MAJOR STEPHEN TERRY 1788-1866*      

     Departed this life on his farm about four miles from Atlanta,  on the 15th 
of  November,  1866,  Major Stephen Terry, one of the earliest settlers of the 
city and one of her most respected citizens.

     Major Terry was born in Chester District,  S.  C., August 10, 1788 and was 
consequently at the time of his death in the 79th year of his age, retaining to 
the  last the faculties of his naturally strong mind,  and much of  the  energy 
which characterized his young manhood.

     On  July  4,  1809 he was married in Fairfield District,  S.  C.  to  Miss 
Elizabeth H. Hill, and in 1826 removed to DeKalb Co., Ga. He had the misfortune 
to lose his wife on Dec.  3, 1838, but in the same year he joined the Methodist 
Church,  of which he remained a firm and consistent member. In uniting with the 
church he followed the examples and teachings of his youth.  His  father,  John 
Terry, having joined with the Methodists in 1774.

     In  1843  Major Terry settled in Atlanta,  which was then  an  unimportant 
depot  known as Marthasville.  He witnessed her early struggles,  and her 
rapid growth  and development,  and participated in the measures and  
policies  which have  advanced her to her present and prospective prosperity,  
securing as  his reward  a fair competency
for himself.  

He was a contractor for the Monroe (now Macon  &  Western)  and  Georgia 
Railways,  and the  builder  of  the  original "Washington Hall" one of the first, 
 if not the first, hotel built in the city, in which  as  in all other business engagements 
he executed  his  trusts  with scrupulous fidelity.... [signed] A Friend.

*A copy of original  tintype was given to me by a cousin Janet Elliott Cain. 
The female on the right was Mary Lewis whom Major Stephen Terry married late 
in life. It appears the title "Major" was a result of his being an officer in the Georgia 
Militia.

[Obituary  of  Major Stephen Terry Published in  the  Dec.  9,  1866  
newspaper "Atlanta Daily New Era".]

This is the Editor's 4th Great-Grandfather