perintendency he made it a point always to be on time. He was never once tardy during fifteen years of such service. He was never absent, except for providential causes or absence from home on proper grounds.

Mr. Hardeman has had a large and lucrative practice in his profession, and yet he has found time for all his religious duties. He has been attorney and director in several corporations. He was a director for the Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad. He was for four years in the Confederate service in the Army of Northern Virginia as Orderly Sergeant, First Lieutenant, Captain, Major, and finally Lieutenant-Colonel of the Twelfth Georgia Regiment. He was captured at Spotteylvania Court House and carried to Fort Delaware, where he was kept until discharged in July, 1865.

After the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, all of the prisoners of war at Fort Delaware were discharged, except about forty, among whom were Generals Barringer and Page, Col. Charlton Morgan, the brother of Gen. John H. Morgan, Barnwell Rhett, Thomas W. Hooper, Harrell, Hinton, Cbl. Isaac Hardeman, and others.

In reply to a letter written by Colonel Hardeman to Hon. Montgomery Blair, at the suggestion of Hon. Joshua Hill, asking him to aid the prisoners in being discharged, Mr. Blair replied that there were extremists in Washington who insisted that some who had engaged in "the rebellion" should be made to pay the penalty of their "treason," and as Lee and Johnston with their commands in the fields had been permitted under the terms of the surrender to escape, the Fort Delaware prisoners, with others, were to be held for a time to await the determination of the authorities at Washington as to final disposition. This reply quite awakened the apprehensions of the prisoners in whose interests the letter had been written, and they awaited with a degree of anxiety further news from Washington. It was later

concluded to allow the prisoners to return to their homes, and Colonel Hardeman reached Macon on his final discharge from service and from prison on August 1, 1865.

While Colonel Hardeman is a Democrat, he has not always assented to all the policies advocated by the party. This was notably true in the campaign advocating the free coinage of silver. This was the only time he did not vote a straight Democratic ticket, he voting for Palmer and Buckner. Colonel Hardeman is a Master Mason.

W. J. NORTHEN.

Charles Simon Barrett.

O have been for three terms, by unanimous election, the president and potential force in the greatest organization

of farmers now in existence-and the greatest that ever existed-to have conducted its vast affairs with infinite tact, conspicuous ability, rare judgment, and wonderful success, and to have retired at the close of his official life with the devoted love and confidence of nearly two million American farmers— surely this is a career to fill the measure of any man of noble ambition-and a record large enough for a place of honor in this volume. The history of this great farmers' movement, and the history of Chas. S. Barrett are well nigh one and inseparable.

The organization of the Farmers' Educational and Co-operative Union of America, in October, 1902, marks an epoch in the forward movement of the agricultural classes of the South and West.

The organization had its beginning in Texas, whence it spread throughout the United States and Canada and numbers (March 4, 1907) one million nine hundred thousand members. There was at the time of its birth no thought of an extensive movement looking to the universal organization of the farmers of the country, but the principles outlined and the declaration of rights published to the world by the handful of farmers who styled themselves "The Farmers' Union" were so just, so reasonable and so conservative that others began to investigate with the result that local organizations were founded in all the near-by counties.

From Texas the organization spread into the Indian Territory and Oklahoma. Early in the spring of 1903, R. F. Duckworth, of Texas, came to Georgia to begin the work of organizing the