Dr. James Thomas Culpepper

Prominent Local Citizen, is Dead. Death Ends Career of One of Thomasville’s Most Outstanding Citizens. Beloved Resident Was Former Mayor, County Official, and Prominent Banker.

(December 1935 obituary from Thomasville, GA newspaper)

Dr. James Thomas Culpepper gave up a long sustained and valiant fight against the infirmities and weaknesses of old age shortly after midnight and the soul of this well known and for many years popular citizen passed on to its eternal rest. Death came after five or six years of illness that most of the time prevented any activity. He suffered from a heart affection that grew increasingly menacing and for the past two years has been intermittently acute. Death ends the career of one of the most notable citizens in the history of modern Thomasville.

Funeral services have been arranged for Wednesday at eleven o’clock from the residence on Remington Avenue. Rev. T. F. Callaway pastor of the First Baptist Church will officiate and will be assisted by Rev. Robb White, Jr., of St. Thomas Episcopal Church. Interment will be beside his late wife, who died October 18^th 1931 in Laurel Hill Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Messrs. Hansell Watt, George Swift, E. R. Brandon, R. Thomas, William Copeland, F. V. Eidson, C. M. Heeth and C. K. C. Ausley.

Dr. Culpepper was born in the Summer Hill district of Thomas County, near Boston, February 20^th, 1855, son of Gardner and Caroline Jones Culpepper. He secured a rudimentary education in the county schools and later entered the medical school at Louisville, Ky., from which institution he graduated and secured a certificate of medical proficiency. His early practice was done in and near Boston (Thomas Co, GA), where he became a greatly beloved physician, utilizing a devotion and faith that was a deciding factor in many a battle that he directed in the fight against death. His patience and skill earned him the affection and confidence of hundreds of people in all walks of life.

In 1881 he was married to Miss Bamah Thomas Reid of this city at St. Thomas Episcopal Church and they continued to reside in Boston until 1888 when he gave up his medical practice and entered the drug business in Thomasville with Mr. James W. Reid a brother-in-law, the firm being known as Reid and Culpepper. Dr. Culpepper became a leading factor in the bank known as the citizens Bank and Trust Company in 1892. He was named President after several years of very successful operation and continued in that capacity until the bank was merged with the Bank of Thomasville in 1924 at which time he was made a vice president of the new institution, then one of the most solid banking houses in the state. He remained in that position until the failure of the bank in 1932. He was connected with a great many local enterprises, business and civic. To them he gave a wealth of strength and support, both personal and financial. He was for several terms Mayor of Thomasville and for one term chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. His high rank in banking circles made him the choice of the Georgia Bankers Association for its president for one term.

It was in the bank that his activities grew and extended to great heights of usefulness and a vast expanse of contacts with all classes of the citizenry of the county enlarged his sphere of activity. He was a great friend of young men and hundreds of them have attributed their start to success to the manner and the generous spirit of support that he manifested while in the bank. He had a sound business brain and it was utilized not only in the advice he gave to those who were his clients but in many ways and to many civic enterprises in which he took an interest. He was one of the originators and president for many years of the Three Toms hotel project. His contacts with many winter residents and visitors of distinguished standing made him friends of devoted interest for many years. He was the trusted advisor or many and a friend of all.

His fine appearance, genial personality and originality of thought and action made him an exceptional man, a distinguished and useful citizen and a wise and sound counselor. He loved the friendly intercourse of both business and social life and he drew to him unreservedly many who brought their troubles to him because they knew he would not only give them wise but honest counsel. By nature he was genial and he never felt so keenly his zest in life than when in the company of devoted spirits he was able to take part in the intercourse that is so essential to keen understanding and genuine friendship.

His Christian experience was with the Baptist Church, which he joined when a young man and to which he gave devoted service for many years as an officer and a member. He was a member of the Rotary Club and the Country Club for several years prior to his incapacitation. In the last few years many friends constantly visited him, assured of a cheery welcome and his most amusing and delightful contribution to these cordial associations. Very few men have as unique a personality and bore a more hearty and wholesome interest in the affairs of every type and class of person. Shrewd, astute, sage in his business, cordial, entertaining and gracious in his social contacts he made a mark of rare significance and import in the hearts and lives of hundreds of people, who will regret to know of his death, even though for several years they had been deprived of the pleasure of social contacts due to his illness.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Araminta C. Bailey, Mrs. Noble A. Upchurch of Jacksonville and one son Mr. James T. Culpepper, Jr. There are five grandchildren, Miss Suzanne Upchurch, Misses June, Martha, and Josephine Bailey and Mr. James T. Culpepper III. Dr. and Mrs. Upchurch and Miss Upchurch of Jacksonville were with him when the end came as were members of the family living in Thomasville.

James T. Culpepper, M.D. and
James Thomas Culpeper, Jr.
[From The Story of Georgia, published circa 1938]

Early in his career James Thomas Culpepper, M.D., studied medicine and was a practicing physician of Boston, Georgia, for some years. In 1888 he removed to Thomasville, South Georgia, where he won a widespread reputation as a banker and financier. There were few phases of the life of the city in which he was not prominent, for he was a man to whom leadership came naturally. Inheriting the fine traditions of Southern culture and achievement, he was loyal to high standards of good citizenship and contributed new splendor to a worthy name.

The Culpepper family was prominent in England before the American progenitors settled in Virginia and descendants thereafter played notable roles in the annals of the South. Dr. James Thomas Culpepper was born at Boston, Georgia, on February 20, 1855, the son of Gardner and Caroline (Jones) Culpepper. His father, born at Warrington, Georgia, moved in later life to Thomas County, where he continued his occupation as a planter. He was a Democrat, affiliated with the Leesburg Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he was a Past Master, and attended the Baptist Church. He died in 1873 at the age of fifty-eight years. His wife, a native of Ireland, came to New Jersey with her family as a small girl [sic]. The family later settled in Warrington, Georgia, where she was wed.

Dr. Culpepper was given the advantages of a sound academic education before he matriculated at the Louisville (Kentucky) Medical College, from which he was graduated, in 1875, a Doctor of Medicine. Initiating the practice of his profession at Boston, he continued there successfully for some thirteen years. In 1888 he removed to Thomasville to accept the post of cashier in the Citizens Bank and Trust Company, as it came to be known. Ultimately he was elected president of this institution, and was serving in that capacity when it merged with the Bank of Thomasville. after which he was the executive vice-president until he retired in 1932. His reputation as a banker and financier was more than local. At one time he was offered the presidency of the Florida National Bank, of Jacksonville, Florida, but declined. He was a past president of the Georgia Bankers Association, and a popular figure in financial circles of the South. Dr. Culpepper was a director of the Thomasville Winter Hotel Company, of the Thomasville Real Estate and Improvement Company, and of the John D. Archibald Memorial Hospital. A supporter of the Democratic party, he was honored with offices that came within the gift of the people. Mayor of Thomasville for a number of years, he was also, at one time, chairman of the board of county commissioners. In connection with the 1930 census, Dr. Culpepper was supervisor of the district which included eleven counties in South Georgia. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, Horab Lodge, No. 281, Boston, and was its Worshipful Master as far back as 1888. He worshipped in the Baptist Church and was generous in his support of its work, and of all agencies founded for the purpose of furthering the welfare and happiness of humanity. Dr. Culpepper always gave a full measure of his time and energies to civic and public service. His personal benefactions were very large and many hold in grateful memory the help he gave them in crises of their lives. His death on December 3, 1935,  was mourned as the passing of a first citizen who had left Thomasville and the State richer for his life of achievement.

In 1880, Dr. James Thomas Culpepper married Bamah Reid, daughter of Dr. James R. and Araminta Reid, both natives of Union Springs, Alabama. Her father, a university graduate in medicine, in 1843, served Crawfordsville, Georgia, as a doctor for many years. He was an intimate friend of Alexander Stephens. It is worthy of note that the wedding of Dr. and Mrs. Culpepper was the second performed in St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, of which she was a member.

James Thomas Culpepper, Jr., son of Dr. James Thomas and Bamah (Reid) Culpepper, born December 21, 1894. James Thomas Culpepper is engaged in general insurance business in Thomasville. He was educated in the city public schools and the Georgia Military Academy, from which he was graduated in 1911. School days over, he returned to Thomasville, and became assistant cashier in the Citizens Bank and Trust Company. In 1919 he resigned to engage in the insurance business. Mr. Culpepper gives allegiance to the Democratic party, and his religious identification is with the Presbyterian Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with the York Rite Masons and is a member of Alee Temple, Savannah, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

Culpepper Ancestry: Dr. James Thomas Culpepper was the son of Gardner Culpepper, son of Nathan Culpepper, son of Erasmus Culpepper.