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O'Keeffe, Laurence Eugene , 1835-1907

 Person

Biography

Laurence Eugene O'Keeffe was born in Ireland on August 10, 1835 and died on January 16, 1907. He is buried in Westview Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia. His family immigrated to the United States in 1850 and by 1853 was living in Columbus, Georgia. During the Civil War he served with Company C of the 17th Regiment of the Georgia Volunteers, stationed in Virginia. He was captured at Richland, Tennessee on May 23, 1863 and incarcerated at the U.S. Prison Depot in Johnson's Island, Ohio. He was paroled and sent to City Point, Virginia for exchange on February 24, 1865. He returned to Columbus after the War, and ran a steamboat line on the Chattahoochee River. In the early 1870s he moved to Atlanta and became head of the one the largest chemical and fertilizer industries in the country. He married Sarah (also known as Sallie) C. Cox on June 30, 1880 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Laurence Eugene O'Keeffe Collection

 Collection
Identifier: MC 218
Scope and Contents Most of the following descriptive information is taken from the Georgia Department of Archives inventory for AC 84-015:A diary, sheets from another volume, and Civil War letters, all written by a young Irishman who had moved to Georgia, make up this interesting collection. O'Keeffe's unusual position as a well-educated, articulate young man living in a foreign country resulted in a unique record of life in ante-bellum Columbus, Georgia.Despite his youth, Laurence...
Dates: 1846-1907