documented online search: original birth or baptism record; Eastman enrollment or diploma; original 1890 marriage return; original images and complete household fields for 1910-1940; Samuel's will or probate file; readable grave marker or burial register; original South Georgia Railroad charter petition, stock book, or complete minutes; exact first railway board date; 1930 presidential-election minutes; full grocery, bank, telephone, manufacturing, hotel, county, church, or hospital records; grocery-company charter; hospital trust instrument; or a funeral report.

Sources

1. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), printed pp. 176-213, 268-269, 374-376, and 541-543.
2. 1860 U.S. census, A. J. "Ranndtrer" household, Edgefield District, South Carolina, NARA M653, roll 1219, p. 94, family 1421, Ancestry record 18730663, FamilySearch MZTC-SHD.
3. Edgefield Advertiser, June 13, 1866, removal and collection notice for Samuel Stevens, A. J. Rountree, and W. D. Rountree.
4. 1870 U.S. census, Andrew Rountree household, Quitman, NARA M593, roll 137, p. 99B, Ancestry record 3691383, FamilySearch MCSN-1K7.
5. 1880 U.S. census, A. J. Rountree household, Screven Street, Quitman, NARA T9, roll 135, p. 291C, ED 4, Ancestry record 8268019, FamilySearch M8LC-5KN.
6. Brooks County Will Book, Andrew J. Rountree will, signed November 29, 1893, codicil December 28, recorded February 1898, pp. 240-244.
7. “Country's Oldest Active Banker,” Atlanta Journal Magazine, August 1, 1948, p. 98, Newspapers.com image 975804231.
8. Minnie Lewis Rountree obituary, Atlanta Journal, December 5, 1939, p. 10, image 973881455; parallel Macon Telegraph, December 6, p. 3, image 826317265.
9. 1900 U.S. census, Theophilus W. Hunter household, Quitman, NARA T623, roll 181, p. 2, ED 6; Samuel entry Ancestry record 52865801, household head record 52865795.
10. 1910 U.S. census index, Samuel S. and Minnie L. Rountree, Quitman, Ancestry record 3196337.
11. Savannah Morning News, February 10, 1896, p. 6, dissolution of Rountree & Co., image 852569115.
12. Andrew J. Rountree obituary, Atlanta Constitution, January 22, 1898, p. 3, image 34093091.
13. Atlanta Constitution, April 4, 1903, p. 3, recent organization of South Georgia Grocery Company, image 26917798.
14. “Quitman as a Wholesale Market,” Atlanta Constitution, November 12, 1905, p. 10, image 26834164.
15. “The South Georgia Grocery Company,” Atlanta Constitution, June 20, 1909, p. 11, image 26871799.
16. Florida Times-Union, May 25, 1924, p. 13, new grocery-company building, image 1258804164.
17. Macon Telegraph, May 17, 1925, p. 23, completed grocery office and warehouse, image 825993810.
18. Valdosta Daily Times, July 23, 1927, p. 1, wholesale dry-goods expansion, image 889422807.
19. Macon Telegraph, December 3, 1888, p. 3, proposed state bank meeting, image 825354678.
20. Savannah Morning News, February 10, 1892, p. 2, Bank of Quitman board, image 852540041.
21. Savannah Morning News, February 25, 1898, p. 2, Bank of Quitman vice presidency, image 852547044.
22. Atlanta Constitution, November 12, 1905, p. 10, Bank of Quitman profile, image 26834164.
23. Macon Telegraph, February 19, 1911, p. 22, Brooks County banking and commission profile, image 825463936.
24. “Rountree Is Named Quitman Bank Head,” Atlanta Journal, November 6, 1911, p. 11, image 969947144; parallel Macon Telegraph, p. 6, image 825499139.
25. Savannah Morning News, July 9 and July 22, 1890, Quitman Compress Company elections, images 852608056 and 852609138.
26. J. M. Isham to A. J. and S. S. Rountree, deed dated December 8, 1894, recorded April 13, 1898, Brooks District 12, Lots 376 and 377, FamilySearch image; 1898 farm reports, Newspapers.com images 34087561 and 889762646.
27. Savannah Morning News, January 8, 1884, p. 1, Quitman alderman election, image 830470359.
28. Macon Telegraph, March 30, 1900, p. 3, Quitman alderman election, image 825983888.
29. Atlanta Journal, December 27, 1894, p. 2, county commission resolution and board membership, image 969459555; reprint, The Correspondent, January 5, 1895, p. 6, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
30. Macon Telegraph, February 27, 1916, p. 3, city-county hospital meeting, image 825579345.
31. Millen News, February 13, 1941, p. 6, Samuel S. Rountree Charitable Trust, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
32. “The South Georgia,” Savannah Morning News, March 24, 1896, p. 2, first board, image 852573116, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
33. Atlanta Constitution, March 30, 1899, p. 3, South Georgia Railway board, image 26826945.
34. Macon Telegraph, November 22, 1925, p. 7, railway annual meeting and directors, image 826211054.
35. Valdosta Daily Times, October 13, 1945, p. 4, railway officers and board, image 889646026.
36. “Death Claims S. S. Rountree,” Florida Times-Union, October 30, 1952, p. 27, image 1259915337.
37. Atlanta Journal, October 29, 1952, conflicting statewide list and Quitman brief, image 969040218.
38. Samuel Stevens Rountree memorial 36072263, West End Cemetery, Find a Grave, including obituary clipping and family-plot photograph.
39. Minnie Clayburn Lewis Rountree memorial 36072207, West End Cemetery, Find a Grave.
40. Adel News, April 22, 1904, p. 1, railroad investigating committee, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
41. Valdosta Daily Times, May 31 and June 14, 1907, Quitman, Valdosta and Thomasville Electric Railway and Power Company petition, images 889830288 and 889830630.