Lamartine Griffin Hardman
Lamartine Griffin Hardman (April 14, 1856 – February 18, 1937) was an American physician, farmer, businessman, entrepreneur, and politician who served two terms as the 65th Governor of the state of Georgia from 1927 to 1931.He also sat on the board of trustees for Shorter College in Rome; Mercer University in Atlanta; and the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.Hardman was an active legislator; he introduced legislation which required public schools to offer basic agricultural courses, established the State Board of Health, provided free treatment for individuals with hydrophobia, utilizing the 'Pasteur method', prohibited the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol, considered to be an early victory in the national Prohibition movement, and petitioned the United States Congress to commission a drainage survey for the state.His was the responsibility of enforcing the nationwide rationing of coal, especially to evaluate and dole out fuel to those industries that were essential to the war effort.The election ended up in a run-off with fellow Jackson County politician and chair of the Georgia Highway Department, John Holder of Jefferson.Hardman created a bitter political split between the neighboring cities of Commerce and Jefferson, the two largest in Jackson County.However, the findings of this commission were not implemented until after Hardman had left office; the Great Depression dampened any support for the sweeping changes he might have garnered with the General Assembly.The governor settled the matter by studying photographs of the two men, concluding that they were definitely criminal types, and permitting their executions.After completing his two terms, he spent his final years in his home in Commerce (he was none-too-pleased that Harmony Grove had changed its name some three decades before), he died of heart failure at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on February 18, 1937.