Atticus Greene Haygood was born on November 19, 1839, in Watkinsville, Georgia, United States. He had in him strains of English and Welsh blood. His father, Green B. Haygood, a lawyer, was a native of Clarke County, Georgia. His mother, Martha Ann Askew, a teacher, was born in North Carolina. A sister of young Haygood, Laura Askew, became a noted missionary in China. He was reared in an atmosphere of piety and of loyalty to the church.
His mother prepared him for the sophomore class of Emory College, from which Atticus graduated in 1859 and was admitted on trial into the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Atticus Haygood was a chaplain in the Confederate army during the Civil War. Afterward he served as pastor and presiding elder until 1870 when he was elected Sunday-school secretary of his Church. In this capacity he made marked improvement in the lesson helps for pupils an teachers and edited a number of books for Sunday-school libraries. Elected president of Emory College in 1875 he continued in that office until 1884. During his presidency he also edited (1878 - 82) the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, a weekly paper which was the organ of Methodism in Georgia and Florida. As an outgrowth of editorials in this paper he wrote Our Brother in Black, His Freedom and His Future (1881). It was a sympathetic and hopeful account of the accomplishments of the negroes during the first fifteen years of their freedom. Though moderate in tone, it gave offense to many Southern people.
In 1882 Haygood was elected to the office of bishop but declined ordination, being the first in his Church to reject this honor. There were a number of students, thirty of whom were preparing for the ministry, whom he was helping to carry on their college studies. He felt that if he accepted the bishopric most of these students would have to leave college.
In 1883 Haygood became the agent of the John F. Slater Fund, established by a citizen of Connecticut for aiding the education of the negro. He gave up the college presidency in 1884 in order to devote his full time to his new work. Pleas for Progress (1889) consisted in good part of addresses on negro education. Taking with him several Georgia preachers, he moved to California and made his home there until 1893.
While a loyal Southerner he strove to restore good will between North and South and was popular on platforms in both sections. It was an occasional Practice of his, especially when he had on hand a task which he wished to finish, to spend an entire night in reading and writing. In addition to the works already mentioned he published: Go or Send (1874); Our Children (1876); Sermons (1883); Man of Galilee (1889); Jack Knife and Brambles (1893); The Monk and the Prince (1895). He assisted his friend and neighbor, Prof. R. M. McIntosh in editing three songbooks for Sunday-school and other church services.
(Excerpt from The Amaranth: A Book of Songs, Hymns, Anthem...)
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In manner Haygood was cordial, quietly self-confident, and gave the impression of having unusual stores of reserve power. When ordained bishop he insisted on wearing his usual business suit. He made no attempt at oratory, but he was a man of strong feeling and affection and some of his sermons had great and evident effect.
In 1859 Haygood married Mary F. Yarbrough.
