Mississippi College - Tribesman Yearbook (Clinton, MS)

Page 20 text:

I. N. Ellis M R. I. N. ELLIS, cashier of the Merchants’ and Planters’ Bank, Hazlehurst, Miss., has been a prominent trustee of Mississippi College foi many yeais. He was horn in Copiah County, Miss., in 1849. He worked on a farm and went to school until he was sixteen, when he joined the State Militia and seived as a soldier for the last year of the Civil War. After the war he attended Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn. When twenty-three years of age he was elected Chancery Clerk of Copiah County. The same year he was married to Miss Georgia Stapleton, a native of the State of Georgia. At the close of his four years’ term as Chancery Clerk he entered the mercantile business at Hazlehurst. In 1882, in connection with Major R. W. Millsaps, he organized the Merchants’ and Planters’ Bank and has served as vice-president and cashier up to the present time. Mr. Ellis is a deacon in the Baptist Church at Hazlehurst; has always been greatly interested in the educational affairs of his town; is a patriotic citizen and liberal giver to all good causes and, in general, is a man who would be an honor to any community. He has a large family of promising sons and daughters and one of the most hospitable to be found anywhere. Mr. Ellis never fails to make a libeial donation when Mississippi College undertakes a forward financial movement. If Mississippi College had one thousand such friends she could soon take the place at the very head of the list of denominational colleges of the South. 18

Page 19 text:

M R. Z. D. DAVIS, the subject of this sketch admits that he first saw the light of day in Copiah County on the 14th day of December, 1852, on his father’s farm about eighteen miles west of Brookhaven, Miss. He worked industriously on the farm, attending school during the winter until sixteen years of age, when he went to Brookhaven and accepted a clerkship with Major R. W. Millsaps, who was then engaged in the mercantile business. Mr. Davis served in the capacity of clerk and bookkeeper until 1881, when he succeeded Major Millsaps in business under the firm name of Sherman Davis. In 1887 the firm opened „ p. . a private bank which met with remarkable Z. D. Davis r success, and a few years later upon the death of Mr. Sherman he succeeded to the entire management of both the mercantile and banking business I he firm continued in existence until 1900, when Mr. Davis was elected active vice-president of the Capital National Bank and took up his residence in Jackson, Miss. In 1903 ' upon the retirement of Major R. W. Millsaps as president of the Capital National Bank, he was unanimously elected president and has occupied that position since. He still retains his extensive business interests at Brookhaven and is president of the Brookhaven Bank and Trust Company, which succeeded to the banking business of his old firm. Mr. Davis is also a stockholder and director in quite a number of the leading banks of Mississippi. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Mississippi College and a member of the investment committee for the endowment fund of the College. l 7 MMK

Page 21 text:

B. W. Griffith H ONORABLE B. W. GRIFFITH, son of General Richard Griffith, who fell at Savage Station in the war between the states, was horn in Hinds County, Miss., January 3, 1853. After receiving his preparatory education in the public schools in and around Jackson he entered Mississippi College in 1870, and two years later was graduated with the degree of B. A. as valedictorian of his class. Later, the degree of Master of Arts was conferred on him. After serving as bookkeeper in the Capital National Bank of Jackson for several years, he was elected cashier of that institution which position he held until 1893. He was then elected president of the First National Bank of Vicksburg, Miss., a position he still holds. Mr. Griffith is one of those consecrated laymen who are doing so much to advance the Christian cause in our State. He has been a deacon for nearly thirty years and is ever ready to lend his influence and means for the advancement of any worthy cause, for many years he was Superintendent of the Sunday School at Jackson and filled the same office at Vicksburg for several years. A loyal friend of the College, he has served on the Board of Trustees for a num- ber of years and has been a member of the executive and investment committees of that Board ever since these committees were named. He was elected Mayor of Vicksburg on the reform ticket in 1904 and has given that city a clean, conservative and yet signally progressive administration. 9