Thomas Updegraff

UPDEGRAFF, MCNEIL, MURDOCK, WILLIAMS, STONEMAN, HATCH, CROSBY, ODELL, PRICE, DRUMMOND

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 1/29/2009 at 20:42:57

Clayton County Centennial Edition, July 1, 1936.
By W. C. McNeil

Thomas Updegraff

From my own experience I am persuaded that very many have the realization that life has been enriched from knowing such men as Reuben Noble, Thomas Updegraff, Samuel Murdock, Elias Williams, John T. Stoneman, Leander O. Hatch, J. O. Crosby, Elija Odell, Eliphalet Price and Willis Drummond.

Should I eliminate the “Ego” and the pronoun “I,” I could not credit the inspiration of this article to its proper source. Away back in the fifties, coming into the office of the Clerk of Courts-the kindly smile of Tom Updegraff fortified by a pleasant greeting, gave a farm boy a few opportunities, a new outlook. Mr. Updegraff later formed the law partnership of Odell and Updegraff. The passing years brought me to my majority, and the Grant and Greeley campaign, Grant’s first administration, like Harding’s , was honeycombed with scandals, star routes, revenue and others; and as a party protest many Republicans, among them Mr. Updegraff, went over to Greeley.

Having given the State honest, conspicuous service in the State legislature he was conceded the nomination for Congress, twice elected, once defeated. In his second campaign, Mr. Updegraff was defeated by “Calamity” Wheeler, whose first name was a gratuitous donation of the Republican party. His defeat by an opponent of Populist equipment was a humiliation that Mr. Updegraff gave evidence of in strong language. Sheriff Jim Davis, who possessed something less than the wisdom of Solomon, after listening to a recital of “Calamity’s” unfitness, remarked: “Tom, you should never belittle the resources of an enemy who has overcome you.” That nugget of wisdom has a place in my collection.