Charles Mullis (d. 1887): From Uneducated Farmer to Financier

An urn-topped obelisk in Cedar Hill Cemetery at Cochran, Bleckley County, Georgia, serves as a single monument to Charles Mullis and his three wives -- each getting their own panel, collectively making up the four sides of the base.

Charles Mullis was born on 7 November 1813 in North Carolina. By 1837, he was residing in Pulaski County, Georgia, where he married his first wife, Cynthia Miller (1820-1857), on 1 November. 

Charles next married Julia P. about 1860. She was about 29 years his junior, being born in Georgia on 30 August 1842.

Julia died on 14 October 1882, and Charles married for the final time the next year. He united with Sarah E., who was born on 3 February 1840. This time, the wife outlived the husband. Charles Mullis died on 9 September 1887 in Cochran, as was reported in the Macon Weekly Telegraph (Georgia).

Death of a Wealthy Citizen

COCHRAN, September 10. -- Mr. Charles Mullis, of this place, aged 77, died yesterday afternoon of erysipelas and senile decay. Mr. Mullis, though entirely uneducated, was a success as a financier, and accumulated an estate valued at $50,000. He leaves a wife and eight children, all of whom are grown except a little girl nine years old.

---

🏦 From Farmer to Financier

An estate valued at $50,000 in 1887 was an extremely substantial amount of money -- worth millions in today's economy. I don't know for certain where Charley got his wealth, but my first thought was land. While his occupation was often listed as "farming" or something similar in census records, by 1870, the census enumerator labeled him a Planter.

Economically speaking, being part of the "planter class" in the American South, especially before the Civil War and during the Reconstruction Era, meant holding a position of immense wealth, social, and political power that was fundamentally tied to land ownership and labor control.

In 1870, Mullis owned 1,045 acres of mixed (improved and unimproved) land in Pulaski County, Georgia, an increase from the 960 acres noted in 1860. (I haven't looked, but it is, of course, possible Charles owned land in other counties.) Also in 1860, the census listed his real estate value at $5,000 and his personal estate value at $13,300.

Another economic characteristic of this wealthy class was control of the local credit system, lending money or goods to smaller (poorer) farmers in exchange for a lien on the future crop. This allowed financiers to profit immensely without necessarily working the land themselves, relying on interest and debt enforcement. Charles Mullis's success as an uneducated financier suggests he was highly skilled in this post-war system of land and credit manipulation, which effectively allowed him to profit from the cotton economy just as much as, or perhaps even more than, the old planter class.

Charles Mullis

Born
Nov. 7, 1813,
Died
Sept. 9, 1887

Kind angels watch his sleeping dust,
Till Jesus comes to raise the just.
And may he wake in sweet surprise,
And in his Saviour's image rise.

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