editor educator farmer legislator military Soldier writer
William Jonathan Northen was born on July 9, 1835 in Jones County, Georgia, United States. He was the son of Peter and Louise Maria Louisa (Davis) Northen and a descendant of Edmund Northen of English descent who emigrated to Virginia probably in the middle of the seventeenth century. His father moved to Penfield, where Mercer University had been established, and became a steward of the college and treasurer of the Baptist Convention.
Northen graduated from Mercer University in 1853.
Northen taught a private school in Mt. Zion until 1856, when he became assistant principal of Mt. Zion High School near Sparta in Hancock County. In 1857, upon the retirement of Carlisle P. Beman, he was made principal.
During the Civil War he was a Confederate private in a company commanded by his father.
In 1871 he moved his school to Kirkwood near Atlanta and at the end of 1874 resigned his school and returned to Hancock County, where he became a farmer. Until 1890 he farmed with success, being especially interested in cattle breeding and in producing large proportions of butter fat.
He mixed with his farming no small measure of politics; he became permanent president of the Hancock County Farmers' Club, president of the Georgia State Agricultural Society, 1886-90, and he was representative of the county in the General Assembly, 1877-78 and 1880-81, and state senator, 1884-85. He was active in efforts to educate farmers to improved methods and to crop diversification, was a leader in the boycott to prevent an advance in the price of the jute bagging used to cover cotton bales, and supported the attack on the monetary system.
In 1890 he was elected governor as the candidate of the Democratic party with the support of the farmers of the Georgia State Agricultural Society and the Farmers' Alliance. In 1892 he was reelected for a second term against the Populist candidate.
As ex-governor he continued to reside in Atlanta.
He became editor of an extensive collection of biographical sketches published in six volumes from 1907 to 1912 under the title of Men of Mark in Georgia and himself wrote a number of the contributions. He published a seventh volume with uniform binding and title page in 1912 which, however, is not registered in the records of the copyright office and is not usually included in a description of the set.
Northen served as manager of the Georgia Immigration and Investment Bureau, a position in which he was instrumental in bringing many desirable settlers into the state and, particularly, a group of Union veterans from Indiana who founded the town of Fitzgerald. He took a prominent part in the councils of the Baptist Church, serving fourteen years as president of the Georgia Convention and three years as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was a trustee of Mercer University from 1869 to his death and held other positions of trust.
During his administration Northen advocated the interests of agriculture and urged the importance of such state undertakings as the geological survey, prison reform, and the improvement of the common-schools.
He maintained a constant and active interest in agriculture and education and was a strong advocate of prohibition.
On December 19, 1860 Northen married Martha Moss Neel, the daughter of Thomas Neel of Mt. Zion. They had two children.
