Inman

INMAN, SAMUEL MARTIN (Feb. 19,
i843-Jan. 12, 1915), merchant and philanthro-
pist, was born in Jefferson County, Tenn.; he was
the son of Shadrach W. and Jane Martin (Ham-
ilton) Inman, and the brother of John Hamilton
Inman [#.#.]• His father was a prosperous mer-
chant and planter, while his mother seems to
have been a woman of unusual strength of char-
acter. Young Inman's early life was spent upon
his father's plantation until he entered Maryville
College. In the autumn of 1860 he entered the
sophomore class at Princeton, but left the follow-
ing April to join the Confederate army, enlisting
as a private in the ist Tennessee Cavalry, and
ending as a lieutenant on staff duty. In 1886 he
received the honorary degree of A.M. from
Princeton. After the close of the war he worked
in Augusta, Ga., for a year or more, and, in 1867,
with his father, opened a cotton office in Atlanta,
which was to be his home until his death. The
father returned to Tennessee in 1870, but the busi-
ness was continued as S. M. Inman & Company.
The firm prospered and became one of the largest
dealers in cotton in the world, with several
branch offices in different parts of the South. In
1896 Inman retired from active direction of the
business, but he continued to give some attention
to various financial and industrial enterprises.
He was one of the organizers and was also a
director of the Southern Railway, the yards of
which in Atlanta are named for him. He was a
director of the Equitable Life Assurance So-
ciety, of the Atlanta Constitution, and of several
banks. He was a close friend and trusted ad-
viser of President Samuel Spencer of the South-
ern Railway, and of Henry W. Grady [g.z/.], the
gifted editor of the Constitution. Earlier he had
been financially interested in some of the enter-
prises of his brother, John Hamilton Inman, to
whom his sound judgment had been valuable.

While still engaged in active business, he
found time to work for the welfare of his city
and section. He was treasurer of the Interna-
tional Cotton Exposition held in Atlanta in 1881,
and backed it when failure seemed certain. He
also made possible the opening of the Cotton
States and International Exposition at Atlanta
in 1895, After his retirement he gave more and
more of his time to civic duties, and, though from
choice he never held any public office, he was
universally acclaimed the "first citizen of At-
lanta." He was influential in founding the
Georgia School of Technology, to which he con-
tributed largely in money and time, serving as
president of the board of trustees; he gave lib-
erally to Agnes Scott Institute (now Agnes Scott
College) and through his example interested

Innes

others. He made donations to Oglethorpe and
Emory universities, and was a member of the
committee to choose Rhodes scholars for Georgia.
He was prominent in the agitation which led to
increased appropriations for public schools and
the establishment of agricultural high schools.
In fact, he allowed hardly an appeal for any edu-
cational, religious, or benevolent object to go un-
heeded. He is known to have given away more
than a million dollars in his lifetime, and the total
of his benefactions was probably much greater.
He was for many years an elder in the First
Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. The Samuel M.
Inman School in that city, erected in 1893-94,
was named in his honor. On the day of his fu-
neral courts and schools were closed and busi-
ness was almost suspended. His sister, Jane W.
Inman, left her property, amounting to about
$150,000, to Agnes Scott College as a memorial
to her brother. Inman was twice married: first,
Feb. 19,1868, to Jennie Dick of Rome, Ga., who
died in 1890; and, second, Dec. 12, 1892, to Mil-
dred McPheeters, daughter of Alexander M. Mc-
Pheeters of Raleigh, N. C, who, with three chil-
dren of the first marriage, survived him.

[W. P. Reed, Hist, of Atlanta (1889) ; T. H. Martin,
Atlanta and its Builders (2 vols., 1902) ; Atlanta Con-
stitution, Atlanta Journal, Jan, 13, 1915; information
from the secretary of Princeton University.] jj. T__n.

INNES, HARRY (Jan. 4, 1752 o.s.-Sept. 20,
1816), federal district judge for Kentucky, was
born in Caroline County, Va., the son of Robert
and Catherine (Richards) Innes. His father
emigrated from Scotland before the middle of the
eighteenth century and settled in Drysdale parish.
Harry was educated at Donald Robertson's
school along with his brother James Innes [g.z>.],
James Madison, Edmund Pendleton, and other
sons of Virginia. He was admitted to the bar
and moved to Bedford County, where he built up
a successful law practice. In 1776 and 1777 he
administered powder mills and lead mines in the
state under the Virginia Committee of Safety.
In 1779 he was elected by the legislature to de-
termine claims to unpatented lands in the district
around Abingdon and, in that same year, was
appointed escheator for his own county, where,
in 1780, he was able to obtain thousands of pounds
for the Virginia treasury. As commissioner of
the specific tax for Bedford County, the next
year, he collected cattle and produce so success-
fully that, on Mar. 27,1782, he was appointed by
Benjamin Harrison to be superintendent over
the commissioners of six counties. In this dif-
ficult post he remained until the end of the war.
In October 1784 he was elected by the legis-
lature to succeed Walker Daniel as attorney-

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