292 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



his fortune in the West, and went to Tarrant county, 

 Texas. The first six months of the year was employed 

 teaching a County School near Fort Worth. That fall he 

 removed to Johnson county, near Alvarado, where he 

 remained, teaching and farming, until October, 1881, 

 when he returned to the old homestead of his childhood. 

 He was married in 1883 to Miss Lilla E. Smith, and their 

 union has been blessed with four children. Being an 

 old-time Greenbacker, he had studied the causes which 

 produced the depressed condition of the country, and he 

 gladly hailed the advent of the Farmers' Alliance into 

 Georgia. He joined the State L,ine Farmers' Alliance, 

 No. 2. He was commissioned as Deputy Organizer and 

 began at once the work of organization. Before the 

 organization of the State Alliance he had organized three 

 or four counties. He was a delegate to the convention 

 that organized the Georgia State Alliance, at Fort Valley, 

 December 20, 1887; was Secretary of the Committee on 

 Constitution, and was elected State Organizer. When he 

 assumed his duties as Organizer, there was not a cent in 

 the treasury and many other obstacles confronted him. 

 But he prepared for the work, appointed his Deputies and 

 pushed the work of organization, night and day, until the 

 next meeting of the State Alliance. During this year the 

 number of Sub- Alliances increased from 181 to 1,100. 

 At this meeting he was again put on the Committee on 

 Constitution and re-elected State Organizer, which posi- 

 tion he held until the State Alliance met in 1889. The 

 Sub-Alliances had increased to over 2,000, He was a 

 delegate from his State to the National meeting held at 

 Meridian, Miss., in December, 1888, and was heartily in 

 favor of the consolidation of the Alliance and Wheel. He 

 was a delegate to the National meeting held at St. Louis 

 in December, 1889, and was there elected Secretary of 

 the National body, with headquarters at Washington. 



