(1) Emanuel County Sketches
ALFRED HERRINGTON, lawyer, Swainsboro, Emanuel Co., Ga., son of Manning and Lucretia(Phillips ) Herrington, was born in Emanuel county Nov. 21, 1858. On both sides he is of Irish lineage. His paternal great-grandfather, Ephraim Herrington, was a North Carolinian, a soldier in the patriot army during the revolutionary war, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He migrated to Robeson county, N. C, and came to Georgia early in the present century and was among the pioneer settlers of Emanuel county. Mr. Herrington's grandfather, James Herrington, was born in North Carolina and came with the family to Emanuel county, in which his father was born. Mr. Herrington's father was a mechanic and enlisted early in the late civil war in Capt. Miller's rangers, which became a part of the Seventh Georgia cavalry. After participating in a number of engagements he was detailed to take charge of the mechanical corps. He died Sept. 11, 1864, from the effects of extreme exposure and hardships suffered while in the Confederate service. Mr. Herrington's mother was a daughter of Anthony Phillips, whose family also came from North Carolina to Emanuel county. They were the parents of six children, all living: Alfred, Anthony M., John C, Melissa, Florence Elizabeth, and Dicey. Mr. Herrington was the eldest son, and his father dying while he was yet young, and devolving upon him the care of the family in straitened circumstances, his educational advantages were of the most meager kind. The first pair of shoes he had after the death of his father he made himself, and then to get money to pay for an education he cut and rafted timber to market. He entered the university of Georgia at Athens in 1872, but he had so little money and the demands on him at his home were such that he was deprived of graduation by leaving the university. Knowing no such word as "fail" he persevered, read law under the preceptorship of Hon. C. C. Kibbee of Hawkinsville (now of Macon), Ga., and was admitted to the bar at Pulaski superior court in December, 1877. He located at Mount Vernon, Montgomery Co., Ga., and practiced law there one year. In 1884 he moved his office to Swainsboro. Although without money he determined to succeed. Possessing a strong mind, an inflexible purpose and superior ability, and withal being a hard student, he soon became the leading attorney and had the largest practice of anyone at the bar. In 1888 he was elected to represent Emanuel county in the general assembly, and after serving the term retired from politics; however, such was the pressure brought upon him, and so urgent were the solicitations of appreciative friends, that he consented to accept the nomination of elector on the democratic electoral ticket in 1892, and of course was elected. He was appointed as one of the U. S. commissioners in the matter of the Cherokee strip, but at the end of three months resigned and returned to the practice of his profession, to which he is an enthusiastic devotee. He is pre-eminently popular in his native county, whose citizens manifest the greatest anxiety to advance him politically. In 1894 a recommendation of him by the democratic executive committee of his county as a candidate for congress received the unanimous endorsement of the county in a primary election, but he peremptorily declined to allow his name to be presented to the congressional nominating convention of the first district. Being young, an enthusiastic democrat, of unquestionable ability and determined will, and already towering professionally above men older than he in years and practice, he undoubtedly has before him a brilliant professional and political career and great pecuniary prosperity. Mr. Herrington was married March 13, 1890, to Miss Annie Lee, daughter of L. H. Wilkins of Richmond county, a union which has been blessed with three children: Thomas Norwood, Pat Calhoun, and Morris Dawson. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and a Royal Arch Mason.
Source: Memoirs of Georgia, Containing Historical Accounts of the State’s Civil, Military, Industrial and Professional Interests and Personal Sketches of Many of Its People, Volume I, published by The Southern Historical Association, Atlanta, GA., 1895; Pgs. 641-642
(2) Hon. Alfred Herrington, member of the legislature from Emanuel county, was married a few days ago to Miss Annie Lee Wilkins. What is remarkable about it is, that she is the third sister he has married. He educated both of his last two wives at the best schools of the country, and then married the last one after the second sister died.
Source: Union Recorder, Milledgeville, Georgia, March 25, 1890; Pg. 6
