Biographical Sketches.
No. 1.
Robert Maxwell Young
Born 1798 – Died 1880.

The subject of this sketch descended from an honorable and aristocratic South Carolina ancestry. His father, Captain William Young, acquired considerable reputation in the war of the revolution. His service as a soldier lasted from the moment the colonies determined to be free until the surrender of Cornwallis. He served under Gates, Morgan, Moultrie and Col. Washington. He was a planter of large means, and died at the well known Rock House, near Greenville, S. C., in 1827.

Robert Maxwell Young saw the light of day at Greenville Court House, S. C., in 1798. In this renowned old state, surrounded by a chivalrous, generous, cultivated class of people, he grew to manhood. He was carefully and thoroughly educated at one of the best high schools in his native state. An apt pupil and a diligent student, he came out from this school better equipped for the battle of life, than nine tenths of these latter day college graduates.

After completing his literary course, and having determined on medicine as a profession, he took two courses of lectures at the celebrated Medical University of Pennsylvania, situated at Philadelphia, where he graduated with distinction in 1824.

Immediately after his graduation, Dr. R. M. Young settled at Spartanburg Court House, South Carolina. Here he married the handsome, refined and highly cultured daughter of Mr. George Jones, a wealthy South Carolina planter. Never were man and woman more happily mated. Each was the supplement of the other. They were bound together by a bond of sympathetic love that only death could sever. Being a man of broad culture and comprehensive intellect; possessed of temperate habits and a good constitution; in manners easy, polished and attentive; faithfully conscientious in the performance of his duty and devoted to his profession, Dr. Young’s rise was sure and rapid. For fifteen years he was a resident of Spartanburg, and during this time he made for himself a reputation as a first class physician rarely, if ever, excelled be any one in the same length of time.

In 1839 he determined to move to a newer country; and having purchased a beautiful and fertile farm on the Etowah river in Bartow, then old Cass county, Georgia, he brought his family here two years later, in 1841.

After settling in Georgia, Dr. Young continued to practice medicine, in addition to the managing of considerable farming interests, until 1856, when he dropped his profession and devoted himself exclusively to rural pursuits. His farm, one of the prettiest and best in the state, yielded him a comfortable income. He surrounded himself with all the little conveniences that make home pleasant and that fill life with a placid content and a cheerful happiness. Here it was that he entertained, in princely style, his friends, whose name was legion; here it was that so many learned to love him, for he was a loveable man; here it was that his children grew to manhood and to womanhood; here it was that he spent the residue of his days.

Dr. Young raised four children. The first was Dr. George William Young, assistant surgeon of the 14th Georgia regiment, who died at his post near Cheat mountain in West Virginia, in 1861. The second was Col. Robert B. Young, who was colonel of the 10th Texas Infantry, and who fell while gallantly leading his regiment in the memorable charge of Cleburn’s division in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, in 1864. The third was Mrs. Louisa J. Jones, wife of Dr. Jones, of Kingston, Georgia. The fourth and last was our own gallant General P. M. B. Young, who was educated at the United States Military Academy, at West Point, and who served in the army of north Virginia under Lee and Stuart. He was a brave and patriotic soldier and a fine commander. After the surrender of General Lee, he returned to his home in Bartow county, and was elected to congress from the Seventh district for four successive terms.

The two last named children are still living in Bartow county; the one, the wife of one of the best physicians in north Georgia, an estimable woman and the mother of several children; the other, a son, eschewing all selfish and personal aggrandizement, living with his aged and widowed mother, devotedly attached to her, relieving her of all business cares, and, with a laudable and filial devotion, ministering to her wants and rendering her declining years peaceful, contented and happy.

In January, 1880, Dr. Young died at his home, near Cartersville, in Bartow county, of apoplexy. The tidings of his death cast a gloomy sadness over a large circle of relatives and friends. His remains were buried at the cemetery in Cartersville.

Cradled in a state where states’ rights and love of liberty had their stronghold; where such a man as John C. Calhoun, the great apostle and leader and exponent of southern doctrines and southern sentiment, was born and reared; Dr. Young early imbibed those decided views of state sovereignty that molded his political ideas, and made him a staunch, honest and unswerving democrat for life. He ever evinced the liveliest concern in all questions of public interest; was present at all political gatherings of his party, often presiding at the county conventions, and, on all occasions exerting a wide and salutary influence over the actions of his colleagues. But he was entirely devoid of ambition for political exaltation, and firmly declined to be a candidate for office. This was not from lack of patriotism, but it was a mark of wisdom and an exhibition of genuine modesty and rare unselfishness. As a neighbor, a gentleman and a citizen, Dr. Young was without a superior. Many there are in Bartow county who can tell of his generous deeds, of his neighborly conduct, of his manly and honest actions, of his relieving those in want, of his sympathy for those in distress. He was by birth, by education, and better of all, by principle and practice, a gentleman. Whether we regard the many virtues that he possessed or the many blandishments that adorned his life and endeared him to his friends, we find in him a good, true and beloved citizen.

He was for many years before his death, a member of the Baptist denomination; and never, by word or deed, did he belie the profession of religion he had made. He was a philosophical Christian gentleman, and his only ambition was to do his whole duty toward his fellowman and toward his God.