RICHARD B. RUSSELL served on the Georgia Court of Appeals 1907-1916 and on the Georgia Supreme Court 1922-1938. He was Chief Judge of the Appeals Court and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was born in Cobb County, Georgia, near Marietta, April 27, 1861, and died December 3, 1938.

At age 18 he was graduated from the University of Georgia and the following year from the Law Department of this university. He served on the Board of Trustees, for 13 years as Chairman of the Board. He was admitted to the Bar in 1880.

He married Minnie L. Tyler of Barnesville, Georgia, who died three years later. Three children were born, but none survived infancy. On June 24,1891, he married Ina Dilliard of Oglethorpe County, Georgia. Fifteen children were born of this union. See the memorial dated September 5, 1939, in 188 Georgia Reports, pages 869-895 for details. One of his sons became Governor and later a U. S. Senator; another a Presbyterian minister; and a daughter married a U. S. Congressman.

At age twenty-one, Russell was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives (1882) as a representative of Clarke County, Georgia. He was elected at age twenty-seven to the position of solicitor general for the Western Circuit of the Superior Courts of Georgia, a seven-county judicial circuit. Russell was subsequently elected to judicial positions in numerous Georgia counts including the Georgia Court of Appeals (elected in 1907 and chief justice of that court from 1913 to 1916) and the Supreme Court of Georgia on which he served as Chief Justice for his entire sixteen year career (1922 to 1938) in that position. As of 2006, Russell was the only person to have served on both the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Georgia.

Richard B. Russell was born in Cobb Co, GA on the estate of his maternal grandfather, Richard T. Brumby, near Marietta on April 27, 1861, son of William John Russell and Rebecca Hariette Brumby. His father, William J. Russell, born at Walthourville, Liberty County, GA on February 8, 1825, was a pioneer in textile manufacture in the South and his mill was appropriated to the military uses of the Confederacy during the War Between the States. In 1864 Sweetwater Factory and all its appurtenances, including store and a hundred operatives cottages was reduced to ashes by orders of General Sherman.

Mr. Russell continued in the services of the Confederacy as a private soldier, assigned to the defense of Augusta. At the close of the war his large brick cotton warehouse on the corner of Pryor and Hunter Streets in Atlanta, his large tannery at Marietta, and his residence there ,which had been purchased from Judge George N. Lester, were all in ashes. The warehouse lot he sold to Mr. Kiser who heirs later erected the Kiser Building upon that spot.

Apparently the Princeton Mfg. Co. had an employee who absconded with $15,000 and another man's wife and left the country--and so the Princeton Co. was looking for a reliable replacement. Mr. Russell accepted the position of general agent for the directors with power of attorney giving him full powers of the directory and this position he held faithfully for 20 years until his retirement.

Richard B. Russell's mother was Rebecca Harriette Brumby born February 28, 1829 at the ancestral home of her maternal grandfather, Alexander Brevard at Lincolnton, NC. Her mother was the youngest child of Alexander Brevard who as Capt. Brevard of NC in the Continental forces was a member of the staff of General George Washington during their memorable stay at Valley Forge--when the ill fed Continentals left their tracks in blood upon the frozen ground. It has been stated by the DAR that more members of that society have been admitted as descendants of Alexander Brevard than of any other Continental officer or soldier.

Rebecca Hariette Brumby's father was Prof. Richard T. Brumby, a distinguished scientist and professor of chemistry and geology for years at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, and later professor in the same chairs at his alma mater, the University of South Carolina from which he graduated with first honor in 1825. He was chosen under resolution of the Legistlature of Alabama to examine the mineral sources of the State, and he discovered in Elyton the existence in paying quantities of coal, iron, and lime, all essentiall for the manufacture of steel and predicted that this section would become the Pittsburgh of the South. In consideration of his discovery, the Legislature passed a resolution of thanks and his portrait was hunge in steel hangars in the Capitol at Montgomery.

Judge Russell always admitted that for whatever success he had in life, he is indebted to the intellect of his mother.

Judge Russell's paternal grandfather was Edward William Russell born on the island of San Salvador and died on his plantation in Walker County, Georgia. He was a graduate of Rugby and Oxford in England and was a gentleman farmer of large holdings of lands and slaves. Judge Russell's paternal grandmother was Susan Sarah Way, daughter of William Way who was for 22 years the ruling elder of old Midway Church in Liberty County, GA and who was buried in Midway Cemetery along side Daniel Street, the grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt. William J. Russell (as mentioned above) was born at Walthourville and was a member of old Midway, as conscientious and devoted as his grandfather, William Way. William Way's last wife the grandmother of William J. Russell was Drusilla Hines, a young Salzburgher beauty who had come with her family from Effingham County. Her uncle, Charlton Hines , obtained for William J. Russell a clerkship in the office of Nathan C. Barnett, Secretary of State. Russell's duty was to insert in each land grant the description of the land and other essentials before taking it to the Governor. The Governor (of Georgia) took great interest in this young clerk--and believed he would become a rising star in Georgia politics....

This was found in loose papers in a family folder entitled "Russell" at Georgia State Archives in Atlanta, Georgia--no name to identify.

Above information provided by FAG member 48069415.