Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1891-12-23
Charles f. Crisp.

he was brought by them to this coun-
try before he was year old.
His early education was obtained
in the school of Savannah and Macon,
the then leading cities of the State
which he now represents in Congress.
He enlisted in the Confederal army
in the first year of the war, and fin
ally became lieutenant in the Tenth
Virginia Infantry. serving with his
regiment until May, 1854, when he was
taken prisoner and carried to Fort
Delaware. There he remained until
the close of the war, being released
in June, 1865.
He at once returned to the home of
his parents at Ellaville. in Georgia,
and after a brief interval began TO
read law at Americas, being admitted
to the bar there the following year
and forthwith commencing practice
at EIlaville. The young lawyer made
his way with great rapidity to the
front rank of his profession. His
amiability and complete self-control,
his alert mind and judicial cast of
thought, all combined to bring him
quickly to the notice of the members
of his profession throughout the State,
and to win him hosts of friends among
all classes of the people.
There was a vast deal of interest
taken in the rising young lawyer,
and there were many reasons for it,
not the least of these being the fact
that he had sprung from a family of
actors of excellent repute in all the
Southern country. For years before
the war his relatives had been we'll
known and popular actors. His ia
Their played at the old Park Theatre
in this city years ago and he was one
of the earliest supports of Mrs. Mowatt
at the beginning of her career.
Promotion soon came to Mr.. Crisp.
In 1872 he was appointed Solicitor
General of the Southwestern Judicial
Circuit, and was again appointed in
1873 for a four years term. The same
year he made his home in Americas,
where he still lives. and in June, 1877,
be was appointed Judge of the Su-
perior Court. In 1878 he was chosen
by the General Assembly for the same
Office, and in 1880 he was reelected
for four years, but resigned in 1882 to
accept the Democratic nomination
for Congress from the Third District.
The same qualities which brought
about his rapid advancement in the
law secured his equally pronounced
successes in politics. We find him
President Of the Democratic Con-
vention at Atlanta in 1883, when the
canidate for Governor was put in NOM
nation. When his first term in Con.
gress expired he was renominated for
second, and then third, fourth
and fifth terms, serving, as all the
country knows, with great credit to
himself and usefulness to his party
and his State in the Forty-eighth,
Forty. ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty.frst
Congresses. A year ago he was elect
ed to the Fifty-second Congress, of
which he has just been chosen the
Speaker. Judge Crisp for number
Of years has devoted himself exclu-
sively to his Congressional duties. He
found that he could not attend to his
professional business and to his work in
the House of Representatives without
neglecting one of the two interests,
characteristic unselfshness he sacri-
feed his private fortune for the public
good. His fellow-townsmen are his
warmest friends. His wife was
brought up in Ellaville, her father
being a wealthy planter in that town,
and the Judge has four children, two
boy and two girls. His oldest daugh-
ter is the wife of a leading wholesale
merchant of Americas.
Judge Crisp has made a most enyi.
able reputation in Congress. For sew.
eral sessions he has been one of the ac-
knowledged leaders on the Democratic
side of the House, ranking with the
best of his political friends. He stood
shoulder to shoulder with Carlisle in
many bitter fight and no one was
quicker to tackle Gar Reed than the
plucky Georgian. Once, when read
ing from an old speech Of Congress-
man Reed, protesting against arbi-
trary rulings, he closed his quotation
by wave of his hand toward the
Speakers chair and the remark, III
appeal from Philip drunk to Philip
sober" Another, when Ben Butter
worth said he always stood by the
Speaker, to which Crisp retorted
eyes, you remind me of the Hindoo
bowling before his god and saying
L know that you ore ugly, but feel
that you are great" So we'll appre-
ciated we're his sterling fighting quail
tiles that more than once he has been
dubbed the Bulldog of the House.