Col. Harris has been for several days on a visit to his father-in-law, Mr. S. C. Candler, who, we are pained to learn, died on Saturday last.

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November 27, 1873
Page 2.

OBITUARY.

HON. SAMUEL C. CANDLER died at his residence, near Villa Rica, Carroll county, at 11 o’clock on Thursday, 13th instant.  He was born on the 6th day of December, 1809, and was therefore nearly sixty-four years old.  On the following Saturday he was buried by his sorrowing friends and neighbors at the new cemetery of the Methodist church in Villa Rica, with Masonic honors, preceded by a touching, yet most comforting sermon from Rev. Mr. Trussell.  A larger concourse we have never seen gathered on any funeral occasion, the people coming not only from his own neighborhood and county, but from greater distances to pay a last sad tribute of respect to a man whom they had loved, honored and admired while living.  Born in Columbia county, Georgia, he was at an early age left an orphan, after which, at about the age of ten years, he was taken charge of by his relative, Dr. Ignatius A. Few, with whom he remained for some years, after which he lived with his mother in the county of Baldwin until he was grown.  At this early period of his life he was put in charge of the interests of a large mining company in Carroll county, guarding and managing them with that strict fidelity and capacity which was always prominent throughout a long and honorable life.  Intermarrying with Martha, the oldest daughter of Noble Beall, he made his home in Cherokee county for some years, after which he returned to Carroll county, where he resided until the day of his death.  Quiet and unassuming in all his deportment, of sound judgment and a wise discriminating mind, rigidly correct in all his transactions and intercourse with men, not only did he acquire the regard of his fellow-citizens, manifested by repeated acts of  public confidence and trust, but so great was the influence which his character exerted upon them that his very name became a proverb of honesty and virtue.  “As honest as SAM CANDLER” was the heartiest expression and endorsement of character.  Amassing a very considerable fortune before the war, like many others he lived to see it shattered and lost amid the horrors of that fearful time.  Opposed to the secession of the State, yet when the war came upon us, he devoted himself and all his energies to the cause of the South, and though too old to undergo the severities of the tent and field, yet so conspicuous was he for the adherence to the liberties of his native land that when the federal troops overrun that portion of the country in which he dwelt, he had to flee from his home and take refuge in the forests and swamps from the merciless marauders who hunted his person and his life.  The war over, once more with more than his old energy, he devoted himself to the re-building of his ruined fortune, for the support and education of his large and interesting family.  About four years before his death he made a profession of religion and attached himself to the Methodist church, and from the day of his religious profession proved himself not only an humble and happy follower of his Savior, but a prominent, active and useful member of the church of his choice.  Converted at his own home, he made that home ever afterward a Bethel, and around the altar, which he there raised in the bosom of his family, and upon which his morning and evening sacrifices were always thankfully laid, there lingers yet the incense of his praises and his prayers.  A man of large experience and no inconsiderable culture, of great probity and utmost honesty, he was repeatedly called by his fellow-citizens to represent them in the Legislature, both before and since the war. And the unusually large and deeply affected concourse who surrounded his grave in which they laid him down to sleep, bespeaks the great loss which they feel in his death.  A good man has gone, and leaves behind him a good name, better far than precious ointment or hoarded jewels, and though such a loss must always be sorrowful to surviving friends and relatives, yet having accomplished his day and generation according to the will of God, the consolation which they joyfully lay to their hearts is that his works follow him, and that in Heaven He reaps a full reward.

“So fades a summer cloud away,
So sinks the gales when storms are o’er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies a wave along the shore.

Life’s labor done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies;
While Heaven and earth combine to say,
How blest the righteous when he dies.”
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