TIFTON—The John Lewis Herring family from Tift County has been selected as the 2020 Family Legacy Award recipient by the ABAC Alumni Association at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. This award is normally presented at the Homecoming Alumni Awards Luncheon in April, but the luncheon was postponed due to the pandemic. The event will be rescheduled, possibly during the fall term.
The Family Legacy Award was established in 1998 to recognize families with five or more family members spanning two or more generations who have attended ABAC and made a significant contribution to the college, thereby creating a legacy for their own family and leaving a legacy to ABAC.
Herring is the former owner and editor of the “Tifton Gazette” and the author of “Saturday Night Sketches: Stories of Old Wiregrass Georgia.” Herring Hall, one of the three original buildings on the ABAC campus, is named for him. At least 18 Herring descendants attended ABAC, ranging from Lois Herring Weldon in 1935 to Levi Moore in 2016.
Born Dec. 8, 1866 in Albany, Herring was the son of William Jasper Herring and Rebecca Paul Herring. His family moved to Isabella in Worth County when he was a child. Herring began his apprenticeship in the newspaper business at the age of 16 as the “printer’s devil” in the offices of “The Worth Star.”
Herring married Martha Susan Greene, daughter of John Burwell Greene, on Dec. 22, 1886. He worked in the mercantile business with his father and with small newspapers in Ty Ty and Isabella. Herring purchased the “Tifton Gazette” in 1896 and served as its editor until his death in 1923.
Herring’s descendants who attended ABAC include Lois Herring Weldon, 1935; Sue Herring Wetherington, 1937; James H. Moore, Jr., 1948 (married Eunice Herring in 1950); James H. Moore, III, 1976; John David Moore, 1986, and his wife, LaRae Moore (sons and daughter-in-law of James H. Moore, Jr. and Eunice Herring Moore). James H. Moore, III, presently serves on the ABAC Foundation Board of Trustees, and John David Moore received the 2014 Master Farmer Award from the ABAC Alumni Association.
The children of John David Moore and LaRae Moore all attended ABAC and married ABAC alumni. They include Logan Moore, 2014, and his wife, Casey Walter Moore, 2016; Haley Moore Hughes, 2010, and her husband, Matt Hughes, 2010; and Levi Moore, 2016, and his wife, Jessica Stinson Moore, 2017.
Marianna Moore Laing, daughter of Eunice Herring Moore and James H. Moore, Jr., attended ABAC in 1978. She married Don Laing, who also attended ABAC and was a roommate of ABAC President David Bridges, who is the only ABAC President to have attended ABAC.
Other Herring descendants who attended ABAC include former ABAC Foundation Board member Gerald Herring, Jr., who initiated the John L. Herring Endowed Scholarship at ABAC. His sons, Gerald N. Herring, III, 1974, and James H. Herring, 1979, attended ABAC as did James H. Herring’s daughter, Sarah Herring, 2013. All in all, the Herring family has made quite an impact on ABAC for a long time. With children and grandchildren living in the area, it’s a sure bet the legacy will continue. Fall classes begin at ABAC on Aug. 12
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