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TUPELO,
MISSISSIPPI
In
1830,
Congress passed the Indian Removal Act and authorized
the relocation of all the Southeast Native Americans to
federal territory west of the Mississippi River. This
forced removal, which occurred throughout the late
1830s, became known as the
Trail of Tears. From 1827 to 1838
about 23,000 Creek people were forced into Indian
Territory, thousands of whom died on the three-month
journey. In all, more than 46,000 to 60,000 Native
Americans were forced—sometimes by the U.S.
military—to abandon their homes and relocate to
“Indian Territory,” which became the state of
Oklahoma.
In the early
years of settlement, European-Americans
named this town "Gum Pond," supposedly due to its
numerous tupelo trees, known locally as "blackgum." The
city still hosts the annual Gumtree Arts Festival. During the
Civil War, Union and Confederate forces
fought in the area in 1864 in the Battle of Tupelo and
the Battle of Old Town Creek. Designated the
Tupelo
National Battlefield, the battlefield is administered by
the National Park Service (NPS.) With expansion, the
town changed its name to Tupelo, in honor of the battle.
It was incorporated in 1870
MILTON HARVEY MABRY SR.
Father of Giddings, Jesse (II), Milton Jr,
John, Dale, Eloise, and Harton Mabry
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 A
son of Jesse Hughes Mabry and Sarah Caroline Prude,
Milton H. Mabry was born on June 17, 1850 in
Bridgeville, Pickens Co., Alabama. Milton spent his childhood there until
the family moved to DeSoto Parish in Louisiana around
1856. There they spent about four years until they moved
to Pontotoc County, Mississippi, in early 1860. Milton spent the rest of his
childhood years at Verona and then
as a young man at Tupelo in
Lee County, Miss.
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MILTON MABRY'S EDUCATION
Milton Mabry received
his primary education at Verona, Miss., after which he
finished his literary education at the University of
Mississippi ("Ole Miss") at Oxford, Miss., about
30 miles NNW of Tupelo.
Graduating after two
years, in 1869, he entered the law college at Cumberland
University in Lebanon, Tenn. where he received his
Bachelor of Laws degree in
1872. He was admitted to the bar in Mississippi that
year and commenced his law practice at his home in
Tupelo, where he soon formed a partnership with a
prominent lawyer, the firm being known as Medford &
Mabry.
MILTON MABRY'S MARRIAGE
On
Dec. 21, 1876 Milton married Ella Dale
Bramlett in Tupelo, Lee County, Miss. She
was born Mar. 28, 1855 in Tupelo, one of
at least eight children of an extensive planter
near Verona; John Woodson Bramlett
and his wife, Eliza G. Turner Bramlett.
MILTON MABRY IS A MISSISSIPPI
DELEGATE AND TUPELO'S MAYOR
Milton was soon selected as
a delegate to the state convention to revise the
constitution of
Mississippi and subsequently was honored by the people
of Tupelo as their mayor for
two consecutive terms from 1877 to 1879.
THE
MABRYS - FIRST CHILD
On Oct. 8, 1877 at Tupelo, Milton and
Ella had their first child, Giddings
Eldon Mabry
THE
MABRYS - SECOND CHILD
On July 30, 1878 at Tupelo, Milton and
Ella had their second child, Jesse
Hughes Mabry.
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THE
MABRYS MOVE TO FLORIDA
On
the persuasion of a friend and future law partner
William A. Hocker of Sumter County, Fla. (who had moved
to Florida in 1874), Milton Mabry moved with his wife and
two young sons to
Leesburg in Sumter County, Fla. in Dec. 1879, partly due to
his ill health. Mabry soon partnered with Wm. Hocker
in his law practice as Hocker & Mabry from 1880 to 1889.
William
Adam Hocker served on the Supreme Court from 1905 to
1915.
THE MABRYS -
THIRD CHILD
In 1881 at Leesburg, the Mabrys had their
third child, George Mabry. George died
before 1900.
ELECTED STATE REPRESENTATIVE
FOR SUMTER COUNTY
In Nov. 1882, Milton
was elected as Sumter County's State Representative
to
the Florida Assembly for a term of 2 years from 1883 to
1885.
THE MABRYS - FOURTH
CHILD
On Aug. 20, 1883 at Leesburg, the Mabrys had
their fourth child, John Bramlett Mabry.
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LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
1885 - 1889
Quickly earning a name
for himself, Milton was nominated as Edward A. Perry’s
Democrat running-mate for lieutenant governor in
Florida’s gubernatorial election of 1884. Upon winning
the majority vote, Mabry served as lieutenant governor
of Florida from Jan. 1885 until Jan. 6, 1889, becoming
Florida’s last lieutenant governor for nearly 80 more
years. By virtue of the position, he was also President
of the Senate.
THE MABRYS - FIFTH CHILD
In 1885 at Leesburg, the Mabrys had their
fifth child, Mattie Mae Mabry. She
died the same year. |
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1885
Members of the Florida State Senate on the steps of the
Capitol, Tallahassee.
Lt. Governor and President of the Senate Milton H. Mabry on front step, left.
ELIMINATION OF
THE OFFICE OF LT. GOVERNOR
The 1885
Constitutional Convention of Florida which met and
revised the laws of the state during Governor Perry's
administration eliminated the office of Lieutenant
Governor and prohibited the governor from succeeding
himself with a consecutive term.
THE MABRYS
- SIXTH CHILD
On Jun. 26, 1888 at Leesburg, the
Mabrys had their sixth child, Milton
Harvey Mabry, Jr.
MILTON MABRY ON THE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
In 1888, Mabry toured
the state campaigning for the Democrat ticket with
G.B. Sparkman and Circuit
Judge Joseph Baisden Wall.
THE
MABRYS - SEVENTH CHILD
In 1889, the Mabrys had their
seventh child, Kate Mabry. She
died the same year.
THE MABRYS IN PASCO COUNTY
In 1890, Mabry began
having a 10-room residence built on a hill two
miles north of Dade City in Pasco County, .
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 Image
above courtesy of Florida
Memory, State Archives and Library of Florida, but
ultimately, the image comes from the
National Cyclopedia of American Biography, (Mabry
bio written in 1893) published in 1907 |
FLORIDA
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE FIRST TERM
In August 1890, Mabry
served as a delegate to the Florida state Democrat
convention in Ocala. Without solicitation from himself,
his name was placed in nomination for justice of the
Supreme Court of Florida, and on the final ballot he
received the nomination over eminent but aged incumbent,
Justice Maxwell. In Nov. 1890, Mabry won the state
election and served his first term on the Supreme Court
from Jan. 1891 to Jan. 1897, during which time he served
as Chief Justice from 1895 to the end of his term under the governorship of
Francis Philip Fleming
(1889-1892) and Henry Laurens Mitchell (1893-1897.)
During the terms of Supreme Court years, Milton lived in
Tallahassee and maintained his home in
Dade City, where
his family remained.
THE
MABRYS - EIGHTH CHILD
On Mar. 22, 1891 at Tallahassee, the
Mabrys had their eighth child, Dale
Mabry.
THE MABRYS -
NINTH CHILD
On Jun. 10, 1894 at Tallahassee, the
Mabrys had their ninth child, Eloise
Mabry.
FLORIDA SUPREME COURT
JUSTICE SECOND TERM
In Oct. 1896, Mabry
was the Democrat nominee for Supreme Court Justice
again. Winning the election again, he served from Jan. 1897
to Jan. 1903 for a total of two terms for 12 years. |
Courtesy of the Florida Supreme
Court website. |
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RETIREMENT
In Feb. 1902, Milton Mabry
announced he would not run for a
third term on the
Supreme Court. Yearning for
retirement, he declined re-nomination for the Nov. 1902
election and retired in 1903 to his home in Dade City, making way for his former
law partner, William A. Hocker, to join and serve in the
Supreme Court from 1903 until 1915.
MILTON MABRY JOINS SON'S LAW PRACTICE
IN TAMPA AS MABRY & MABRY
In Dec. 1902, Milton Mabry
announced his desire to move to Tampa from Dade City.
He arrived in Tampa on Jan. 1, 1903, established a home
on Bayshore Blvd., and began the private
practice of
law with his eldest son, Giddings Eldon Mabry, as Mabry
& Mabry; Giddings having established his lone law
practice in Tampa in Oct. 1901.
Image courtesy of The
Treasure City, Tampa by Gary R. Mormino and
Anthony P. Pizzo, 1985. |
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DEATH OF WIFE
ELLA IN TAMPA
Milton's wife, Ella Dale
(Bramlett) Mabry, died in 1904 at their Bayshore Blvd.
home after suffering for some time with severe
headaches. The announcement of her passing
mentioned her surviving husband, "four sons and
one daughter" with subsequent specific mention of sons Giddings
and his brother, Dr.
Jesse Mabry, a physician in Norfolk, Virginia.
THE END OF MABRY &
MABRY AND RETURN TO TALLAHASSEE
Justice Mabry soon decided that the private practice of
law was not for him.
The death of his wife along with persuasion from friends
convinced Milton to return the Supreme Court. He moved
back to Tallahassee in 1904 and accepted the position of
Clerk of the Supreme Court from March 31, 1905 until
1915.
SECOND MARRIAGE
AND BIRTH OF SON HARTON W. MABRY
On Nov. 15, 1906,
Milton Mabry married in a private ceremony at her home
in Louisville, Kentucky-born Miss Irene Washburne,
a young lady of charm, beauty and refinement,
one of Kentucky's loveliest girls. She
proved herself a most devoted wife and loving
mother. She was
one of six children of Louis Jermaine Washburne and
Mary
Ann Rudy, The couple made a southern tour before
settling in Tallahassee.
Their son, Harton Washburne
Mabry, was born Sep. 21, 1908 in Tallahassee where they were
living along with Milton's and Ella's son, Dale.
SECOND RETIREMENT AND DEATH
Milton Mabry retired
from his position as clerk of the supreme court in 1915,
spending some time at a beach house in Clearwater, in
hopes that the sea air would improve his health.
He relocated a final time to his home at 210 Fielding Ave.
in Hyde Park, Tampa, before passing away of tuberculosis
on March 3, 1919 at the age of 68.
In stature Judge Mabry
was a tall man, six feet tall and of medium build. He
wore a mustache and his coal black hair did not have a
streak of grey in it until well past his 50th year.
While not an orator of the old school, his speech was
pleasing and he was forceful, entertaining and logical.
In the months that preceded the general elections he
invariably received invitations to canvass the state
with other party leaders in behalf of the Democrat
ticket.
In the
National Cyclopedia of American
Biography, (Mabry bio written in
1893) published in 1907, Justice Mabry
is described as having a "sanguine,
nervous, active temperament and a
profound, earnest student of the law, a
hard worker, a conscientious judge, and
a forceful speaker. His executive
and judicial ability is recognized
throughout the state, while his opinions
are received with respect by all.
Physically, he is a man of commanding
presence, although of slender figure,
and has dark hazel eyes, brown hair, and
a thoughtful face."
After Milton's
death, Irene Washburne Mabry moved to Sanford
in Seminole County by 1920 where she lived with her son, Harton,
age 11, and with her sister Nellie and brother-in-law
G.F. Smith. By 1940 Irene had moved with
her son to Daytona Beach
in
Volusia County, where she died on Jul. 5,
1943. Harton became a member of a prominent law firm in
Daytona Beach.
Some information obtained
from:
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MILTON H. MABRY LIFE
DETAILS AND
SUPPORTING SOURCES
(There are events below that
do not appear above.)
Cumberland University Annual Catalog, 1871-1872
 
 
See all Faculty
DATES ARE YYYY-MM-DD
MILTON MABRY IS SECRETARY
OF TUPELO TAXPAYERS COMMITTEE
1875-01-07 The Lee County
(Miss.) Clarion
The tax-payers of Lee county met in Tupelo on the 28th
of December and proceeded to the permanent organization
of a tax-payers convention by the selection of Capt. R.M.
Leavell as chairman and M. H. Mabry, and S.
Billingsley as Secretaries.
MARRIAGE LICENSE
1876-12-21 MARRIAGE TO
ELLA DALE BRAMLETT
Milton Harvey Mabry married
Ella Dale Bramlett on Dec. 21, 1876 in Lee County, Miss.
(Ella was b.ca.1856, in Pontotoc, Miss., a daughter of
John Woodson Bramlett and Eliza G. Turner Bramlett).
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MILTON MABRY
LOOKING FOR NEW HOME
1879-01-03 DEMOCRAT STAR, Pascagoula, MS.
Milton Mabry, mayor of Tupelo and promising lawyer,
is on the coast [of Mississippi]looking out for a place with the view of
locating in our beautiful land. We hope he may find a
place to suit him, and that he will settle here.
THE MABRYS MOVE TO LEESBURG, SUMTER CO., FLA.
1880 CENSUS,
SUMTER COUNTY, FLA.
In Dec. 1879 Milton, Ella, and
their sons Giddings and Jesse moved to Leesburg in
Sumter Co, Fla. where Milton was in the citrus industry and
soon was in the practice of law as Hocker & Mabry. Milton was 28, his wife Ella
Bramlett Mabry was 24.
1885 Florida County map courtesy of
Florida Memory, State Library and Archives
of Florida
At the top
of the census page, five dwellings before the Mabry family, the
Hocker family was enumerated. W. A. Hocker was 35, an
attorney from Virginia. (The households in between have
been removed.) Mabry would soon form a law partnership
with W. A. Hocker.
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REBUTTAL TO CRITICISM OF MILTON
MABRY
