Wilson Lumpkin

Early life

Born near Dan River, Virginia, he moved in 1784 to Oglethorpe County, Georgia with his parents, who settled near Point Peter and subsequently at Lexington, Georgia. He attended the common schools, and taught school and farmed; he studied law, and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Athens, Georgia. He was of entirely English ancestry, his first ancestor in America was English immigrant Thomas Lumpkin, who moved from England to Virginia during the colonial period.

Political Life

Lumpkin was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1804 to 1812, and was elected as a Representative to the Fourteenth United States Congress, serving from March 4, 1815 to March 3, 1817. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection, and was the State Indian Commissioner. He was elected to the Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Congresses and served from March 4, 1827, until his resignation in 1831 before the convening of the Twenty-second Congress to run for the governorship; he was also commissioner on the Georgia–Florida boundary line commission. He was elected Governor of Georgia in November 1831. In that election he received 27,305 votes and the incumbent governor George R. Gilmer received 25,863 votes. He was reelected as governor in 1833 due in part to the nullification crisis and served until 1835. In 1835, he was appointed commissioner under the Cherokee treaty. He was elected to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John P. King and served from November 22, 1837, to March 3, 1841; while in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Manufactures (Twenty-sixth Congress). Lumpkin owned 20 slaves in Athens, Georgia. Lumpkin was a member of the State board of public works, and died in Athens in 1870; interment was in Oconee Hill Cemetery.

Legacy

Lumpkin's grandson, Middleton P. Barrow, also served in the U.S. Senate. Lumpkin's brother Joseph Henry Lumpkin was the first chief justice of the Georgia supreme court. Their nephew John Henry Lumpkin was a U.S. Representative from Georgia. The settlers of Terminus (current-day Atlanta) voted to rename their town "Lumpkin" after Wilson Lumpkin. He instead asked for his young daughter Martha W. Lumpkin (later Compton), to be the honoree of the city's first true name, "Marthasville."

The story that the later name "Atlanta" derives from a nickname "Atalanta" for Martha is not supported by the historical evidence.

Lumpkin County, Georgia, is named for him. The Lumpkin House on the campus of the University of Georgia was built by Lumpkin and is named in his memory.