Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

22 RHMINISCHNCHS OF FAMOUS GEORGIANS.
finally, dropping the old settlement name, they crossed
over the Savannah river and started the religious colony
which was destined to play such an important part in the
history of the commonwealth.
Organized upon Congregational lines, it was served in
terchangeably by Congregational and Presbyterian
preachers and among the early divines who ministered to
the pastorial needs of the flock was ReA'. Abiel Holmes,
the father of the famous New England poet, Oliver Wen-
dell Holmes. The elder Holmes retained his connection
with the church for something over six years; and an in
teresting circumstance which marked the return of the
Holmes family to the classic shades of Cambridge was
the birth of the noted bard; and it was only by the barest
freak of the calendar that Oliver Wendell Holmes missed
being born on the soil of Georgia.
Besides preachers "ad infinitum," most of them Pres
byterian, but some Baptist, some Methodist and some
Episcopalian, old Midway church has sent forth scores of
men who have become prominent in the various walks of
life. Among the noted offspring of old Midway church
may be included Drs. John and Joseph LeConte, the
noted scientists, so long identified with the University of
California; Chancellor P. H. Mell, of the University of
Georgia; United States Senators John Elliott, Alfred
Iverson and A. O. Bacon; Governors Gwinnett, Hall,
Howley and Bronson; General Daniel Stewart, General
John Screven, Colonel Lachlan Mclntosh, Hon. John A.
Cuthbert, Hon. W. B. Fleming, Adjutant-General John
Mclntosh Kell, United States Minister to China John E.
Ward; Colonel Chas. Colcock Jones, Georgia's distin
guished historian; Rev. Frank R. Goulding, author of