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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
I 1
CATHOLICS IN GEORGIA
JACK J. SPALDING
“A man who represents all that is best before the
Bar/* is the way the editors of “The Book of Georgia’’
describe Jack J. Spalding, one of the organizers and
a former president of the Catholic Laymen’s Asso
ciation of Georgia, and one of the leading citizens of
Georgia and Catholic laymen in the South.
Mr. Spalding is a Kentuckian by birth, and a Geor
gian by choice. He was born in Morganfield, Ky.,
August 29,’ 1856, the son of Ignatius A. and Susan
(Johnson) Spalding, and educated in the Morganfield
schools, Seton Hall College and St. Louis University.
Choosing law for a vocation, Mr. Spalding was
admitted to the Bar in Morganfield in 1878. He was
county attorney in 1881, and in January of the fol
lowing year removed to Atlanta, where he soon gained
recognition as a leader of the Bar of the .state.
Mr. Spalding was united in marriage December 1 8,
1877, to Miss Elizabeth Hughes, of his native city,
daughter of Daniel H. and Wright (Parker) Hughes.
There is no more loyal booster of Atlanta than Mr.
Spal’ding. In every movement that has for its pur
pose the advancement of the capital of Georgia he is
sure to be found in the front ranks, and he is credited
with having done as much for the improvement of his
adopted city as any other Atlantan.
The Capitol City Club, the Piedmont Driving Club,
the Knights of Columbus (fourth degree assembly),
the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the Catholic
Laymen’s Association, all claim him as a member.
TRIBUTE TO MR. TOALE.
The following tribute to the late George E. Toale,
a member of the Augusta executive committee of the
Catholic Laymen’s Association, appeared in the edi
torial columns of The Augusta Chronicle:
The halo about the gladsome season when we
commemorate the birth of the Prince of Peace has
more than once this Christmas been turned into a
hue of blackness for many of our community, and
the latest to be mourned is the taking away of a
courtly, Christian gentleman, a choice spirit—George
E. Toale. The tidings of his death will bring sorrow
to hundreds and will come as a shock even to many
of his closest friends. Critically ill but for a brief
season the end came with such rapidity that even
those nearest about him feel that it was but yester
day when they were met with that irresistible smile
and came under the spell of his presence.
The editor could not claim the honor of knowing
Mr. Toale intimately, but he did know him most
pleasantly, and like every one else, could but be im
pressed by those characteristics which stamped him
as being to the manor born. As modest and as gentle
as a woman, yet with all the fine, upstanding qualities
of splendid manhood, George Toale moved in a com
paratively small circle of friends whose devotion to
Mr. Spalding headed the Catholic Laymen’s Asso
ciation during 1917-1918. He is interetsed in all
Catholic activities and the Vincent de Paul Society
has no harder worker than he. At present he is
engaged in a campaign to erect in Atlanta a Knights
of Columbus building that will be a credit to the
members of the order. He worships at Sacred Heart
Church in Atlanta.
In politics Mr. Spalding is a staunch Democrat, and
he was chosen to represent his section at two na
tional conventions. He was a delegate to the St.
Louis convention in 1888, and was chosen delegate
at large to the next convention, held at Kansas City.
When the Armenian and Syrian Society of Relief
for the Near East was formed to supplement the work
of the Red Cross in Palestine and adjacent countries,
Mr .Spalding was selected by President Wilson as
the Red Cross Commissioner to go to Palestine, but
was forced to decline the service on account of the
young families of his two sons who were in the war
and looking to Granddad to keep the home fires
burning.
Atlanta and Georgia are proud of Mr. Spalding as
one of its first citizens. The Church is proud of him
as a loyal son. The Catholic Laymen’s Association
is proud of him as a zealous worker and an energetic
defender of his beliefs. All of them are proud of
him as a man of principle, a gentleman of culture, a
citizen of the highest type.
him was beautiful in life and became accentuated in
death.
The death of George Toale will cause a void in the
hearts of those who were fortunate enough to know
him, for,
“None knew him but to love him,
None named him but to praise.’’
Non-Catholics frequently misunderstand relations
between the Pope and Catholics. This subject is well
and briefly explained in Catholics and the Pope, issued
by the publicity department of The Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Augusta.
The teaching staff of the Catholic University at
Washington numbers 82—28 full professors, 1 7 asso
ciate professors and 42 instructors; 35 are priests
and 4 7 laymen. The male students number 682. In
Trinity College there are 344 women students. The
library of the Catholic University totals 128,782
books.
Mr. John F. Mulhersn, of Augusta, who served over
seas as secretary for the Knights of Columbus, has re
cently been appointed as K. of C. Secretary at Lake
City, Fla., where the United States Public Health Ser
vice has a hospital for ex-service men.